In the sermon 'All According to Purpose and Plan' by Mike Davenport, the focus is on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. The sermon explores the idea that everything in life is governed by God's purpose and plan. Davenport discusses four main points: the revealing, response, relevance, and reason behind God's purposes and plans. The sermon emphasizes that every event in our lives, from birth to death, is orchestrated by God and is beautiful in its time. Solomon's perspective shifts in chapter three as he considers life from God's point of view rather than just under the sun. The sermon highlights the importance of accepting God's sovereignty, trusting that He has the master blueprint for our lives, and responding with rejoicing, doing good, and enjoying life's gifts. It concludes by encouraging believers to live with a reverent fear of God, acknowledging His wisdom and authority over creation.

The sermon text is Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 15. To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck 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 keep and a time to throw 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 of war and a time of peace. What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to the end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away from it.

God does it. That men should fear before him. That which has already been and that which to be has already been. And God requires an account of what is past. Let's pray.

Lord, we need you this morning. We need you to illuminate the text for us. I pray for contentment for every season that we are in. I pray that we would trust you for the work that you're doing in us. Please remove any haze that would cause us not to see eternity, and remove any haze that would cause us not to see eternity and remove any haze that would cause us not to understand the text this morning.

Thank you. Just a couple weeks ago, we were in John and we were hearing about Jesus turning to his disciples As there were 5, 000 men plus women and children gathered there, and Jesus said, feed this multitude. Find some food for them. And the disciples looked around and found but five loaves and two fish. That's something the way I feel when I walk up to this pulpit.

I look at the hungry people of God and I look at what I've got and Lord if you don't bless it this isn't going to go far. And so my eyes are upon him and I hope your eyes are upon him today. He is the only one that can give us food from heaven. Well, we come today to our fourth exposition in the book of Ecclesiastes. So far in our study in Ecclesiastes, we have seen that we were created for something greater than the here and the now.

Solomon called us to a consideration of the passing of time. We consider ourselves to be like actors upon the stage that is this earth. The stage remains as it always has been. The actors who take part in the production constantly change, present for one scene but gone in the next as other actors take their spots. Then secondly, Solomon called our attention to a consideration of the repetition of nature.

We saw the folly of elevating ourselves above the rest of creation in the expectation that we should not have to continuously labor and that our labor should bring us ultimate satisfaction. Then we were called to a consideration of the emptiness of life experiences. Pastor and commentator David Gibson helped us see that we long for change in a world of permanent repetition and we dream of how to interrupt it. We long for lives of permanence in a world of constant change, and we strive to achieve it. We spend our lives aligning our better selves with a different future that we envisage as more rewarding and we strive to achieve it.

And in it all, we are simply trying to make permanent what is not meant to be permanent, us, and by constant change, we are trying to control what is not meant to be controlled, the world. Then lastly we were called to a consideration of the treadmill of history. Solomon sought to help us face two hard realities. Nothing you ever do or accomplish will ever be truly new. And secondly, nothing you or I accomplish will be long remembered.

We can speed things up and increase our activity just like on the treadmill, but actually get nowhere. Next in our study, we began to consider whether our personal pursuits in life will leave us with simply two fistfuls of wind. We are far too often caught up in pursuits of the delicate bubbles that the world is constantly producing with their bubble machines. Solomon sought to burst the bubbles that we far too often give our hearts to. He began by bursting the bubble of unrivaled knowledge.

Solomon unsuccessfully sought satisfaction in a pursuit of knowledge. Then he turned his efforts to bursting the bubble of unmatched pleasure. He sought for satisfaction in a pursuit of all the pleasure that he could afford, and he could afford a lot. Richard Belcher helped us think of these things rightly. He wrote, One could contrast Solomon's situation with Jesus, who really did have it all at his fingertips, but gave it all up to enter this sinful world, to deliver people from the bondage of sin and the attitude of thinking that having it all brings fulfillment.

