snowfalls, the budding spring flowers, as well as the hot summer sun. And as nice as it is to experience these changing seasons in full, I've come to realize something, and that is that no matter where you go, the different seasons of Earth are a source of frustration. You ever notice this? Even when we know it's coming, the changing of the seasons always seems to catch us off guard, doesn't it? When did it get so cold? Or it's dark at 4.30 now? Even though we experience these changes every year, it's like we're never ready for them. Or sometimes we experience unseasonal weather within a season. And that's always shocking. Just last week, it was pretty warm here in the middle of fall. I go outside with my sweater and scarf like normal, and what do you know? I'm sweating. Even our regular seasons don't turn out to be so regular. Then there's the frustration of having to endure the seasons and the parts of seasons that we don't like. Oh, when is summer going to be over? It's so hot. I have no energy to do anything. I can't stand to look at any more of this dirty snow. When's spring going to arrive? Some seasons we don't want to experience, or we don't want to experience them for very long. And then there's the frustration of seeing the seasons we do like pass away quickly. What, you mean summer's over already? I hardly got to do anything fun. Or those fragrant spring blossoms, Beautiful fall colors, why can't they just last a little longer? As much as we want a season or part of a season to remain, time marches on. Truly, though we humans love variety to a certain degree, we also have a longing to see what is good remain, see it last. This longing is frustrated by the seasonal nature of our world. We don't have the power to make what we want last actually stay permanently. Now, if we experience both joy and frustration with the seasons of Earth, what about the seasons of life? Like the seasons of Earth, each of us must endure different seasons of life. And many of the same frustrations we might feel about the Earth's seasons, we will also feel regarding our lives changing times. Probably many of you are frustrated by the season of COVID, which we are enduring right now, or perhaps the political season we are in. Or maybe you have a personal life circumstance that you really want to see changed. Or maybe you're really sad about a life circumstance that has changed and you didn't want it to. How are we to respond to the changing seasons and times of life? Is there a way that we can control these changes and make the good times last? Or if not, how could we still approach life's seasons in a way that is wise, holy, and even happy? Let's hear what God has to say on this topic as we consider our next passage in Ecclesiastes. If you please take your Bibles, open to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. So you have Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and we'll be looking at verses 1 to 15 today. In Ecclesiastes 1 and 2, Our author, King Solomon of Israel, has showed us why the reality of death ultimately makes everything frustrating and vaporous in this world. Vapor of vapors, he says, or as translated in our Bibles, vanity of vanities. Solomon pointed this out to us and he counseled us on the proper pursuits and perspective we should therefore have. This is life. You've got to deal with it. But now in chapter 3, Solomon moves from the subject of death to the subject of time, or rather, times. Let's hear the teaching of Solomon, which is the word of God. Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 to 15. There is an appointed time for everything, and there is a time for every event under heaven, a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal. a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing, a time to search and a time to give up as lost, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear apart and a time to sew together, a time to be silent and a time to speak a time to love, a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace. What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart. Yet, so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime. Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever. There's nothing to add to it and there's nothing to take from it. For God is so worked that men should fear him. That which is has already been, and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what is passed by. The poem that you see in the first half of our passage today is perhaps the most widely known text in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 3, 1-8 is quoted in movies, it's read at funerals, it's even set to music. But as arresting and enchanting as this poem is, it cannot truly be understood without its context. That is Solomon's explanation of the poem which is provided in verses 9-15. Many assume that Solomon's poem here is a wistful reflection or even celebration of the different seasons of life. But if we actually pay attention to the words of the poem and of their context, we'll see that the subject is actually something quite different. The message is quite different. What is that message? Well, here Solomon presents for our instruction one of the most frustrating aspects of living life in this fallen world. And that is that man is not in control of the times he faces. Man is not in control, rather he is subject to the tyranny of his times. And friends, this is true for you this morning. Just as you cannot control the four seasons of Earth, you cannot control the times of your life. You can try to plan out the story of your life and all its chapters. You can try to be like the arrogant man of James 4, verses 13 to 17, which you just heard about, and say to yourself, here's when I'll do this, here's when I'll accomplish this, here's when I'll experience this. You can try to make things happen and force the times that you desire. But sooner or later, you'll find out that you do not have that power. and ultimately you are not in control. You will eventually have to submit to and endure whatever times are given to you, whether those times are good or bad. Life is like a river. You've been placed in a small boat going down this river toward the ocean. Try as you might to steer or paddle, You cannot change the course of the river, nor can you remain forever in a smooth and easy part of the river, nor can you even always foresee and prepare for the river's many twists and turns. You are not in control of your times, but are rather subject to them. This frustrating fact can lead you to despair, to bitterness towards God and towards other people, you can yield to prideful anger and not having life go the way you want it to, or you can turn to a better way, a righteous way, a wise way, a happy way, which is what Solomon is going to show us. Let's take a closer look at this profound text. We're going to approach it in two parts. First, we'll examine the poem where Solomon shows us the frustratingly uncontrollable times of life. And second, we'll examine Solomon's counsel as to how we should live in response. We'll start with the poem, verses 1 to 8. There's no denying that there's a certain transfixing beauty to this poem. Something very pleasant about the Symmetry of the lines, the regular rhythm, the sweeping capture, various aspects of human existence. And we can even discern purpose in the structure of this poem. Each verse presents a pair of merisms. What's a merism, you might ask? Well, merism is a figure of speech that expresses totality, completeness, comprehensiveness, by referring to the two extremes of a topic. For example, if you know a subject from A to Z, that means you not only know the A and the Z, but you know everything in between. You know that subject completely, comprehensively. Or if you search heaven and earth to find something, that means you not only search heaven and you not only search earth, but you searched everything in between. It has been a complete search. Those are merisms. And that's what we see presented to us in our passage. We have many contrasting descriptions, but because they're merisms, Solomon is not merely saying that there is a time for one action and also its extreme opposite, but also that there's time for everything in between those two actions. Solomon thus is really capturing the totality of life, even in the structural components of this poem. Moreover, there is a total of 14 Marisms in this poetic section, or seven pairs. Oh, seven! That's a number that's often used to emphasize completeness in the Bible, especially when it comes to the works of God. We have seven here. And these pairs of Marisms, some of them are clearly related to each other. They've been purposefully put together. For example, if you just look at the first one in verse 2, the first merism describes the two ends of human existence, whereas the second merism describes the two ends of a plant's existence. You can see how they're related. You can see why they're placed together. This is a purposeful pair. In terms of content, Solomon also is keen in this poem to cover all of life. Within the poetic lines, we have life, death, work, relationships, speech, emotions, construction, destruction, conflict, pleasure, and pain. That's a pretty sweeping view of life, right? There's really nothing that you couldn't fit into one of these categories, as presented here, either literally or metaphorically. So this poem, Just looking at it from the outset, it does represent a pleasant, a purposeful, and a complete picture of life. Yet, there are aspects of discord and frustration in this poem as well, in both content and even in the structure. Content-wise, let's face it, not every time that's presented in this poem is intrinsically good. I mean, who wants to weep? to kill, to give up as lost, to hate, to go to war. These are not pleasant aspects of life. Even though the form of the poem is beautiful, some of the content is quite sorrowful. The structure also is a bit enigmatic, and even at times appears totally random. Why do the merisms flow in the order that they do? It doesn't seem to be a clear sense to it. Why does the merisms of verse 5 follow the merisms of verse 4? They don't seem to be related. Or why does the poem end with hate, love, war, and peace? I don't see a clear answer. Furthermore, even though we have seven pairs of merisms and some of the pairs are clearly related, others don't seem related at all. So even between the pairs in a verse. For example, in verse five, what does throwing and gathering stones have to do with embracing or not embracing? Why are those paired together? Or verse seven, what does tearing apart and mending have to do with being silent or speaking? Now commentators have come up with some ingenious explanations to connect these pairs of merisms, but their explanations remain tenuous, and in my view, pretty unsatisfying. So is there really a true purpose in each pairing in this poem, or is it just random? Or take the merisms themselves. They're not as complete as maybe we would think. Not all of them use terms that are actually exact opposites of one another, only near opposites. And you can see this actually pretty well in just the first merism of this poem. A New American Standard 95 edition does a good job of translating the Hebrew here because it is, as we just read, a time to give birth and a time to die. Not, as it appears in other translations, a time to be born. It's not passive in Hebrew. It's active, a time to give birth. That's not the exact opposite of to die, though it is an opposite in certain ways. Or, if you just go down to verse 3, again we see that merism isn't perfect. Healing is not the exact opposite of killing. We'd expect giving birth or restoring to life, though healing is a strongly contrasting action to killing. So considering, again, this poem as a whole from the outset, even while we recognize that there is pleasantness and purpose and totality represented in this poem on the one hand, on the other hand, we recognize there is unpleasantness, apparent randomness, and incompleteness presented in this poem. So isn't this poem, then, just like life? Life has its beauty. but it also has its ugliness. Life has its points where a purpose can clearly be discerned, and it has its points where there's no purpose that can be discerned. And just as, in a sense, we understand as people living in this world what it means to be human, to live this existence, in another sense, we don't understand it at all, and we can't even express it. The poem, the form itself, corresponds to the content, to the teaching of it. Solomon is showing us, even in this poem, this is life under the sun. This is life in a fallen world, even for Christians. This is the vapor of vapor's existence that Solomon articulated in Ecclesiastes 1-2, when he said that famous phrase, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. But having observed the poem broadly, Let's now briefly walk through the poem. Look at the introductory line in verse one. There is an appointed time for everything, and there is a time for every event under heaven. Just note the phrase appointed time. This is another good translation of the Hebrew. That's exactly what the term means, though you could capture it with the word season, and that's what you see in many of the other Bible translations. Solomon says right at the outset, everything in life, has a season. Every event, whether good or bad, has an appointed time. Also note, what Solomon says in verse one and following is descriptive and not prescriptive. That is, in this poem, Solomon is just observing for us what happens in life. He's not endorsing, commending, or commanding you to pursue a certain action. He's not saying you should hate You should love, you should kill, you should heal. He's just observing what happens in life. And let's look at the merisms. Let's look at these different encounters of life that he mentions to us, starting in verse 2. He says, "...a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted." Solomon appropriately begins these poetic lines with a word about beginnings and endings. We have the celebratory start of potential and the often sad end of potential, first with people and then with plants. We have birth and death, planting and tearing out. Life contains these times, as well as all the little modes of existence in between. Verse 3, a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. These lines have primary application to war and recovery from war. But other kinds of necessary destruction and construction are also in view. Solomon says our lives are going to contain times of each of these things. Things being destroyed and things being built up. Going on to verse four. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. Your Solomon is considering emotions, both the private and the public. There will be in life both tragic and wonderful happenings, and we will find ourselves moved to both sorrow and gladness at different turns. Verse five, a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. And the meaning of the phrases involving stones is very debated. It's not entirely clear what this means. The best view is that throwing stones refers to filling an enemy's field with rocks to make it unproductive. This is something that was part of ancient warfare. Gathering stones would then refer to the removing of rocks from a field to restore it to productive use. So in other words, Solomon says there'll be times in life where you're forced to make something unproductive. Make it no longer useful. But there'll be other times where you are forced to make something useful again. The second merism in this verse is more straightforwardly about relationships. Sometimes you will be able to embrace others with full trust and acceptance and affection, but other times you will have to remain aloof, even refusing any association. Going on to verse 6. A time to search and a time to give up as lost. A time to keep and a time to throw away. Here Solomon speaks about how we regard what is valuable, especially possessions. There are times in life where you are forced to search for something or to hang on to something because it's valuable. And other times you will have to give up and throw away something, even if it's a treasure. Verse 7. a time to tear apart and a time to sew together, a time to be silent and a time to speak. First merism here, it may refer to the practice of mourning, as ancient Near Eastern people often tore their garments as a expression of grief or outrage. So Solomon would be saying, there's time for expressing such grief and trouble, but there's also a time to move on, sew your clothes up again. But Salman probably has in mind more than just that literal application to mourning. Metaphorically, there will be times of tearing and joining in life. Maybe it has to do with relationships, maybe it has to do with the way you live, the way you think. The second Marism, it involves speech. Life will have times to speak, it will have times to say nothing, and it will have times for everything in between. all sorts of different seasons, even when it comes to speech. Actually, the Book of Proverbs has much to say about the appropriate time to speak. When to speak, when to say nothing, and what to speak when you speak. Certain times will compel you in certain ways. Finally, verse 8, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Intriguingly, the poem ends with two merisms involving conflict, starting first with