WEBVTT 00:00:04.328 --> 00:00:06.633 Ecclesiastes chapter 3, starting at verse 1. 00:00:06.633 --> 00:00:12.371 For everything there is a season and a time, for every matter under heaven. 00:00:12.371 --> 00:00:16.870 A time to be born and a time to die. 00:00:16.870 --> 00:00:22.010 A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. 00:00:22.010 --> 00:00:26.208 A time to kill and a time to heal. 00:00:26.208 --> 00:00:30.088 A time to break down and a time to build up. 00:00:30.088 --> 00:00:33.487 A time to weep and a time to laugh. 00:00:33.487 --> 00:00:37.590 A time to mourn and a time to dance. 00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:42.960 A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:48.030 A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. 00:00:48.030 --> 00:00:52.149 A time to seek and a time to lose. 00:00:52.149 --> 00:00:56.069 A time to keep and a time to cast away. 00:00:56.069 --> 00:00:59.868 A time to tear and a time to sow. 00:00:59.868 --> 00:01:05.129 A time to keep silence and a time to speak. 00:01:05.129 --> 00:01:09.388 A time to love and a time to hate. 00:01:09.388 --> 00:01:14.528 A time for war and a time for peace. 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:19.087 What gain has the worker from his toil? 00:01:19.087 --> 00:01:24.831 I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 00:01:24.831 --> 00:01:29.549 He has made everything beautiful in its time. 00:01:29.549 --> 00:01:35.010 Also, he has put eternity into man's heart. 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:46.010 Yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end, I perceive that there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. 00:01:46.010 --> 00:01:50.289 Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all this toil. 00:01:50.289 --> 00:01:53.888 This is God's gift to man. 00:01:53.888 --> 00:01:58.790 I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. 00:01:58.790 --> 00:02:02.609 Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. 00:02:02.609 --> 00:02:20.366 God has done it so that people fear before Him that which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away. 00:02:24.221 --> 00:02:29.960 Well, I admire the brilliance of God in putting different types of wisdom literature in the Bible. 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:32.000 There's a lot of different kinds of it. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.067 He doesn't just say his wisdom in one way. 00:02:34.067 --> 00:02:44.979 You have the Psalms, and the Psalms are like wisdom in song form and it's real life and it's emotional and it's very relatable. 00:02:44.979 --> 00:02:49.000 So for those of us who need to connect emotionally, psalms are awesome for that. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:03:01.979 Proverbs are these pithy little sound bites, right, like I don't need your emotional, just give it to me straight, just give me the headlines, give me wisdom and enough sound bite. 00:03:01.979 --> 00:03:06.747 That's Proverbs Even puts wisdom in a love song. 00:03:06.747 --> 00:03:12.000 But but please, yes, these are really unique kind of wisdom. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.669 It's different wisdom and it's for different people. 00:03:14.669 --> 00:03:16.645 It's a it's cynical wisdom. 00:03:16.645 --> 00:03:19.143 Can you guess who it's for? 00:03:19.143 --> 00:03:26.063 It might be for you, well, it is for you for sure. 00:03:26.063 --> 00:03:31.469 It's like everything's everything is meaningless. 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:40.713 But let's talk about it, because this is also an honest observation of a man who had experience not just opinion, but real experience in these kind of matters. 00:03:40.713 --> 00:03:46.832 And so Solomon is a man who's wrestling with life and trying to find meaning in it. 00:03:46.832 --> 00:03:55.000 And so Solomon is a man who takes time to go deep with the things that we don't usually take time to go deep about. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.728 To be honest, we don't think that deeply, not this deeply. 00:03:58.728 --> 00:04:00.211 Most of the time. 00:04:00.211 --> 00:04:17.992 Solomon is thinking about deep matters while we're watching TikTok videos or Netflix or whatever, but he's boldly going into these places that we're either like too lazy to go or too scared to go or too distracted to go. 00:04:17.992 --> 00:04:21.107 But he's asking hard questions and he's doing it honestly. 00:04:22.581 --> 00:04:28.672 The Greek philosopher Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. 00:04:28.672 --> 00:04:44.000 But actually, 600 years before Socrates, solomon's writing these words, Solomon is thinking the same thing and he's examining life and he's asking the hard questions. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:05:00.872 If this Hebrew Bible was actually translated into Greek during Socrates time, it would have been pretty cool, because Socrates could have learned some things from Solomon, but thankfully we have it today in English, so we're going to learn from it today. 00:05:00.872 --> 00:05:06.812 So what have we learned so far that Solomon's told us about his search for meaning? 00:05:06.812 --> 00:05:17.410 He said that there's no real fulfillment in different types of gratification, so in money, or in sex, or in even in your job. 