What God Gives

David Poland

Ecclesiastes: Life in a Broken World • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

Ecclesiastes 3:9–15

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Sermon 8 in a series through the Book of Ecclesiastes

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 48

Psalm 48 ESV

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress. For behold, the kings assembled; they came on together. As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic; they took to flight. Trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in labor. By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. Selah We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments! Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

Scripture Reading: James 1:16-18

James 1:16–18 ESV

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church!

I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

A few weeks ago, at grace group, which we have Thursday Night, you're invited, there's your free commercial for grace group for this week, but a few weeks ago, at Grace Group. I was asked why I loved this song “Count your many blessings” so much. It turns out it comes up a lot in different bible studies and different thoughts I have.

And the reason that i said, that i'll share with you all now is that i really love this song because it is something that we all need to do more. For those of you not as familiar with the song it goes a little like this: “count, your many blessings name them one by one. Count you many blessings. See what god has done.” And I love this because it is not deep, it is not hard for us to grasp, it is not some profound and unfathomable truth, rather, I think that it is something that we should endeavor to live out in our lives more than we do. This idea that we should sit back any numerate every gift of every blessing that god gives us is not super difficult on the face, but as you start to do this, what you find is that is truly an impossible task.

We usually would start big. I thank god every day for my family. My wife, my kids. I think god for my health. I think god for my job. I thank God for my church. I thank him for the house that i have, for the food that i eat. Really for everything that i have. As you start to do this, you can look around your house and realize everything there-- That's a gift from god. You could look through the contact list in your phone and every single person that god has placed in your life. That's a gift from god. Every day is a gift from god, every moment of every day, every second of every moment of every day we could go on and on and on god gives to us these precious beautiful things. And so as we sit back and think how could i ever hope to count all of my blessings? The end result of thinking through what this song is asking us to do Is that you realize that you can't. You just cannot do it. And that there is another blessing from god. He's blessed us with all of these blessings — and it's a blessing that he blesses us with such great things.

But with that thought, we can come back to Solomon in the book of ecclesiastes. And to be honest, he's been rather depressing. As we've been going through it, well, i's a lot of vanity, a lot of pointlessness, a lot of trouble, a lot of toil. Even last week as we looked at the poem that he began chapter 3 with, There was a time and a purpose for everything. And even in this, it was a bit of a mixed bag. A time to be born. Yay! A time to die, maybe not so great. A time for laughing. Yay, a time for weeping. That's not so great. A time for peace. We can take that. But a time for war. And we just keep going on, and it all seems to be rather negative, but now we will turn our attention. To looking at. What god gives to us.

And this passage, in a lot of ways, It's an Ecclesiastes version of “Count your many blessings”. It won't be quite as positive and uplifting as maybe that song is, but that has more to do with a lack of singing, not the content. Because i believe that we end up getting to the same thought the same place as we look at this text. Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 verses 9 through 15 is our text this morning.

Ecclesiastes 3:9–15 ESV

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. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with a word of prayer.

Our holy Father in heaven, The one who knows all things is, sovereign overall things, and yet the one who called us and saved us, we thank you for today. We thank you for all of the many -- manifold — blessings that you have given to us. For life and breath. We thank you for your word. Given to us that we might see and that we might know you. We are grateful that you would be pleased to shape us and mold us. So do pray that you would meet with us this morning that as we hear your word, that we would be conformed into the image of your son. We pray that you would use this time for your glory and for our good as you build us up into good works. For it is in jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen.

So the way i'd like to approach this text this morning is simply by understanding that Solomon is trying to teach us What it is. That god gives. To us.

God Gives us:

Spoiler alert, not to give the whole sermon away now, but the end answer to that. What does god give us? well, We talked about it in the intro. He gives us everything.

But what do we mean by that? What does it look like? As we look through, and we understand what Solomon's doing, not just here, but in this whole book we will get the full picture. First, he walked us through the vanity of life under the sun. Wisdom. In the end is vanity. Pleasure, in the end, is vanity. A wise life, a hard-working life, a diligent life, these too are all vanity. Rather, we should Ecclesiastes 2:24 “each and drink and find enjoyment in our toil...” That's it.

Because ultimately, this is what we looked at last week under the sun. It's all vanity. But when god, the sovereign king of all things, the one who ordains ordains all things gives us things... Well, Now we can find hope and meaning. And Solomon walked us through, there was a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to reap, a time to kill and a time to heal, and we walked through this each and every each and every time that is ultimatly given by god.