As followers of Jesus who will one day truly have it all when Jesus returns. We should be willing to give it all up now for the sake of Christ's kingdom and his glory. Only Christ can restore what was lost in the garden of Eden. And one day in the future, he will restore a paradise where having it all and full satisfaction will exist without fail. Our last study in the book sought to set before our attention the reality of our mortality.

And Solomon did that by continuing to burst bubbles. He did this by bursting the bubble of uninterrupted advantage. Any advantage that our wisdom may grant us in this life is lost. It is cut off at the moment of death. The wise man, he said, dies just like the fool.

Then Solomon continued by bursting the bubble of undeniable gain. He himself had gained much. There were none like him. But as death stared him in the face, he realized that he was going to have to give up and leave behind all his wealth, all that he had gained, and give it to a son who proved to be a fool. We were left with the challenge to live life backward, with the understanding of the reality of our own mortality.

For only when we are prepared to die can we truly learn how it is we should live. Well, that brings us today to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 15. And what we find here is that everything in our individual lives is all according to purpose and plan. All according to purpose and plan. Earlier this year, our family took a trip to the Military Tank Museum located in Danville, Virginia.

The younger boys at the end of the day came back with some well-designed Lego style tank kits to put together. There were many, many individual pieces in the box and with the level of detail involved I am not sure that they would have been able to get very far in putting that tank together without the step-by-step instructions provided. Like those type of kits, life itself is made up of many different sized and intricate pieces, all of which make up the whole of our lives. But as David Gibson writes, the difference between real life and Lego construction is that we are not the ones with the instruction blueprint laid out in front of us. God is.

We have individual pieces in our hands and in the Bible God has given us enough explanation to set us building but only he has the master plan. We are building our lives and we have an idea of how we want to do it and how we hope it will turn out, but there is so much about the shape our lives will take that we cannot control. God has the master plan for our lives and He has a purpose for every individual piece of that plan. In the time remaining, please consider with me the following four points from the passage. First, the revealing of God's purposes and plans.

Second, the right response to God's purposes and plans. Third, the relevance of God's purposes and plans, and fourth, the reason behind God's purposes and plans. So first, the revealing of God's purposes and plans. And we see that in verses one through eight. Solomon starts out to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

Note that Solomon introduces a slightly different sphere for our consideration. Up until now he has referred to everything as under the sun. Here at the beginning of chapter 3, however, he wants us to consider everything under heaven. I believe this to be a carryover from the way he ended chapter 2, where he brings God into the picture and begins to consider everything from God's perspective. The consideration here is not of some things.

Our natural minds could understand and accept the notion of some things having purpose, but everything? Everything? Yes, dear ones, everything. Everything. God brings specific times, particular seasons for everything under heaven because He has a purpose for us and for our lives.

There is a season and a time for everything that God has purposed. We could borrow and somewhat alter a well-known phrase and say of any season in life that we are going through, there is a reason for this season. Children, do you recall the catechism question and answer concerning God's providence? Question 12 is, What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.

Our God in His holiness, in His wisdom, and with all His power is preserving and governing every single created being, even down to preserving and governing every single one of their actions. Dear Christian, every single season of your life, even the difficult seasons are being orchestrated and governed by your holy, wise, and powerful Savior. And we read in Romans chapter 8 that these very things are working together for your good. And what is that good? Well, Paul tells us conformity to the image of Jesus Christ and preparation for an eternity with him.

Well, in verses 2 through 8, we have a list consisting of pairs of contrasts, all of which are described as a time. The word time in the Hebrew refers to an occurrence which is predetermined. Philip Riken points out that this is a comprehensive list by reason of the fact that there are 14 pairs in all, which is twice the biblical number, seven, of perfection and completion. So you have that number of seven for completion, for perfection, and times two. And so we have 14 pairs here.

