Time

David Poland

Ecclesiastes: Life in a Broken World • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8

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Sermon 7 in a series through the book of Ecclesiastes

Notes

Transcript

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 47

Psalm 47 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!

Scripture Reading: Philippians 4:11-13

Philippians 4:11–13 ESV

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Sermon

Good Morning Church!

I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well, today we turn our attention to what is… definitely the most famous passage in Ecclesiastes. I Know that I said that a lot in Matthew. That is because there were a lot of most famous passages in Matthew. But In Ecclesiastes, i would say that there is just this one. Ecclesiastes. Chapter 3 verses one through eight are by far the most well-known portions of the book of Ecclesiastes. They are the only verses to ever be a top 40 hit in the 60’s. Just like we started Ecclesiastes with a poem if we remember back a few weeks ago, here we have another poem that that acts as a bit of a transition between what Solomon has just been doing and where he's going to take us.

If we remember back to what he's been doing... I think it's important that we do a little bit of context work here. His question, his goal, was to discover what the purpose of life is. And it's not wisdom, it's not living wisely, it's not pleasure and it's not working to Find those pleasures. Rather, finding our purpose means admitting we don't have control over a whole bunch of things. So we should: Ecclesiastes 2:24 “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,”

God, ultimately is the one who rules and reigns so our fleshly desire to grasp for ourselves our own meaning and purpose and control is ultimately vain. It's folly. We like to think, you know, i am the commander of my own destiny. Solomon is here to tell us not really. We must all submit to the sovereign hand of god. For he's in control of all things. That's where we're going to end up getting. That becomes in many ways, the theme and the focus and the heart of Ecclesiastes. If Ecclesiastes is, “how do we live life in a broken world?” The first step is understanding our place in this very same broken World. And knowing. That there's a god who is much higher than we are.

So this is what Solomon writes. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 starting in verse 1.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break 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 cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Almighty god. Sovereign king of heaven and earth. The one who knows, the end from the beginning, who has ordained every moment of all time. We praise you for you are the one who rules and reigns. We praise you and we thank you for your work. We thank you for revealing yourself to us. We thank you and praise you for who you are. And so, we pray that you would reveal yourself to us even more clearly this morning. WE ask that you would, by your power help us to see and know both You and ourselves through what you have said. I pray that you would speak through your servant. It's in jesus name that we pray. Amen.

Well, There is certainly one clear theme in this passage. If you have been to Sunday night you will know that one of the best ways to know what some poem or psalm is about is to look for repeated words and phrases. And I gave you a big hint with the title of this sermon, one of the shorter sermon titles that I've ever had. One four letter word. Time. And if you were listening we said that word a lot. 28 times if you were counting. There were 28 times we said TIME So just reading this one poem. Solomon's focus moves from purpose and and what is the goal in my purpose in life? What brings my life value? To instead taking a look at a big picture thing.

Here we start with a really big picture thing: the unending march of time. And in particular here he looks at the nature of time in that, there are certain things that happen at certain times. And there are certain things that have certain times that they are most appropriate, most fitting and we where we will find these things. And in this poem about time, the one thought, the one overarching thing that we must understand. Is god's sovereign. Control.

God’s Soverign CONTROL

Sort of hidden in between each and every one of these lines is this very thought. For everything there is a season. And for every time for every matter under heaven... Notice here we've been hearing over and over again under the sun under the sun under the sun here. Solomon changes, his language, one word different but it makes all the difference. These are matters under heaven.

Heaven -- Where god is seated. Heaven — where he rules and reigns. There is a time there is a season for every matter that is under god's control. And so as we read, there's a time to be born and a time to die and god rules them all. A time to plant a time to pluck up what is planted and god rules them all. A time to kill and a time to heal and god rules them all. Each line, each thought each beat of this poem causes us to see who god is. And who we are not.

And we can see this as we dive into the details of what Solomon chooses to list, ultimately, his goal is to cover everything that could occur in your life. And everything that you could do falls under this same realm of “things God is sovereign over.” But we can dive into this a bit more closely. And we start here: that god has sovereign control over the works of man.

Over all the WORKS of man

We start with sort of the biggest events that we have no control over. But in your life, everyone will do these two things. You're born. And you die. Everything else falls in between these bookends but god is in control of those.

But then, even what we do betweeen those two events.

It's springtime. That's time to plant, but we don't control. When the time to plant seeds is, that's god's control. We are sent to do something in the times that he has ordained. So, it's spring. I don't choose, i mean, i guess i do in some sense if i want my grass to live, i don't choose when it's time to turn off and turn on my sprinkler system, rather, God, the one in control of all things. Causes the Seasons to change and the world to keep on chugging. So in the winter, now It got below freezing and stay below freezing overnight. Well, now it's time to turn off the sprinkler system.

Well, now it's spring, heralded by the arrival off all sorts of weeds in that same grass… and Now it's time to turn it on. I am not in control of those things. I just do what's fitting for that time. There's a time to pluck up what is planted… the time of harvest -- the time where what has been planted now must be reaped I don't control that. Jesus has parables about this, right? You plant the seed You go home. And you wait for it to grow and then you can go harvest.

A time to kill. And a time to heal and it is God who is the one who ordains these times.

There's a time to build things up. A time to build some building project whatever it is and a time to tear down. We went to... years ago now… we went to Vegas. And on the Vegas strip you see this idea that there is a time to build up and a time to tear down In action. Because these casinos have a very high turnover rate. And once this one's old and not the fun place to go, that one is torn down and a new one will be built up. But one day the newest hotel on the strip will be the oldest and so it will be its time to be torn down and another will be built up.

All of the things that we do, all of the WORKS that we do. Do not lie outside, the sovereign control of god. He is the one who ordains all of these things. And so go back to ecclesiastes, chapter 2, verse 26. This is from the hand of god, for apart from him, who can eat, or who can have enjoyment. He's the one who sets the boundaries of time over our lives.

So we submit to that. It's okay that in my life, there may be a time to build up and there may be a time to tear down. It's okay that there may be a time to tear up what I've built and there may be a time to sew back together what has been torn apart. It's okay. That there are some times in my life where i am called to speak out. And there are some times in my life where i am called to keep silent.

There are times in my life. Where i must war. Maybe this is literal. right? There are times in the world where it's time for war. But there may be times in my life where i am called to war and push and strive, and there are times where there is peace. And I, David do not have sovereign control over the works of my life in this time. God does.

I mentioned that this portion of Ecclesiastes is the only part to ever become a top 40 hit. and that was because in 1965 the Byrds took these words, added just a few and then released their record. But as I listened to that song this week Something I never really realized came into focus. In the chorus of the song they added one word three times “Turn Turn Turn”. and at the end of the song they added one phrase. A time for peace… “I swear it’s not too late.”

Tier song was a song protesting the Vietnam war, and in fact, it proves that they did not really get the heart of this passage at all. Because what Solomon wants us to understand is that it is not for us to get to change the times, yes there is a time for peace, but I don’t get to dictate when that is, because God is the one who has sovereign control over all the works of man.

But i don't want us to just see this poem from a works based point of view. that well, there's things we have to do and there's times to do this and there's times to do that, and that is all solomon is talking about. Because He's also sovereign over all of the affections of man.

Over all the AFFECTIONS of man

And this is maybe an old-fashioned way to use this word, but it's proper. I looked it up in the dictionary.

Here not affections like, I love this person or that, but like the difference between EFFECT and AFFECT where affections are those things that as Merriam Webster says: “emotion or desire, especially as influencing behavior or action.”

This doesn't just mean the things we love, though. That's part of it. These are the things that cause us to to have affections both in a positive and negative way sometimes. These are the, the emotions and the things that that stir in our hearts and our soul. And our spirit. These too Solomon wants us to see are under the sovereign control of god.

There's a time to weep and a time to laugh. These things affect us. These things weigh on our souls. And God is the one who is sovereign over these things, The good joyous times where we find laughter and joy, those are from the hand of god. And the hard difficult times. Those too are from the hand of god. Our difficulties, our challenges, the things that bother us, do not fall outside of the realm of god's sovereign hand. Because He is sovereign over ALL things.

There is a time to mourn and a time to dance and both of these are from the hand of god. So, as you dance, and have joy, As you look forward to. Maybe you're planning a wedding, I don’t know if that applies to anyone here, but maybe it does… And that is a time of dancing and rejoicing in joyous time.

But there's also times in our lives where we plan funerals, And both of these times, that way in different ways, heavy on our hearts, are from the hand of god.

There's a time to love. There's a time to hate. And both of those times come from the hand of god.

A time to embrace to feel the warmth and joy of an embrace of a friend or loved one and a time to refrain from embracing. These too are from the hand of god.

And as God sets the boundaries of the times of our lives, it's not for us to moan and complain and grumble about the fact that we can't control it. Rather, tere is nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, i saw is from the hand of god. That's the point here. God's in control over the times. And seasons of the things we do and gods in control over the things that weigh on our hearts and the things that bring joy and life to our hearts, What Am I trying to say, only what I have been saying… that God is sovereign.

