Great Texts of The Bible | The Poem of Old Age | Pastor William Hixson

Okay. Um, we're in a series of messages,

non-series series in one way. Our

practice here normally for those that

are new is to take a book of the Bible,

start at the beginning, go all the way

through, and then get pick another book,

start at the beginning, and go all the

way through. That's my most enjoyable

way of teaching the word of God. But uh

sometimes we need a break from that.

We're doing two serieses for those of

you that are new. One is a series on the

resurrection of Jesus. And our

resurrection is dealing with that

subject in the Bible. And we've been

doing that. I think we're 10 minute 10

or 11 messages into that uh subject.

It's a major thing to know about. Really

got to know that and know it well. And

uh but uh the other part is uh we're

doing a great text in the Bible. We're

going through the Bible and just picking

a text in in the books of the Bible. And

why are we doing this? To wet your

appetite for that book that that verse

is in. Right? The whole point is some

people go to church their whole life and

never open up their Old Testament. Some

go to church a long time and they study

this book, that book, but leave that

one. No, I'm not touching that one. And

and a lot of pastors check it out. They

just don't teach passages that they

should

because we need the whole council of

God, right? That's what Paul did in

Ephesus. That's what we're trying to do

here. He did it in three years. I don't

know if I I don't know if I can do that.

But anyway, uh I'm sure I can't because

I've been here 50 and I haven't got that

done yet. But God, help us to learn the

truths of the Bible. Those truths that

are wonderful and and such a blessing

right away. And then those truths that

are a little troublesome or difficult,

hard. We're teaching the book of

Jeremiah in the evenings. And there's

some hard stuff in Jeremiah. We're kind

of in the good part now of the New

Covenant, but you know, that's a that's

a hard book to teach. And so that's uh

we that's our evening services and we

have a Bible class on Wednesday as well

as on Sunday night. But God help us to

teach the whole council of God

and enjoy the books we thought we could

never enjoy.

You've ever had a book of the Bible.

That's a hard book. I don't I can't get

that. Just got to skip over that one.

And but sooner or later, God will give

you an appetite. It's like when you were

a kid and you didn't want to eat your

peas.

I didn't want to eat my peas as a kid.

And I love peas now. So, I'm not saying

they're necessarily good for you. I'm

just saying I enjoy them now.

I haven't got there quite with some

things, but you know, so the Bible's

that way. There's there's those things

that are hard

and yet necessary

for spiritual diet if you're going to be

healthy. God wouldn't have put it in

there if it wasn't important.

So turn with me to the book of

Ecclesiastes.

So, I don't even know where it is.

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. So, go

to Psalms and next door to Psalms is

Proverbs and next door to Proverbs is

Ecclesiastes.

So, that's where we're going to be

spending our time today.

Uh,

I think in 2018 I did a book study, went

all the way through Ecclesiastes, and

what a wonderful time we had.

Uh but that was a little bit ago

and I I have to confess I've I've loved

this book

when since I I fell in love with this

book I think in seminary

and it's a very very hard book but it's

just a wonderful wonderful book.

And so let's

begin in chapter three is where we're

going to be today

because remember it's not a book study.

Now there's two wonderful poems in the

book of Ecclesiastes.

Both of them are

worthy and both of them are well known.

Most people if you say what do you know

about the book of Ecclesiastes? They'll

say, "Well, I know the poem of time

and I know the poem of old age."

The poem of old age is Ecclesiastes 12

1-7.

And it it's it's a poem about the it

compares the body to a house that's old

and falling down.

And uh I love that poem. I love I almost

picked that one to speak today because

it's such a powerful one and it I will

say this about the poem of old age.

There's no way a young man could write

that.

You got to be you got to have you got to

have some gray hair or some bald head or

some aching bones or something to write

that poem.

You got to have some experience of

getting older to write the poem.

But the poem of old age is a classic. If

you have never read it, read it.

And it's very poetic. It's very

symbolic.

And it's picturing parts of the body

falling apart

basically.

And uh it's a wonderful poem. We're not

going to do it today, but it's a

wonderful poem. The other poem that's

well known is the poem of time.