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:23.307 There's some fulfillment there, and all of these are gifts from God. 00:05:23.788 --> 00:05:37.959 But there's still something gnawing at our souls and I think of it like so I'm grateful that I'm generally a healthy person, but one of the quirks of my body is that I am extremely allergic to poison ivy. 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:42.089 Anybody out there, oh man, I feel you. 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:42.752 I'm so sorry. 00:05:42.752 --> 00:05:47.247 When I was a kid I was a kid and a teenager. 00:05:47.247 --> 00:05:52.899 All those years I'd get poison ivy and I would have to go to the doctor and they would have to, like you know, give me special medicine. 00:05:52.899 --> 00:05:57.771 They would wrap my legs up, you know, with special solution, and it took weeks to heal. 00:05:57.771 --> 00:06:06.298 And you know, while it's healing it's itching and you can't really ever get away from the itch. 00:06:06.298 --> 00:06:06.980 It just keeps going. 00:06:06.980 --> 00:06:08.463 It just has to be. 00:06:08.463 --> 00:06:17.512 You know, when it goes away when it's healed, that's when it goes away it's like oh, and I think that's kind of like what Solomon is saying. 00:06:17.512 --> 00:06:22.891 Here we have what amounts to a bad case of poison ivy in our soul. 00:06:22.891 --> 00:06:28.968 There's something itching all the time and it's just keeps itching. 00:06:28.968 --> 00:06:31.336 It doesn't matter how you scratch it. 00:06:31.336 --> 00:06:32.000 It needs to be healed. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:33.973 That's what he's talking about. 00:06:33.992 --> 00:06:45.911 He's grappling with this, and when you're grappling with life and you're trying to find wisdom, you inevitably come around to the subject of time, because time is a master to all of us. 00:06:45.911 --> 00:06:50.113 I mean, we are all subject to time, whether we like it or not. 00:06:50.113 --> 00:06:54.649 We're under time and we see these words. 00:06:54.649 --> 00:07:07.124 Here he uses the word time and season, and eternity and forever, and that which has been and that which is going to be and that which is now, and so it's like. 00:07:07.124 --> 00:07:20.000 It's like there's a, there's a connection between wisdom and time and, more specifically, there's a connection between wisdom and our seasons, because this word he uses for time 30 times. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.586 I think I counted 30 times. 00:07:21.627 --> 00:07:24.000 Here he uses the word time 30 times. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:30.452 That word time is the word that really means an appointed time, like in a season. 00:07:30.452 --> 00:07:52.774 It's an appointed time, and so understanding your season is crucial to living a life of wisdom, and we can see that because the scripture says that the descendants of Issaqar in 1 Chronicles 12, men who had understanding of their times and they knew what Israel should do. 00:07:52.774 --> 00:07:56.980 Okay, I know what I ought to do because I understand my season. 00:07:56.980 --> 00:07:57.401 Do you see? 00:07:57.401 --> 00:07:58.846 There's a, there's a link there. 00:07:58.846 --> 00:08:02.730 If you, if you need guidance for your life, you're not sure what you're supposed to be doing right now. 00:08:02.730 --> 00:08:05.723 Think about this what is your season? 00:08:05.723 --> 00:08:08.625 What season is God got you in? 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:20.870 Because seasons change and different seasons require different responses, and sometimes we'd rather just like why does everything have to change? 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:21.911 Why can't we all just get it? 00:08:21.911 --> 00:08:24.348 We control freaks, right, we want it. 00:08:24.348 --> 00:08:31.391 Why can't we just get all right and then everything is right, and then just like hold your breath and don't move, nobody move. 00:08:31.391 --> 00:08:33.225 Let's keep it like this. 00:08:33.225 --> 00:08:35.344 But life is not like that ever. 00:08:35.344 --> 00:08:39.673 It changes, and so our seasons have to. 00:08:39.673 --> 00:08:44.826 Our seasons change, so our understanding of what we need to do changes, and Moses understood this too. 00:08:45.019 --> 00:08:46.947 Moses wrote a whole song about time. 00:08:46.947 --> 00:08:48.683 It's Psalm 90 and. 00:08:48.683 --> 00:08:59.518 And Moses, who actually lived more time on this earth than anyone here is likely to live, although Jack is approaching Moses. 00:08:59.518 --> 00:09:05.312 I don't know if you're trying to beat Moses or not, jack, but you're doing great so far. 00:09:05.312 --> 00:09:08.000 He lived longer than any of us, right? 00:09:09.341 --> 00:09:11.947 And here's what he said In Psalm 90. 00:09:11.947 --> 00:09:16.758 He said teaches to number our days are right, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 00:09:16.758 --> 00:09:24.197 And I think that's really fascinating because he's saying God, I need to be taught. 00:09:24.197 --> 00:09:27.306 Teaches is not something that we have in our Self. 00:09:27.306 --> 00:09:30.013 We don't have this, this understanding, in our own ability. 