Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Good morning.

I'm gonna pray one more time before we go to Ecclesiastes.

God, we are thankful to gather here this morning, and I just pray that you would give us uh ears to hear and eyes to see.

Would you uh help me to get out of the way and allow your word to speak?

I just pray for any of the churches throughout the area that are proclaiming the gospel this morning.

May it cut to the quick and convict sinners, uh, convict saints, chip away at us and form us more into your image, Jesus.

We thank you for who you are and what you have done on the cross, and we give you the praise for even being able to gather here this morning.

We thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, we are in Ecclesiastes 3.

I feel like it's been a pretty uplifting with the songs and everything, and I'm gonna bring that down pretty quick here with Ecclesiastes chapter 3 because uh it's kind of a downer.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Uh so we have gone, we've worked our way through the first couple chapters of Ecclesiastes, and we're listening to the preacher, whoever that is, could be Solomon, could be someone else, uh, we're listening to him, and he's saying that he can't get no satisfaction.

We've gone over that.

He has pursued life under the sun, and that life has felt empty, it's felt void of purpose, and we have learned that if we, like the preacher, uh, want to find purpose in life, we must look past the sun.

Can't just focus on what's under the sun.

Then we moved through the rest of chapter one and two, and we looked at how the preacher uh chased different means to try to be satisfied.

He chased education, he chased pleasure, he chased hard after work and trying to build something, uh, to try to bring about some amount of fulfillment, and that all of it, all the pursuits fell flat.

Everything just felt empty.

And it left him saying that apart from God, there is no enjoyment in life.

And remember, this is somebody that has all the means that it takes to enjoy life.

Like humanly speaking, he's got all the money, all the women, he's got all the toys, everything there to enjoy life, and he says it's empty and it's void apart from God.

Uh, if you remember my sermon, my first sermon in Ecclesiastes, that's somewhat of a miracle, if you can remember it.

I really can't even hardly remember it.

But in that sermon, I said that there were three main ways that scholars are viewing the word uh vanity.

When you see the word vanity in um Ecclesiastes, one is that they say it means that it's vapor, and one is meaningless.

Vapor is translated into meaningless, and one is perplexing.

And the the difficulty with this, and the hard part about deciding what does the word vanity mean, because it comes up so much in this book, is that they all kind of make sense and they all feel like they're very much alike.

And if you remember in my first sermon, I really fell up in the air.

I I don't know.

It could go anyway.

And I think as I navigate more through this uh book, I I think I feel like it means vapor.

I feel like the the cry of the author in this book is that everything feels like vapor.

Like we can't grasp it, we can't build on it.

Uh it's really out of our control.

We can't direct it very well.

Life feels like this vapor.

And as we read through uh Ecclesiastes chapter 3, we're gonna be in verses 1 through 15.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Listen to the text and the words here and consider the vaporness of what he is saying.

Listen to how it sounds like vapor.

Uh I have and I've titled this sermon, Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 15, and I'm gonna read that text right now.

It says, For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to be to break 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 cast away stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek, and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil?

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I perceive there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

This is God's gift to man.

I perceive that whatever God does endures forever, nothing can be added to it, nor nothing taken from it.

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.

So I'm uh as we work our way through the f those fifteen verses today, I would like us to just consider a few questions.

I'm gonna work with these three questions here.

I'm gonna work my way through.

Here's the three questions.

Spoiler alert right up front.

What are you going to do?

That's my first question.

Like for you to consider this morning.

What are you going to do?

The second question, who are you going to trust?

And the third question is, where are you going to turn?

So as we work our way through and we consider the vaporness of this text, the mist that it's like, what the first question consider is, what are you going to do?

The words that we just read there, the words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes, they echo those words of James in James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

Jimmy, I don't know, I feel like he touched on this, or he preached probably, he probably did more than touch on it.

He probably preached right through it, and I wasn't paying attention.

But James chapter 4, verses 13 and 14.

James 4:13

Listen to this.

Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

We, like the author here, think that if we just try hard enough that we can do something with our lives.

