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Intro:

Good morning!

I hope all of you are doing well.

I miss you guys and can’t wait until we can meet again.

I wanted you to know that as the government is talking about how we move forward, we are considering what that will look like for us as a church.

As you are probably aware, life won’t just magically go back to the way it was, not until there is a vaccine at least.

That means that when we do start meeting, we will have to consider how do things with the neighborhood, our children, etc.

Our staff and elders will be talking about what we need to do to protect one another when that time comes.

I just wanted you to know that is on my radar.

I wanted to also thank you guys for your faithfulness in pursuing the Lord on your giving.

Financially we are chugging right along.

As we begin meeting again, there will be some expenses in getting ready for that, but God is aware and will provide for all that we need.

Please continue to pray for our community.

Because of the nature of the community, it is entirely possible that when we are able to get together again, we may have a whole new group of kids.

As we get started this morning, I wanted to point out that the book is making a shift in this chapter.

Until now, the book has primarily focused on man’s activity and now, in chapter three, the focus shifts to God’s activity.

It’s important to see that because what the preacher is about to say, if we have the wrong perspective, will cause us to think that these things are up to us or a result of our decisions.

We do play a role in responding correctly, but as we will see, ultimately, God is in control of our lives.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 ESV

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

Today as we deal with this passage and we are going to be looking at several other passages to help us understand it.

The intent of this passage isn’t so much the things that it list, but the concept that it is explaining.

It is pointing to several things and we are going to look at two of them today.

In studying this passage and looking at the actual Hebrew words, I was stopped in my tracks by the first verse.

There is an appointed and suitable time for everything.

This stopped me in my tracks because I know the things in my life that have caused much pain and suffering for myself, my wife, and my children.

My thoughts also went immediately to you guys and the loss and suffering that has happened in the time that I have known you.

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been struggling this week with how to approach this passage.

Why and how would things that are so painful be appointed or suitable?

I think the best place to start answering this question is with where it began.

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

We have touched on this several times through this study already.

We are living under the consequences of sin.

God’s intent for us was not for us to have to live under these circumstances.

However, here we are and there is nothing we can do about it.

As we discussed over the last two weeks, God fixed this issue by sending Jesus to restore the brokenness.

In our passage today the author makes the point that we are living under the rule of time.

In fact, if you look at verse 22-23

Genesis 3:22–23 ESV

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

I don’t know if this is something that you have ever thought about before, but consider the difference it makes if we live under the laws of time or are eternal like God.

God removes Adam and Eve from the garden specifically so that they cannot eat from the tree of life and live forever.

Because God loved them, He did not want them to live under this circumstance forever.

In His grace and mercy, God made sure we didn’t have to live in this affliction for eternity.

What happens, and we all know this by experience; we find ourselves in these cycles that the preacher calls out in these first eight verses of Ecc 3.

Through time we experience the highs and lows of what life has to offer.

It’s worth pointing out that this list is neither exhaustive or in any particular order.

We need to understand that so that we don’t find ourselves trying to make something out of it that isn’t there.

The preacher is saying that in our lives we are going experience the extremes of all these things.

This week our family began dismantling a part of our lives that was a big part of who we were.

So of you may remember that for years, Bethany and I raised a lot of chickens, would process them by hand, and then sell them.

It was a ton of work, but we loved it and our kids loved it.

It started, on a whim, Bethany posted something on her Facebook about getting some chicks and people started asking if they could by chicken from us.

That wasn’t our original intent, but it sounded fun and so we began researching and learning what it would take to raise meat birds on pasture.

To say there was a lot of trial and error is a massive understatement.

We dealt with everything from heat waves that caused the chicken house we were using to kill birds, to flash floods that caused me to have to wade through an overflowing creek to save chickens, to dealing with predators, and learning how to make and use processing equipment.

Through all of that, we were learning so much and having so much fun.

As we learned and got better, the business began to grow.

We got really involved with a young farmers group and got even more excited about what we could do.

We went on a “life planning” retreat and prayerfully considered how God would have us move forward.

God said to go for it.

We came home, took out a loan, bought some professional processing equipment, made plans, ordered chickens, publicized what was coming to our customers, and then it all came to a crashing halt.

We were just a couple of weeks from processing our first batch of the season when we discovered that Bethany was pregnant with Charlee.

We knew there was no way we could accomplish all that we had been dreaming about with an infant.

We processed that first batch and put all the stuff we had been planning on hold for what we thought would be a year or two, but then we would be ready to move forward.

Then cancer came to visit.

It’s been five years since we made that move to invest in a business that we never got to realize.

Friday we, as a family, tore down the brooder that we used to start our chicks.

