#7 See it in IMAX (Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)

Notes

Caleb Johnston continues the Ecclesiastes series by addressing the question at the heart of chapter 3: “What gain has the worker from his toil?” after the famous poem about times and seasons. Solomon observes that God has made everything beautiful in its time, placed eternity in the human heart, yet limited us so we cannot grasp the full design from beginning to end. In the midst of these limits, real joy, doing good, eating, drinking, and finding pleasure in toil remain possible as God’s gifts. Ultimately, whatever God does endures forever so that people will fear him, with nothing lost or overlooked in his providence. The sermon calls listeners to humble trust rather than control, receiving ordinary gifts with thanksgiving and living in reverent fear of the unchanging God whose work holds all things—pointing forward to the finished work of Christ at the Lord’s Supper.

"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" (Ec 3:9–15).