That like we're going to be remembered as just somebody.

We're going to make a difference.

Look at us go.

We're making our way.

We're building something that's going to last.

But the reality is, I know this is sad, the reality is that in time, everything's going to move along, and nobody's going to remember you.

Like in a hundred years, nobody is going to remember you.

You're forgotten.

And we think we're going to make this big imprint.

And the author just gives this list of stuff and he says, this is what life is.

He comes right out in this list.

If you look in the uh verses 2 through 8, he comes out with this big list, this ingredients to life.

And the list starts out with the big one in verse number 2.

Like the most monumental one.

He says, There's a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die.

Like you will die.

I always appreciate Matt Chandler's when he says, when he's preaching to his congregation, he's like, I'm either going to be at every one of your funeral, I'm going to your funeral, or you guys are coming to mine.

Like, there's no way out of this.

You're going to die.

And as much importance and bravado and humor and money and blah, blah, blah, that you bring to the table, people will move on without you.

This will go on without you because people have been dying since sin entered into the world.

This isn't new.

Everybody's been dying.

And if you haven't read the whole book here, sin entered in pretty early on.

So people have been dying for a really long time.

They're going to die for a really long time after you.

This is the pattern of life.

And in all of our effort to make something of ourselves and to try to control things, we are left with these eight verses in Ecclesiastes.

These this list of things that make up life.

A time to plant and pluck, build and break, kill and heal, weep and laugh, mourn and dance, cast away and gather, embrace and refrain, seek and lose, keep and get rid of.

Tear and sow.

Speak and keep silent.

Love and hate.

A time for war and peace.

You may feel like your life is like really focused on one of these.

But in the scope of things, this is your life.

Like right now, keep and get rid of.

I run a thrift store.

That's the whole blasted lot of my life is keeping and get rid of stuff.

But really, this is the whole ingredient of my life right here.

When it's over, this is what it'll look like.

There is a rhythm to life that has happened for decades and centuries before you, and that as long as God tarries, will go on for centuries after you.

There is a toil to this life, and there is absolutely no way that you can get out of it.

There's nothing you can do about it.

I read these lyrics to this song.

I don't even know if I'm saying this person's name right, but Stacey Orico.

It's a song, there's got to be more.

This is the lyrics, this kind of expresses the angst of that.

I've got it all, but I feel so deprived.

I go up, I come down, and I'm emptier inside.

Tell me what is this thing that I feel like I'm missing, and why can't I let it go?

There's gotta be more to life than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me, because the more that I'm tripping out, thinking there must be more to life, well, it's life, but I'm sure there's gotta be more.

I'm always waiting on something other than this.

Why am I feeling like there's something I missed?

People want more out of life.

And they have this feeling as if there is more out there.

And here's the reality that is set in on the author of our text this morning.

There isn't.

There isn't more.

I know it sounds like an episode of Seinfeld where it's just like, eh, whatever, like there's nothing to do.

This is it.

But that's it.

This is our lives.

Every year has a winter.

And in Ohio, it's half of the year long.

Every week has a Monday.

Every day you have to go to bed.

Every hour you are left alone with yourself, feeling this weird tension, that this rhythm of life is frustrating.

There's, there's, it feels like there should be more and there isn't.

And as soon as you get to the next thing, it feels like there should be something else.

And like the author says in verse number nine, what gain has the worker from his toil?

We're left with this.

What are we gonna do with that?

You're going to school so that you can get the job.

Or maybe you already have the job, or maybe you're eating dirt in the job that you have right now because it's gonna get you to the job that you want.

And you've got a little family, or maybe you're daydreaming about a little family that you want to have.

You're gonna put in 30, 40, 50, maybe even 60 more years of family cookouts and doctor's appointments and firework shows.

Who cares?

And going to church and going to get coffee.

How many coffees are we gonna get?

I feel the same way.

I'm on again, off again.

There's frustration.

There's school functions.

How many Christmas plays are we gonna watch?

There's ball games.

I mean, you can only take so many.

Like, so what?

