Please turn with me to Ecclesiastes 3.  What we’re coming to this morning is a pretty familiar passage - a poem written by King Solomon - which we’re going to read out loud together - and then think though how this poem applies to us on this last Sunday of 2008.  Our last Sunday together until 2009.

But - before we get there - in order to help us get this poem in our minds - I’ve asked Margi and Mike if they could do their best imitation of the Byrd’s and sing this poem for us.

As they’re coming up here - a trivia question.  The name of the song and the Byrd’s album “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  Anybody remember what year the album came out?  1965.

(song)

Starting at Ecclesiastes 3 - verse 1 - let’s read this poem together:

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 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 seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
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.

Looking with me at this poem and let’s make some observations.  There’s a balance between the good things of life and the harder things of life.   Some people have further divided the poem into sections dealing with what happens to us in life - physically, and at the core of who we are - our soul, and what goes on with us spiritually.  Some have seen in it times of creation and destruction balanced with times of evaluating and judging our lives.

What Solomon has written about here are the experiences of our lives that take place during different seasons - between spring - birth - and summer - youth - fall - our midland years - and winter - our time to die.

Top 5 list of signs you know you’re getting older.

#5: Your mind makes contracts that your body can’t keep.
#4: You look for your glasses for half-an-hour, then find they’ve been on your head the whole time.
#3: You don’t remember being absent minded.
#2: You finally get your head together, now your body is falling apart.
And the #1 sign that you’re getting older:   You sing along with elevator music.

Bottom line:  If we hang around planet earth long enough we get older.  As we get older we go through seasons of life - eventually getting to winter - death.   There’s just enough time for all the things that are suppose to happen to us in life to take place.  Some people have less time than others.   But when that time is up our time is up.  When our time is up - what?  Our time is up.

Well, that’s encouraging.

Let’s go on.   Verses 9,10:  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.

Let’s pause and grab what Solomon is getting at.

Down at Puerta Trampa - the clinic and the compound there at the clinic - the complex there runs off of solar power that’s stored in batteries and a diesel generator that’s suppose to be a backup for the system.  Of course - while we were down there - there was a problem with all that.  So we had to use a minimum of electricity - meaning minimal lights.  At 5:00 or so it got dark. 

Which is beautiful down there - in a small town in the middle of remote agricultural valley - surrounded by fields.  Very peaceful.  The stars are awesome.

Because we were conserving electricity there was one light burning in the trailer where we’d gather for dinner and devotions.  By about 7:00 or so - maybe as late as 8:00 - we were done for the day.  There really wasn’t much else to do - that could be done in the dark - so we went to bed.

Can you imagine this?  Teenagers going to bed by 9:00?  Maybe it’s the quality of teenagers we were with?

All that was a very different reality to what goes on around here. 

Here - we adjust our clocks to preserve daylight hours.  We produce giga-gobs of energy to light our cities 24/7 - literally turning night into day.  We fill our lives with endless activity.  We delude ourselves into thinking that we’re the master of our time.

God creates night as a time to restfor rest.  There’s a kind of arrogance on our part that we resist that timing - that seasoning - of things. 

We dye our hair or work at making it grow.  We cover ourselves with all kinds of creams and solutions.  We take medications.  We replace body parts.  Trying to hang on to what inevitably passes away.

Even if we change the systems by which we measure time or physically try to alter the inevitable - the seasons will pass.  Man toils - works very hard - at resisting the inevitable progression of the seasons of life.  We all move from advantage to disadvantage.  When we’re gone - the seasons will continue without us.

Verse 9 reminds us that man toiling to gain against what’s inevitable is futile.   Resistance is futile.  Say that with me, “Resistance is futile.” 

But God - verse 10 - God - has given to us a different “business” - a different purpose to our lives.  The Hebrew word for “business” is “in-yawn” - a task - a burden - a life’s work.  God gives this business to us to be “busy” with.  In Hebrew the word for “busy” is “aw-nah” - literally - to be humbled by - something we submit to.

Point being:   When we submit to God - what He offers us in life - life is no longer a futile - hopeless - endeavor.

What does God offer us?  Ask that with me, “What does God offer us?”  Glad you asked.

Look with me at verse 11 to 13.  Look at what God offers us.  Say that with me, “What God offers us.”

Verse 11:  He - God - has made everything beautiful in its time.

The word “beautiful” is the Hebrew word “yaw-feh” - which has the idea of fitting things together - so that the result - when everything is fitted together the way its designed to be fitted together - when all that is fit together it comes together as something beautiful.  Imagine the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - chaos - assembled into a beautiful work of art - exactly as the artist intended.   

This last week we received two phone calls.  One telling us that a friend of ours had died.  A second that a relative had passed away.  For us it was unexpected - shocking.  There are others here who’ve received similar phone calls this week.  Maybe you’re in a season that’s hard.  “A time to lose” - a time when things are slipping away - a time of casting away rather than gathering.  Sometimes its hard to see beauty in what we go through.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn” - those who come face to face with the ugliness of sin and the crud of this world - because God Himself will comfort them.  (Matthew 5:4)  God is present in birth and death.  He’s just as much a part of the sowing as the harvest.  He’s there with us in peace and war. 

While we may see chaos and crud - and maybe even futility - in our lives - in the seasons of life we’re not alone.  God is with us.  God is fitting all that together into something with meaning - something very beautiful.