And so we should come away with a sense of the broad spectrum of the sovereignty of our God in the ordering of His providence in our every affair of life. And so he says in verse 2, a time to be born and a time to die. These are the bookends of everything found in the list. Indeed, the time of your birth sets in motion the rest of these times mentioned here, and the time of your death will bring an end to the cycle of these particular times for you personally. Job stated the following in chapter 14 and verse 5, since man's days are determined, The number of his months is with you.

You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass." He goes on to say, a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. The idea of plucking what is planted is actually to pull it out by the roots. Solomon here is not referring to harvesting what was planted. He is actually referring to plucking up what was actually planted due to drought, due to change of mind, due to insects, mildew, diseases. And so we may also in our own lives have to undo or remove something we did at an earlier time.

Verse 3, a time to kill and a time to heal. Charles Bridges says of this, the time to kill is the act of men under permissive providence. The same providence gives the healing blessing. In both cases, blessing. In both cases, God proclaims his own prerogative, I kill and I make alive.

I wound and I heal. So though men may act, they do so under the permissive hand of God." He goes on to say, a time to break down and a time to build up. Even the scripture demonstrates that there were times when the walls of Jerusalem were to be built or rebuilt, but there were also times when the enemies of God were ordained to destroy the very same walls. There are circumstances that dictate the erecting of some particular thing in our lives and there are seasons where we find ourselves in the necessary demolition mode. There are times for raising Ebenezers and there are times when we like Gideon must break down household idols.

But also a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. These two pairs seem to be tied together in many ways. Mourning seems to be a greater display of weeping and dancing a greater display of a joy that brings laughter. Such times are known by all who have spent but just a few years on this earth. Charles Bridges reminds us that these, These, he's talking about the weeping, the laughing, the mourning, and dancing, these are God's times.

Beware of changing them. Be content with thine appointed lot. Let God's afflicted ones mark the wisdom and grace of these appointments. He giveth both these times in their season. Yea, he taketh the one to spring out of the other.

Joy is the harvest of the seed time of tears. The sorrow may not for the present seem acceptable to us, but let it be accepted by us. Verse 5, there's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. If you take just a handful of construction sites in this area and visit them, You may find that at one site they've hit rock as they've tried to change the contour of the land and they've hit rock and they're blasting that rock out and you can see at the entrance all these large boulders. They're loaded and taken away But you can also drive down just a further distance to another site, and there you see a delivery truck.

He's coming up with, guess what? Stones to be used in the building of some architectural wall that's going to be used there on site. Or maybe you've seen it in your own yard. If you've ever planted a garden, maybe you've had to remove some large-sized rock when you tilled up the ground in order to plant your crops. And that another time you may actually gather stones for you want to create a border, maybe along a natural area.

You see there is a season for both. But a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. We've all seen the photos of those men in the military who have to go off and spend some time in another place. And they're there embracing. He's there embracing his family as he leaves.

Why? Because very soon the distance will make it such that he will have to refrain from embracing. And then the photos of them as they return, those who have not been able to embrace for a long time and they embrace again. And we as parents have experienced this as well with our own children. There are times to just embrace them in love, but then there are times where refraining from those hugs, that embracing why?

Because there is undealt with sin that has come, and it's broken the relationship and the fellowship and that has to be fixed. And then we can embrace again a time to gain and a time to lose. Anyone who has lived in this area for more than 10 years can attest to the reality of these two extremes gaining and losing. The recession impacted this area of the country in deep ways, going from a booming economy with large gains to a digressing economy where building was not going on because loans were not being approved and things slowed down. Many contracting companies were growing and expanding only to go belly up within a matter of a year or two.

There's a time to keep and a time to throw away. Do we not all have experience with these two items? There are things we feel attached to, that we feel that we must hold on to, and the time comes when we have to throw things away. Sometimes the current circumstances we are in have a bearing on our decision, maybe even against our own wants and desires. Verse 7, a time to tear and a time to sew.

Given the culture of that day, these two items most likely point to a time of rending the garments as a sign of intense grief and a time to sew or to make garments in preparation for some joyful occasion. The psalmist declares of God, you have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. Such are the changing vicissitudes of the Christian life. God has ordained it so to be.