Somebody hit a buzzer beater.

Are we gonna get excited again?

What gain is there from all of this?

The preacher says in verse 10 that I've seen the business that God has given to the children of men to be busy with.

And this is it.

Like, this is it.

There's really not more.

What are you going to do with that?

Are you gonna make a million dollars?

I mean, and some of you are like, a million?

He has no idea how much I'm sitting on right now.

Let me tell you what, it's a lot more than that.

Who cares?

What are you gonna do with it?

Sit on it?

You're gonna sit on a million dollars?

You're gonna retire?

You're gonna buy a beach, you're gonna buy a beach house?

If you buy a beach house, let me know.

I would like to be able to.

But there is a rhythm here that we can't escape.

And what are you going to do?

What are you gonna do about it?

And as you're you're looking to do what you do, you you turn around and you're trying to find something, and you're trying to find someone to fix all of this and to help with all of this.

And that brings me to my next question.

Who are you gonna trust?

If we're stuck in this rhythm where it's like, man, this is just this is it, really?

Seriously, who are you going to trust?

Who are you gonna turn to and trust?

We are given these verses, and they really can be discomforting.

Like, this is it?

There's no big thing, there's no big next thing.

You mean when I get to the next thing, I'm gonna feel just as disappointed as I did with this thing?

Like, this is it?

And on top of that, uh, we are left to feel like we have very little control over our lives.

The first part of verse 11 says, He has made everything beautiful and it's in its time.

God turns the seasons, he controls the outcome, he's responsible for where we are in a given moment.

So, what is that for me?

It's like when Paul addresses the crowd in Acts 17.

He tells them that God has determined allotted periods and boundaries to where man would live.

He's in control of the nations, he's in control of where you live right now.

He makes everything beautiful in its time.

And that can really push us to the brinks.

And those moments where we feel like the weight of all this, who are we going to trust?

I'm gonna turn to uh Mark chapter 10 and um read about the rich young ruler who was kind of faced with this same ordeal.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 10, I'm gonna read verses 17 through 22.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

I'm gonna start with verses 17 through 20.

It says, And as he was setting out on his journey, this is Jesus, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone.

You know the commandments do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.

And he said to him, Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.

So we know by all the gospel accounts, putting them together, that this man that approached Jesus was rich, he was young, and he was in charge.

He was he had power.

Rich, young, with power.

That's a lot of big things to have all at one time.

Uh here's a guy that really has everything.

And he ran and knelt before Jesus, and he wanted to know what he had to do to have eternal life.

He knew he couldn't have all of this wealth and all of this money and all of this power forever.

Eventually, the youth is going to run out.

Uh eventually, somebody's going to be in more power.

And he must have heard that Jesus has offered eternal life, so he ran to him to see how he could get in on this eternal life thing.

And Jesus says, keep the commandments.

And this guy's response is, I've done that.

This guy knows that that's not going to be enough.

He can feel that there's something off.

So he's kept the commandments, but he still knows like there's got to be something more to eternal life.

And all the pursuit of wealth and power, he knows that he is unfulfilled.

And he knows something feels empty, even though he's been doing this his whole life.

He's been keeping the commandments, he's been honoring his parents his whole life.

I've already done that.

And Jesus says in verse 21, and Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.

Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come and come, follow me.

Jesus doesn't mean that if we want to have eternal life, we all must have a big auction and sell everything that we have and give all our money to the poor.

Maybe he wants you to do that.

Like if you're working through that, you work through that with God.

Maybe he wants you to have an auction.

But that's not what we tell people when they come.

You know, if someone comes to me and says, What do I got to do to be saved?

How do I get eternal life?

I'm not going to say, have an auction and sell everything you own.

So what what was Jesus getting at?

Jesus cuts him to the heart.

He puts his finger right on the pulse of what makes this guy tick.

It's his possessions.

And the one thing that this guy lacked was Jesus.

It was actually everything.

He kept all the commandments.

He lived this amazing life, but he lacked Jesus, and he knew it.

He could feel it.