That’s the immediate context, But what does that mean? How do we work that out in our lives? Sure. God gives us all the times. Every moment every breath again, we covered this in the introduction, all these things are a gift from god. But what do we do with that? And how do we, how do we wrap our minds around this?

Ultimately, How can we live this life knowing that these two things can be true: One -- life under the sun is vain Fruitless striving after the wind. And two — Every moment of life, is a precious gift from god, given that we might glory in him. So How do we work this out? Well, this is what Solomon's going to be trying to wrap his mind around as we walk through this text, we're evaluating and understanding what it is, in particular, that god gives to us.

And so, we first start with this thing that has been called vanity. This thing that is Meaningless, this thing that is Not useful, not helpful. it is something that in fact vexed Solomon. It has caused much vexation and turmoil in his heart but this Is what god gives. And understanding this is the solution to the vexation, knowing it comes form God is what gives it meaning and beauty, and goodness. there is a change in going from This thing for the sake of this thing and this thing as coming from the hand of God, that little change changes EVERYTHING. And so the first thing that God gives us that that He gives us. Our work.

OUR WORK

“What gain?” Solomon asked “has the worker from his toil.” What gain is it?

It's not because — we covered this earlier in this book… the gain that you have when you are dead and gone and the knowledge that someone worthwhile will take over and continue your legacy. You're not guaranteed that. And it's not the gain that you have by being able to hold on to these things. Because the foolish and the rich, and the wise, and the poor, all of these people will all have the same end, they die. So, that's not what you gain. So what gain then do we have?

Solomon says I've seen it… and It is not work in and of itself, and its not the quest for gain and a bigger 401K and all of these things… rather, Solomon says: I've looked the business that we have been given the the thing that we have all been set on this earth to do He's given us these tasks to be busy with that is our work. And he gives it to us. And he makes it. Beautiful

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV)

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

This is this is the most positive thing we have read in the book of Ecclesiastes thus far. To say it again: he has made EVERYTHING… BEAUTIFUL… In its time.

The vain work that we are to be busy with the task that he sets before us. Whatever it is, that he puts in our path that we should walk in it He makes it beautiful. Everything? Yes, everything! And note this everything is as far reaching as we could think, because this everything causes us to go back for everything chapter 3 verse 1, there is a season for everything.... And then he lists everything!

a time to be born and a time to die. Verse 11 and he made everything beautiful. So even this cycle of birth and death... in its time, and in god's sovereign wisdom… even that is beautiful. A time to weep and a time to laugh. You are telling me that both of these things are beautiful. Yeah. And we know this because beautiful doesn't have to mean, just super awesome makes us happy all the time. Some of the most beautiful stories. Are ones that make us weep. But there is still beauty. God is still working in these things. And we have been tasked to do work.

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 ESV

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

So, everyone should eat. And drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is god's gift to man. God gives us a task. I don't know what it is. For each of us, it may be something different. What are you called to do? Two of these we all do... We Eat and drink or else you die, right? You you eat. We take in food. Enjoy it. It's okay to like the taste of food. It's okay to quench your thirst. It's okay to eat and drink and take pleasure in these things.

But we eat and drink and take pleasure Solomon encourages us in verse 13: In your toil.

In your work. I truly believe that what we're looking at here is comprehensive in what we are talking about… Ultimately that we should have a whole life view of what Solomon is saying here.

So, your work might be your work. That thing that pays the bills and keeps the lights on in your house. The thing, you go to from eight to five or whenever you work. Do that. And take pleasure in that. It's good. But that is not where this stops. We all have been given other tasks. Those of us who are parents, take pleasure in your work of being a parent. Take pleasure in the work of taking care of the things, god's given you. Okay, when the dogs are barking to be let out, Stinking dogs... I gotta let him out again. That's the work that you've been given. Take pleasure in it. As you.. what ever it is… mow, the lawn, whatever it is that is set before you. That work has been given to you by god. Take pleasure. Rejoice in it. This is how we find Pleasure, fulfillment, peace and hope here under the sun. By realizing we're called to serve the god in heaven, as we work here under the sun.

If all i have is here under the sun then yeah. It's vain pointless striving and nothing. But rather, take pleasure in knowing that you are serving the high king of heaven. The one who rules and reigns. The one who knows the end from the beginning, the one who loved you, who made you, who created you in his image. The one who commanded us… we could go back to genesis… He commanded us to Have dominion over the earth work at it.

Do these things. That's what god has given to us. And it's good. The message of Ecclesiastes has been rather negative of thus far here, this positive note: God will make everything beautiful in his perfect time. So, take pleasure. In whatever it is, that's set before you.