private emotions that either stir up or ameliorate conflict, and then proceeding to what those emotions lead to ultimately and publicly, war and peace. Life will be full of times, Solomon says, involving love, and also full of times involving hate. Sometimes in life, we'll be forced to go to war. And other times, we'll be forced to peace. And this is the end of the poetic section. I mentioned to you already that Solomon is really only observing life in this poem. He's not telling us which extreme we ought to pursue in our lives. He's not even telling us to be mindful of engaging in the appropriate action for each time. not counseling us in that way, just observing. Rather, also, as the following verses are about to confirm for us, Solomon is emphasizing to us, through these observations, how all the different times and circumstances we find ourselves in, even times in which we exercise agency, we're making choices, we're doing actions, these times, nevertheless, are given to us. and not brought about by our own will or work. Even our necessary responses to those times are determined for us. And this is actually emphasized in many of the merisms in these poems. And if you just go back to verse two, that first merism, can a pregnant mother refuse to give birth when her time has come? Or can a person keep on living when it is his time to die? Or consider again verse four. Does a person really choose to weep or laugh or mourn or dance? No. A person is moved by the tragic or wonderful times he faces in life to feel and express those emotions. And think about this too from the poetic lines we've read. What is the use of resisting any time that's given to you? The answer is, there's no use. Consider, or I should say this, when you try to resist, you only end up hurting yourself and your compelling circumstance usually remains. Consider verse 2 again, the second Marism. When it comes to agriculture, there is a set time for planting and there is a set time for uprooting or harvesting what you've planted. If you try to resist that, if you avoid that, well, you're going to suffer for it. Because unless you plant at the appropriate time, your crops are not going to grow well. And unless you harvest or you tear out at the appropriate time, your yield is going to suffer. You can't fight this. Or consider verse 8. If you remain at peace when it is time for war, you are going to suffer for it and probably be forced to go to war in the end. Consider David, King David. He had to fight his beloved son, Absalom, even though he really didn't want to. Absalom brought the war to him. Or consider more recent history. The Allied powers were forced to fight against Nazi Germany in World War II, even though they weren't ready for another war. And all efforts at appeasement had utterly failed. On the flip side, if you remain at war when it is time for peace, again, your stubbornness will result in your hurt, and you will probably be forced to peace. King Saul futilely pursued David. He would not give up the war against David, his own servant. And you know what? Eventually, the Lord took away Saul's life. He was forced to be at peace with David. Or again, in more recent history, the Japanese in World War II, they refused to seek peace with America until they were forced, until their major cities were devastated by atomic and incendiary bombs. The fact is, when a season of life is given to you, resistance is futile. Your hand will be forced because you are not in control. And notice this also. Solomon presents to us many different times of life. But how do you know which time is coming upon you next? You know what the answer is. You don't. You don't know. Oh sure, you might know to expect various seasons in your life at different points. You know things will change. And you broadly might understand that if you continue to live, you'll go through childhood and then adulthood and then old age. But you don't even know those things for certain. And you don't know the specifics of it. You'll find that your times can change very unexpectedly. Now, sometimes this is a happy occurrence. Sometimes you're really distressed and things all of a sudden get a lot better. I remember one time in seminary, becoming increasingly concerned about a certain essay's deadline. I was working on it furiously, becoming more and more stressed out, distressed. All of a sudden, my morning turned to dancing, because I saw a little email in my inbox that said, from my professor, there's an extension on the paper. You guys don't have to turn it in right now. I didn't even ask for that. What a happy change of circumstances. That's going to happen in life. But so also the opposite will happen in life. You have a sudden shift in the opposite direction, and sometimes in an overwhelming way. Some of you may know of or follow the solid Christian blogger Tim Chalies. On November 4th, Chalies revealed that his 20-year-old son, Nick, had died suddenly the day before. Chalies said that Nick was playing a game with Nick's fiancé when Nick suddenly collapsed and never regained consciousness. Chalice wrote that the family had been looking forward so much to Nick's return from college over Thanksgiving, and particularly so because he would be bringing his fiancé. But the family's laughing was turned to weeping. And instead of the family soon growing from five people to six people, it shrunk from five to four. And instead of their son returning to the family's home, he was taken to a funeral home. How quickly the season of joy can change. But what can we do to foresee it or to stop the appointed time? So brothers and sisters, don't get the wrong idea about this poem from Solomon. This is not some happy meditation on the circle of life. This is a presentation of the tyranny of times over mankind, even over you and me. We are not in control of the