And this one's actually harder to teach,

but it's very, very important.

And so, come with me to Ecclesiastes 3,

and we're going to read the poem

of time.

To everything there is a season

and a time to every purpose under

heaven.

A time to be born, a time to die. A time

to plant, and a time to pluck up that

which is planted. A time to kill and a

time to heal. A time 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

together. A time to embrace and a time

to refrain from embracing. A time to get

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 of war and a time

of peace.

Now, you'll notice it seems like those

cancel each other out.

You ever think about that?

This seems these these different times

of life seem to cancel each other out.

So what's the point of life?

And so he says he says uh he says here

he said verse 9, "What profit has he

that workketh in that wherein he

labors?" If everything cancels out,

I've seen the travail which God has

given to the sons of men to be exercised

in it. He has made everything beautiful

in its time.

Also, the King James says world. The

word means eternity. He set eternity in

their heart so no man can find out the

work that God makes from beginning to

end.

And I know there's no good in them. But

for a man to rejoice and do good in his

life, and also that every man should eat

and drink and enjoy the good of all his

labor, it's the gift of God. And I know

that whatsoever God that doeth, it shall

be forever. Nothing can be put to it,

anything, nor can anything be taken from

it. And God doeth it that men should

fear before him. That which hath been is

now, and that which is to be hath

already been, and God requires that

which is passed. Wow, there's a lot of

good stuff in there. We won't get to all

of it today, but the poem of time.

So, it's an interesting and fascinating

section of scripture in this wonderful

book of Ecclesiastes, an old king.

You had to be old to write this. This

this man the name in Hebrew is Coaleth.

He's the preacher.

Coaleth

Cahel is congregation and Kaleth is the

preacher that's preaching to the

congregation. He's got a message. Now,

the authorship of this is very much

debated. Uh I personally believe uh that

Solomon wrote this myself uh in old age

and uh what's the whole point of the

whole thing here in the poem of time

these 14 opposites that seem to be

cancelceing each other out.

When I was in seminary we we had a guest

speaker in seminary chapel, Dr. Tom

Taylor. He came from a different

seminary out east and he was speaking

that day and he spoke on Ecclesiastes

for I think two or three messages

and this was his statement. He was an

old testament professor

about Ecclesiastes and about this

particular poem.

God is in control

of life.

Don't say God's your co-pilot.

And you're the pilot. No, he's the

pilot. You're just, you know, you you're

riding where he takes you in providence.

God, Dr. Taylor said, God is in control

of life. There's time to participate in

anything under his hand. There's a time

for everything in the course of life,

but man's welfare is not in what he can

achieve.

Rather, his good is found in throwing

himself upon God.

and enjoying his gifts for only what God

does is final. That's an excellent

statement.

Often he just says enjoy your life.

Enjoy your food. Enjoy your family. Just

he says it's a kind of a refrain here.

And the the God is in control of life.

There's time to participate in anything

under his hand. There's time for

everything in the course of life. But

man's welfare is not in what he can

achieve. Rather, his good is found in

throwing himself upon God and enjoying

his gifts. Now, remember, Solomon was

extremely wealthy.

Solomon uh was extremely powerful.

King David did the hard work uh of

getting things going. And Solomon built

the Jewish temple and Solomon built a

great big palace. He was extremely

wealthy. People were coming in all the

world and he was extremely gifted in

wisdom. He was known for his IQ and God

gave him that IQ

and he threw himself into finding out

what's the best way to live. And that's

chapters one and two. He tried

everything.

What's the best way to enjoy life?

What's the best way to live? And that's

part of Ecclesiastes. He's writing it as

an old man reflecting on his life, but

he's writing it as a man who had

opportunities and abilities

that most people don't have.

He had the money, he had the time,

the smarts, he had all that.

So, he threw himself. He tasted He

tasted all the things there were to

taste. He did everything you could do.

He held back nothing.

But this poem of time is written by that

man.

And uh

uh that's a fascinating thing. You don't

have to go around and try everything and

go everywhere and do Solomon did it for

you.

He did. I like the travel. I don't know

about you. I I enjoy travel. There's

things I enjoy. I'm glad from where I've

been and things I've been able to do.

