Living Life Backwards Pt.3

Ready? OK. All right, we're going to get started in a few moments. And we hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

And don't forget to please pick up your lesson outline over here on the table. Also, 2nd and 5th grade Sunday school class is meeting currently right, right now. And a couple of things for adults out there, if you, I know Pastor Mike's been doing this for the past couple of weeks, giving out some prizes, but if you could tell me at the end of our lesson, which means I got to do a good job, with my lesson. Can give me in one sentence, what the theme of chapter 3 is, what the theme of cha chapter 3 is, so that puts a lot of pressure on me, right, to make sure I present the lesson to you correctly.

And also for children. If you can tell me what word is mentioned or presented at least 28 times. There's one word in this chapter that is mentioned over and over again 28 times, OK? So, as, we are looking at chapter 3 of the book called Living Life Backward by David Gibson and we'll be looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1 to 22 and let me start by, by reading this.

From Doctor William Barrick, who says, who is a former professor of Old Testament at the Masters Seminary. He said this, he says, in our Christian faith, we often focus on heaven, the sweet by and by, and what we have in Christ prepares us for that future. However, our faith also equips us for living in what someone called the nasty now and now. Life provides opportunities for living out our faith and our service for God.

Life experience itself reminds each person that God designed it all. Every area of life contains the imprint of divine care and provision. The creator is the controller and how true that is. In fact, David Gibson, if you read this chapter, he said this, he said, plenty of my children's frustrations are because my wife and I see a bigger picture than they do.

We are often Working towards goals they cannot understand what to eat, what to wear, when to go to bed, where they're allowed to go and not allowed to go. Their little lives find their rhythms and patterns within the ordered whole that we, their parents seek to provide. He says although they don't recognize this, this is meant to provide them with tremendous security and the right and best freedom, God intends to be, God intends to be like children who trust their parents to know best because they can see what the children can't see and they know what the children are not yet able to know.

And here's the thing, he says, the relationship of trust is built on the character of the parents.

If the parents are good and wise and kind. Then the child who cannot see the end from the beginning has nothing to fear, and we know we serve a God who is good. Amen, a good God. So trusting God is the right perspective to have as we live our lives if we want to find true satisfaction.

So it's important that we trust God because our lives are temporary. We've heard that over and over again from Pastor Mike. Our life is temporary. It's a vapor.

It's here one moment and it's gone the next. And as we live our temporary lives, we experience twists and turns, joy and sadness and the myriad of other details that we don't fully understand which are totally out of our control and sometimes takes us out of our comfort zone. And we know since March, right, the coronavirus pandemic hit, God has turned our lives, what, upside down, right? Life in the year of 2020 has been an upheaval and we have one more month to go in this year.

And what else is going to happen, right? You wonder one more month to go, and we have to wonder what the year 2021 brings us. Well, even through all of this, we still need to enjoy life because after all, life is a gift from God. Amen.

And we thank God for living. And we know that we worship and serve a good God, so we have to trust Him and ask God to give us insight and the right perspective in this fleeting roller coaster ride that we call life. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is broken down into 3 sections. Now this is not the outline this morning as you see on your paper, but we'll see that verse 1 is the propositional statement or the big picture of the chapter.

In verses 2 to 8, we see the poem about time and in verses 9 to 22, we find the prose which, which will help us, will help to explain and provide some meaning to this poem that we'll look at. So Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1 to 22 provides five perspectives on life that can provide both true satisfaction and hope and help us to focus where on eternity. Well, the first perspective on life that can provide both true satisfaction and hope and help us provide a focus on eternity is remember that God has appointed a time for everything.

If you have your outline first point, God has appointed a time for everything.

As I mentioned earlier, verse one presents the propositional statement or the big picture for this chapter. Verse one says there is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event under heaven. And as we study through the book of Ecclesiastes and more specifically these verses, it calls our attention to God's sovereignty and His providence in our lives. In fact, the phrase appointed time means that God in His sovereignty and providence has ordained specific times or the things we see or experience which impact our lives, whether good or bad.