But also a time to keep silence and a time to speak. There are times when we should be like Job's friends upon their arrival there at Job's house, or like our Savior Jesus Christ on occasions. Times when wisdom dictates the holding of our tongues, but there are also times when we must speak, when to remain silent would actually be sin. God brings us both occasions, both seasons. I quote Bridges once again, a talent for conversation will be of little use except as combined with a talent for silence.

Verse 8, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. Here we have another two pairs that seem to be connected. We must remember that Solomon is not giving exhortations by means of this list. He is merely stating the realities of life in this fallen world. There are many moving parts tied in to these 28 items, yet all occur under the direction of providence.

We are not given specific circumstances regarding the love, the peace, the war, or the hate. We are not told of motives or reasons. We are not told whether it is righteous or unrighteous. Solomon is only interested to declare that there are certain times in our lives where we may experience one of these particular things. Stuart Ollid in his commentary says, everything in this universe is part of a grand scheme.

There is a season, an appointed period for every event. All that takes place occurs at its appropriate time. It has been predetermined. Every detail of life serves an overall purpose and plays its part in bringing that purpose to pass. Seemingly chance events are all tied into an eternal plan.

When a man has this perspective, how different he is. While the unconverted continue to ask, What is the point of it all? He sees that there is a point in everything. This is the foundation for the believer's comfort that all things work together for his good. Charles Bridges adds the following insight, child of God, remember it is thy father's will which hath appointed the season and determined the purpose.

All the wheels of providence subserve the purposes of grace. Every dispensation is most fitly chosen and issued under the commission to do for thee nothing but good. It is the will of the omnipotent God of wisdom and love. His will is always the best reason, and without it, there would be no reason at all. If thy times are in his hands, in what better hands could they be?" And so our times are in good hands because they are in God's hands.

Because that is the case, Solomon points out secondly in our text, the right response to God's purposes and plans, the right response to God's purposes and plans, verses 9 through 13. What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? It seems Solomon is taking another look at the same question that he introduced back in chapter 1 verse 3. But he has taken up a different perspective, a perspective with God in the picture, a glimpse above and beyond the sun, not simply under the sun. Remember, the entire book moves back and forth between two different worldviews, one that operates without God under the sun and one that operates with God in the picture under heaven.

And as Solomon continues, it becomes quite clear that the hard, cynical, depressing attitude that pervaded his assessment in chapters one and two, it's not present. It's not present. He says in verses 10 and 11, I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Our time in this life is defined here as our God-given task.

God brings us into the world with the purpose of glorifying Him in the task that He calls us to. This task, as it unfolds, occupies our whole attention. Interwoven into this God-given task are the various seasons and times of life like the ones he just mentioned. And we are told that everything, these very life events, that this everything that comes from the purposeful hand of God is beautiful in its time. In his commentary on the passage, Charles Bridges says, works of providence as works of creation may begin in a chaos and seem without form and void, but they end in admirable order and beauty.

Everything is suited to its appointed use and service, perfect in all its parts, not only good and without confusion, but beautiful, if not in itself, yet in his season. All circumstances considered, most orderly and every way befitting. The full beauty of the work from the beginning to the end is only known to the great director who sees the end from the beginning. We can neither unravel the thread of his counsels nor grasp the infinite perfection of his work. Thoughtful study and reverential praise are our most profitable exercise.

Oh, the depth. I must interject a question here. Are you acknowledging, are you acknowledging the beauty of your own particular everything at this very moment of your life? Even though you can't see the beauty now, are you acknowledging it? Remember Job?

What beauty was there in all of that day? But he said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed, blessed be the name of the Lord. He was acknowledging the beauty that God was somehow in the midst of it all, glorifying himself. If you're anything like me, you may go through certain seasons or tackle particular events with gritted teeth and a dogged determination to get through, to simply survive another day, it's often difficult to acknowledge the beauty, especially when we are in the midst of one of those events.