But I can't do everything. You can't do

everything. life's too short.

So, this book is a book for young people

wanting to start out life

and where should I spend my time?

How how should I relate to God?

And that is very much for that. It puts

us in our place. We don't know what's

going on, but God does.

and purposefulness in life comes from

God's providential oversight of life's

occasions and seasons.

God's got a purpose. I'm sick. I'm in

the hospital. I'd rather be anywhere

else. But he's got a purpose for this.

Maybe even for me, maybe for people I

meet, the doctors, the nurses. He's got

a purpose. I just lost my job. Now I got

to wash dishes in a restaurant or

something. God's got a purpose.

If we see life as that, those ups and

downs in life,

it it we'll be able to take it a lot

better.

28 times he uses that word time.

It's just God has God appoints your

birthday, your death day. Guess what?

Everything is un it's this isn't uh

uh God's in control. We have decisions

to make. God lets us do that, but at the

same time, he's sovereign. He's God.

He's on the throne. And and Solomon is

challenging his own arguments about the

monotony of life and the and the meaning

of life being impossible to find. He's

challenging his own things he said in

chapters 1 and two. And he's he's

wrestling. It's like he's wrestling

right in front of us and open up his

head and letting us see what he's

wrestling with until he comes to

conclusion.

It's a very interesting way to

uh

to teach.

And so his point is if we cooperate with

God's timing,

life will not be meaningless.

You can take almost everything if you

know it's God's will.

It doesn't mean it's easy.

But if you life would be horrible if you

didn't believe that God's hand is in the

glove of my history and everything is

providentially under his control. Good,

bad, ugly, beautiful.

Everything's perfect in its time. Our

point that he's trying to get across is

synchronize

your watches. Remember in the army they

would do that in World War I.

Synchronize your watches so we all

charge on the same we all get out of the

trenches at the same time. Let's

synchronize our lives to God's plan and

surrender to his sovereign purpose.

Now it seems like that purpose is could

cause meaningless

uh he talks about vanity here.

But without God, life's a zero.

But if you look at these 14 things that

seem to cancel each other out, and you

know that God's hand is in the glove of

history, he's managing things. He's got

purposes above our ability to comprehend

that all these fluctuations are under

his absolute control.

What a blessing that is.

What a blessing it is. Psalm 31:15 says,

Psalms 31:15

"Our times

are in his hand."

Our times are in his hand. Galatians

says, "In the fullness of time, God

brought forth his son

made of a woman made under the law to

redeem those who were under the law in

the fullness of time."

And so God has his purposes

and

uh that's a good thing. There's a time

to die. Job 14:5 and 6 and Hebrews 9:27.

Job 14:5 Hebrews 9:27

That's an appointment.

is appointed unto men once to die and

after that the judgment.

What's going to be? You know your

birthday. How about your death day? You

don't know that one, do you? That's not

on your driver's license. That's not on

your passport.

What's my death day? We don't know.

That's a hidden one. But God knows it

already. He knows when you're going to

die, how you're going to die,

and what's going to happen as a result

of that. And sometimes there's a you

wonder why didn't God let that person

live longer? I mean, of all people.

Or why did why don't I get to live a

little longer? God's got his purpose.

Remember Peter learned that if I want if

I want him to Peter asked about John?

What about this man? I'm going to get

martyed. What about John? Well, if I

want him to remain till I come, what's

that to you? Follow me.

In other words, Jesus didn't say, I

don't know. We don't know what's going

to happen to you. I don't know what's

going to happen to John. He said, he

didn't say John was going to live long.

He just said, if I want him to live till

I come, what's that to you? Follow me. I

got a plan for him. I got a plan for

you.

If God's plan for me is a short life,

that's the best life for me. If God's

plan for me is a long life, that's the

that's the best life for me. God's got

purposes. He's not making mistakes. And

Romans 8:28, I hope you hope you stamp

Romans 8:28

that on your forehead.

All things work together for good to

those that love God, to those that are

called according to his purpose. It

doesn't mean all things are good. It

doesn't say that. It says all things

work together for good

to those that love God, to those that

are called according to his purpose.