Wayne Gruden, author of the book Systematic Theology, says God's sovereignty is His supreme rule, authority, and ordination over all of creation. In fact, Psalm 103:19 says, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules over all. And connected to God's sovereignty is God's providence. Grudha again says God's providence is the outwork of God's sovereignty as it relates to God and man.

God works daily through events and circumstances in our lives until His purposes are fulfilled. And God is the only one who can bring true satisfaction and joy to us as long as we don't live contrary to God's design and set our affections in this life as we've been hearing about from Pastor Mike, but focus our attention on things above as Colossians chapter 3 verse 2 tells us. So it's critical to see that God plans and rules over times and every detail of our temporal life. Psalm 31:15 says, My times are in your hand.

Isn't that great? My times are in your hand. But doesn't this provide great comfort and hope to know that God has everything planned and in the end he gets the glory. But a second perspective on life that can provide both true satisfaction and hope and help us focus on eternity is remember that God has appointed our times and events.

God has appointed our times and events. Second point on your outline. As we look at the poem in verses 2 today, we notice the various experiences that we all have had already or we will face in our lifetime. So this poem is, can I say, a, an autobiography of you and also of me, of what God has already written for us until the day that we are in the grave.

So let's read Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 2 to 8 and briefly look at the poem and, and some of the, the time, events, seasons, or the open or closed chapters that describes the experiences that God sends into our brief life as a child of God. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse starting with verse 2 says, a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost. A time to keep and a time to throw away. Verse 7 says a time to tear apart and a time to sew together.

A time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, and a time for war and a time for peace. Now, if we were to break down this poem for a moment, in verses 2 to 8, we see that the word time is mentioned, here we go, children, 28 times, 28 times. This poem begins with the phrase, a time to give birth and a time to die. And ends with a time for war and a time for peace and everything that lies between which represents life on this earth.

And also that these opposite pairings have no logical connection or progression from one extreme to the other, and God desires us in these pleasant and not so pleasant experiences to have joy in all of them. In fact, James chapter 1 verse 2 says, consider all what joy when we encounter various multicolored or multifaceted trials, and we need to ask God for wisdom. To help us to have joy in the midst of these trials, especially during the whole pandemic, right? We want to ask God to give us joy.

But David Gibson said life is complex, full of good times, hard times, in between times, and a whole manner of lifestyle choices and decisions that often require a wisdom that seems to escape us. There's a time for every single one of these. If we were somehow to take the seasons of life out of the web of relationships in which we are enmeshed, our lives would become flat and monopolous. In other words, you say our life would be boring if we could have these things in our lives, right?

But sometimes I wish those things weren't in my life. I wish I had a monotonous life in some sense, right? Nice, calm life just to chill out, right? But no, God brings these events into our lives to make life exciting and for us to have joy in life.

Gibson says the fact that there is no chronological sequence or discernible purpose to the order of each of these items is itself part of the preacher's point that we have no control over any of these things. We make real responsible decisions every single day, but in reality, we each know that the seasons of life are almost completely out of our hands. Well, as we look at this poem, you'll be able to fill in the blanks and add your own personal experiences that God has brought into your life.

Verse 2 says, and we'll just touch on some of these.

Verse 2 says, a time to give birth and a time to die. And we become connected and we build relationships with other people when a newborn arrives and also when a loved one dies. We, we had joy in our life on November 15th when our granddaughter, our first granddaughter Mia Marilyn was born to us from Carlos Junior and and Brisa. So what a joy that was for us, and we've already planned our whole life.

Her whole life is planned already, what she's going to be doing, so she doesn't know it, but she, we've planned our whole life together. And also we'll be celebrating when we think about birth on December 25th when we think about our Lord Jesus Christ being born. Galatians 4:4 says, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman born under the law. In God's economy, Christ came at the perfect time in order to die for our sins.

Amen. We thank God for that. Next, we see chapter 3 says it's a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. And when we plant seeds in the ground, they start to germinate, grow, and bear fruit.

