In the information age, you can get instant answers to virtually any question. But did you know there are some things that you just aren't meant to understand? Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to Ecclesiastes 3 and explains how to be content, even when life doesn't make sense. To help you start the new year right, Here's David with the conclusion of beautiful in his time.
Well, thank you for joining us. This is New Year's Eve and the last time I'll be able to talk with you in 2025. I'm sure you, like me, have wondered how this year goes so fast. Everyone tells me that as you get older, days go faster. I know that's.
Not logical that can't happen. It's just our feeling that it's happening because we see our days being shortened. But you know what? God is doing some great things in these days beyond what we could ever imagine. He's done that here at Turning Point, at the church I pastor, in my own life as an individual, and I trust in your lives as well.
But that just means we have great hopes. For the future, I have a little saying that goes: Our dreams must always be greater than our memories. Our memories of 2025 are great, but our dreams for 26 are even greater. And as we join together in serving the Lord, each of us doing what we can do, we can make a huge difference. We can poke holes in the darkness of the enemy, and many people can come to Christ.
I do believe there's a spirit of renewal in our country. I don't know if we can call it revival yet, but there certainly is a different interest in the things of God. And it seems to me like the lines are being drawn pretty carefully: those who are for the Lord and those who are certainly not for Him. This is the time for us to stand up and be counted as we move into this new year. As you listen to the last part of this message, ask God what He wants to do in your life as you face 26, and we'll do it together as we go forward.
Here's beautiful in His time. Part 2. Three things for us to think about. In verse 10, he says: Our busy work can obscure the true meaning of life. unless we stop and take a close look.
So doing, we realize that God's plan is good. The truth is, He has made everything beautiful in its time. If we allow the meaning of this statement to sink in, we will realize that everything is beautiful in God's sight. Everything in life has a purpose. Life is not empty and random and godless, but full of precisely aligned and God-ordained issues.
It's not that your most important work is meaningless, it's that your most trivial moments are also significant. Everything matters to God. And you may think that what you do is insignificant and not meaningful. If you do it as unto the Lord, it's beautiful in God's sight, and it should be in your sight as well. Ruth Bell Graham.
The wife of the famous Billy Graham used to have an inscription over her kitchen sink. It said, divine service conducted here three times a day. Yeah. She understood that whatever we do, even washing a dirty pot, is worthwhile if done in God's will and for Christ's glory. Everything is beautiful.
in its time. What profit has the worker, Solomon asks? Much profit. If our tasks are God-given and Christ-centered, the real question is, am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I in the place where he wants me to be?
Solomon goes on in verse 11 to add this beautiful sentence: He has made everything beautiful. in its time. We don't have any problem connecting with that truth in the nice moments. I mean it's easy. For instance, in my house with all my children and grandchildren having such a great time, opening presents and laughing and all of that.
Wow. Everything's beautiful in its time. That was a beautiful time. But what sets the true saint apart is his ability to apply this during moments of unpleasantness. When young couples fall in love and get married, they are convinced that God has made everything beautiful in its time.
But ten years later, when little children are underfoot, bills are due, a job has been lost, and a medical scare has been diagnosed, We wonder what happened to all that beauty. Marriage has lost a little luster, parenthood is less glorious, and homebuilding is more sweat than sweet. Men and women leave their marriages in times like these simply because they're unaware of God's presence. in the rugged times as well as in the smooth. Our challenge is to recognize that everything has a time.
Everything has a season, a reason, and trust God to bring sense and unity. on his time schedule, not ours. Not only will the beauty be there, But it will be far more beautiful because of the hard polishing we have done. during that season. In other words, If life were like drawing a picture and your pencil included a nice eraser, you might rub away all the darker marks in the picture.
In the end, there would be no real picture at all. for it is what happens at those junctions between light and darkness that really tells the final story. In his autobiographical book, A Turtle on a Fencepost, business leader Alan Emery tells of accompanying his friend and mentor, Ken Henson, to visit a hospitalized employee. The patient lay very still, his eyes conveying anguish. His operation had taken eight hours and recovery would be long and uncertain.
Alex, said Ken quietly, you know, I have had a number of serious operations. I know the pain of trying to talk. I think I know the questions you are asking. There are two verses I want to give you, Genesis 42, 36. and Romans 8.28.
You have the option of these two attitudes. You need the perspective of the latter. Henson turned to those passages in his Bible. then prayed and left. Alan Emery never forgot those two verses, nor should we.
The choice is this. to be beat up or to be upbeat. To say with Jacob in Genesis 42, 36, all these things are against me. Or to say with Paul in Romans 8:28, all these things work together. for good to those who love God.
How do you look at life? Do you see all things against you? Or do you see with Paul that all things work together? The perspective you choose will color your whole life completely and thoroughly. And it will be Gentle tones of grace and providence, or harsh slashes of despair and emptiness.
Tommy Nelson's book on Ecclesiastes. He tells the story I told you about the piano. And he called it light music and dark music. All of us have that in our repertoire, don't we? We've had some light music this year.
We've had some dark music this year. And the thing that you need to remember is, God is in the midst of all of it. You say, well, did He cause it? No, He's in the midst of it. God's plan is good and his purpose is clear.
Here's a great verse from Ecclesiastes 3. He has put eternity in their hearts. Did you know that when you were born, you were born with eternity in your heart? A missionary scholar named Don Richardson wrote a book called Eternity in Their Hearts based on this verse. He presented more than 25 examples of missionaries All over the world.
who had discovered cultures completely cut off from all Christianity. in which vestiges of truth about God existed. He said it was an amazing thing. Where did it come from? The people were looking for God, indeed were hungry for God.
Since knowledge about Him had been passed down in their culture for generations, leading them to Christ required little more than explaining how the God they had been searching for had come to earth in the person of Christ. Richardson set forth the idea that every human being has eternity in his heart. That winning people to Christ is a matter of discovering what piece or what part of eternity they were familiar with and connecting the dots. God has put something in our hearts, a taste, a longing for eternity that cannot be discovered through the experiences of life. There will always be a longing within us for something more than we have experienced until we know God personally.
And even after we know Christ, if you're honest. There's still this longing. Romans says, The whole creation is groaning, waiting until the day. when we see the Lord. I wonder if St.
Augustine had Ecclesiastes 3.11 in mind when he wrote. These words, you have made us for yourself. And our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in you. Whenever you meet people that don't know the Lord, as you know him, you will be able to ascertain this if you look for it. There's a restless heart without God.
I tell people that God created us with a God-shaped hole in our heart. and you can't stuff anything else in that hole. The only thing that fits in that hole is God. Until you put Christ in your heart, there will always be this sense of emptiness and longing and wondering. What am I missing?
I see people all the time who are so successful. who've gone to the top financially in every way. But they don't have Christ. And there's an emptiness. in their success.
Once C.S. Lewis put it this way: Our Heavenly Father has provided. Many wonderful ends for us along our journey. But he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home. Mm-hmm.
Isn't that true? We have a lot of wonderful things we see along our way to heaven. But we better be sure we don't think we're home because home isn't here yet. His plan is good, his purpose is clear, his program is mysterious. I guess that's a good place for us to be right now.
Except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. That's what it says in this verse. God's plan is good, His purpose is clear, but the last part of the verse tells us that His program is mysterious and no one can figure it out. Vance Hemner used to say, God writes over some of our days these words. We'll explain later.
Okay. Did you know that the word why occurs in the Bible 430 times? And you and I have asked it many times, probably more than that. Catherine Marshall. The eloquent writer and wife of U.S.
Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall wrote about her anguish over the death of a beloved grandchild. She said, for quite a while, Catherine felt anger and depression toward God for allowing such a thing. when she had earnestly prayed and trusted for the child's healing. Then one day she was reading through Isaiah 53 a poignant passage about the suffering of the Messiah. This is what it says.
I had read that passage many times before, even since Amy Catherine's death, but it had not affected me as it did now, particularly the tenth verse. God made his own son suffer. But it was a good plan. More than good. It was perfect.
As only something from God could be. It was terribly important to the future of the human race that Jesus Christ have his dark night experience on the cross. Yet, what a desperately dark night it had to be for him to have cried out, My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? She concluded, When life hands us situations we cannot understand.
We have one or two choices. We can wallow in misery, separated from God, or we can tell Him. I need you and your presence in my life more than I need understanding. I choose you, Lord. I trust you to give me understanding and an answer to all of my wise.
Only if. and when you choose. Let me just say this to you. This is a hard truth. God is God.
And he doesn't owe us an answer to every question we ask. You'll notice that.
Well, why doesn't God tell me what's going on? He doesn't have to do that. He has no responsibility to do that.
Someday we'll understand, but right now we live by faith. What is faith? Faith is living from the promise. to the fulfillment. Faith is that in-between time when you don't know how it's going to work out because God is in the formula.
It's like looking through the back window in a foggy morning mist. You can't make out every detail of the field and the trees, but you have faith that things will clear up and the world will be beautiful. A little heaven on earth.
Somehow it shows up after a fog or a rain.
Some impressions about life and some insights about God, and then very quickly.
Some instruction about living. What do we do with all this? I always like to ask that question: what does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean to me?
So here's Solomon. going to tell us this. Having given us his impression about life, and his insights about God. He ends this section by sharing some instructions about living. I'm going to put these in very Usable Terms.
Number one, don't forfeit enjoyment because of what you can't understand. Verse 12 says, I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice. and to do good in their lives.
So let me unpack this for us. Life, the awesome gift of God, shouldn't be affected by the paralysis of analysis. We either Be frozen in fear over what comes next, or will become so confused over the meaning of it. that we won't notice the joy leaking out of the seams of everyday life. There comes a time to lighten up a bit.
People sometimes say, do we take God, His word, and His laws less seriously? No, not at all. We simply acknowledge the boundaries defined by His greatness and our smallness. What that is saying more than anything else, don't live your life always trying to figure everything out. Let me just tell you, I've been doing that for years as a pastor, and I can't figure it out.
And you can't either. We aren't meant to figure everything out. We live in this. Bookends a culture where you got a problem and then you have a strategy and then you have a solution. But the Christian life doesn't always work that way.
There are many things about the Christian life that I do understand and cause me to have great confidence and joy. But friends, there's a lot of stuff I don't understand. People come to me, well, why did that happen? I don't have a clue. And you don't either.
And if we have to be satisfied with answers to all of our intrinsic questions in order for us to live a happy life, we are going to be miserable. The Lord says in Isaiah 55, 9, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. In other words, God moves in mysterious ways. William Cooper wrote it that way. He said his wonders to perform.
Some people want to master every corner of the God question before they make a commitment to believe in him and they miss the heart of the issue. which is the issue of the heart. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I think when most Christians approach the end of life, they're going to wish they had served God more faithfully. But I think they're going to have another regret.
And that is, they didn't fully take advantage of the wonderful abundance of life in Christ. I want to tell you something. God enjoys your enjoyment. That fun we had at our house, God was there and He was smiling. You know, some people think, well, God's only into the hard things.
He only shows up when things are... No, no. God has built us with the capacity for incredible joy even on this earth as we head toward heaven. When we smile in the right way, God smiles bigger than we can imagine. Go to a football game, spend time with your family, take a vacation, pursue an enjoyable hobby, do something for yourself every day, thank God for the blessings He has abundantly poured into your life.
Don't get complacent about that. God has given you the capacity for joy and if you spend all your life trying to figure everything out you will never know that joy. You have to accept some things by faith. I don't know what you're up to, God, but I know you're a good God and you don't make any mistakes and I am determined to trust you and go on with my life and that's the most important thing. Don't forfeit enjoyment because of what you can't understand.
You know that some people will never be able to enjoy life until they can figure out how God is going to solve all the problems of the world. They're going to be too old for much enjoyment by the time they figure that out. Number two, don't forget to be thankful for God's gifts. It says in verse 13, that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God.
Did you hear that? I love the story in the New Testament about the lepers. who were healed, but only one of them came back. That one leper must have been different, thanking God for the sunshine and the blue sky. Disease is a terrible thing, as you know, but Its power to inflict misery over us.
is within our control. I remember hearing so many people say, I know I have COVID, but I will not be defined by COVID. Or I've gotten cancer, but cancer does not define me. Godly people cope with amazing adversities by simply refusing to bow to the misfortune. The most powerful weapon in our arsenal is our attitude of gratitude.
I don't know anybody I've ever met who is grateful and depressed. Think about that. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Here's the third one. Don't fear life, fear God.
I know that whatever God does. It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it. that men should fear before him.
That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been, and God requires an account of what is past. Very pregnant verse. Not time for me to take it all apart, but Let me just say that God deals in forever and flawless. God made it. You can't add to it.
You can't subtract from it. You can't put a stop to it. Though even a sunset over the Rockies is not forever, you have these feelings as you stand in its presence. This is a work of perfection, a masterpiece. I can add nothing to it, nor can I detract anything from it.
Therefore, I just simply stand humble and speechless. And worship. God's design for your life and mine is every bit as awe-inspiring as tomorrow's sunset. You have your doubts about that plan? It is perfect.
It is a forever thing. It can't be edited. We should rest in the knowledge of his perfection, but we should also respond in a healthy fear. F-E-A-R. We don't fear God.
as as if he were going to destroy us. We fear him in reverence. And the Bible is filled with verses about it. Fear the Lord. Did you know that wisdom Starts with fear.
Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. That doesn't mean we're scared of God. I use that term. It means we have an awesome respect and reverence for Him. We are awestruck by God.
So much so. that it's impossible for us to even put it into words. Have you ever visited the Niagara Falls? and ridden the maid of the mist right out into the basin of that thundering cataract. It's a bit terrifying to stand there only a few yards from such power.
Deafened by the roar of six million cubic feet of water bursting over the cliff every minute. and falling 170 feet into the basin before you. The spray hits you. and you can literally feel the sound waves beating against you. When you look at the sun setting over the Rockies, painting the sky in a spectrum of reds and oranges, you reflect on the size and the heat of the solar star and the fact that in a millionth of a second you could cease to exist if you were in its presence.
You feel small and fearful and awestruck. All of these things remind us of who God is. and how we should respect him. And see him in his greatness, know that we are not like God in that respect. He is high above us.
But then realize that the God who we worship in these moments of grandeur is the same God who cares about every detail of your life and mine. He's been there before us. He's the eternal God. He lives outside of time. He created time.
And whatever you think you're going to meet in the future, God already knows. He's already been there. He understands it. He will, in his own way, help you in the process. I think the thing that comes away from this is We feared the thunderous power of a love so relentless it could send one's own son to die.
We fear the blackness of God turning away. as Christ endured our sin on Calvary. We stand before the cross and we realize we can add nothing. And neither can we take anything away. The act is perfect and forever, and our fear turns to love and devotion as we stand before the cross and realize that at that moment, Everything changed.
For the world? And for us. When we stand at the cross and ask for forgiveness, and receive the benefit of what God did through his Son Christ. Our lives are never going to be the same. Many of you have stood in that awesome moment and given your life to Christ.
Now it's time for us to go and share that with others. Let them know how awesome our God is. and what he can do to change even the most difficult things. that life brings us. I hope you will have this awareness in your life.
Everything is beautiful in his time. He has control of you if you will just submit to him and let him do in your life what he desires to do. And we thank you for joining us for this last time in this. year that is disappearing. I hope that you are ready for a wonderful, successful, joyous, Christ-centered new year.
and that God will give you great courage and great wisdom as you face the challenges before you. We will be talking a little bit about some of the things the Bible has to say about our giving.
Some stewardship lessons. That are always so challenging. I teach this at Shadow Mountain Church every year in January. This year, we're going to allow you to join with us for a few of these messages. I think you'll find them instructive.
And we'll be beginning these messages early in the month.
So be sure to join us as we prepare our hearts for everything God wants us to do. And twenty twenty six. Once again, thank you for your faithfulness to Turning Point over these last months. Our hands are up high in victory as we face the new year. God bless you.
Happy New Year. Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. We love hearing how God is using this ministry in your life.
So please write to us at TurningPoint, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's helpful new 365-day devotional for 2026, A Closer Walk with Jesus. Yours for a gift of any amount. You can also stream more than 1,200 of Dr.
Jeremiah's messages on demand on any screen with our streaming service Turning Point Plus for a monthly gift of any amount. Visit turningpointplus.org for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow for another inspiring New Year's message on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