So some some things that might not be

good in themselves are turned to good by

God in his providence. They might be bad

things. I mean terrible things.

Um the poem of time is a very important

things don't they might seem like

they're canceling out but God is in

control of life experiences.

Um,

and by the way, we need something more

than time. God's put eternity in their

heart that they might seek him.

We know we're made for something beyond

this planet. We're made for something

beyond this life.

There is something in us that wants a

transcendence that we don't feel.

And it gets harder as you get older and

you realize I'm not going to be here

very long. My body's giving me all kinds

of signals that I'm running out of gas.

>> Yeah, you're a little older than me, so

you know it's

not much older.

Someone said, "The eternity of God's

dealings with mankind

corresponds to something inside us. We

have a capacity for eternal things and

are concerned about the future

and want to understand the beginning to

the end and have a sense of something

which transcends our immediate

situation.

We know life is bigger than us. We know

life is bigger than our lifetime and we

all kind of want to be there

for something beyond our lifetime

but we can't. We're limited.

I know we're going to be in heaven.

We're going to be in eternity, but I'm

talking about history now. I'd like to

see my grandkids turn 50, but I'm sure

that's not going to happen.

You know, we we got our spot, others

have their spot, and God puts us here,

God puts us there. Even in local

churches, he puts the members where he

wants them.

You thought I You think I chose to go

here? No. God did that. He just put it

in your heart.

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And there's no accident. The leaders,

the church gets uh Paul said to the

Ephesian elders, "Feed the church of God

over which the Holy Spirit's made you

overseers."

You thought you made a choice. You did

make a choice. But God was sovereign in

making that choice.

So God puts us here for a while and then

puts somewhere else for a while.

wherever it is, he's he's running it.

So, this poem of time seems to be like

there's too much chaos, everything

cancels everything out. But no, God's

working his plan and he's not telling us

everything.

So, the poem of time,

by the way, it's extremely per uh

extremely

well known.

The most well-known part of Ecclesiastes

is the poem of time.

You realize there's hit songs made from

this.

Peter Seager sent it to music in the

1950s with a tune the rock band The

Birds populariz popularized a decade

later with their turn turn.

Um, you guys aren't old enough to

remember that.

>> Wait a minute.

>> Beck except for some of us, right? So

>> some of us remember it. So but you know

the c modern culture has really got

clapped onto this and tried to wrestle

with it. But the point is God sets the

times.

God sets the times.

And this is probably the best known and

most frequently preached.

This probably be the only thing people

preach from from Ecclesiastes. They

don't try to do the whole book.

So your life and my life has a purpose.

The things that happened in the

beginning, in the middle, in the end,

all have a purpose.

And God's in control, even though it

seems like he's not. You remember Paul?

He he wanted to go to Rome so bad.

Paul was a traveler. He, you know, the

guy grew up in Turkey, went to school in

Israel, went in mission mission trips to

uh to Turkey and Greece and other

places. And he wanted to go to Rome. He

just couldn't get it done.

And sometimes you want to go someplace

and you never get there in this life.

I'm okay with that. I've always wanted

to go to China. I've gone to many places

in the world, but I never got to go to

China. God stopped it twice. Like, okay,

God slammed the door twice.

So, we don't we won't get to go every

place we want to go. God puts us where

he wants us, keeps us there as long as

he wants us, and moves us on. We're not

in charge of our life.

But that's a good thing. And I found out

that God knows better than Bill Hixon

about where Bill Hixon needs to be and

what Bill Hixon needs to experience.

And so

um

very very important.

But here it is. God is in control of

your life and mine. There's time to

participate in anything under his hand.

There's time for everything in the

course of life. But man's welfare is not

in what he can achieve.

Solomon was an overachiever, wasn't he?

I mean, he built he he was a builder. He

got into music. Read chapter one. He he

tried to tasted everything you could try

to see what's the best way to live.

He could do more than you and I could

ever do. And he lived 3,000 years ago.

The man's welfare is not in what he can

achieve. Rather, his good is found in

throwing himself upon God and enjoying

his gifts for only what God does is

vital.