God has set this pattern of growth, but it becomes a futile effort if we try to reverse the order of a plant's growth or if we plant the seed in the middle of a freezing winter. That's not how God had planned it. Verse 3 says a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up. Well, judicially, criminals are executed and sadly people are killed in wars, but people are spiritually healed and they get saved.

In fact, Psalm 1472-3 tells us that. Chapter 3 also says there's a time to tear down and a time to build up. But commentator Charles Bridges says Solomon had been much occupied in building up. In 1 Kings chapter 9, you'll see that.

But many of his buildings, even the walls of Jerusalem, were destined to be destroyed or broken down, as 2 Kings chapter 25 says. Now again, we can be built up spiritually through the word of God, as 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 to 2 tells us that we should desire the pure milk of the words that we could grow up more in Christ. Well, verse 4 says is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Commentator Ray Ray Steadman said this, he said, I was at a funeral once, and the leader asked all present to stand up upon their feet.

One of my friends whispered, whispered to me, he said, What else could you stand on? He said, I broke up laughing, and it was very obviously the wrong time to do so, right? We never laugh at funerals, not the time to do that. Well, God has chosen for us to experience pain and suffering in our life.

No one explains them. Well, as you skip over verses 5 and 6, let's go to verse 7 where it says a time to tear apart, right? This might represent grief. In fact, in Genesis chapter 37 verse 29, Reuben, remember, returned to the pit and saw that Joseph, his brother, was not there.

And what did Reuben do? He tore his garments. He was grieved. Also, it says our time to sow together.

Now that might represent the end of one's grief. It also says here a time to be silent and a time to speak. But James 1:19 says, be quick to hear and slow to what? And also slow to speak.

Be careful what you say. Listen carefully. Again, be careful what you have to say. Verse 8 says there's a time to love, which means loving God with all your heart, as Matthew chapter 22 verse 37 says, and there's a time to hate.

When is the best time to hate? Well, we need to hate sin, don't we? We need to hate sin. We need to hate lust, as Psalm 97:10 tells us.

But also it says a time for war and a time for peace. We after displaying the pursuits and complexities of life in verses 2 to 8, we have to see that it's all, not all a waste of time on God's part because God planned it all. This is all part of our life as a child of God. We know our position in Christ, so it shouldn't bring fear to our hearts, but it should bring joy, and we should continue to trust God through it all.

Then in verses 9 to 10 he says this. He says, What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. So we see that there's no satisfaction in this life.

We heard about that for the past two weeks, right, from Pastor Mike. There's no satisfaction in life. Life is vain, right? It's all vanity, all of vanity.

Well, Gibson says this about verse 9. He says it is the most powerful of sucker punches to say there's no satisfaction in life. He says there's a time for everything. Life is a lyrical arrangement of good and bad, of relational complexity and nuanced subtleties, and at the end of it all you go in a box to the cold hard ground.

What have you gained after living all the seasons of life? Nothing, he says. You're dead, right? It's like nihilism, right, when you think about it.

But as we experience life, the good and even the bad and sometimes the, the ugly times, we must remember that God has a purpose for everything in your life, in my life. In fact, Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 says, for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work and you will, what will perfect it, will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. So God wants our entire focus on him as he makes us more and more like Jesus Christ until we get to heaven, where we'll spend eternity.

Well, this brings up our third perspective on life that can provide both true satisfaction and hope and help us to focus on eternity, and that is to remember that God has appointed man for eternity.

The 3rd point in your outline is that God has appointed man for eternity. Look at verse 11. He says he has made everything appropriate in his time. He has also said eternity in their heart, just so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

The word there in verse 11 appropriate means right or beautiful. So we could say that all that we face in the times of our lives, both negative or positive experience at that particular time in your life are beautiful blessings which God has designed for you in your life, even the tough times, a beautiful blessing for you in your life. Now how many of us could say that this morning? How many of us could really say this is a beautiful time, even through the hardships?

