Sermon: Changing Seasons Ecc 3:1-11 October 13, 2002
I. Introduction
A. Seasons of Life
1. I once heard someone described the seven seasons of a person’s life in this way: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.
Spills of Infancy – You only have to look at the carpet in my house to remember in infancy everything goes to the floor.as you play the game of I drop you pick up
Drills of childhood – Spelling drills, multiplication drills, bible drills - The lessons drilled into your head by your parents and teachers.
Thrills of the Teen Years - The feeling of immortality, roller coaster rides, dating, acne, puberty, growing up – you know looking back on it now I’m not sure those years are all that thrilling.
Bills of Adult living – Work, bills, Marriage, bills, buying a house, bills, a car, bills, raising children, bills, bills and lots of bills.
Ills of the Hills - When the excitement of the mid life crisis lands you in the hospital The Pills of Over the Hill - One for arthritis. One for high blood pressure. One for this and two for that.
Wills of Old Age – I will get up, I will get up, No, I will not get up.- Uhmm, can I get some help to get up!
(a) Personally, I think I am stuck somewhere between the Bills, ills and pills but there are days when I think I am stuck in the wills of Old age and I just can’t seem to get up.
2. Biblical Seasons of Life
(a) The writer of Ecclesiastes puts it this way – Turn with me if you will to Ecc 3:1
II. What to do about Life
A. Author - It is believed that Solomon is the author of the book of Ecclesiastes (from website “Solomon – A King’s Quest for Meaning” - In Touch Ministries)
1. “Solomon was a king and a king’s son. He was David’s second child by Bathsheba and one upon whom God bestowed wealth and royal majesty beyond anything Israel had ever seen. He was only about 20 years old when he assumed the throne.
2. When he succeeded his father, Solomon took full advantage of the promising nation left to him. He rebuilt Jerusalem with new streets, walls, public service buildings, and a temple designed by God Himself. The materials used to build the structure would have cost him millions. His laborers spent seven years constructing the temple. Solomon’s palace took them 13 years to build.
3. The dazzling beauty of Solomon’s architecture left his indelible signature on the city. He was an autocrat who possessed unbridled access to wealth and labor. His might, greatness, and dominion impressed the entire world.
4. If any man could boast of success, it would have been Solomon. He had every earthly possession a human could desire: power, position, pedigree, wealth, talent, wives, houses, and even wisdom. Yet none fulfilled him.
5. When Solomon tested himself with pleasure, he found only madness in laughter. When he turned to wine to stimulate his body, he woke to the reality of a cold world that did not reward him with contentment. When he enlarged his works beyond the measure of any other ruler, he realized that he would one day die and leave it all to an ungrateful heir.
6. Hence, we find him at the end of his life, reflecting upon the life’s journey. It is here that he realizes all of his finite efforts have produced little more than vanity. He concludes that the sum of his work will never be greater than the parts. And the parts are frivolous egotism; he must step outside of himself to find the true meaning and satisfaction.”
7. “Meaningless, meaningless…Everything is meaningless.”
8. Solomon had tried to find meaning of life in wisdom, pleasure, riches, and work. Yet all of it had left him feeling unfilled and wondering what was the purpose of life until he realized all of life has a season, a time and place.
9. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…”
B. Life Happens
1. A list of fourteen seemingly opposite saying, a beginning, an end and everything in between.
2. “A time to be born and a time to die” Life happens, all of life .
3. There will be in each of our lives a time of planting and uprooting, a time of killing and healing, tearing down and building up, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, scattering and gather, embracing and refraining, searching and giving up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time of love, hate, war and peace.
4. Not that the all events of life are imposed upon us, beyond our control, but that everything in life has a purpose according to God and when those events of life are experienced in God’s way, God’s time, under God’s control the result is “beautiful.”
5. “He has made everything beautiful in his time.”
C. Then how are we to respond? How are we to live?
1. Recently Tresea and I were talking and she mentioned she had just finished reading Ecclesiastes and how much she had enjoyed it. Frankly about all I could remember about Ecclesiastes is what we read and to be honest, I remember most of it because of the song. So I decided to stop and take time to reread it. It is a relatively short book It is only 12 chapters long. In this Bible that is only about eight pages. I decided to read it from the New Living Bible Translation.
2. And I have to tell you I got excited about it. I mean I thought about copying the whole book of Ecclesiastes and giving you this morning in fact if after this mornings sermon you want a copy of it I would be happy to provide one for you.
3. Solomon knew exactly what I was feeling, what my life is really like, he understands the struggles of life. He understands how we search for life in some many things. How we search for fulfillment and he boils it down to this: Fear God and live a happy life.
III. Transition: Fear God and live a happy life. That’s it, that’s all there is too it. In all his searching, in all his wealth, wisdom and prosperity he learned that there is nothing more fulfilling then fearing God and living a happy life. Fear God! You have got to be kidding. I mean look at the pews – obviously we don’t even fear God enough to get ourselves up and to church on Sunday mornings. We don’t fear God when we use foul language, when we watch movies that are inappropriate, when we go places as Christians we shouldn’t go, when we amass wealth instead of sharing it.