He knows that there isn't any ultimate fulfillment in the stuff.

And Jesus says, sell it all and follow me.

And Jesus isn't saying this in some way where he's trying to make this guy look stupid or rub it in his face.

He's not saying, well, buddy, sell everything you have.

I know you're not going to do it, so let's see if you'll go ahead and do it.

It says that Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

So he was compassionate toward this man.

Yet the man would not do it.

He sold out on eternal life for some possessions because he trusted himself more than Jesus.

He wanted to keep his stuff and have Jesus.

He wanted to keep his life that he has now and have eternal life tacked on to the end of what he already has going on.

He trusted that his way was better than Jesus' way.

And that's my question to you.

Who are you going to trust?

When you are faced with the reality that this life falls flat no matter how much you've done or no matter how much you will do, who will you trust?

I don't care how much money you have given away.

I don't care how many verses you can quote.

I don't care how terrible of a car that you've driven because you're just so meek and lowly.

It doesn't matter.

Who do you trust with those longings in your heart, with those questions in your heart that cannot be answered by you?

Who are you going to trust?

Yourself?

Look at the second part of verse 11 back in Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

The second part of verse 11.

It says, also, he, that's God, has put eternity into man's heart.

Yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Also, God has put eternity into our hearts.

Just like the rich young ruler, you and I know something is off.

You know that no matter what, no matter what you do, you have an itch that is too deep to be scratched.

It's too deep.

Eternity has been set into your heart, and you can't always make sense of that.

I will guarantee that 95% of you have laid awake at night in bed thinking about that.

How can I make sense of eternity?

This doesn't make any sense.

Eternity has been set in our heart, and we don't really know what to do with it.

We don't have the facilities, we don't have the ability to figure out everything that there is to figure out.

And what are we going to do with that?

Who are we going to trust?

Our own hearts?

Ourselves?

How's that been going for us?

How's it been going to trust ourselves?

Have we been getting anywhere with those longings and those desires?

Any of those being satisfied on your own?

Are you going to trust some health guru?

Somebody that can help you achieve mental and physical clarity and bring about some answers?

Or do you trust the very one that created?

Those longings in you.

The one that has set eternity into your heart in the first place.

The one that for your good made it so that this world isn't able to fulfill you.

The one that knows that the only relationship, that only a relationship with him will satisfy you.

So he mercifully allows you to exhaust yourself of yourself.

That's who we need to trust.

And that brings us to the third question.

After hearing that God is in control and there is a time for everything, and that it's largely out of your control, and there's not much you can do, and that trusting yourself isn't the answer.

I want to consider the last question.

Where are you going to turn?

Where will you turn with this?

And I'm going to read verses 12 through 15 of Ecclesiastes 3.

It says, I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

This is God's gift to man.

I perceive that whatever God does endures forever.

Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken away from it.

God has done it so that people fear him.

That which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away.

You, upon this receiving this information, you can allow yourself to become bitter when you hear all this.

What that there's nothing I can do about all this?

You can say in your heart that God is cruel and that this isn't what you would do if you were God.

And you can position your heart as if you would make a better God.

There's a sitcom called The Goldbergs that we used to watch, and then it got kind of stupid.

But anyway, we stopped watching.

Beverly Goldberg is the mom in the sitcom, The Goldbergs.

And she had this line when she became frustrated with the kids and things weren't going her way, she would like parade around the house and she would say, I could have been a lawyer.

And sometimes we joke with our kids with that when they're getting on our nerves and they've set up the hoop, the basketball hoop, and they've broken everything because the basketball hoop is flying off and there's balls going everywhere, and I just am like, I could have been a lawyer.

You can turn yourself to bitterness, like Beverly Goldberg in those situations.

You can turn to bitterness as if you could have made something of yourself.

You can turn to laziness.

You can allow yourself to become lazy when faced with this.

What's done is done.

There's nothing new.

God knows, so I'm just gonna mummify myself and I'm gonna go through life.

Why would I even do anything?

Just I'm just gonna go with the flow.