In fact, rather than find the beauty, we often struggle with doubt and bitterness. Why is that? Why is that? Why the struggle? Well, I believe Solomon reveals why in the last part of verse 11.

Also, God has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. Interestingly, the KJV, if you've got a King James version with you, it translates our word eternity as world. Still others have used the word ignorance. God has put ignorance into their hearts. How should we understand this word?

I think we should look at the context. First, Solomon has been describing the unfolding of all the events of life, all events from birth to death, okay, an unfolding over the long span. Second, we are told that all of these events from birth to death are the very work of God and they come to us according to his purpose and plan. Third, we see that this work of God is from beginning to end. Everything across the span of our lives is from his hand.

Nothing is random. Nothing is purposeless. Now these things point to a tendency in man created in the image of God to want to understand and in some way, in some sense, control every event in our life. We're holding those Lego pieces given to us by God at a time to put in its proper place. But that's not enough for us.

We want to see the instructions. We want to see the manual. We want to look ahead. As Moses told the people of Israel at the end of the wilderness wanderings, the secret things belong to God, but those things which are revealed belong to us. But this is not sufficient for us.

We often find such an arrangement unacceptable. We want to see the big picture. We want to see how it all fits together. Solomon declares the following later in the book, chapter 8 verse 17. Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

Because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it, yea, further. Though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." So if this is our tendency, if this is our tendency, if this is our struggle, how do we change? How do we change? How should we learn to respond? Now, verses 12 and 13, I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God." Our response to God's purpose and plan is directed upward, outward, and inward.

First upward. He says, let us simply rejoice in the reality of the beauty God is bringing about through every circumstance. So how should we respond first upward, rejoicing in the beauty that God is bringing in these circumstances? But then there's an outward response. Let us seek to do good in this life in the very moments that God has ordained for us.

No matter which side of the antithesis we are on in the season of life, let us seek to do good." This is our outward response. But there's also an inward response. Solomon says, let us enjoy, let us enjoy the good of the short time of all our labor, for soon the day of labor will cease." These things are a gift. They're a gift given by God. Rejoice, do good, Enjoy.

Nothing is better. Well, how can we do this? How? And more importantly, how can we do this when life hurts? How can we turn our focus from wanting to hold the instruction manual to simply enjoying the unfolding of God's purpose?

Well, Philip Riken provides the following three instructions. First of all, patiently wait for God's time. Patiently wait for God's time. God is never too early and He is never too late. He's not in a hurry.

He's the eternal God. Why should he be in a hurry? Second, live your whole life with the reality of the approaching of your dying day. Live your whole life with the reality of your approaching dying day. Time is what we have been describing as life, living life backward.

And then thirdly, make good use of whatever time you have. Make good use of whatever time you have. Make good use of whatever time you have. Redeem the time. Buy it back.

David Gibson instructs us how we can live well. Living well in God's world means recognizing that when it comes to our own lives, we are not many gods. And this is His creation, not ours. We have all the pieces of our life given to us and things come and go and seasons change and it is only God who knows exactly where everything is meant to go, in which order and what time and why. So having seen the revealing of God's purposes and plans and the right response to God's purposes and plans, Let us look briefly at the third point found in verse 14, the relevance, the relevance of God's purposes and plans.

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. The prayer of Moses, the man of God in Psalm 90, was let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Moses distinguished between the work of God with all of its glory and beauty and our own work.

Let us see your work establish the work of our hands." He saw the relevance of God's purposes and plans in our own work. Establish them. It is the work of God that establishes our own work. God is infinite. We are finite.

God is immutable. We are given to change. God is impassable. We are subject to our passions. God's work is eternal.

Our work is temporal. We see here that whatever God does, and the context is tying this whatever back to our daily lives described in the opening eight verses, okay? That's the context of the whatever, what he's just been describing. Whatever God does is forever. And that doesn't mean that each of those seasons lasts forever, right?