A. Fearing God - that’s not something we even talk about much in the church anymore. God is love and he is begging you to come home – We have sanitized, sterilized God to be politically correct – non threatening, comfortable, lovable, squeezable and soft. And yet…
1. Romans 1:18 – “The wrath of God is being revealed…”2:8 There will be wrath and anger (of God).
2. in Genesis and Exodus we see a god who becomes so angry with His people and let them wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
3. In Revelations John speaks of God’s fierce judgment that will be reined upon the earth for seven years. Devastating earthquakes, the waters of the world turned to blood, fire and hail storms from heaven, demons torturing people to the point of death, darkness through out the land
4. Deut 4:24 “for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
5. Does that sound like a soft and cuddly kind of God – so many want to take out the Old Testament and just the parts of the New Testament and say ooh, God is love and it feels so good.
6. Yes, God is the God of love. I am not diminishing that, I am supporting it, under girding with a healthy sense of respect; for we must not, cannot forget that God is a jealous God, a just God that will reign down judgment on the wicked. A God hates sin and will destroy it. That He is the most High and sits on the throne of Heaven and could end your existence, my existence with the twitch of an eye. He is a God who created Hell, a place of judgment – whether we want to believe it or not.
7. God is to be feared because of his power. Because of his greatness. Because of who is. He is the one and only, the great I am, the Alpha and Omega, Jehovah God, Yahweh – a consuming fire (from Sermon Central – sermon ???)
B. A think fire is an appropriate metaphor
1. For a fire is so beautiful. It is so warm and comforting. The colors are vibrant and magnificent. It heats our houses, cooks our food, stirs our souls, and ignites our passion. It is powerful, good and wonderful and yet, there is another side to it, one that causes us to have a healthy respect for it, causes us to preach fire safety, to have fire alarms, extinguishers and fire departments. There is a part of fire that we fear despite all the good it offers.
2. Our God is a consuming fire – one that is too appreciated for His beauty and love and one that is too be feared!
(a) Not fear in the sense of the fear the people of Washington and Virginia must be feeling. Not the fear that causes us to react by staying inside, hiding from public view, afraid to even pump their own gas. How I feel for those people.
(b) But fear in the sense that causes us to respond in awe, respect and reverence.
(i) A few months ago Chad was on his way to church. True story. He was suppose to meet me here for the Easter Egg hunt. He was bee-bopping his way down the road, listening to his music when a cop just happened by. The cop quickly whipped it around and hit his light. A sense of panic over came Chad and he hit his brakes and turned off the road. The police officer thought at first that Chad was trying to allude the law but as Chad explained it. He wasn’t afraid of the police. He wasn’t really afraid of getting his ticket. All he could think of was the fact that I would be coming down that road in a few minutes and he was afraid of me to seeing him pulled over the side of road by the law. He had a reason to be afraid, very afraid.
(ii) You see, Chad has a healthy sense of fear of me, at least I hope he does. He knows that I love him, unconditionally, and that I want the best for him and he thinks I can still take him down. At least that what I tell him – the truth of the matter is I think it might me a tad stronger than I am now and he just lets me win when we get in a wrestling match. But he isn’t afraid that I am going to hurt him, or anything like that.
(iii) He has a fear of us, as his parents – a fear that hopefully causes him to stop, think, and respond in a certain way to the situations and events in his life.
C. Fear God in such a way that it cause you to respond to life by stopping, thinking, contemplating what God would have you to do and then act accordingly.
IV. And live out a happy life!
A. Life is going to happen to you – you can’t stop it. There will be times of great joy, laughter, sadness, pain, suffering…but you decide how you are going to respond to it.
1. Mrs. Johnson had been blind most of her life. But she had been able to care for herself and live on her own until recently. Her husband had died and her family had decided it was time to move her to a nursing home. The Nursing Assistant met Mrs. Johnson at the door as she entered the home. She began telling Mrs. Johnson all about the home and how wonderful and beautiful her room was going to be. She went into great detail and told Mrs. Johnson she would show her just how wonderful it all was. Mrs. Johnson interrupted her and told her. “It’s alright dear, I already love it.” “But Mrs. Johnson you haven’t even seen it yet. “That’s okay’ said Mrs. Johnson “You see, I discovered a long time ago that you can decide each day how you will approach it. You can be mad and anger about what life gives you, you can be solemn and unhappy because things aren’t exactly how you wanted them or you can take what life gives you and be happy. I decided I am going to be happy and love life no matter where or what.” (To be honest I don’t remember where I read this illustration. It may have been from Sermon Central.)
B. So many of us are waiting to be happy, waiting for life to get better…We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, after have a baby, when the kids are old enough, when we don’t have teenagers to deal with, when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get our home paid off, we lose 10 pounds (50 pounds), when we go on vacation, when we retire and we wait, wait for that moment when finally we will be happy.
C. But King Solomon in Ecclesiastes is telling us that there is no better time to be happy then right now. When you have a healthy fear of God and He is the guiding force in your life, when you respond to life because you choose to follow God because you know of his Power and Presence. Then and only then will you find contentment, fulfillment and satisfaction in life.
D. May we find that happiness!!
Amen and Amen!!