00:09:30.474 --> 00:09:52.035 God teaches, teaches what to number, to number, and that word means really to get perspective on it, means Numbering, means to count out and to it has this, this connotation of order, ordering your days, like there's a right perspective, there's a right order, there's a proper godly order that we should have in our lives. 00:09:52.035 --> 00:09:56.793 Teach us to order Our time and time. 00:09:56.793 --> 00:10:02.485 It's interesting about time because time we use, we understand we have a limited amount, right. 00:10:02.485 --> 00:10:03.994 It's a commodity, like money. 00:10:03.994 --> 00:10:05.965 You get a limited amount of it, right. 00:10:05.965 --> 00:10:08.009 So you have to budget it. 00:10:08.009 --> 00:10:14.753 We spend, we spend time, we spend money, we invest time, we all these are like money terms, right. 00:10:14.753 --> 00:10:18.684 We invest time, we spend time, we waste time, we redeem time. 00:10:18.684 --> 00:10:32.678 It's like we use these economical terms when we talk about Time because it's a commodity and Moses is saying God teaches to count those days and the next word is to number our days. 00:10:32.698 --> 00:10:39.517 A right One version says correctly, a right, in other words, is a right way to do it. 00:10:39.517 --> 00:10:52.669 And it says teach us to number our days, because days are what we need to focus on, because if we get the days right, we get the years right, we get the life right. 00:10:52.669 --> 00:11:01.788 So it's not just look at your whole life, but look at your days and teach us to number our days so that we can Get a heart of wisdom. 00:11:01.788 --> 00:11:09.995 So there's this connection, right, wisdom, time, seasons, understanding time is part of getting wisdom. 00:11:09.995 --> 00:11:13.299 So this is a pretty well known passage in Ecclesiastes. 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:17.134 Maybe you've heard of it before, maybe you've heard it preached from before. 00:11:17.826 --> 00:11:20.851 But there's a really a beautiful, some symmetry to this passage. 00:11:20.851 --> 00:11:24.379 There's a, it's a poem, it's the first actual poem in the book. 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:29.513 It's actually a poem and it's like poetic magic. 00:11:29.513 --> 00:11:36.898 There's like there's 14 pairs of opposing events that all happen in the context of time. 00:11:36.898 --> 00:11:40.664 So this is like a poetic device. 00:11:40.664 --> 00:11:45.995 It's called mirrorism, where you list an extreme and another extreme and the. 00:11:45.995 --> 00:11:51.350 The idea is, the implication is everything involved In the middle is also. 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:53.515 This is true about everything in the middle as well. 00:11:53.515 --> 00:11:57.114 In other words, everything in between those extremes is included. 00:11:57.114 --> 00:12:00.831 There's two sets of seven pairs. 00:12:00.831 --> 00:12:02.956 Seven is the number of completion. 00:12:03.957 --> 00:12:11.370 And so what's happening is, solomon is poetically given us this message that these truths are universal. 00:12:11.370 --> 00:12:20.808 They imply they apply to every aspect of our lives and, strangely, the conclusion that he comes to is that God makes everything beautiful in its time. 00:12:20.808 --> 00:12:26.332 It's he has both. 00:12:26.332 --> 00:12:31.480 There's both futility and there's wonder, wrapped up in this passage. 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.447 It's really a Little bit strange and a little bit beautiful. 00:12:35.447 --> 00:12:41.320 And Solomon tells us your gifts, your seasons, your times are gifts from God. 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:52.977 Really, all of them I Mean like the one you're in right now is a gift from God. 00:12:52.977 --> 00:13:12.057 Really, yeah, this tensions that you see in this poetry Are like, or they hit home, because life is full of tensions, right, life is full of these kind of tensions that he's communicating here, and so we tend to, we tend to think that one is better than the other. 00:13:12.057 --> 00:13:14.664 Right, because laughter is better than weeping, surely, right? 00:13:14.664 --> 00:13:23.653 Yeah, yeah, surely, being born is better than dying, right, loving is better than hating, is that right? 00:13:23.653 --> 00:13:27.394 But Solomon saying no, there's more to it than just that. 00:13:27.394 --> 00:13:28.216 It's not that simple. 00:13:28.216 --> 00:13:32.592 It's not as simple as polarizing your times, good and bad. 00:13:32.592 --> 00:13:37.312 We may need to adjust our thinking here, and so there's struggle and there's beauty. 00:13:37.312 --> 00:13:41.552 In all of our times, including the time that you're going through right now. 00:13:41.552 --> 00:13:44.392 There's struggle, but there's beauty. 00:13:45.986 --> 00:13:58.658 So when I began to sense that God might want me to write a book about how he's teaching me to handle grief in a Positive way from the Psalms of lament, I Just really couldn't see a way to write it. 00:13:58.658 --> 00:14:02.845 And, by the way it's in, that book is in the last stages of editing right now. 00:14:02.845 --> 00:14:06.475 My publisher is working with it and so it should be out later this year. 00:14:06.475 --> 00:14:10.860 But starting to write it was the was the hardest part, because how do you? 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:20.229 I I couldn't see a way to write this book at all, because this is so deeply, intensely emotional. 00:14:20.229 --> 00:14:27.759 How do you write about what's Crushing you and pulling your heart into pieces? 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:28.644 How do you write about this? 00:14:28.644 --> 00:14:29.125 How do you? 00:14:29.287 --> 00:14:34.664 And I'm a teacher and I see this pattern in the Psalms but how do you write about it? 00:14:34.664 --> 00:14:38.514 How do you write a teachy book about what you're feeling so deeply? 00:14:38.514 --> 00:14:41.929 Right, it's like this is there's no way. 00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:50.904 This is not even, because when you're in the depth of that grief, you, even you even kind of know that it's not as simple as just little steps to getting out of grief. 00:14:50.904 --> 00:14:52.731 There's something way deeper than that. 00:14:52.731 --> 00:14:55.543 So I, I didn't. 00:14:55.543 --> 00:14:57.582 I Didn't know how to do it. 00:14:57.582 --> 00:15:03.004 Yet I saw a pattern and I know the Lord was trying to, he was leading me to write it, but I couldn't see my ache. 00:15:03.004 --> 00:15:05.629 I'm a teacher and my ache is not academic. 00:15:05.629 --> 00:15:06.631 Does that make sense to you? 00:15:06.631 --> 00:15:08.475 My ache is real. 00:15:08.475 --> 00:15:10.139 It's like real. 00:15:10.139 --> 00:15:11.778 How do you do this? 00:15:11.778 --> 00:15:13.226 I don't like it, I don't want to do it. 00:15:13.628 --> 00:15:35.307 And then I took a bike ride on a brilliantly sunny afternoon by the river and over the ridges of my beautiful native East Tennessee, and by the end of that bike ride I felt like the Lord was was showing me a way that I could write this book, because the beauty of East Tennessee was affecting me. 00:15:35.307 --> 00:15:58.708 But the beauty of East Tennessee is not just the natural beauty, it's also the beauty of the people and it's also the beauty of the struggle, and I thought about my own family and the struggles that I heard from my, my ancestors, and how they Went through so many difficult things to stay here, to live here, to settle here, and also Melissa's side of the family. 00:15:58.708 --> 00:16:11.030 And so it's the beauty of the struggle and I began to see there's beauty in struggle and there's beauty in struggle because there's presence of God there. 00:16:11.030 --> 00:16:22.565 There's beauty in struggle because there's kindness there and there's strength there and there's deep roots in Jesus in your current struggle, in your time. 00:16:22.565 --> 00:16:27.554 God is sovereign over our times. 00:16:28.657 --> 00:16:45.995 Brothers and sisters, we tend to polarize our seasons though, like Complain to God about the bad times and then we kind of ignore the good times, like like we, we don't say much about the good times, we kind of expect them, like we're entitled to good times. 00:16:45.995 --> 00:16:51.284 But he says for everything there's a season, there's a point in time. 00:16:51.284 --> 00:16:53.311 How can that be? 00:16:53.311 --> 00:16:55.255 How is there a time to kill? 00:16:55.255 --> 00:16:58.552 How is there a time to break down? 00:16:58.552 --> 00:17:01.370 How is there a time to weep and mourn? 00:17:01.370 --> 00:17:01.751 Is it? 00:17:01.751 --> 00:17:02.995 Is there a time to hate? 00:17:02.995 --> 00:17:04.097 Is there a time for war? 00:17:04.097 --> 00:17:06.567 Solomon is observing. 00:17:06.567 --> 00:17:13.126 These things happen in a wonderfully beautiful but tragically fallen world, their Tensions. 00:17:13.126 --> 00:17:14.992 That's what he's saying and he's not ignoring it. 00:17:14.992 --> 00:17:17.890 Okay, so let's think about a minute. 00:17:17.890 --> 00:17:19.814 So just a few of the things that he says. 00:17:19.814 --> 00:17:22.199 He says there's a time for war, there's a time for peace. 00:17:22.199 --> 00:17:24.729 Is there a time for war. 00:17:24.729 --> 00:17:26.315 Does that mean God ordains war? 00:17:26.315 --> 00:17:30.352 That's a good question. 00:17:30.352 --> 00:17:43.537 I Think times of war and hate and death do not mean that God is God is any less present or any less Good or any less kind. 00:17:43.557 --> 00:17:48.810 In Ukraine I saw the effect of war on every level. 00:17:48.810 --> 00:17:58.457 I saw it a national level, I saw it on a community level, I saw it in a church level, I saw it in families, I saw it in personal people, in individual people. 00:17:58.457 --> 00:18:02.593 I saw it Economically, I saw it psychologically. 00:18:02.593 --> 00:18:15.594 War affects everything and I was trying to imagine a world without war and it will be a reality someday. 00:18:15.594 --> 00:18:19.522 Someday everything's going to be redeemed. 00:18:19.522 --> 00:18:39.779 But in the midst of that war and that struggle there was beauty, there were beautiful things being done by heroic people, and war can afford the opportunity for the most beautiful and brave and heroic actions that could never happen in the time of peace. 00:18:41.414 --> 00:18:43.261 My friend Marek is one example. 00:18:43.261 --> 00:19:08.090 Marek is the man who owned the property where we had this songwriter camp in Poland, and Marek is probably my age and his family and his wife's family during World War II were killed during the Nazi occupation. 00:19:08.090 --> 00:19:09.779 But they weren't killed by Nazis. 00:19:09.779 --> 00:19:13.744 It was all a big mess in that part of Poland and Ukraine. 