It's talking about his work, his purposes, and his plans. Not the actual season, but the purposes and the plans of our God. And it's interesting that this word forever is the same Hebrew word that was translated world in the King James Version and eternity in our new King James Version, it's the same word. So what it is that God has placed in the hearts of men to understand, unfold, grasp, That very thing sums up what he himself does. It's the same thing.

It's what he does. And we'd like to be able to know that, do that, be that. And so God's purposes and plans are relevant to everything that occurs under the sun, for he acts according to his purpose and plan. We sing the words often here in this place, God never moves without purpose or plan. Neddy Knesser learned that the hard way.

God had to humiliate him to make him as a beast of the field. But in the end, he understood. He said, God does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? In other words, nothing can be added to what he does and nothing can be taken from what he does.

No one can restrain his hand and no one can say, what are you doing there? I think you ought to bring this, do this. No one. And that dear ones is a good thing, that nothing can be added and nothing can be taken away. Why?

For only God can make something beautiful in its time. What if something could be added or taken away, even by our own doing? We would mar the very beauty of what God is trying to accomplish in our lives. David Gibson describes the relevance of God's purposes and plans like this. All grown-ups are like children when it comes to our own lives and God's ordering of them.

We have the rhythmical pattern of the things that fill our lives, But God does not exist within the same timetable. What He does endures forever. And He is the one who sees the end from the beginning and so is able to make everything beautiful in its time. In other words, because God lives forever, and I will not, I can experience the several different times of my life knowing that they are part of a bigger picture that I cannot see, but which is visible to a good and wise God who sees the whole as beautiful. Part of being wise in this world is learning to accept that we have only very limited access to the big picture.

To be sure, we often won't access to it, for God has put eternity into man's heart. But the point is that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. God is not being unkind to us by not sharing it. The point is, is that we are not built to understand the big picture precisely because we live in time, and God does not. If we could see the end from the beginning and understand how a billion lives and a thousand generations and unspeakable sorrows and untold joys are all woven into a tapestry of perfect beauty, then we would be God.

And we're not. Think about that latest sorrow. Think about that latest disappointment. Which one of us would have orchestrated that? Which one of us would have said, put me down for this on that date, I want to experience this?

We draw back from it. But God knows better. God knows better. Just like you children, right? If you had your way, you'd have cookies and cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Or maybe if you don't have a sweet tooth, it'd be pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mom and dad know better. They have the whole picture, not just your enjoyment for the moment, they give you those enjoyments along the way. But they also know it's good for you to maybe eat what you don't want to eat, what you don't like. It's healthy for you.

And so it is with us. Well, fourthly and finally, we have the reason, the reason behind God's purposes and plans. Verse 15, God does it. That men should fear before Him. That which has already been and what that which is has already been and what is to be has already been.

And God requires an account of what is past. Solomon does not leave us grappling in the dark for a reason why God has ordained this to be so. God in his wisdom has given this to Solomon to give to us. God just doesn't simply say do it because I said so. Take it because I said so.

God does this that men should fear before Him. It's that simple. He is God. That is who He is. We are not.

We are not. Stuart Olliot writes, It is God who brings to pass again what has previously taken place and disappeared. He operates the cycle and causes what has always gone on to reoccur. That being so, we cannot possibly argue that it is purposeless. It serves His purpose and it is all under His direction.

Nothing, nothing then anywhere is pointless. Every man and woman on earth is faced with two clear alternatives. He must either live a life of measureless frustration or he must live his life in the fear of God. What reasons do we have that we should fear this great and awesome God. There are many throughout the text of Scripture, but just look at the context here.

Reasons why we should fear God. Number one, We don't have the wisdom to know what we really need. We don't have the wisdom. God does. Second, we don't have the ability to bring about what we really need.

We don't have the ability to make it happen. Even if we were given the instructions, we wouldn't have the ability to make it happen. God can. Third, we can't understand the end from the beginning. We don't grasp the big picture.