I believe that God puts people together

in marriage. I believe God controls how

many kids you have and what when.

Over 100 times the Bible says God

controls conception. Over hundred. I

know because I counted them.

had an old Berkeley Bible and I read it.

I said, "What am I going to study this

in this Bible?" I mark my Bibles up when

I read and I thought, "One of the things

I'm going to do is find out how many

times God controls conception." I wasn't

even married yet, but I thought that'd

be a good thing to figure out.

>> I started at Genesis over a hundred

times.

God is in control of who is born when,

and to whom.

That's a wonderful thing.

And so it's an encouraging thing.

So God's in control of life from

beginning to end.

And even though man is not able is not

stable in an unstable world, he can have

he can have security.

We come and go. We don't know. We we

weren't in charge when we were born.

We're not in charge where we are and

what we do. We're not in charge of when

we leave, but we can have security

because we have the Lord.

This puts us in our place, doesn't it?

Um,

what a wonderful thing to know God's in

charge. God's in control.

Our security is not in ourselves. It's

not in our church. It's not in our

pastor. It's not on our husband. doesn't

honor her wife. It's in God.

So the poetic section of of Ecclesiastes

3 is 1 to8. The pro section is nine to

following. There's a celebration and

there's an application.

The application is nine to the end.

We'll never get to that today. But the

celebration is celebrating the different

times of life.

The pro section helps us to correctly

integrate the poem. We can teach and

preach the poem without the pro section,

but we will not approach it or

understand it how to teach it without

that section.

It's the key that unlocks the poem.

I've already decided to preach the

prosection next week because I'm going

it's going to be locked. The poem's

going to be locked. But we got to learn

the poem first.

So, what a precious, wonderful thing.

God's ways are inexplicable, but God's

ways are always right.

How many times has God done something

you thought, "That's not right.

I wanted this. I wanted this job, God. I

wanted to get in that school. I wanted

to marry that boy. I wanted to marry

that girl. Why didn't that happen?

Uh there's all kinds of things, all

kinds of wise, right? But the poem is

not about us. It's about God. The poem

of time is about God, his

superintendence of life, his involvement

in life.

God is involved in your life. God is

involved in my life. Even when we don't

think he's involved, that's usually when

he's most involved.

It's very interesting.

I want to tell you something. I've

learned something about God. He loves

surprises. You've heard me say this many

times. You think God's boring? God loves

surprises.

You just look at Read your Bible. Go

through it. Well, the surprises that God

has for people in the Bible. Read it

that way. He Tell me he doesn't love

surprises.

Did he surprise Abraham and Sarah? Yes,

he made him wait all those years for

you're going to have a baby. Where's he

coming? Wait a minute. When? 25 years

I've been waiting.

You know, God loves surprises. It was a

surprise. They're going to have a baby

at that time in their life. And it was a

surprise when the baby finally showed

up.

God loves surprises.

And so there will be surprises in your

life and mine. So this poem is is about

things we're involved in and experience,

but the poem is not really about us.

It's about God. Put this puts us in our

place before God. We very much need him.

Especially since the fall of man. God's

outside of time. God made time

and God measures time.

He's the one that invented time.

So

that's interesting

and don't get you know we need we know

the times we learn about times in life

it's time to plant the garden now I

don't wait to you know there's time to

plant certain plants if you ever had a

garden some things you plant early

sometimes you plants in the middle of

summer sometimes you plant late but

there's a time for every purpose in

heaven God knows the times and he's not

telling us everything. That's another

thing about God. He likes secrets.

He likes secrets because he likes

surprises.

So that's part of life. We we go through

life and we say, "Why is God doing this?

Why did this have to happen?" And then

maybe 15 years later, we find out that's

why

that's why that happened.

And especially if we were taking our

stupid pills for a while, God was

letting us

letting us do dumb stuff, make bad

decisions.

But we we learned some very painful good

lessons during that time. doesn't waste

it.

This is a fallen, broken, cursed world.

This is not the Garden of Eden. Neither

is it the new heaven and new earth. It's

not that. There's there's something

enigmatic about it. We cannot transcend

the limitations that God's placed on

human life. He's God and we are not.