You can allow yourself to become arrogant and cynical about things when faced with this.

God's in control.

Look at these idiots trying to figure out life.

Don't they know that this is out of their control?

They act like they know something or something.

I don't know.

They don't know what's going on.

We can be pretty good at fooling ourselves into believing that our cynicism is just reverence for God when really we're just not being moved with compassion like Jesus is.

So we can go, we can turn a lot of different directions.

Or we can in humility look at this like verse 12 says.

Verse 12 says, I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

This is God's gift to man.

Realizing that everything is a gift from God, with that perspective.

Even your daily grind is a gift from God.

I uh talked to Kevin Ryan, and if you're in this room, you've probably talked to Kevin Rhine because he talks to everybody.

That's his gift.

I mean, he's just, he can, he can do it.

Um if you talk to Kevin about his job and stuff, he would say that before Christ, he would be so mad, he would be, it would be a beautiful day outside, and he would be stuck in the office, and it would just frustrate him because he wanted to be out there, and he's in there with his mind spinning, and he's trying to plot different things, and he's his heart was growing in dissatisfaction.

And now, through the work of the Holy Spirit, he can see his job as a gift.

It's a gift that God has given him, this job.

It's difficult to complain when realizing that something is a gift.

Um, Lane's grandparents, God bless them, give people the weirdest gifts for birthdays and Christmas.

It's just the weirdest stuff.

They got Briggs, uh, Briggs had a birthday a week or so ago, and they got him a bag of peanuts for his birthday.

Um I'm not, I mean, I'm talking the peanuts that still have the shell on them.

Like, I didn't even know those were for sale to the general public.

I thought, I really thought that you had to like own a baseball stadium to get those, but no.

They got him peanuts with the shell for his birthday.

I don't even know who buys those in general, let alone giving them to a 12-year-old for his birthday.

But it was a gift.

And here we are earlier in the week, and we're standing around the island table in the kitchen, and we are cracking shells and eating these stupid peanuts.

I mean, they're it's like a conversation piece.

And I thought, like in the midst of that, you know what?

This is kind of a cool gift.

These peanuts with the shells, and I'm cracking them, and I'm eating them, I kind of feel like somebody, I don't know.

I'm doing something.

Look at me, I'm doing something.

It's a gift.

And we might as well eat these things because they're gifts.

Uh my perspective on the gift allowed me to enjoy it for what it was.

Where will you turn with these questions?

Are you going to complain about the gift of your life?

The work, the toil, the cookouts with your stinking family.

It's a gift.

And with the work of the Holy Spirit and the proper perspective, it can actually be enjoyed.

Look at verse 14.

I perceive that whatever God does endures forever.

Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.

God has done it so that people fear before Him.

I'm going to read verse 15, too.

That which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away.

God isn't like us.

He in some ways we we reflect God very much so, but in other ways, God is not like us.

We strive and we toil and we can't build anything because everything is a vapor.

You can't take mist and gather it up and stack it on top of mist.

You can't do it.

But that's not who God is.

What God does actually endures forever.

All three of these questions that we asked: what are you going to do?

Uh, who are you going to trust?

Where are you going to turn?

All three of those questions are satisfied in these verses.

They are all answered in God.

What are you going to do?

God works things through us that will last forever.

So do things.

Like do things with great freedom.

You are free in Christ to do things.

Do things for the sake of the kingdom.

God will work those things and his work will last forever.

Who are you going to trust?

God knows what has has and will be done.

All of it.

He knows all of it.

Who else are you going to trust?

Who better to trust than the one that knows everything that has been done, is being done, and is going to be done?

There's really no one else to trust.

And where will you turn?

And I just want to close right here.

Where will you turn?

If you are in Christ, continually turn back to Christ.

If you are outside of Christ, turn to the one that endures forever.

Turn to the one that puts these longings in your heart so that you will see your need for Him.

I encourage you this morning.

If you are not in Christ, if you have not realized the gift of salvation that God has offered through His Son on the cross, realize that and turn.

Take those longings and turn to Jesus.

Let's pray.