’Tis the Season
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Good morning, its good to be here with you today
If you don’t know me, my name is Matt
I was the youth/assistant pastor at the Gypsum campus back when it was CCF before the merger.
I had served there for about 10 years part time, then for almost 2 years full time before God called me out of full time ministry and back into the local work force
Its an honor to be here today to open up God’s Word together, and I am very humbled that Pastor Nate asked me to teach
Pastor Nate and his family went to Texas for Thanksgiving - they are headed back now so pray for safe travels for them as they are on their way home
This morning we’re going to be in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, so if you have your Bible, please turn with me there
And as you’re flipping there, would you join me in prayer?
Pray
Background
The book of Ecclesiastes, if you’ve read it before, is an interesting book of the Bible
It was written by Solomon, the son of King David and Bathsheba (yes, that Bathsheba), towards the end of his life
Solomon was a man who was given great wisdom by the Lord
Many of you know the story in 1 Kings 3 - the Lord appeared to Solomon early in his reign as King of Israel and said, “Ask for whatever you want and I’ll give it to you.”
And instead of asking for wealth or power or for a lasting legacy, he very humbly asks God for wisdom to be able to lead his people well
God honors that request as it was a request not for himself, but for his people. He grants Solomon a “wise and discerning heart” that no one in history would ever have, but then also blesses him with wealth and honor even though he didn’t ask for those things
Solomon does good for a while
He built the first temple in Jerusalem, he expanded Israel’s reach and power to its greatest point ever in their ancient history, and gives the nation an era of peace after they had been engaged in war for most of his father David’s reign
But eventually Solomon would start to turn away from the Lord
He developed a love for money and gained wealth beyond what he should have, to the point where silver was no more valuable than a rock
He let his lust get the best of him and he accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines.
He became prideful and sought worth in power and worldly accomplishments rather than in the Lord
He even started to worship false gods and let philosophy and earthly wisdom rule his heart rather than the word of God
Whatever worldly pursuit you can think of, Solomon did it. There wasn’t anything he didn’t have. He tried to satisfy his soul with wealth, with possessions, with relationships, with sex, with alcohol, with power, with intelligence, with institutions - and yet as he approaches the end of his life, he found himself broken and empty
Its in that context that Solomon would write the book of Ecclesiastes
I’ve heard many describe this book as a book of depression, but I would consider it more of a reflective memoir
Solomon, at the end of his life, is filled with remorse for how he has lived. He’s been humbled and I’m sure feels a sense of shame and guilt for wandering away from what he knew to be true and life-giving
Solomon shares his lessons in this book, and it does read a bit depressing at times, but if you read it with the perspective of Solomon sharing his life experience and wisdom at the end of his life, it reads a little differently - there’s a sense of weight and eternity in what he writes.
The overarching theme of this book is twofold -
First - the world’s pursuits are meaningless and will never satisfy you
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Second - nothing is more important in this life, nothing will satisfy you more than a life lived in pursuit of and surrender to God
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
So with some context of this book in mind, let’s get into our text that we’ll study this morning, some particular words of wisdom from Solomon that the Lord has laid on my heart to share with you
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
These verse are pretty famous, a beautiful piece of poetry found here in scripture.
I’m sure many of you have either read them before, or heard them spoken at a memorial service
The idea Solomon presents is very straightforward - life has many different seasons
There are ups and downs in life. Times of joy and and of sadness, times of building up, and others of tearing down. Times or seasons of change, different seasons in life and in ministry
I think we all know this to be true in our own lives, but one thing I think we forget when we read these verses is what Solomon says in verse 1 - there is a purpose for all those different seasons - let’s read that verse again
Verse 1
I want to draw your attention to three things in that verse
Every activity, or phase of life, has (1) a proper time (a point of occurrence in time), (2) it has a distinct season (duration), and (3) there is purpose for that phase or season of life
That’s what we’re going to look at this morning - the purpose of those different seasons God puts you through and the perspective we should have as we navigate the seasons of life
Let’s look at God’s purpose for different seasons first
Purpose of Seasons
God’s primary purpose for the different seasons of life we go through is to make you more like Jesus
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
After you are born again - you’ve realized that you are an imperfect sinner that can’t get to heaven on your own good works, you’ve believed that Jesus came to save you from your sin, so you’ve confessed and repented and asked God to forgive you of that sin and surrendered your life to follow Him - God starts to do a work in your life
He doesn’t save you and then just leave you until you get to heaven, He doesn’t save you so you can have a prosperous and wealthy life, God desires to do a deep spiritual work in our lives
That work is to conform us to the image of His Son
The Greek word Paul uses in Romans 8:29 for conform is the word symmorphos (soo - mor -fas) which comes from 2 different root word
The word morphē (mor-fay) which is where we get our word morph
It gives the idea of a mold or a form in manufacturing or art
I did a little research on this and learned that using a mold to duplicate or replicate a piece of art is one of the oldest artesian techniques known
Even back in Bible times, if you had a piece of ceramic - a pot or a vase - that you wanted to replicate, you’d make a mold of the original piece that you could then put new clay in to make copies of the original
The goal of the pieces you’d produce would be for them to look exactly like the original work of art
The second root is the word syn (soon) which is a preposition (a word which shows direction or location associated with a noun) denoting union
There’s an idea of relationship or unity there
So when Paul tells us that God wants to conform us to the image of His Son, we see that God wants to take us and make us exact copies of the original masterpiece, Jesus, but do that in a personal and relational way
God doesn’t want to settle for us being cheap knock offs of Jesus
He wants to work deep in your heart, to not just settle for the shallow things, but to lovingly and slowly make you look more and more and more like Jesus. A true replica of His Son
Reality is we’ll never get there - we’ll never be perfect while we’re here on earth, but don’t underestimate the depths of the work God wants to do in your life.
He wants to mold you into that exact image of Jesus
We read of that same idea in Romans 12.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We are not to conform to this world, but instead allow God to transform us - the process of making us more like Jesus
I have to do a side trip on this real quick. The Greek word conform that Paul uses in Chapter 12 - conforming to the world - is different than the word he used back in Chapter 8 when he talked about conforming us to the image of Jesus
In Chapter 8, that word was symmorphos (soo - mor -fas) - relational molding
The word in Chapter 12 is syschēmatizō (soos hey matidzo)
The first root of that one is the same as our Chapter 8 word - syn (soon) - there’s union/relationship there - we’re choosing to unite ourselves to the world
But the other root word isn’t to mold to make an exact replica, it means an external condition - so on the outside it looks like the original, but the bones, the inside, doesn’t match
If, as Christians, we try to live for the world, it will only be on the outside because your heart is transformed when you are born again. The world is not who you really are. You may try to imitate the world, look like the world, talk like the world, but you’re just denying what’s really inside, a heart that belongs to your Savior
Solomon learned that in his life - the worldly pursuits weren’t meaningful, they weren’t life giving. Only living for the Lord is what truly brought him meaning and fulfillment.
God is going to use different events and seasons in life to do that transformative work to make you more like Jesus
So knowing that, knowing that God has a distinct purpose for the different seasons of life we go through, what should our perspective be? I have 7 different topics to hit on here
Our Perspective in Seasons
#1 - Seasons have a distinct purpose from God, they are to accomplish His will in His time. We can’t rush or skip them
So I have a question for you all, when is the right time to start playing Christmas music?
How many of you say any time of year is acceptable? Show of hands
What about right after Halloween?
Not until after Thanksgiving?
Any for Christmas Day only?
This question brings a lot of heartache to my family. I am definitely a not until after Thanksgiving person.
The rest of my family falls in the any time of year category, but I feel very strongly about my opinion.
So much so that my wife has to secretly play Christmas music with the kids when I’m not around cause they all want to listen to it, but they know I’ll make some obnoxious comment if its before Thanksgiving
This year, I think I’m losing the battle. The playing of Christmas music hasn’t been so secret, my kids are getting bold and challenging me in the open, inflicting a massive blow to my dad ego
You might be sitting there thinking, “You’re so heartless, why do you have to feel so strongly about that?”
Well, let me tell you my perfectly logical reason - While I think Christmas music is great, it’s only great in its own season
Fall, Thanksgiving, is not Christmas. Its it’s own thing. I love Thanksgiving, it’s my favorite holiday
I love the food as you can tell. I love football. I love all the family traditions that my family has surrounding it. It’s my favorite, but it gets trampled down by Christmas to the point that it doesn’t get its own time to shine.
I think I saw the Christmas stuff at Costco just after Labor Day this year - too soon!
I think everything should be in its own season.
Sometimes, we can do the same with seasons from God. We want to rush through them or skip to the fun ones.
We get that half of the list that Solomon gave in Ecclesiastes 3 was the tough seasons, but when those come along we hope they’re really short so we can get back to the good ones.