One writer said, "There are

there there are parts of constant

repetition in time that God directs

according to his good pleasure.

Therefore, the activities of life have a

polarized nature. Man's nature natural

natural endeavors to understand how

these polarized elements fit together.

We naturally want to do that. that God

has not given it to us.

Um,

I studied quite a bit of philosophy at

OU and the philosophers always try to

figure things out. They want to think it

through. Some of them are better than

others.

But, you know, philosophers come and go,

right? And there's always other

philosophers that follow the previous

philosophers that followed the previous

ones, and they're all trying to figure

it out, and then they get stuck.

And so that's an interesting thing. And

then people try something different.

They're all wrong. They're all wrong.

We've got to figure it out this time.

No, you don't. You just think you do.

And then you'll find out that that's an

incomplete thing. You might have learned

something.

But God has not given us the keys to

life through our through our brain

power. He's given it in the Bible,

right? The entrance of your word gives

light.

It's a light in a dark place according

to second Peter 1.

What's that? A

>> light to our path. It's

>> a light to our path. Right. Thank God

for lights in dark places.

And we're in the dark unless we have the

Bible. I confess I was in the dark. I

was a Christian, but I wasn't reading my

Bible the way I should. I was pretty

much in the dark.

And I I I was tripping and falling and

all kinds of stuff into different

things. And finally I opened the Bible

and started reading the Bible and the

lights come on and I started realizing,

oh,

what was the matter with me? Why didn't

I read this early?

Why wasn't I serious about God's word?

And uh

so may God help us.

So man's nature, McCabe says, Robert

McCabe, a theologian, is to endeavor to

understand how these polarized elements

fit together, but God's not given this

to him. Man can appreciate that this is

part of God's plan, and he can recognize

that God's providential arrangement of

all these activities is a symmetrical

masterpiece. But God's ways are

inscrutable.

Inscrable. That means you can't figure

that out.

God's ways are inscrutable. For him, God

has created us with a desire to

comprehend what God's doing. But our

finitness prevents us by the nature of

our depravity. Uh we can't do it. In

other words, not only finite, we're

fallen. So we we're way behind.

So there's an elegance about how life

works as the different times happen.

Somehow things go where they're supposed

to go.

How many of us have stumbled through

life like you're stumbling in the dark

and ended up in the right place?

How' I get here?

And some of us have had pretty bad falls

and yet God preserved us in it.

the power is out in our house and I you

I've told this

many times I suppose those of you who

are older but I I I walked out of one

room and I was going back to the bedroom

and our my wife and our bedroom is right

next to the the uh stairway to the

basement. It was pitch black. Guess what

I did?

I went down into the basement

down the stairs

and hit everyone on the way down on my

backside.

I thought I'd killed myself

and I made a lot of noise, but my wife

didn't even wake up.

She didn't.

She was right up there and I'm laying at

the bottom of the stairs.

So, I I started moving and I thought,

"No, I'm nothing's broke. I don't I'm

not paralyzed."

I got up and uh got a bag of peas out of

the uh freezer to put on my bruised

body,

went back to bed.

Often we are in the dark, aren't we?

In life.

as a surprise.

We took a wrong door and we didn't know

it

and it cost us.

And yet God said somehow

somehow like me in the basement stairs

preserved us. Got some bruises

and he preserved us.

Solomon made some bad choices. He

multiplied wives.

He had over a thousand.

I'd say that's multiplying wise.

Said don't do that. And young men think

more is better, but you get older and

you find out no it's not.

easier to become a onewoman man after a

while and you realize love is commitment

to one person.

All this other stuff is just satanic

deception.

And Solomon multiplied gold and silver,

didn't he? He had more than anybody.

He multiplied horses. That was strictly

in for

strictly forbidden for kings to do that.

The book of Deuteronomy, he did it

anyway. He was going his own way.

Multiplying horses would mean mean you

multiply your ability to attack others

and have chariots and so forth. Uh

that's not that God's against horses,

but you know, they weren't to do that.

They weren't to trust in a big military.

