Sermon Tone Analysis
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After establishing that life without God is meaningless and that worldly pleasure cannot satisfy the human heart Solomon teaches us that life is filled with ups and downs.
His point in this chapter is life is complex.
The complexity of life should not keep us from enjoying it.
Look at how he ends the chapter (22).
It’s the same thing he said in 2:24.
Enjoy the life God has given you.
I’m going to pull a few truths out of this chapter that will help us live life the way God desires us to.
1. God created us for eternity (11).
A. God has given us a desire for something too big for us to comprehend.
The KJV says “He has set the world in their heart”.
Most other versions say “eternity”.
We want to understand and experience all that exists.
We can’t do this because we don’t have the time nor the ability.
But there is still a yearning in the human heart to want more than we have.
This is why we develop technology.
This is why doctors find cures for diseases.
This is why explorers set sail across oceans.
This is why people read.
This is why as soon as can talk we begin asking questions.
God created us to experience more than we can experience in a lifetime.
We are trapped in time.
We want to be released from it.
Specifically, because we know that our time on earth will come to an end.
God has put a desire in our heart to know everything so we will cling to the One who does know everything.
The frustration of a limited amount of time on earth is conquered by the knowledge of God.
Listen to what the Bible says about those who go to heaven:
For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Cor.
13:12
B. Time is different in heaven than it is on earth.
In heaven time does exist.
There are still sequences of events.
But time does not expire in heaven.
Normally we think of time we think of:
Running out of time
Having little time
On Borrowed time
Time coming to an end
None of that relates in heaven.
God created us for eternity.
Life on this earth has an end.
This reality leads us to frustration.
2. God has ordered our life (1).
Verse 1 is a summary of the poem found in 1-8.
Notice two words in verse 1:
Seasons
Times
A. There are seasons of life that we must endure.
There are events and changes that are going to happen in our life.
Just as seasons inevitably change our life is going to change.
Summer is coming and we can’t stop it.
There is another word I want to point out to you.
It’s the word “purpose”.
There is a purpose under heaven.
The word in the Hebrew means pleasure.
We could interpret the first verse of this poem to mean that the inevitable changes in life bring pleasure to us.
This would be the equivalent of Romans 8:28.
No matter how great or tough life may be, God is actively involved in every season of our life.
We’re going to experience Fall= Removal-seasons of conviction
We’re going to experience Winter = Hibernation- God will shut us up to His Word and His will
We’re going to experience Spring = new life- things are growing and exciting.
Summer = full bloom.
Those seasons will repeat throughout our life.
There will be times of loss
There will be times of darkness
There will be times of newness
There will be times of surplus
B. In every season God is working.
Every moment in our life matters.
Look at verse 11.
He has made everything beautiful in His time.
Everything isn’t beautiful.
He is making everything beautiful.
Illust:
Have you ever had someone watch over your shoulder while you work?
You know what you’re doing but they are concerned with it.
Sometimes they have something to say.
“Why are you doing that?
Why don’t you do it this way?”
Drives you crazy, doesn’t it?
You want them to go away and come back when you get done, right?
When it comes to our life God is not finished.
He is still working.
He knows what He is doing.
Everything He has ordained is necessary.
In the end if you are saved your life will be a masterpiece.
Never measure the beauty of an artist’s work until the last stroke is painted.
If you’re still breathing, He’s still painting.
3. We are called to properly respond to the circumstances of life (1-8).
Solomon had learned this by experience.
For the most part the “times” refers to that which brings joy and that which brings sorrow.
A lot of the pleasures Solomon lists in chapter 3 he also listed as his own accomplishments in chapter 2.
He planted (3:2; 2:5)
He laughed (3:4; 2:1,2)
He built (3:3,5; 2:4)
He obtained (3;6;2:8)
He doesn’t want us to think that life is all sunshine.
Let’s look at some of the circumstances of life Solomon lists and consider how we should respond to them.
A. A time to be born and a time to die (2).
There is a time to come into this world and a time to leave it.
We choose neither of those days.
If we are wise the day of our death will be better than the day of our birth.
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