00:19:13.744 --> 00:19:20.508 It was a big massacre of Ukrainians, or by Ukrainians on Polish people. 00:19:20.508 --> 00:19:28.299 These Ukrainians just rose up and killed their Polish neighbors by the thousands, even while the Nazis were taking over. 00:19:28.299 --> 00:19:29.102 It was a big mess. 00:19:29.102 --> 00:19:35.385 It was a big mess, but this is horrible atrocities that the Ukrainians did on the Polish people. 00:19:36.315 --> 00:19:48.667 And yet, my friend Marek, when the war broke out and these millions of Ukrainians came across the border in weeks, he immediately opened up his place. 00:19:48.667 --> 00:19:51.603 He can house over 50 people there. 00:19:51.603 --> 00:19:57.799 He immediately opened it up to Ukrainians and there were Ukrainians staying there. 00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:00.941 While we were there still, there were eight of them staying there still. 00:20:00.941 --> 00:20:13.078 Why would you open up your house to people whose descendants may be the very people who killed your descendants? 00:20:13.078 --> 00:20:14.577 Why would you do that? 00:20:14.577 --> 00:20:19.204 Well, we ask him why did you do this, marek? 00:20:19.204 --> 00:20:20.759 Why did you do it? 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:26.480 And you know what he said If I don't forgive, I will not be forgiven. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:32.923 I thought well, this man's following Jesus. 00:20:32.923 --> 00:20:36.182 That's exactly what Jesus said. 00:20:36.182 --> 00:20:42.343 Anyway, further he said I can forgive because I have been forgiven. 00:20:46.154 --> 00:20:51.000 Beautiful things can happen in the midst of the tragedy of war and Solomon is simply observing here. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.201 Okay, there's a time for war, there's a time for peace, it happens. 00:20:54.201 --> 00:20:56.480 This is what he's saying Doesn't mean God is absent. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:01.358 He says there's time to mourn, and a time to dance Is one of those better than the other? 00:21:01.358 --> 00:21:02.723 Mourning and dancing? 00:21:02.723 --> 00:21:04.440 Well, we think so, don't we? 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:25.684 Well, in a few weeks somebody's going to be preaching to you from Ecclesiastry 7, but I want to give you a little hint here, because here's what Solomon said it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. 00:21:25.684 --> 00:21:33.105 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 00:21:33.105 --> 00:21:43.076 What the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 00:21:43.076 --> 00:21:45.960 What is this man talking? 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:48.035 Is he not confused? 00:21:48.035 --> 00:21:50.261 What is he even saying? 00:21:50.261 --> 00:21:51.777 How can this be? 00:21:54.255 --> 00:22:02.359 He's saying there are things that we learn in the school of sorrow that we can never learn in the other way, and I can tell you that that's true. 00:22:02.359 --> 00:22:13.060 And I'm talking about foundational things, things that become a rock for your life, things about God, because grief is a great revealer. 00:22:13.060 --> 00:22:18.846 Grief just rips open the curtains and shows what's there in your own heart. 00:22:18.846 --> 00:22:21.461 It reveals what's in the heart of people around you. 00:22:21.461 --> 00:22:24.843 It reveals, most importantly, what's in the heart of God. 00:22:24.843 --> 00:22:32.066 You began to see God as you never saw him before, in the middle of your grief. 00:22:32.066 --> 00:22:42.861 It's a great teacher, and if we're going to live with understanding in any kind of light or wisdom in this world, we have to listen, even in times of sorrow. 00:22:42.861 --> 00:22:45.767 There's a time to mourn. 00:22:45.767 --> 00:22:47.258 There's a time to dance. 00:22:47.258 --> 00:22:50.338 God's present in both of those. 00:22:50.338 --> 00:22:55.702 Sometimes we mourn and dance in the same season. 00:22:59.420 --> 00:23:02.385 Well, he also says that there's a time to keep and a time to throw away. 00:23:02.385 --> 00:23:14.887 And I think I can almost hear some of you saying to your spouse see, the Bible says we need to have a garage sale, and that might be true. 00:23:14.887 --> 00:23:19.724 There's a time to get rid of it because it's cluttering your life. 00:23:19.724 --> 00:23:20.066 Right. 00:23:20.066 --> 00:23:24.818 But this is not just a garage sale mentality Might be, but it's more than that. 00:23:24.818 --> 00:23:29.382 There's a time to hold on to truth. 00:23:29.382 --> 00:23:30.144 That you know. 00:23:30.144 --> 00:23:40.442 I mean to wrap your arms and your legs around it and say I'm not letting this go, no matter what is being talked around. 00:23:40.442 --> 00:23:42.766 This is true and I know this is true. 00:23:42.766 --> 00:24:02.362 There's a time to let go of, throw away my own false ideas about myself or my own ideas about you that are not informed by the gospel, that I believe there's a time to throw away ideas because they're no good, they're not right, they're not, they're not God's ideas. 00:24:02.362 --> 00:24:05.002 There's a time to keep, there's a time to throw away. 00:24:05.595 --> 00:24:08.242 Paul said there's a time to put away childish things. 