God has the perfect plan. Fourth, we can't accomplish anything lasting. We can't accomplish anything lasting. God can and does. Fifth, our purposes and plans are subject to so many variables.

God's purposes and plans are not subject to additions or subtractions. Sixth, we don't understand the unfolding of things, the cycles that God brings, that what is right now, it's already been. What's coming tomorrow, It's already been. We don't understand the unfolding of things. God does.

For what is now and what is to be tomorrow has already been, and He was there. And then seventh, we will give an account in regard to everything God has brought into our lives. We will give an account for everything that God has brought into our lives. We have been granted a stewardship even in regard to the handling of his providence. The fear intended here is not a fear that's a spirit of fright that makes us want to go run and hide.

It is a fear that recognizes the vast difference between a holy God and us as mortal creatures. A fear that trusts Him with the holy reverence and comes into His presence with the holy reverence. It's a fear that agrees with His assessment of things. I've made all things beautiful in its time. Lord, I don't see it, but I agree.

That's the fear of God. And a fear that actually draws us to Him and not causes us to draw back. And a fear that seeks to worship him as he has declared himself to be. I'm the one who kills. I'm the one who makes a life.

Well, I don't like a God like that. I think I'll, I don't, you know, maybe man kills and God just can't. We're not free to make a God of our own choosing. Our God has a purpose for all of these things. And we bow in reference because this is who he has declared himself to be.

Fear God. That's why he does it. This would change, this would change the way we are handling that current difficulty. This would prepare us for the difficulties of tomorrow, for that season that we know nothing yet about. David Gibson writes, what difference would it make to our now to begin to live in the light of the fact that there will be a then.

Ecclesiastes tells us to learn now, today, that there really is a time for everything. Learning now that the season or seasons I am in will not always be the seasons of my life can at least help to prepare me for the chapters of my life God has yet to write. It is possible that Actively embracing the fact of change in advance of change can help us to adjust our step that little bit more readily when autumn or winter is upon us. Living like this is also what helps us to realize that so much of the time we use our times to seek satisfaction rather than living in the times God has given and so receiving satisfaction from Him as a gift. Satisfaction comes when you know you are a time-bound creature and God is the eternal Creator.

Satisfaction lodges in my heart when I accept the boundaries of my creaturely existence and accept the seasons of my life as coming from his good and wise hands. Well, if you are here this morning and don't know, don't love the Lord Jesus Christ, You may be confident that all that is occurring in your life is according to God's purpose and plan as well. God's purposes and plans are not just accomplished in the lives of his people. Remember, God is preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. You can be confident that what's occurring in your life is according to his purpose and his plan.

You're no exception. Regardless of what you think or what you declare, I'm my own man. God will not, that's what Nebuchadnezzar thought too. See how it went for him. You're no exception.

But what you have no reason for confidence in is that all is working together for your good. This promise, according to Romans 8, is only for those who love Him and who are called out of the world to himself by that very same purpose. Your life, my friend, is under the sun. There's no thought of God. Life seems random.

It seems meaningless. This life of yours is truly vanity of vanities. It's chasing the wind. And I know, I know it is that way with you because of what Solomon told us in chapters one and two. You're no better off.

You're no wiser. You're no richer. But the book of Ecclesiastes is intended to leave us hungering and thirsting for something greater. Yay, for someone greater. It is intended to prepare our hearts and our minds for the receiving of the good news that Jesus Christ has come into the world to destroy the works of the devil, to take away our sin through the offering of himself, to reverse the curse that Adam's sin brought on the whole creation, and to prepare a people for eternal glory.

Repent of your sins today and find the true soul satisfaction that can only be had in Christ Jesus. All according to purpose and plan, my brothers and sisters. All according to purpose and plan. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us.

Help us to hear what you have to say to us. Oh, Lord, we ask for grace to acknowledge that you are making all things beautiful in the time you bring them to us. And give us grace to fear you as we should. In Christ's holy name we pray, amen. Thanks for watching!