But there's something else that he sets before us. That he gives to us that we should pay attention to. Eternity.

ETERNITY

Verse 11 is a very interesting verse. We've only looked at the first half of it thus far. He has made everything beautiful in its time. So there's a time for this, a time for that. We covered this, it's beautiful. but the verse continues...

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

What exactly does that last part mean? One: He has placed in our hearts a longing for more. There is... When i was a kid I used to listen to a bunch of cassette tapes while we would be driving around... For starters you had Psalty, the singing songbook who, like, encouraged kids to sing christian songs. Psalty spelled with a “P” like the book of Psalms… not like the seasoning… Then there was My favorite… It was called GT in the halo express. They taught you how to memorize verses... but there was another one. I was never as big a fan of who was called “the donut man.” Because here's his thing, it wasn't actually real donuts… That might be why I was not as big of a fan, that is a bit of false advertising... real donuts might have made it better in my mind... But the donut man, well His thing was “Life without jesus is like a donut because there's a hole in the middle of your heart.” There's a song that went with it. I will not torture you by singing it.

But this is the thought that Solomon is getting after here. God has placed in our hearts, a desperate longing. For eternity. This is why the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes have made so much sense. Because we've realized, yep, it's pointless life under this earth. Temporary fleeting mist like vapor-like life on this Earth is pointless! Because our heart longs for something more. In fact, our heart longs for something Eternal. And that longing is a gift from god.

He is the one he has put eternity into our hearts. This thought this longing, this desire, this push. This thing that's within us that causes us to long for more than this life can offer. That is something that god gives to us. There is a phrase, “He is too heavenly minded to do any earthly good.” and that is, frankly a really dumb phrase. Because we have a god placed longing for eternity, we all know that there is more than this life, than what we see when we look around us, God has placed eternity in our hearts and so that is what our hearts long for.

But he gives it to us in a very particular way

He puts eternity in our hearts, in such a way that We cannot find out what god has done from the beginning to the end. Here's what Solomon is saying. God has given us eternity. But he's given it to us in such a way that we still are trapped in our own way of seeing these things. We can talk about eternity. We can talk about forever, but how do we experience the eternal? We can’t really Right?

I was answering a discussion question and one of my classes in it and i talked about how... We don't need to get in the details of what exactly I talking about… But to make it short I describe how this particular doctrine illustrated that God is God and has been God… and here is the phrase I used - “Since eternity past.” What i meant by this is that God is that way, and always has been that way, that there was never a time when God was not that way...

But here is your “God has put eternity in the hearts of man, but so that we cannot know the end or the beginning,” thought: My professor pointed out that, while I understood the concept, I should be careful with how I word things… because, There's no such thing as eternity past. There's just eternity.

Eternity is bigger than past present and future that we try to sort of fit it into And so we have been given by god eternity he's placed in our hearts we long for it, we desire it. And he also gives us taste and glimpses of what this means. But ultimately we are stuck here in this time so that we don't know the beginning and the end... we're trapped in whatever years we're here on this earth. That's the time frame that we experience all that god has done. Though, god is working in eternity.

But do not forget, But this also is a gift from god. Even our limited time-frame, our limited point of view, we should see that this too, is a gift.

Because it reminds us of our place.

Lets place aside for a second this idea and come at it from a slightly different angle… And I will share My personal testimony here of like wrestling with: “What does it mean for god to be god and to do god Things”. And more particularly: “how do i wrestle with and grasp with and and come to grips with the fact that even my salvation, and my place in God’s plan, is all God’s work. It is god’s work. He is the one who saved me, who redeemed me, who called me, who washed me Who grants me faith. That this is all the work of god. Work that i have the blessing of coming alongside of. Of being his as god... as HE moves and works in my life. But that's all i really have. There was a time when I pushed back on these things. I didn’t like giving up all control of all things in my life. but what about what I wanted, what about my strength what about what I could do for God in my strength and might? And God graciously broke me of my desire for me to be in control and know all things and have sway over all things. I got to a point where i had to say You know, i just realized that it was better that I was NOT in control… That god is sovereign over all things. And i'm not. And praise the lord for that. Because I am not good enough, wise enough strong enough, anything enough!

With these thoughts of eternity we can come to the same place. Hey, god put eternity in your hearts, but he did it in such a way that you don't have control. You can't know. You don't have a grasp on all of what that means. And praise the Lord for that because god is god and we are not. Even in how god gives to us these thoughts of eternity. He has shown us that he is glorified forever. Holy, holy! Holy is he!