We tell the Lord, “I’m okay with this difficult season you’ve got me in b/c I know you’re making me more like Jesus, but hurry up already!”
We forget that seasons are seasons, not days or weeks
God will take the time He needs to fully refine us, to make us more and more like Jesus
That’s hard for us, that’s hard for me to accept
We’re trying to figure out how to do everything quicker or more efficiently, so when God makes a season last more than a few weeks, we get impatient.
Remember that God’s timing isn’t our timing, but His timing is perfect.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
So if He has you walk through a season longer than you were hoping, know it is for a good and glorious and perfect reason
#2 - God’s outcome to your season may be (or even will most likely be) different than what you expect
This one hits me on a very personal level.
I’ve gone through a challenging season recently, and I can’t tell you how many times, in the midst of that season, that I told God that it was time for Him to be done b/c I had obviously learned the lesson He needed me to learn, and taken the steps He needed me to take, only to have Him remind me that He had something bigger and greater and different to accomplish.
I found myself even at the tail end of the season whining to God about it - “God why didn’t this happen?” - only to have Him gently remind me that He had something different and better He wanted to accomplish
We can’t try and predict the outcome of the season we’re in, I’ve learned its not worth it, but if we trust that the Lord is good and that, as we’ve studied this morning, He has a distinct purpose in His seasons, we can trust in Him and walk through that time knowing that He will do a good work.
Solomon would write about that very thing a few verses later in our section in Ecclesiastes 3.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
No one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end,
I like the way the NLT simplifies this point in that translation
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)
11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
It goes along with the verses we read in Isaiah 55 with our last point. God’s ways are above and beyond our ways.
We are finite, we can’t see the whole scope God is doing.
Again, our job is to trust He does, and to remember that we are looking for His outcome.
#3 - God sees your finish line, and all the steps that are needed to get there, so He’ll bring seasons to accomplish His purpose in stages
Who here considers themselves a good multitasker?
I definitely do not
Well, if you do consider yourself a good multitasker, I hate to burst your bubble, but neuroscientists have determined that there is no such thing as multitasking
Our brains have 87 billion neurons in it - maybe a few less for some of you here…. - neurons are nerve cells that transmit information throughout the brain and nervous system
87 billion neurons, and yet scientists have figured out that our focus is linear
Our brain will let us move and breathe and our organs to do all their functions simultaneously, but our mental focus can only be on one thing at a time
Those who consider themselves multitaskers are just really good at switching that focus really quickly
But our brains are specifically designed to have a singular focus
God, the designer of our brains, knows that, and so when He thinks of the ultimate goal of conforming you to the image of His Son, the ultimate person He is working you out to be, He knows that it has to come in steps and stages.
It’s not a boom, you get saved and then you’re Franklin Graham. It takes steps, accomplished through times and seasons, sometimes long seasons, to get there.
I see this most evident in the life of the apostle Paul
We read about his conversion in Acts 9, and then read about his mission trips a few chapters later and we think the transformation from enemy of the church to super Christian happened overnight
But that’s not what really happened. It took time for Paul to grow. He went through seasons of just sitting and learning before he even went on his first mission trip, let alone write a book of the Bible.
Galatians 1 tells us the story - cut verse to save time if needed
15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me. 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.
After Paul got saved, he tried to immediately go and share his faith and ran into a whole bunch of trouble.
He tried to go into the synagogues and preach Jesus to the Jews but they conspired to try and kill him. He had to flee
He became an anonymous Christian for 3 years. He lived in Arabia which is the desert area outside of Damascus, Syria.
Even though Jesus had literally appeared to Paul and told him that he had a new mission in life to share his faith with many, that time/season had not come yet. Paul needed a season of growing and preparation before God would use him for the ultimate calling that He had
Paul needed 3 years in obscurity, studying, growing, turning his Pharisaical knowledge upside down in light of Jesus being his Messiah
Then, after getting plugged into a church and starting to serve, Paul would eventually get sent out on his first mission trip to serve the church in Jerusalem that we read about in Acts 11 fourteen years after his conversion
Paul needed times of growth, seasons of humbling, seasons to rid him of his anger and hatred, seasons to teach him how to share his new faith, how to plant churches, I’m sure seasons of wondering when God would fulfill his promise, seasons of doubt, seasons of discouragement and maybe even discontent.
