| Introduction Do you realize that change is inevitable? Life is constantly changing. Think for a moment of all the changes that happened in your life just this past week: changes in schedule, relationships, at work or school, etc. The unavoidable changes in life teach us something about God and something about us. Change can be difficult and sometimes the prospective of change can be scary. Some times we know things must change, but we are fearful of committing to that necessary change, be it because the fear of man our comfort. Because of something I was considering this past week, which I think is a common struggle for everyone, I thought it would be good for us to consider this subject of change. I would like for us to see four things in this passage concerning change. 1. Though everything may change, God never changes. 2. We should expect changes in our circumstances. 3. A Christian is always changing because he is becoming more like his/her Savior. 4. The last thing that is going to happen to us a change that is going to end all changes. I. What is change? A. Change is to make or become different. B. Change can be something very fearful. "Uttering the word change is the equivalent of yelling shark at the beach." Tim Pollard C. People respond to change differently and most people have a default setting for interacting with and reacting to change. 1. Early adopters a. They love change. b. They thrive on something new. c. They will be in line all night in order to be the first one to get the new gadget that was just released. 2. Most people are open to change, but cautious. a. They are not averse to change. b. But they want a solid reason to change. 3. Some are resistant – I don't care what the change is, I don't like it. a. Because of fear – I don't know what is coming next. b. Because there might be inconvenience brought upon them – relationships, circumstances, and comfort. c. Because they are obstinate – the older we get, the more against change we become. d. Because change is unwise at this point. II. Everything in life may change, but God will never change, 14. A. This is a very comforting truth in view of all the changes in our lives. B. No matter what change in our lives, we believe in and serve an unchanging God who will fulfill all his purposes and promises. Ps. 102:25-27 – Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. Jam. 1:16-18 – Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Jn. 8:58 – Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." "If God is not unchanging, then the whole basis of our faith begins to fall apart and our understanding of the universe begins to unravel. This is because our faith, hope, and knowledge ultimately depend on a person who is infinitely worthy of trust because he is absolutely and eternally unchanging in his being, his perfections, in his purposes, and in his promises." Wayne Grudem C. God is dependable and trustworthy because he never changes. D. We, on the other hand, experience change at several levels. E. We are all in seasons of change. III. We should expect changes in our circumstances, 1-8. A. This poem is a powerful description of changes in our circumstances. 1. We often hear that we live in an age of unprecedented change. 2. No age before experienced so much change, so quickly, and that is technologically true. 3. But fundamentally our age is no different than any other age. a. Everyone has always lived life as a progression of seasons of change, 1. b. So, we all live in seasons – a season is a fixed period of time that is temporary and that transition into another season of time. 4. Think about your own life – don't you often think of your life as different seasons or stages? a. Childhood b. Young adulthood c. Married d. Parent e. Grandparent B. God appointed each season to be lived to its fullest, 1. 1. We often live life longing for a season that we think is in our future or for a season that we have already lived – the expression the good old days is a reflection of that. 2. We see that a lot with parenting. a. When the kids are little and in diapers we long for the non-diaper changing season. b. When they start walking and grabbing everything in reach, we miss the season of stationary bliss and look forward to the time when they'll stop grabbing everything. c. When they are teenagers and start having their own interests, we miss the season in which we had more control over them. d. When they are gone, we wish we could rewind time and go back to the season they were home. 3. This seems to be our natural sinful inclination. a. The single doesn't want to live this season of singleness. b. The teenager doesn't want to live this season of honoring and obeying his/her parents. c. The elderly doesn't want to live this season of limitations. 4. Yet the preacher tells us that God made everyone of these seasons and that he made them beautiful in their time, 11. a. God gives us all these times. b. The preacher describes all of these emotions, circumstances, responses, and experiences in life and he says that ultimately God makes all of them beautiful in their time. 5. This truth should do at least two things for us: a. it should help us cherish every season of life for God makes each one of them beautiful; b. it should help us cherish every change in season because God is going to make that next season beautiful. C. I want us to see also that all change is redemptive to the believer because it is brought about by a sovereign and good God. 1. That's the lens that we must use to look at change. 2. We look at our seasons and the changes we all experience and we see them as the hand of providence. 3. You see, this poem is not so much about the stuff we do as much as it is about what God does. a. It starts with the time to be born and the time to die, which are exclusively the actions of God. 1) God determines the day of our birth and the day of our death – our days are numbered before even one of them is lived. 2) So this is really a poem about God as the God of all our seasons. b. That's why the preacher, after he gives us this poem, he jumps immediately to God and says that God is the one who takes the seasons and brings beauty and is working beauty in them. c. God uses every season in our lives for good. d. He is working through these seasons in an appropriate and beautiful way. 1) He does that in a way that we can't perhaps even appreciate the beauty of the season we are in right now. 2) But ultimately we will see them as beautiful through faith in Jesus Christ. Heb. 12:11 – Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. D. As we look at this poem, it is appropriate for us to ask if there is any order in these 14 pairings. 1. The poem begins with birth and death, and ends with war and peace, but in between there is all kinds of random things: a. Plant and pluck what isplanted; b. Kill and heal; c. Break down and build up; d. Weep and laugh; e. Mourn and dance; f. Cast away stones and gather stones; g. Embrace and refrain from embracing; h. Gain and lose; i. Keep and throw away; j. Tear and sew; k. Keep silence and speak; l. Love and hate. 2. It is so because life appears rather random. 3. The poem is showing us that life comes at us with all these different sorts of seasons and appropriate responses to them. 4. God is Lord over them all; a. God is orchestrating them all, but the way it is going to hit us will appear pretty random. b. The way life hits us is not with a beautiful pattern, with a clear pattern – it just hits us in unexpected ways. 5. But the great hope we have is that God makes it all beautiful in his time. a. Often we will try to interpret life but all we can see is randomness, like the underside of embroidered tapestry. b. But from God's side, it looks beautiful like to the topside of the tapestry. E. That is why sometimes change is so hard for us, because we don't know where it is going, we can't make out the big picture. 1. We like to be able to color commentate on our lives, but often all we have is the play-by-play. 2. We want to be able to explain the changes, what's going on in our lives, but often what we have is what is, not the why. 3. Realizing that God is making each season beautiful in its time will help us be satisfied with having only the play-by-play. F. So, we must be rooted on the fact that change is the normal experience of life and God, who is good, is sovereign over all change. IV. As Christians we are always changing because we are being sanctified. A. Sanctification means progressive change. B. The Gospel produces change in our lives. Rom. 12:2 – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what isthat good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 1. Our minds are changing because of the Gospel. 2. We are learning things we didn't know and we are believing things we didn't believe. 3. And this should lead to change in our lives and in our practices. 2 Cor. 3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. a. We are being developed. b. We are being conformed to the image of Christ. c. So we should expect that our understanding, our believing, and our doing would be growing, which is change! Phil. 1:6 – …being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ… C. So, the desire that every thing remains the same is not necessarily a good desire – we are not always called to conserve (be conservative). V. One last word about change: because of the Gospel we will ultimately be completely changed. A. This longing for eternity is programed in us, 11a. B. We live through changes in this life longing for the ultimate change in glorification. C. Boy, that will indeed be a big change. 1 Cor. 15:51-54 – Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal mustput on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." Conclusion We all live in seasons of change. But every change is governed by our good and sovereign God, who makes every season beautiful in its own time. Praise be to him! http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-ever-change-life-ecclesiastes-31-15.html |
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