It's hard for us to say that, right? But that's what God has planned, and those events are beautiful times in our lives. Difficult jobs, relationship issues, financial issues, those negative experiences that we face are beautiful times where we have the opportunity to trust Jesus Christ, to put our hope in Him and to have joy in this life, no matter what happens to us, no matter what happens to us for the rest of this year, right, of, of 2020. Well, Henry Morris of the Institute of Creation Research said this.

He said every time the event has a purpose. And everything is beautiful in God's time for it. Even when in our time, we may not understand how a particular event can be either purposeful or beautiful, we can have faith that in God's time it is, as Romans 8:28 says. Although it is beyond our finite comprehension, it is still bound to be true that the infinite God worketh all things after the counsel of His will, and he references Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11.

Also in verse 11, next Solomon says that he, God has set eternity in their heart. Well, Daniel Este, author of Handbook on the Wisdom Book and Psalms, says this. He says, Humans are bound by time, but they are wired for eternity. Isn't that a great quote?

Humans are bound by time, but they are wired for eternity. He said they intuitively know that there must be meaning somewhere that they were made for more than vain toil. In fact, CS Lewis said, our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful ends for us along our journey. But he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home, because our home is not here, is it?

Our home is in heaven. We're just pilgrims just passing through. So since our life is short and fleeting, we should be focused on eternity and serving the Lord every moment of our lives. CT Stud had a, has a wonderful poem that's called Only What Is Done for Christ Will Last.

Let me just read a few stanzas. I think there's like 8 stanzas to this poem, but let me just read a few of them to you. He says only one life, yes, only one. Soon will this fleeting hours be done.

Then in that day, my Lord, to meet and stand before His judgment seat. All in one life twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life, a few brief years, each with its burdens, hope, and fears, each with his clays I must fulfill, living for self or in his will.

Only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. Oh let my love with fervor burn, and from the world now let me turn, living for thee and thee alone, bringing thee pleasure on thy throne. Only when life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. He says, only one life, yes, only one.

Now let me say thy will be done. And when at last I hear the call, I know I'll say twas worth it all. Only one life, twill soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. Isn't that great?

And then he says, so teach us, Lord, to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom. And again, that's the focus. Our focus is eternity, not what's happening down here on this earth, but as a child of God we know our position. Our position's in Christ, right?

We've been saved by Christ. He chose us before the foundations of the world. So no matter what happens in our life, and what experiences God brings into our lives, we know that we are guaranteed what eternity, that we'll be living forever and ever with our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's make sure our days count here on this earth and serve God with all our heart.

Solomon continues there in verse 11. He says, so, yeah, so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning to the end. Now we only see a little bit of God's plan for us from beginning to end, right? Which makes life very difficult.

I wish I knew the whole picture and I tell Mishy that sometimes. I wish I knew the whole picture of my life, what was going to happen, right? And I think we say that, right? And what happens is we probably end up messing it up if we knew the whole picture, right?

We want to see a little bit, a little bit of our, of our lives, but God works in our lives as we hear in mysterious ways, and it is a mystery to us, which is why we need to trust God every step of the way, especially during the troubling seasons of our life. Now how true it is again, like I said, I would, I would love to know, but here's what David Gibson says. He says 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 want access to it.

But the point is that we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. God is not being unkind to us by not sharing it. The point is that we are not built to understand the big picture precisely because we live in time and God does not. Remember we're finite beings.

God is infinite, right? He has an infinite mind. We are finite beings, he says. If we could see the end from the beginning and understand how a billion lives in 1000 generations and unspeakable sorrows and untold joys are all woven into a tapestry of perfect beauty, then we would be God.

And how true that is. If we could understand everything, we would be God, and we're not. We're not God at all. Then in verse 12, Solomon says, and he speaks a little bit about doing good in one's life, he says, I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime.

