Ecclesiastes 3:1–15
The sermon text. More familiar than almost anything else in the book, which is exactly why to slow down. Read it as more than poetry about seasons.
The poem lists fourteen pairs. Before you interpret any of them, ask who is doing the appointing in verse 11.
My times are in your hands. That confession is what turns a time for everything from fate into trust.
Which of the fourteen pairs are things you choose, and which are things that happen to you? Mark them differently.
Daniel praises the God who changes times and seasons while standing in a foreign court under a hostile king. He is not speaking theoretically.
Daniel worships for a change in times while his own circumstances stay the same. What does that add to verse 11?
Paul tells Athens that God set appointed times and boundaries so people would seek him. That is Ecclesiastes 3:11 preached to a crowd of strangers.
What season are you in that you did not choose? What would it look like to stop negotiating with it this week?
There is a time for everything, and there was one particular time. When it came to completion, God sent his Son.
Pray Psalm 31:15 — my times are in your hands — and name the specific time you are handing over.
What are the Marks and the 3 Circles?
The Marks of a Disciple
Each week names one of these — the practices we are cultivating in each other.
- Daily Devotion
- Time with God every day, in the Bible and in prayer.
- Prayer
- Not only a set appointment, but a life of prayer at any hour, for anything.
- Generosity
- Giving your effort and your resources to this church and to God’s kingdom.
- Service
- Giving your time and talent to the church and its mission in the community.
- Witness
- Seeking people far from God and telling them about Jesus and about your own finding of him.
- Worship
- Weekly praise together, and a life presented daily to God’s service.
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Fasting, solitude, study, sabbath — the old practices of the faith.
The 3 Circles
How we tell someone about Jesus — simple enough to draw on a napkin. Each week names the part of it that week’s reading sits in.
- God’s Design
- The world and your life as God made them to be.
- Sin
- The arrow out. We each go our own way instead.
- Brokenness
- Where that leaves us. Ecclesiastes spends most of twelve chapters here.
- Repent & Believe
- Turning from our own way and trusting what Jesus did.
- Gospel
- Jesus lived the life we could not and died the death we deserved.
- Recover & Pursue
- The way back toward the life God designed.