times we face. We cannot choose which times we want to experience. We cannot choose when they will come. We cannot choose how long they will last. And we do not even know for certain which time will be coming next. Is this not a frustrating aspect to life? Is it not grievous to be so limited to be so powerless. We can understand why Solomon says what he does next in verse 9. In response, Solomon says, what profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? Unless you appreciate what I've just been sharing with you, this question will seem like it's coming out of nowhere. But it's not. Solomon has been exposing man's fundamental lack of control over the times and seasons of life. And so we ask a similar question to what he asked in Ecclesiastes 1.3. There he asked, what is the point of striving if no amount of hard work can overcome death and the effects of death? And now he's asking a similar question. What is the point of toiling if we cannot ultimately change our times or protect ourselves from sudden changes in our times and the future? And the answer, my friends, is the same here as it was back in chapter one. There is no point. There's no lasting profit or gain in our striving because we cannot change our appointed times. But there's more. Solomon's words, again, are not meant to put you into despair, but to get you to ask, if such is the case, then how should I live? That's the right question to ask, and Solomon is going to give you the answer. Maybe not the answer you want, but it is the best answer. And verses 10 to 15, Solomon is going to give us, he urges upon us three wise responses as you consider the uncontrollable times of life. Three wise responses as you consider the uncontrollable times of life. And the first is in verses 10 to 11. Number one, recognize God's control. Number one, recognize God's control. And let's look at those verses again. I've seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. My friends, it's true that you cannot control the times of life, but someone already is in control, and that person is God. That being is God. Verse 10 says that God has actually given you the work of your life. Not so that you can find ultimate gain in that work or use it to achieve mastery over your times. That's not possible. But it does function as your lot, your necessary occupation as you sojourn through this world. Furthermore, in verse 11, Solomon says that he, God, has made everything appropriate in its time. The Hebrew word for appropriate can also be translated beautiful. What's Solomon saying? That even though our times are often difficult, changing, and hard to understand, they are not randomly or cruelly assigned to us. Rather, God has actually made each of them fitting and even beautiful in its time. Now don't misunderstand, that does not mean that every time is beautiful in and of itself. Some times are not beautiful. Death is not beautiful in and of itself. But in the wider scheme of God's plans and purposes for the world, what is happening to us will one day be shown to be perfectly appropriate, even, you could say, beautiful. And this is exactly what we long for, what we want to know and understand, right? How is what we're facing beautiful? What's the purpose in it? How is it appropriate in the grand scheme of time? Actually, Solomon admits this himself when he says, regarding what God has done, He has also set eternity in their heart. It's this famous line from Ecclesiastes, right? Solomon is saying God has placed a sense of eternity, of timelessness in man, such that man not only longs for permanence, but he also longs to understand how everything in time fits together. Show me from beginning to end. I want to know. This sense is no doubt connected to man's being made for God and being made in the image of God, just as it is expressed in Genesis 1. However, because of sin in the fall, even though we have this sense in ourselves, God has made man time-bound. Man's not permanent, and he is also unable presently to see or comprehend what God has been doing from beginning to end. Even though we desperately desire to see and understand this, he says you cannot. So, Solomon provides us with a kind of imperfect comfort in our changing times. On the one hand, he says, friends, you can take comfort in the fact that your times are being purposefully and perfectly arranged by God. So that sense of eternity in your heart can rest. Yes, God is taking care of it in the grand scheme. But in another sense, you're going to remain frustrated. You'll be frustrated by the fact that you will not and cannot see what the perfect arrangement that God has done is. So in another sense, that sense of eternity in your heart will remain agitated and unsatisfied. As with Solomon's previous counsel to us in Ecclesiastes 2, the end of it, Solomon realizes he cannot totally erase the frustrations of life for us, even for we who love God and love Christ. Solomon is showing us the best way to deal with life's frustrations, even the way that God commands to us. This is the first wise response to the uncontrollable nature of life's times. Recognize God's control. The second wise response is in verses 12 to 13. Number two, Rejoice in God's good. Rejoice in God's good. Look at verse 12. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime. Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor. It is the gift of God. This is pretty similar counsel to what Solomon said at the end of Ecclesiastes 2, isn't it? Even though life is frustrating, even though times of great sorrow and hardship can hit us at any time, Solomon nonetheless urges, enjoy life. Rejoice, he says. Enjoy your food. Enjoy your drink. Enjoy your work. And enjoy the fruit of your work. And why? Because God wants you to. God has given these things to you as gifts to be enjoyed even as you go through this difficult sojourn. Now don't seek any of the things of the world as your ultimate good or as the way you're going to leverage control over time. That's not going to work. Solomon has already shown us that. But whenever God gives you good in your life, in whatever form, big or small, and whatever that good is, don't miss it. Make sure you enjoy it. It is a gift from God to you. By the way, did you notice what new activity Solomon mentions in verse 12 as part of our enjoying life? He didn't mention this in Ecclesiastes 2, but we see it here. Doing good. Nothing better, he says, than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime. Now some commentators say that, oh, this phrase just refers to pursuing enjoyable activities. But I don't think that's the case, because we see this same phrase, doing good, used in Ecclesiastes 7.20. We won't look at that right now, but there the phrase doing good is certainly being used to refer to living righteously and not indulging in sin. Makes sense to me that Solomon's using the same meaning here. Solomon's telling us, you want to be able to enjoy life in the face of frustrating circumstances you can't control? Well, make sure that you do good. Make sure that you serve God and love others. That's part of how you'll enjoy life. Doesn't the psalmist say the same thing? How good is the Lord's law? How good are all his commands? I love doing what God calls me to do. And we know other scriptures that say the same thing. His commands are not burdensome. Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy, my yoke is light. You'll find rest in it. You want to enjoy life? Do good. Follow God. Rejoicing in God's good is a second wise response to the uncontrollable nature of life. The third and final wise response appears in verses 14 and 15. Scene number one, recognize God's control. Number two, rejoice in God's good, even as you go through times of suffering. And number three, revere God. Revere God. Look at verse 14. I know that everything God does will remain forever. There's nothing to add to it, and there's nothing to take away or take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear him. That which is has been already, and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by. These verses have been highlighting the contrast of our inability to change any of our times and God's full ability to arrange our times exactly as he wishes. Solomon says, we should thus be moved to holy fear and regard of God. The end of verse 14 says this actually has been God's purpose all along. Why hasn't God made circumstances only easy for you? Why doesn't He explain Himself from beginning to end? Why doesn't He give you the power to arrange your life exactly as you want? It's because He knows there's something more important for you to experience, to realize, and that is that you would revere Him as He deserves. That you would fear God. God is God. This is a fact that we often forget or fail to appreciate. He is the Lord of the universe. He is the Lord of time. And we are not. You cannot undo the arrangement of the times that God has ordained. You cannot add to or take away from anything He has decreed. Behold His ability. Behold your inability. you can only do what God assigns for you to do, which really is what man has already done. What appears in the future, what appears now, is what's already appeared in the past, just as verse 15 says. God does what we really want to do, but can't do. For him, it's easy, and he does it. Notice the final phrase, for God seeks what has passed by. Now this is one of the most debated phrases in Ecclesiastes, very puzzling. The Hebrew literally is, God seeks that which is being pursued. Being pursued by what? Or what is being pursued? Is it past events? Persecuted people? The answer that makes the most sense to me is that God seeks what man pursues in vain. What does man pursue? Well, man seeks truly earth-shattering achievements. I want to change the world. Or he seeks eternity-encompassing knowledge. I want to know everything from beginning to end. This is what man pursues. But God says, that's not for you. You actually can't achieve what you're pursuing. Those are for me to pursue. I will take care of the great things because I am great, God says. I am God. I will seek what you're pursuing in Maine, and I'll take care of it. But you, remember who you are. Trust me. And enjoy the good that I give to you in the lot of your life. Brothers and sisters, So much of the Bible is God revealing himself to us that we would properly fear him. He deserves our reverence. He deserves our great regard. He's worthy of our awe and even have a little bit of knee knocking terror. He deserves our obedience and worship because he is Lord like no Lord we have ever encountered before. I mean, really, do we know who God is? Do we know who Elohim is? Do we know who Jesus Christ really is? He is God. He is the Lord. He is the Lord of time. He is the shaker of heaven and earth. He is the one who makes things happen. And not we. We? We are just dusty creation, and we are dependent on God in every way. So we should fear Him. We should revere Him. We should regard Him. Will we not take Him and His glory seriously? You know, it's only those who have a healthy fear of God, for all that He is, for His profound greatness, that are able to appreciate and be astounded by The love of God. How can someone so great, mighty, significant, care for someone as insignificant as me? God designed our inability to control our times to cause us to fear Him, to revere Him. That is a wise response. So friends, now you've heard the word from the Lord. This is the wisdom of God to you. This is the wise way to respond to the uncontrollable nature of life. So will you heed it? How will you respond to this teaching? Know this, that if you stubbornly