00:24:08.242 --> 00:24:12.465 I was a child and I spoke like a child and I behaved like a child. 00:24:12.465 --> 00:24:18.757 I understood like a child, but there was a time I became a man and I had to put away childish things. 00:24:18.757 --> 00:24:24.460 Sometimes it's time to grow up, brothers. 00:24:24.460 --> 00:24:28.680 It's time to grow up and be a man. 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:34.065 There's a time Then he says there's a time to break down and a time to build up. 00:24:34.275 --> 00:24:43.500 I love it because it's a construction metaphor and every house flipper knows that you have to tear it down a little bit to build it back up. 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:50.205 You can't make it what it is, what it could be, and less changing what it is right. 00:24:50.205 --> 00:24:50.826 You have to do that. 00:24:50.826 --> 00:24:54.280 But what if I don't like what's being torn out of my life? 00:24:54.280 --> 00:25:02.297 What if what's being torn out of your life is the very thing that's going to make you more like Jesus? 00:25:02.297 --> 00:25:09.921 Maybe what you're going through is not killing you, it's killing what's killing you. 00:25:09.921 --> 00:25:14.742 It could be so that you can actually live. 00:25:14.742 --> 00:25:23.797 What if I can't be built into what I could be without some of the things first being torn down? 00:25:24.159 --> 00:25:25.865 And construction is all about the end result. 00:25:25.865 --> 00:25:34.529 I actually was at one point in my life project manager of a $4 million building project and I learned a lot. 00:25:34.529 --> 00:25:44.420 Part of what I learned was it's not a big project, it's a whole bunch of little projects and a whole bunch of little projects that are moving toward one big end, and the end is always in sight. 00:25:44.420 --> 00:25:58.083 You have to start with the end in sight always, but the end product is always what the construction workers are working toward, right, the contractors working toward the end. 00:25:58.083 --> 00:26:01.904 Jesus is also working toward a finished result, right. 00:26:01.904 --> 00:26:06.965 He's walking with us relationally through processes, but there is a place he's taking us to. 00:26:06.965 --> 00:26:17.561 He's taking us to a place of maturity and is forming Christ inside of us, and tearing down is not always the enemy. 00:26:17.561 --> 00:26:22.807 That's what I'm trying to say that construction is messy and it's uncomfortable all the time. 00:26:23.892 --> 00:26:31.414 All right, some of you weren't here last week and you didn't hear the announcement that, because of the great growth that God's given us, we're going to two services. 00:26:31.414 --> 00:26:33.700 Derek mentioned it September 17th. 00:26:33.700 --> 00:26:47.997 We're gonna go to two services and, if we're thinking right, there's no way to see this but blessing, because the things we prayed for for years God's giving us and we're living in his blessing. 00:26:47.997 --> 00:26:50.457 But score require changes. 00:26:50.457 --> 00:26:56.962 So I heard something from pastor Ray Hughes one time that will help us a lot in life if we understand it. 00:26:56.962 --> 00:27:00.859 So actually, you might want to take a picture of this or take some notes. 00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:01.883 This is really good. 00:27:02.750 --> 00:27:13.429 Healthy things grow, growing, things change, changing things challenge us. 00:27:13.429 --> 00:27:16.938 It's challenging. 00:27:16.938 --> 00:27:18.603 Things drive us to God. 00:27:18.603 --> 00:27:22.897 Going to God leads to trusting God. 00:27:22.897 --> 00:27:27.415 Trust leads to obedience. 00:27:27.415 --> 00:27:30.954 Obedience makes us healthy. 00:27:30.954 --> 00:27:37.493 Healthy things grow, growing things change. 00:27:37.493 --> 00:27:40.016 Changing things challenge us. 00:27:40.016 --> 00:27:43.159 It's, it's a big cycle. 00:27:43.159 --> 00:27:52.522 Growing into maturity is a cycle, but if you know it, if you're, if you see the big picture, it doesn't surprise you when it happens. 00:27:52.522 --> 00:27:58.855 You don't freak out because you're challenged by something and Something is driving you to God. 00:27:58.855 --> 00:28:01.044 This is this is really important. 00:28:01.044 --> 00:28:04.454 You know, if we're going to grow, there's a constant cycle of change. 00:28:04.454 --> 00:28:09.237 There's a time to tear it down, there's a time to build up, there's a time to go to services. 00:28:09.257 --> 00:28:17.473 I Through that in there, but I think it's true, but here's what. 00:28:17.473 --> 00:28:18.277 Here's the thing. 00:28:18.277 --> 00:28:21.657 Solomon says all this about time and then he says this. 00:28:21.657 --> 00:28:28.902 He says God has made everything beautiful in its time, in its time. 00:28:28.902 --> 00:28:31.636 Okay, and I thought, what? 00:28:31.636 --> 00:28:32.721 How do you? 00:28:32.721 --> 00:28:34.309 How do you understand that? 00:28:34.309 --> 00:28:46.301 Well, I can understand it pretty easily, because what I love about summer in East Tennessee is Ripe fruits and vegetables are like one of the great joys of life. 00:28:46.301 --> 00:28:50.355 All right, I ate a tomato last week. 00:28:50.355 --> 00:29:00.122 It tasted like a tomato and they taste good when they taste like a tomato. 00:29:00.142 --> 00:29:07.604 I Came back in time to get like the end of the peach harvest one of my favorite things. 