It was an incredibly sad, emotional, time for me.

Not because the business didn’t work, but because it feels to me like a part of my life that God set in motion and the rug was pulled out from under me.

I didn’t get to decide that it was over, it was decided for me.

I share that story with you, because it is a time in my life when I was following God’s lead and then things just didn’t work out the way I envisioned it.

I know that all of us have times in our lives like that.

The reality is that these things happen to us and we have no control over them.

Right now is a great example of this same idea.

Here we are, having to meet remotely because of a global pandemic.

On this side of heaven, there are going to be so many things that happen that we just don’t have answers for.

One of my commentaries said this about the passage.

“The preacher is referring to normal life. God’s plan - His timing - extends to birth and death, sickness and health, employment and unemployment. The entirety of human life is poetically summed up here.” -Jeffrey Meyers, Ecclesiastes Through New Eyes: A Table in the Mist

As we read these first eight verses, we need to see that what is being described is the life that we are living in now, not something that used to be.

Part of the reason that we struggle with these things so much is because of our limited view point.

I think that if we could see the entire timeline, like God can, that there would be a lot of “ah-ha” moments.

Since we can’t have the same viewpoint as God, because we are’t God, the one we can have is that He is in control.

I think it’s also worth mentioning that often the things that you and I go through isn’t just for us.

If God blesses me financially, it may be that the reason is so that I can have the resources to help someone else.

On the opposite side of that, if I am struggling financially, it may be so that I walk through that with or have a shared the experience.

God is sovereign over our whole life.

Not just the good and not just the bad, but all of it.

When we look at this passage we see that God appoints not just the things that are difficult, but also the things that are joyful.

What would give you more comfort, that all of the things that happen in our lives are random, or that God is control of everything?

I can’t speak for you, but I would much rather that all of my life was in God’s hand rather than just left to chance.

Why? Because I know that God loves me and no matter what things look like in the moment, He has my very best in mind.

Even when things seem to be at their worst, God is still in control and is still faithfully working.

Look back at Gen 3 with me.

I never really noticed this until this week.

Genesis 3:21 ESV

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

After God removes Adam and Eve from the Garden, He makes them clothes.

I find this to be incredibly significant.

God didn’t have to do this.

He could have left it to them to figure that out on their own, but because He loved them, He made a way for them to be comfortable.

We can find comfort in the fact that God loves us and He is in control.

Matthew 6:27 ESV

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

We can spend our time worrying about things that we can’t change or we can choose to give those things to God and let Him handle them.

Whether life is going well, feels like it is spiraling out control, or has suffered loss, we can find comfort in the fact that God is still with us and loves us no matter what.

We see in Genesis that even though God is dealing with Adam and Eve’s sin, He does not turn His back on them.

Understanding that God is in control of our lives allows us to have hope.

Look at the psalmist response to suffering in his own life.

Psalm 27 ESV

Of David. 1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. 6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” 9 Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

I light of all that the Psalmist is facing, he continues to turn to the Lord.

When his enemies attack, he turns to the Lord.

We can all take a lesson from this.

No matter where you find yourself today, you can find comfort in the fact that God loves you and what you are going through will not last forever.

We can find hope in that fact that we will look up the goodness of the Lord if we will only wait on Him.

We can try to take a hold of our lives and direct them the way we want to go, but at the end of the day, it is not up to us.

Proverbs 16:9 ESV

9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

This does not mean that we don’t have free will, it means that if we want our lives to follow God’s desire for us, we need to rely on and wait for Him to layout the way in which we should live.

We have the option of turning and walking away from God.

But we also have the option of submitting our lives to His sovereignty.

It is only in submitting to Him that we can gain a perspective that will allow us to see beyond our current context.

All of us, being stuck at home, are asking when all this will end.

When will we get to be together again?

We are asking for an answer that is beyond what we or those in leadership can know.

I was talking with Glen last week and he mentioned how timely this study is for our body and our world right now.

As we are spending time with God, we are allowing Him to give some context into what is going on in our lives and in our church.

God is not surprised by this.

I’m convinced that He told us to study this book, right now, for this time and so that we can gain some perspective on our lives.

My hope is that you are beginning to realize what is really important in your lives.

This week as you spend time with the Lord, ask Him what He has given you this time for.

How we respond to what God is doing, determines the extent of learning about who He is.

God wants to use this time in your life.

If you haven’t already been asking what it is for, I beg you to start asking.

It is up to us whether this time is productive or is a waste.

If we choose to pursue God, seek His will, and obey what He says, this time will be a success.

Not because we did anything good, but simply because we obeyed.

God has given us this time, let’s use it to know Him better.