continue to exalt yourself, say, no, I've got my own plans, I'm going to accomplish what I want to accomplish in life, got news for you, Solomon's got news for you, you're gonna be frustrated. You're gonna be bruised again and again by life because circumstances are not going to turn out the way that you want. Your plans are going to be upended again and again. But God shows you a better way. But this way requires that you humble yourself. So won't you do that? Won't you humble yourself before the Lord? Won't you recognize His control and say, You're the Lord, I'm not the Lord? Won't you receive gratefully the good that He gives to you, even in the midst of your difficulties? And won't you regard Him with that awe and respect and fear that He deserves? Won't you even embrace the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord. The New Testament talks about how all our arrogance and our own plans and living our own way, it has resulted in a measure of sin in our lives that is absolutely reprehensible to God. It is an infinite offense that we say, no, I'm the Lord. I'm not going to depend on you. We need a savior from that. Not only are we miserable in our lives, but God says, I will judge those who will determine that they are the lords of their own lives, and they won't submit to my lordship. But Jesus Christ, son of God himself, he became a man. He came and lived in this world of great frustration. He lived a perfect life. He died a sacrificial death so that he could save sinners like you and me who have been so arrogant before him. If you repent of living that way, repent of your sins as you pursued mastery over your times in vain, and you instead entrust yourself to Jesus Christ to pay for your sins, to bring you to God all on his own without any of your good works, which were not good at all, and to bring you into eternity away from the futilities of this world and into the new heavens and the new earth with God, then you will have encountered what is the true good of this universe. Everything in this earth is empty and passing away. But God, He is eternal. He is the one great good that God offers to us, even us, that we can have God in the midst of our changing times. He says, I don't change. I'll be with you. But you've got to trust me. And you've got to turn from your own lordship. Have you done that? You submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He your Savior and is He your Lord? Without Christ, you won't see God. Without Christ, you won't have an inheritance in the new heavens and the new earth. It's just going to be so different, so much better than what we're in right now. But if you have Christ, not only will you gain those things, but Even now, as you sojourn through all these changing and sometimes wonderful, sometimes tragic seasons, He'll be with you every step of the way. And He'll be giving you His good in all those little ways, even big ways, but often just the little ways. Don't you want that? We need to listen to the wisdom of Solomon today. This is the Word of God. Listen to the Word of God and be blessed. This is the way of wisdom. This is the way of happiness, even when we deal with frustration. I don't know what season is coming next in your lives, both personally and corporately. Think about this country. Are we going into a winter of sorts? Maybe so. We can't change. If that's what God's ordained, we can't change that. But we can change our perspective. We can trust in the Lord of times and seasons so that we don't despair, but actually are joyful even in the midst of it. So let's do that. Let's do that together as a church, as the followers of Christ. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, You are the Lord. You are the Lord of time. God, sometimes we want to be Lord. We want things to work out the way we want. We think we know what the best times would be. We make our plans, but then you upend them, reminding us you are God and we are not. We thank you, God, for this promise that you are working everything appropriately. We know from other scriptures, Lord, it ultimately is for your glory and our good. But God, sometimes it just hurts so much in the meantime. These seasons, sometimes we really just don't want them, God. They're painful. They seem to last for a long time when we don't want them, and they seem to last for a short time when we do want them. And yet, you are good. You do all things well. So God, I pray that each one who's heard this message today would trust in you. whatever seasons they are facing and whatever seasons may come. I pray, Lord, that their hope would be in Jesus Christ, your Son, so they have a steadfast rock even in the midst of tumultuous seasons. Lord Jesus, I think of the words that you expressed when you met with your disciples on the mountain of Galilee. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. That's what you said, which means you were expressing even there your Lordship over time. Lordship over our seasons. How wonderful to have a sympathetic high priest who is the Lord of our times. We know that means that you'll take care of us. You care for us. You'll bring us through. And you'll bring us through to yourself and to the world where it won't be seasons going from good to bad to good to bad, but just good to good to good to good. as there are pleasures at your right hand forevermore. What an astounding reality! What an amazing inheritance! And that's yours, or that's ours, that you've given to your people. And I pray if anybody here doesn't know that, doesn't know you, hadn't submitted Lordship of their life to you, and turned from their sins, turned from their works which cannot save themselves, I pray that they would, and they would know your blessing. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, please stand and let's sing together the Father's love.