But God saw the end result. He knew when and where he needed Paul, but knew He needed to take him along on this journey before he got there, one step at a time
God will do that with us many times, He knows how He’s going to use us, but also knows the growth we need to go through ahead of time, and will take us step by step through seasons to get to His ultimate and glorious goal
#4 - We can put ourselves into difficult seasons or seasons of consequence b/c of our sinful choices or b/c we walk away from God
While God has His ultimate plan and purpose for us, there is still a personal accountability part of the puzzle - we have to walk in what God is calling us to do
Our sinful choices, pursuing the world, or self, or walking away from God, can put us into difficult seasons because of our choices
Solomon knew this very well
In 1 Kings 3, after Solomon asked for wisdom, God gave him a promise
14 So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
There was a promise of blessing to him for being faithful to obey the Lord
But as we discussed earlier, Solomon started well but eventually let sin consume him
He walked away from following the Lord and lived for the momentary pleasures of sin rather than for God
And his sin led to consequences.
The book of Ecclesiastes is the evidence of that. Solomon felt that his life was wasted because of his sin. He was left empty and broken because of his choices
Those seasons were not God ordained. God didn’t want Solomon to walk through seasons of sin and emptiness, He wanted fulness of joy and blessings
But instead Solomon chose his sin and had to endure the consequences
Its an important warning to us. We might be in a difficult season because our own sin caused us to have to go through it
We should have a humble heart that asks God to reveal our sin to us, and if it is our sin that has caused us to go through that tough time, we should confess and repent
The glorious thing is that we see God’s nature all throughout scripture is one of forgiveness and restoration
God can even take our sin and our shame and turn it around for His glory
He was able to take Solomon’s sin and the wasted years, and use it to inspire him to write the book of Ecclesiastes which encourages us to stay away from chasing the world and to instead live for the Lord.
#6 - We can prepare for difficult seasons ahead of time
In 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul would tell his protégé Timothy:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
Paul gave him the encouragement to, “be ready in season and out of season.”
Its a good reminder for us
A professional athlete doesn’t start to train and lift weights and work on their cardio and strength and explosiveness once the season has started - if they wait until then to start training its too late
They will use the offseason to train and prepare ahead of time so they are physically ready for the season to begin
It should be the same for us spiritually, we shouldn’t wait until we’re in the middle of the trial or difficult season to study and learn and grow close to the Lord, we should do that ahead of time - at all times
We should be students of God’s word, studying and reading on our own. Men and women who have a hunger to know God and to know His word
Because its not a matter of if, but when a difficult season will come along
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Be a Timothy, study your word ahead of time, grow close to the Lord now, memorize your Bible in good seasons, seek Him in prayer now, be ready in season and out of season.
#7 - Cling to God’s promises when a season is challenging
When those difficult seasons come into life, it can be very easy to feel like you are a ship out on the ocean getting tossed around by the wind and the waves.
Its easy to feel unsteady, uncertain, to feel like life is breaking apart and that you’re not going to make it.
Its in those times that we need to cling to the promises of God
Hebrews 6:19a (NIV)
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
There’s a lot more to the context of this verse, but generally we can apply the concept the author of Hebrews is teaching there that God’s hope is an anchor for our soul
The thing that is going to keep us solid, keep us secured, keep us anchored in those challenging promises is the hope found in God’s word
The hope that God has a purpose for the season you’re going through. That He wants to conform or mold you to be more like His Son, Jesus
The hope that God loves you, He cares for you, He wants to have a close relationship with you
The hope that God is all knowing, and that He is good, and the plans He has are good
The hope that God knows the steps and the ultimate goal
The hope that while the season may be too hard to walk in alone, He will uphold you and be your strength
When we cling to God’s promises in those challenging seasons, our perspective changes.
You humbly rejoice and show the Lord thankfulness in good seasons, and you patiently endure the difficult ones
You learn to trust God, really trust Him, and open your heart to the work He is doing
You look for the growth He wants to accomplish rather than just moving on to the next lesson - there’s a sense of patience and sitting under God’s timing
And hopefully, as we do that, we can say exactly what Job said in Job 1.
Job 1:21b (NKJV)
21 “…The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Close & Pray
Give gospel invitation during prayer
Remind folks that if they did accept the Lord as their Savior, come up front after service and talk to a pastor and let them know about the decision you made today.
Communion
As it’s the first Sunday of the month, we are going to take communion together as a church.
At each campus, during this next worship song, make your way up front to grab the communion elements - they are all together in 1 cup - and head back to your seat
After the song, one of the pastors will come up and lead the campus in communion