Who are we? We can proclaim: who am i that Your mindful of me? But still, insignificant as i am, as mist like and vapor like as this life is, as small as I am, still you have placed eternity in my heart, and praise the Lord for that!

But this leads us to the last thought i'd like to land on today. God gives to us work, it's good to work. We ought to work, it's right to work and you should take pleasure in whatever work that you're doing, but note: you are not doing work for now. Rather set your eyes on eternity. That also, god has given to you. But ultimately, in all of this, we see that god has given to us. Himself.

HIMSELF

He gives to us his goodness. He has given us His word. His wisdom. His salvation… ultimately, This is where we're going to go.... Spoiler alert. He's given to us himself in the Son, jesus christ, our lord.

But we, we don't even have to jump all the way there at first. Verse 14.

Ecclesiastes 3:14–15 ESV

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Small note here that last half of that last verse extraordinarily difficult to translate. This is what we will talk about Thursday at grace group… depending on your translation you might have something very different where the ESV reads “God seeks what has been driven away”... What is going on there? Short answer (with note, I am not a Hebrew Scholar… I can just read those people who are…): If you were to come to me and ask me to give the translation of this, you know, force me... David, you have to make a translation of Ecclesiastes... I wouldn't make it sound as nice but i would say something like this. That which is, already has been, that which is to be, already has been, and God is intimately concerned with the comings and goings of all things that occur in the times and seasons that he has ordained...

In other words, he gives us himself because he himself is the one that ordains all the times and events and things, these are a gift from him and his work. his work that stands for all eternity.

this is verse 14… God works. And that stands forever. And then we Experience the joy of knowing god works and endures forever. Nothing added to it. God's works are complete. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken away. What god does... god does.

And here is our joy in this…If God saves me. I rest secure in his hand. There's nothing i can do to make my salvation better and there's nothing i can do to lose that same salvation. God, did it so It stands forever.

God works. So that we fear him. He shows us what he has done. We look even upon creation and we could go back to what is in one sense The vanity of the world. In chapter 1 we read, sun rises the sun sets and it comes back. Sure in one sense, that's vanity. But here's the beauty (because remember, God makes everything beautiful in his time…): God is the one who has ordained the world in such a way that the sun rises the sun sets and it goes back, along its course and continues this over and over again, praise the lord for that. May we fear the lord who does such things! He's given us himself such that that which is already has been. God has decreed it so It will be. That which is to be already has been. since he has promised it is sure and secure. We can rest in the work of god.

But then we can get better. Then WE can begin to look Back to Ecclesiastes. Here's here's my sort of picture for you.

We stand here. We are living in the year 2024. And as we look back, To when Solomon wrote this work. There are certain events that shape and color Everything he said. As we look back and see what Solomon means when he talks about all that god is doing and all of these certain things. But there's a time and a purpose for everything.

Here's our hope. Galatians. Chapter 4. Verse 4.

Solomon has been concerned with time… Even here, in what God does TIME has been the real thing we are talking about. Remember what we've just read. So we had the time Poem right? 28 times in 14 lines. We heard the word time. Then: everything is beautiful in its time. take pleasure in our toil for, this is the time we are given. Then here in 15 that which IS (hey that's a time thing) Already has been (that's time) that which is to be (we're still thinking of time), already has been Solomon cares. A lot about time. And that god is working out certain specific times for his glory and for our good.

So, what happened In Galatians chapter 4. Well, what is Paul Look at? what event does he look at in Galatians?

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

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.

There it is, on full display: God gave us. Himself.

This is what god gives to us: Work here on earth. That we might take pleasure and enjoyment in whatever it is we toil out here under this earth. Why can we take pleasure in this toil? Because we know that this time here is but fleeting and temporary. And ultimately our eyes are set on another gift: God gives us eternity. And our eyes see, And we focus on storing up… Jesus's words in Matthew… treasures, not where moth and rust destroy, but rather treasures in heaven, That will be there for eternity.

But how do we have any assurance? Because we are stuck in this time frame where we can't see the beginning. We can't steet and we cant see the end. This is how we know Because when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son.

Jesus. God himself, fully god and fully man. Born of the woman born under the law to redeem us who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. God gave us Himself.

This is how we find meaning in our toil. This is how we have longing for eternity, and why.. First Thessalonians... we don't mourn like those who have No hope. we have seen the arrival of jesus and therefore our eyes, The scales have fallen off of our eyes, and we see clearly the hope that we have. This Hope Is what god gives.

Let's pray.