Solomon says that the ultimate purpose of life on earth is to rejoice in God, enjoy His gifts to you, and in doing good, do good in every moment of your life to everyone. In fact, Ecclesiastes at the end of the chap of the, of his book, he says this in chapter 12 verses 13 to 14. He says the conclusion when all has been heard is fear God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person, for God will bring every act of judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

So as we live our lives, do good, do good to all people.

Then in verse 13 he speaks, but remember that life is a gift from God. He says, Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks, he's good in all his labor, it is the gift of God. Psalm 128:2 says, When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy, and it will be well with you. But John MacArthur says in accepting everything as a gift of his Creator, even in the cursed world, man is enabled to see good in all of his work.

Then in verse 14, we also see that man as man, we should fear God. Solomon says, I know that everything God does will remain forever. There's nothing to add to it and there's nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. Now there are at least 150 references in the Bible showing that we should have an attitude of fearing God every day in our lives.

In fact, Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10 says the fear of the Lord is what, the verse, the beginning of wisdom, right, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. But Jerry Bridges in his book, The Joy of Fearing God says this. He says, it, so we all fearing God, is a fear which consists in awe, reverence, honor, and worship, and all of these on the highest level of exercise. It is a, excuse me, it is a reflex in our consciousness of the transcendent majesty and holiness of God.

That's a great definition of what fearing God means. MacArthur Gent says acknowledging God's enduring and perfect work becomes ground, grounds for reverence, worship, and meaning. And then Gibson says, as believers, we should acknowledge that God has given us so much that we should be in awe, desiring to worship and fear Him because his perfect work in us, which gives productive meaning to our lives. So fearing God is key as we live our lives today.

Then in verse 15, he says that which is has already been and that which will be has already been for God, seeks what has passed by. Doctor Brick said this. He said this might refer to God's control over past events. He said God not only controls those events, he repeats them over and over again until we finally understand what God desires to teach us through those events, and I've been through those trials many, many times, the same trial, many, many times because I just didn't understand what God was trying to teach me.

Hopefully one day I'll understand some of the trials that he's trying to teach to me. Well, the fourth perspective on life that can provide both true satisfaction and hope and help us focus on eternity is remember that God has appointed a time for judgment. God has appointed a time for judgment. Verses 16 and 17 says, furthermore, I have seen on the sun that in the place of justice, there is wickedness.

In a place of righteousness, there is wickedness. I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man for time, for every matter, and for every deed there is. Now we, we understand and we know that our world is full of injustice, right? And we see that happening today, even when we think about potentially the elections and everything else that, that is happening.

There's a lot of injustice in this world today. But because we are because we are hardwired, if I could say for justice, verse 16 provides one of the most frustrating and painful events in our lives that we sometimes don't understand why God allows injustice to happen on a regular basis. Well, sometimes God allows sin to run its course to the end, to show man how sinful he is, to show man that he truly needs to worship a holy God, and that he needs to turn to Him. But we all spend our time on this earth suffering in, in one shape or another because of the injustice, but we have to be reminded at what 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 12 says.

It says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial or ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing. There's that joy. Keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of His glory.

You may rejoice with exaltation, and that's how true it is. We're gonna suffer, but continue to rejoice in Jesus Christ. My commentator said we recognize that all comes from a wise father. Those circumstances bring us pain as well as pleasure.

It is his choice for us. Rejoice that in the midst of the pain, there is the possibility of pleasure. Amen. And we thank God.

And when God brings things in our lives that are pleasurable also, let's continue to focus on God and can focus on the pleasurable things that he has brought into our lives. Well, were there, will there be a time when justice prevails? Yes, verse 17 says, tells us that, right? I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man for time, for every matter, and for every deed there is.

God one day will retrieve a person's past injustices that has broken his commandments and judged them. Believers will not be judged in regards to salvation, but we will be judged for what we did for the Lord in the time spent on this earth. He will take a look and see, what did you do with your time, with the 5 years that you were saved, the 10 years or the 30 years you were saved? What did you do for me during that time?

