Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Sermon Notes

“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. … Don’t stop to marvel.”
Albert Einstein

1. God created and maintains the boundaries of His creation.

Some of the things Christians believe about God:

• God designed and created the physical universe and the space-time continuum.
• God designed and created everything that populates the universe.
• God has appointed/set the appropriate times for everything.
• God is sovereign over the course of human history.
• God has offered redemption and salvation as free gifts to all who will repent and believe.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:6

“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords”
1 Timothy 6:13-15

“Instead of frozen perfection there is the kaleidoscopic movement of innumerable processes, each with its own character and its period of blossoming and ripening, beautiful in its time and contributing to the over-all masterpiece which is the work of one Creator.”
Derek Kidner

2. God wants us to experience each category of life as a “gift” that wonderfully comes from His sovereign hand.

V 10, 11, 12-14

“The wisdom of the years is confusing. Only the wisdom of eternity is edifying.”
Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing

“I trust in you, O Lord…My times are in your hands.”
Psalm 31:14-15

1. I am not trapped in the grip of dark forces.

2. I am not being tossed about on the sea of chance.

3. I am being trained in the school of God’s providence.

Alistair Begg

3. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has revealed His brilliant plan for our redemption.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Galatians 4:4-5

“In Christianity…the human soul is not the seeker but the sought: it is God who seeks, who descends from the other world to find and heal Man; the parable about the Good Shepherd looking for and finding the lost sheep sums it up.”
C. S. Lewis quoting Edmund Spenser,
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature