Considering God's Work | Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 | Sam Jones

Ecclesiastes 7:1–14Considering God's Work Ecclesiastes 7 teaches us how to live in the fog by considering the work of God, seeing the end, sitting in sorrow, and receiving both prosperous and painful days from the Father's hand in the light of the Son.This sermon opens with a familiar image of detours and rerouting, then shows that what feels crooked and frustrating in life is not outside of God’s hand. Solomon calls us not to grab the toolbox and try to straighten everything, but to stop and consider God's work. The big idea of the message is that when we live under the sun in the light of the Son, we see the end, sit in difficulty, and receive the now as God's work in both good and adverse days. The Movement of the PassageConsider the end: Solomon says the house of mourning teaches us to live wisely because it helps us lay the end to heart.Sit in the difficulty: Sorrow, rebuke, pressure, and honest grief become places where God does deep work in the soul.Receive the now: Patience is better than pride, anger must not become home, and neither nostalgia nor future longing should replace trust in God's work today.Consider God's sovereignty: We cannot make straight what God has made crooked, so wisdom learns to rejoice in prosperity and consider Him in adversity.The Cross AnchorThe sermon does not leave Solomon’s words as a crushing list of things to perform. It turns to Jesus, who perfectly lived what Ecclesiastes describes by seeing the end, sitting in sorrow, receiving the day, and enduring the cross for the joy set before Him. Jesus lived the wisdom we fail to live, walking faithfully through grief, correction, suffering, and obedience.Jesus gives us His name, so we do not have to spend our lives managing our reputation or defending ourselves before God.Jesus meets us in the crooked road, and Romans 8 reminds us that even the bent places of life are being woven for our good and conformity to Christ.ResponseThe closing call of the sermon is simple: consider the work of God. When the day bends in ways we cannot fix, we are invited not to panic, resent, or force it straight, but to trust the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the middle of the fog.The application question asks where the bend is in our lives this week, and whether we are trying to straighten it ourselves or learning to consider the work of God in it.