00:29:07.604 --> 00:29:10.256 Man, I had a cantaloupe last week. 00:29:10.256 --> 00:29:12.201 That was the sweetest thing, it was great. 00:29:12.201 --> 00:29:26.054 I've got some apples on my tree now and there there is so laden down, it's like there's it's a bumper crop, but if you try to eat them right now it's not gonna be pleasant, really bitter. 00:29:26.054 --> 00:29:28.894 So when they're not ripe yet, it's bitter. 00:29:28.894 --> 00:29:30.557 When they're past ripe, it's rotten. 00:29:30.557 --> 00:29:36.578 But in the middle there's a beautiful season In season is beautiful, right. 00:29:36.578 --> 00:29:42.452 There's a window of beauty and I love that. 00:29:43.315 --> 00:29:51.501 And if God is sovereign over our seasons, do you believe that he is able to help you to see the beauty in your current season. 00:29:51.501 --> 00:29:54.699 Do you believe there's? 00:29:54.699 --> 00:29:56.503 There's beauty there in your current season? 00:29:56.503 --> 00:29:58.430 And I'm speaking, maybe, to some people who are in a difficult time. 00:30:01.683 --> 00:30:12.582 We were praying this morning with the pastors, and, and John prayed especially for people who are going through rough times and I think this might be, this might be a good. 00:30:12.582 --> 00:30:17.520 You know, this might be a reason we're in Ecclesiastes 3 today, right, because we have to understand God's. 00:30:17.520 --> 00:30:22.460 We have to understand God's the sovereign. 00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:34.781 He's sovereign over our seasons, and last week Kelly said he mentioned that phrase carpe diem sees the day, you know, and I just kind of like to expand it a little bit and say we have to seize our season. 00:30:34.781 --> 00:30:40.299 Yeah, seize the day, make the most of the day, redeem the time is how the bible puts it. 00:30:40.299 --> 00:30:43.277 Right, but seize your season. 00:30:43.277 --> 00:30:47.250 God is always acting, he's always moving for his purposes. 00:30:49.075 --> 00:31:01.800 So I need to not only endure my seasons, like my difficult seasons, not just endure them, but press in and listen, actively listen, learn and grow from them. 00:31:01.800 --> 00:31:06.690 Seize your season, because Solomon says it's a gift from God. 00:31:06.690 --> 00:31:19.655 Even this season it's a gift from God and if you got to go through it, at least learn something from it right, redeem it Wherever you are. 00:31:19.655 --> 00:31:22.025 That's where you are, and so you got to be all there. 00:31:22.025 --> 00:31:23.309 That's pretty profound, isn't it? 00:31:23.309 --> 00:31:26.162 I should have put that on the screen. 00:31:26.162 --> 00:31:31.648 Can't change the past, we can't control the future, but we really, all we really have is right now. 00:31:31.648 --> 00:31:35.604 So how are you stewarding right now? 00:31:35.604 --> 00:31:36.768 How are you stewarding your today? 00:31:36.768 --> 00:31:41.342 That's the thing, because God's God says it's a gift to you. 00:31:42.818 --> 00:31:44.113 And yet Solomon doesn't stop there. 00:31:44.113 --> 00:31:47.103 He talks about time and everything. 00:31:47.103 --> 00:31:51.278 All these things have their time, but there's more than time. 00:31:51.278 --> 00:31:53.361 There's eternity. 00:31:53.361 --> 00:32:10.743 And this is what makes this passage so profound to me is that it's a realistic look at the time, but then it's like also a realistic look Like lift your heads up a little bit from present circumstances, because there's there's eternity as well. 00:32:11.932 --> 00:32:21.743 And Solomon makes this statement, this declaration, which is really profound, that God has put eternity in our hearts. 00:32:21.743 --> 00:32:24.655 God's put eternity in our hearts. 00:32:24.655 --> 00:32:27.627 There's something inside of us that translates into our hearts. 00:32:27.627 --> 00:32:37.881 There's something inside of us that transcends time and deep inside of us we know that there's something more than what we experienced by our senses. 00:32:37.881 --> 00:32:41.233 We know that that's the itch right. 00:32:41.233 --> 00:32:53.261 Things that are limited to time and our finite earth can never really Satisfy us, because we're created in the image of eternal God and he's put eternity in our hearts. 00:32:53.261 --> 00:33:02.337 So we have to add something outside of time to our lives in order to be fulfilled. 00:33:02.337 --> 00:33:09.993 We have to add something outside of time to our lives in order to be fulfilled. 00:33:15.388 --> 00:33:20.317 Cs Lewis said it this way I find in myself a desire. 00:33:20.317 --> 00:33:29.122 If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. 00:33:29.122 --> 00:33:36.001 If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. 00:33:36.001 --> 00:33:45.862 Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. 00:33:45.862 --> 00:33:50.988 I think that's what Solomon is really saying here. 00:33:50.988 --> 00:33:53.827 God has put eternity in our hearts. 00:33:55.644 --> 00:33:58.513 The CS Lewis is saying the shadow proves the sunshine. 00:33:58.513 --> 00:33:59.297 That's what he's saying. 00:33:59.297 --> 00:34:04.630 He's saying the emptiness proves the fullness is what we were made for. 00:34:04.630 --> 00:34:22.884 So when Solomon says everything is meaningless, he's saying that every endeavor we put our hand to on this time-bound earth is not enough to scratch that itch of an internal being, that thing that God's put in our hearts. 