Nowadays, it can be easy to ask the question, “How can a good God care so badly for his children? How can followers of Christ die from COVID-19? How can believers face racial injustice? How can I trust in a God whose care is so cold?”
Interpreting God’s ways is difficult when looked at through broken eyes in a broken world. Solomon commands that we must look to God to find meaning, and he warns those who look to God, that they too will be confused.
The sovereignty of God means that he sees past, present, and future and holds all three in the palm of His hand. His governance is so complete that birds hunt and men move at His call. Thus, Trusting in His sovereignty means that while no season is permanent, there will be seasons where we find joy and ones where we find sorrow. We can be happy one day at the birth of a child and crying the next at the death of a friend. We must dance to seasons we don’t pick and believe that they are all contributing to our good and Christ’s glory.
“What gain has the worker from his toil? Much, if God is factored!” – Brian Frost
In time, God brings beauty from the ashes of every season. It’s the highs and the lows that add beauty to it all! Trusting God’s plan, through the highs and the lows means evaluating His care by seeing the end and not the middle. As we wait for the end, we are to buoy our confidence by considering the gift that is Christ.
“The clearest indicator that His plan ends in beauty is Jesus.” – Brian Frost
Even before our first season began on Earth, God placed a homing mechanism in each of us; we long for eternal life but lack the ability to find out the fullness of God’s eternal plan. Straining to see God’s plan on Earth is like looking at a hand-woven tapestry under the loom. The backside seems reckless and uncaring, but, one day, God will flip the loom, and those who trusted in Jesus will say, “Beautiful!” Even in the wilderness that is life, we are to enjoy God’s gifts, especially His best gift of Jesus, that adds life and joy to all the rest!
SERMON NOTES
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God appoints the seasons of our life. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-10)
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Acts 17:24 — God is sovereign!
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Hebrews 12:11 — If we live in the past (Egypt) or future (Utopia), we miss today. Life is made up of todays!
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God makes everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
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Galatians 4:4-5 — The clearest indicator that His plan ends in beauty is Jesus.
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God uses every season to draw us to Him. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-15)
INTROSPECTIVE QUESTIONS
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How can you learn to appreciate the appointed seasons in your life?
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Are you trusting in God’s plan until we see its beauty?
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Are you enjoying God’s gifts even when you can’t understand His plan?
CLOSING THOUGHTS
“This too shall pass.”
THIS — Recognizing this current season. It suggests that there have been countless seasons before and will be countless seasons after until Jesus returns.
TOO — And just like the previous season and the ones to come, this season WILL do as the others have done.
SHALL — We can be resolute and confident this it WILL pass.
PASS — It will pass and become archived just as the others have.
By breaking this saying down, we find hope that God will always deliver. God will always provide. God will always carry us. And God will always fulfill His promises. We can find hope in trusting that our seasons, whatever they may hold, riots, pandemics, death, birth, joy, sorrow, will come and go, but the Creator of all is weaving them together for the glory of His Kingdom and His name.
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