Uh they weren't to trust in a big bank

account. And you know, so but he did

they weren't to have a big herum. They

were to live differently. It was God's

kingdom on the earth. It was a

theocracy. By the way, we are not a

theocracy, nor should we ever be in a

fallen world. That's dangerous.

And already that's been tried.

You want to know why the wars in Europe

were so bad? They were religious wars.

And it was a theocratic understanding of

the church that was a miscue that got us

into a lot of trouble.

But God knows what we don't know.

And God is involved in the very details

of your life.

In him we live and move and have our

being.

And one writer said, "There's an

elegance about how life works as time

proceeds

through time." Books like Coaleath or

Ruth suggest that because of God's

providence, each detail in our lives,

even the seemingly prosaic ones, even

the seem seemingly prosaic ones.

Proaic means it's the opposite of

poetry. is kind of like the dull ones,

you know, nothing special about today.

Even the seemingly prosaic ones may

prove significant and do in fact make a

contribution to the whole whether we

understand it or not. To struggle for

anything

uh other than harmony with this reality

is to act insanely and with utmost

futility.

Don't fight God.

Don't wrestle with God. Jacob tried

that. He lost.

We we we we need to let God be God and

we need to know that we're not in

charge.

All this fits into a bigger picture.

Well, my time is up.

But I hope as we look at the poem of

time,

one person said, "God's times make us

aware of our helplessness." We cannot

control the times.

We cannot control the times.

God's times make us aware of our total

dependence on God. We do not even know

the times. Awareness of our total depend

and in total dependence makes us stand

in awe before God. How about your life?

What kind of time are you involved in

right now? Good time, hard time,

terrible time.

There are times like that where you just

think, when's this going to end? When do

I get to turn the page on this chapter?

We all have that. God's got a purpose.

God's got a purpose. God's got a

purpose.

Some of the hardest I'll just say this

and I'll close. Some of the hardest

times of my life

have resulted in some of the best

my life.

Didn't know it at the time.

Maybe even

months or years after. God is in control

your life and mine. Started to talk

about Paul and I somehow I got diverted

on that. Paul wanted to go to Rome so

bad. That was a goal of his life. He

told the Romans write in the book of

Romans because I've wanted to come to

Rome and I can't get there. I'm starting

to try. He wanted to go. We wouldn't

even have the book of Romans if God

would not have interrupted Paul getting

to Rome. he wouldn't have needed to

write the book. And that wonderful book

of Romans, one of the most powerful,

important books in the New Testament, 16

chapters, would never have happened if

Paul got to visit Rome when he wanted

to.

And finally, God told him, "You you're

going to see Rome."

>> But it wasn't on a cruise ship.

He got arrested. He's under he's he's

he's in chains, and he gets to see Rome.

He got there different than he wanted

to, but he got to do what he wanted to

do.

And Paul been all over the Mediterranean

as a missionary, but Rome was a goal he

always wanted. And he finally got there.

And it took him a couple years in prison

to get there in chains.

But what an adventure he had. And what a

ministry he had. What a blessing he was.

And what a blessing the book of Romans

has been to

millions people because he didn't get to

Rome when he wanted to.

Uh

God's in control.

Our times are in his hand.

Father, we thank you for each one that's

come out today. We we pray knowing that

you have purposes.

Maybe there's someone here. It's not a

Christian. and they've come to church

today. They've walked through the door.

They don't know the Lord.

They don't know the good news. They

don't know in the fullness of time God

sent forth his son made of a woman, made

under the law to redeem those that are

under the law that we might receive

redemp uh adoption of sons.

We pray this would be the day when you'd

speak to their heart, minister to them,

bring them, may they be born again

through the word of God. May they

receive new life from the God of heaven,

through the gospel,

Christ that the God man died for our

sins and rose again the third day

according to the scriptures.

And may they put their trust in the

Lord.

May this be a day of new beginning.

Maybe someone's listening online.

They're at a very they're so far down

they have to reach up touch bottom. We

pray that something here would touch

them today. Minister to them today.

They're listening on YouTube or some

other

way. We commit that to you. We thank you

for our time together in Jesus name.

Amen.

>> Let's stand. Turn to page 167.

As we go from this place,

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin, darkened

world. As we go from this place,