00:34:22.884 --> 00:34:30.692 So the question is today, what am I looking to fulfill my life. 00:34:30.692 --> 00:34:35.969 All these things have their time, but do I think they can fill the void in my life? 00:34:38.019 --> 00:34:42.148 And this is where the book points to Jesus? 00:34:42.148 --> 00:34:50.590 And because the fullness that fills our hearts came to us from eternity. 00:34:50.590 --> 00:34:54.387 It came to us in the fullness of time. 00:34:54.387 --> 00:34:56.664 Paul put it this way in Galatians 4. 00:34:56.664 --> 00:35:10.902 But when the fullness of time had come, god sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoptions as sons. 00:35:10.902 --> 00:35:21.271 The fullness of time this is what our time-bound hearts are longing for is eternity stepped into time. 00:35:23.980 --> 00:35:37.726 And the very last verse of this book, or the last few verses of this book, solomon kind of gives his whole statement on the meaning of life and he says this is the conclusion of the matter Fear God, keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. 00:35:37.726 --> 00:35:42.902 And the problem with that is we all know that none of us have fully kept the commandments of God. 00:35:42.902 --> 00:35:47.945 None of us have done our duty, and there's a problem there, right? 00:35:47.945 --> 00:36:04.684 But there's one who perfectly obeyed all the commandments of God, living a sinless life, and he broke into time from eternity with eternal life, and he offers it to us today. 00:36:04.684 --> 00:36:08.085 Even this book is pointing to Jesus. 00:36:08.085 --> 00:36:17.190 Jesus submitted himself to time in order to free us for eternity. 00:36:21.260 --> 00:36:25.864 In Jesus' ministry there was a time he plucked up, there's a time he planted. 00:36:25.864 --> 00:36:29.625 There was a time that he gathered and there was a time that he scattered. 00:36:29.625 --> 00:36:33.565 There was a time that he spoke and it was a time he kept silence. 00:36:33.565 --> 00:36:41.449 It was a time he was a prince of peace and it was a time he went to war on our behalf. 00:36:41.449 --> 00:36:55.291 In Ephesians 1, paul said it this way God revealed his hidden design to us, which is according to his good will and the plan that he intended to accomplish through his Son. 00:36:55.291 --> 00:37:00.210 This is what God planned for the climax of all times, the time of times. 00:37:00.210 --> 00:37:09.603 This is what God planned to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth. 00:37:09.603 --> 00:37:20.568 Time wraps up in the eternal one, jesus, and it's always been God's plan and we're part of it today. 00:37:20.568 --> 00:37:28.070 So even this journey through meaninglessness is pointing us to Jesus Christ. 00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.510 I think we all understand the itch and we all understand the life apart. 00:37:34.510 --> 00:37:41.568 I don't know, you guys, what we're going to sing that song this morning, but it's you kind of saying part of my sermon life apart from God is meaningless. 00:37:41.568 --> 00:37:55.311 But God is calling to us in our time-bound, meaningless life, pulling us, drawing us into an eternal existence, the life we were meant to be created. 00:37:55.311 --> 00:37:55.800 In Jesus. 00:37:55.800 --> 00:37:59.461 We have life and we have it to the full, and that's beautiful. 00:37:59.461 --> 00:38:01.543 So what does it mean for us? 00:38:01.543 --> 00:38:05.307 I think there may be three things we can do today. 00:38:05.307 --> 00:38:18.690 So, once you stand up, and maybe whatever applies to you, you can pray this If an unexamined life is not worth living, then let's examine our life today. 00:38:18.730 --> 00:38:33.512 Okay, for those of us who trust Jesus Christ as our Savior, maybe the question is are we frustrated because we're searching for fulfillment in the things that can never fill us? 00:38:33.512 --> 00:38:47.487 Are there things that we're looking to for satisfaction, for identity, for significance, for security or for provision that only can come in Him? 00:38:47.487 --> 00:38:49.891 He's the only source of it. 00:38:49.891 --> 00:38:59.748 Maybe that's a point of repentance for us this morning and also for those of us who know Jesus. 00:38:59.748 --> 00:39:04.784 Let's don't forget that people we meet every day have eternity in their hearts. 00:39:04.784 --> 00:39:10.492 I'm not saying they have eternal life, I'm saying that they have eternity in their hearts. 00:39:10.492 --> 00:39:13.708 They have something that wants eternal things. 00:39:13.708 --> 00:39:16.963 Whether they show any interest or not. 00:39:16.963 --> 00:39:26.648 Deep down inside, they know there's something more that this life just doesn't fulfill, and many of them are so ready to hear the good news. 00:39:26.648 --> 00:39:30.204 Let's not forget that and let's just offer it. 00:39:30.204 --> 00:39:40.509 Let's offer this eternal to all these time bound people around us right and to those who are not following Jesus. 00:39:41.771 --> 00:39:44.407 I just want to remind you the last verse that we read today. 00:39:44.407 --> 00:39:50.186 The very last verse in our passage said God seeks what has been driven away. 00:39:50.186 --> 00:39:54.190 God seeks what has been driven away. 00:39:54.190 --> 00:39:56.228 I don't know. 00:39:56.228 --> 00:40:02.494