Also - verse 11 - also, he - God - has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he - man - cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

How many of you had retirement accounts?  That’s a painful question isn’t it?  I use the word “had” - past tense.

God gives to mankind - to each of us - the ability to dream and imagine and to think beyond today.  To look forward at a progression of years and to imagine how those years can be used - to improve ourselves - to lay a better foundation for the next generation - to progress - to plan for what’s coming.

“Eternity” is the Hebrew word “o-lawm” - which has the idea of... eternity.  But also our ignorance about the future.

We may have some understanding of what may come in the future - some expectations and dreams - plan for retirement.  Have you heard the expression:  “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know”?

Ultimately we have no certain knowledge - no certain understanding of how that future will work out.  There are eternal dimensions to existence that are known only to the sovereign God.

The God who is sovereign over eternity - who created time - who uses time according to His purposes - who sees time as one continuous now - who knows every detail of history and all the possibilities of what might be - that same God is working all things together - into what is beautiful - fitting - according to His will.

We have no idea how God is going to take the stuff that’s going on in our lives - often hard realities - and fit all that together into something beautiful.  But what God offers us is the assurance that He is.

Grab this:  In the midst of the ugliness and crud and hopelessness and futility that can be a part of our lives - that most often surrounds us - in the midst of life - God offers us unalterable beauty.

Point being:  One crucial part of our business - our God given labor in life - is to humbly submit ourselves - to trust God that He is making everything beautiful in its time.

Going on - verse 12:  I - meaning King Solomon who’s writing this - I perceived that there is nothing better for them - those busy with God’s business for their lives - those trusting God - there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

“Be joyful” - the Hebrew is “saw-makh” - literally “cheer-up!” - “celebrate” - “be glad” - “partay.”  And, “do good” - which has the idea in Hebrew of doing what’s morally good - kind - loving - doing the right thing - and enjoying the benefits of doing what is right.   There’s an enjoyment in doing what’s right.  Yes?

“Don’t worry.  Be happy!”  Live life to the fullest.  Celebrate what is good in life. 

Verse 13:  Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil - this is God’s gift to man.

“To eat” in Hebrew means to... “to eat.”  It has the idea of enjoying what we eat.  “To drink” in Hebrew means?  “to drink.”  That was tough.  It has the idea of enjoying  what we’re drinking.  Think of a wedding reception with an endless buffet table with every single one of your favorite foods - and friends and family - great conversation - joy - good times that just go on and on.

Then Solomon writes, “Take pleasure in your toil” - in your labor - in what you’ve given sweat and hard work to accomplish.  The Hebrew for “take pleasure” literally has the idea of stepping back and admiring your work.

A couple of years ago I built a shed in our back yard.  A major project for me.  Some of you were probably tired of hearing me talk about it.  For me is was hard work.  Something out of the box of my experience.  Pushing the limits of what I knew how to do.  When it was finished it was incredibly gratifying to step back and look at what I’d done.  A huge “feel good about myself” moment.

You ever experience that?  Accomplishing something and being able to step back and say to yourself, “Self.  You done well.”  Sometimes we feel guilty for that.  Like its pride and arrogant to feel good about what God enables us to do.  But, God tells us its okay to “take pleasure” in what we’re able to accomplish.

Point being:  If we’re humbly submitting ourselves to God then we should rejoice - take pleasure - in what God blesses us with.

Some people have the idea that if you’re truly righteous - holy - sanctified - one of God’s frozen people - you’re suppose to walk around looking like you just drank sweet pickle juice with a lemon twist.

Paul writes in Romans 8:  “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  Later he writes, “In all these things - the sin and crud and death and disease and hopelessness and futility of this world - in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  (Romans 8:28,37)

God’s gift to man - what God offers us - is not futility - but purpose - life with Him - His presence and working in our lives - the assurance that He’s got it all under control.  Submit to God - trust God - and party on!

Verse 14:  I - Solomon - perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, not anything taken from it.  God has done it, so that people fear before Him.

God sets up life according to His purposes.  We can never change what God has purposed to accomplish.  God sets up life that way so that we’ll learn to fear Him.  Fear - “yaw-ray” has the idea of awe - respect - worship - obedience.

Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of - what? wisdom.”

Wisdom isn’t terror.  The God who is waiting to obliterate us if we get out of line.   God at His computer ready to press the smite button.  Wisdom is recognizing that above and beyond all that is - is God and His purposes.   Wisdom is submitting to God in the midst of what life is.

Verse 15:  That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Put in a less confusing way - what goes around - what?  Comes around.  Put another way - God brings back what’s already passed away.  Point being that God - by His grace - patiently keeps bringing us back to the point of examining our lives.  Are we living life wisely - fearing God - submitting ourselves to God?

Putting all this together for us today.  We can’t escape the reality of verses 1 to 8 - Solomon’s poem about seasons and time - the experiences of our lives.  And yet, God desires for us to learn what it means to enjoy life with Him in the midst of whatever the season of our lives.

In humble submission - trusting our circumstances - our very lives to God - we receive what God offers to us.  Apart from that submission is futility and the feeling that life is miserable and meaningless.

All this really comes down to a choice that’s in front of each one of us.  A choice of how we move forward into the new year - through the seasons of our lives - a daily choice that we need to make each day.   The choice to walk through life each day trusting God - submitting to His purposes for  us.