Was your focus here on this earth? Was it the focus on eternity and building the kingdom of God? One commentator says, why fret over the lack or our lack of control over the timing of events, our failure to eradicate injustice, and our inability to avoid death? He says, Don't worry about that.

Don't fret over the injustice. I said, yes, it's there, but don't fret over it. Don't let it take your joy in Christ away from you. Well, speaking of death, this brings us to the 5th and last perspective on life that can provide true satisfaction, hope, and help us focus on eternity is remember that God has appointed man to die.

Fifth point in your outline, God has appointed man to die. Verses 18 and 19 says, I said to myself concerning the sons of men, God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts. Verse 19 says, For the fate of the sons of men, and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other.

Indeed, they all have the same breath, and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. Now these verses encapsulate what our thinking should be and how we should live our lives. We need to be thinking about death, that yeah, we're going to die one day. I think Pastor Mike mentioned a number of times as he taught the past couple of weeks, we are going to die one day.

That is inevitable unless Jesus Christ comes back today, right? And then we'll be caught up in the rapture, but we're going to, and we need, in some sense, we need to plan for that. We need to plan for death. Well, commentator Roy Zuck said, since God has appointed the time for each person's death, man cannot influence when it will occur or even know when it will occur.

We don't know the times that we will die. It will happen to us one day. But the question is why is man like an animal? Verse 20 tells us we'll all go to the same place.

All came from the dust and all returned to the dust. Man and animals don't have very long, a long life to live, right? Well, the dust that God used to create Adam and the animals is the dust our bodies will return to when we die. We need to think about that and we need to plan for that.

Yes, enjoy life, enjoy the pleasurable things of life, rejoice in God and serve Him and study the word of God, definitely, but we must remember that one day we're going to die because our home is not here. This is not our home. Our home is in heaven. In fact, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says, in as, inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment.

Judgment day will come. Whereas the as believers, we have hope though, right? We have hope. Commentator Mark Jones says, hope prompts us to cling to the promise that when we die, we will be with Christ in paradise.

We will be with him forever and ever. One day we will see our glorious Lord face to face. Then in verse 21, Solomon asks, he says, Who knows that the breath of man goes or ascends upward and the breath of the beast ascends downward to the earth? We hear Solomon expresses the fact that when a believer dies, his spirit goes to God because God created man for his eternal purpose.

Animals who have no soul, they return back to the dust. So yes, in some sense we are better than animals because we will go to heaven and they will just return back to where they came from. Then in verse 22, Psalmist says, I've seen that nothing is better, that man should be happy in his activities, for that is what his lot is, for who will bring him to see what will occur after him. Now speaking about one's lot, and when you think about our lives, we all have various backgrounds, different lives, essentially what God, puts us through.

But here's what CT Stud said about our lot. He says, we are not all promised the same things in this life. Some of us will know much joy, other of us much sorrow. Some will be given fame and fortune, others nothing but obscurity and poverty.

But one thing we are all promised that our life will soon end, and we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as 2 Corinthians 5:10 says. There before our Maker, we will give an account of how we use the day's, words, relationships, dollars, skills, and opportunities God entrusted to us. And then I'd like to, to close with what David Gibson says. He says this.

He says, living well in God's world means recognizing that when it comes to our own lives, we are not many gods, and, 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's only God who knows exactly where everything is meant to go, in which order, and what time, and why, right? God is sovereign.

He's in control, and he works in and through our lives. We thank God. Amen, that He is in control, even in 2020, right, in 2021 and beyond. God is in control of every single detail of our lives that we can trust Him for our lives.

Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your time this morning, and we thank You, God, again that You are in control of every single detail of our lives and help us, Father, to trust you as children are taught to trust their parents. Help us, Father, as your children.

To trust you no matter what happens in our lives, the pleasant times, the tough times. Father, help us to look and know that you're in control and that you're working in everything according to your will for your glory and ultimately for our good. So we love you, Father. We thank you.

We praise you. Thank you, Father, for giving us an opportunity to look into Ecclesiastes chapter 3 this morning. You are a great God. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.