If you spent any amount of time talking to Lawrence, to pick on him for a second… If you talk to him about the idea of god's sovereignty, He will be quick to tell you that we often think far too little about god's sovereignty. It's okay when god's sovereign over some things, but the things that directly impact my life, i don't want Him to be sovereign over those. WE place God, and his sovereign control over things in a little box that makes me feel comfortable. But that's not how this works. We do not get to pick and choose those things that God is in control over.

God is sovereign.... Here's the point.... Over ALL.

Over ALL

There is not one millisecond of one moment of life on this earth that does not fall under his sovereign control. There's not one event, not one thing, not one iota of anything that god is not sovereign over This is the point of this whole poem.

Many people read Ecclesiastes and they view this book as Solomon wrestling with life, apart from god. And then at the very end getting to this hope: That okay but it's okay because god's good.

That's not the point, I believe, of the book of Ecclesiastes. That misses the weight of passages like the one we are reading today. God is in each and every point and each and every Line of this beautiful poem. God is sovereign over all things. All of them.

But, what about..... Yes, that too. He's sovereign. Over all things. This is the power, the might, the glory of the god that we serve. He is not a god, who is unaware or unable or not powerful enough. Rather he is the omniscient omnipotent almighty sovereign king of heaven and earth. This is our hope. This is our joy. This is what stirs in our heart!

We serve, We are loved by... This sovereign god of all TIME. Of all things. The one who has, we say this phrase, “ordained the end from the beginning.”

When i would teach this thought to youth, when I was a youth pastor I would say it like this: You know, sometimes we feel like, and more to the point, we LIVE like God is up in heaven scrambling To make all of the wrongs rights. That something happens and god is like “i didn't see that one coming. We got to fix that and we got to fix this” And the end result is that we live like and feel like god is in perpetual Crisis mode. Fixing all of the things we mess up.

That is not the god of scriptures. That is not the god that we serve. Instead we rejoice because He's the one who is sovereign over ALL

This is our joy. This is our hope. And here i think is the lesson. As we move to: “how do I apply this passage to my life” There are really two lessons that we should learn. There are two different, and while at surface level we might think that these are competing, if we understand them and how to rightly apply them we will see that we actually cannot get one without the other. And so The first is Humility.

Which teaches us HUMILITY

This is the thought I've been sort of harping on: God is in control, and here the humility: And you are not!

Don’t live like you are, don't act like you are, don't think like you are and don't expect to be!

The thought here is this: know your place in the universe and your place is not God's place. So, stop trying To change these things. You have no control over when you are born or when you die, that is the sovereign hand of God. So, stop trying to have that control. You don't have control over when it's planting time and when it's harvesting time. So stop trying to get control over these things. You don't have control to determine that is it right now time to mourn or is it right now time to weep... so live in the place that god has called you to be. and do so Humbly.

We are not in control. We don't have that power. So stop living like we do. Stop forcing yourself to. To try to grasp at it... instead live in humility.

Have this mind among yourselves, Which is yours in christ jesus, who though he was in the form of god did not count equality with god, of a thing to be grasped. But instead he humbled himself… That is what Paul wrote and this is what solomon is teaching us.

If jesus who was The very essence of god -- for he was god — Was willing to submit to Times and seasons we should too. Just think of the life of jesus for a little while:

He was born. Born As a helpless, innocent baby. There is a time where he was forced into exile, Herod is killing all the babies and he is found running to Egypt. Then he lived his life and there was a time as he was growing and maturing and then there came at time that he would begin, his public ministry. And in that ministry, there would be a time when the crowds loved him and he was experiencing adoration and praise. But then there would be a time when the crowds would turn on him. Ultimately there would be a time when the crowds would turn on him so much that they would be crying out “crucify him.” Jesus submitted to all of these times.

There were times of joy as he fellowship with his Close friends -- The disciples. There would be times of morning, john 11:35 “jesus Wept.”

A time to speak as he would Matthew 23 where he would pronounce seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees. And a time to keep silent as they are -- at their false trial -- accusing him and bringing in false witnesses, and he spoke not a word. Jesus lived all of these times. And humbly. We should too.

But this poem doesn't just teach us. This humility. Here's your maybe good news for this morning. It also teaches us confidence.

… and CONFIDENCE

And these two go hand in hand. It is a strong confidence, and a bold in some sense confidence but it is a humble confidence. Because it is not confidence EVER in me.

Again, not in ourselves because we start with this humility, we start with humility realizing. We don't have confidence in myself, to be able to control these things. But then from where does my confidence Come? It comes from the God, who's in control of all things.

In the book of Romans chapter 8 we find what is in some ways Paul's version of this same thought. For in one way, though Paul's doing something... in some ways bigger.... But i think this is a right way to read what Paul's doing. “There's a time for everything.” Says Solomon.

and he gives us these extremes and we go back and forth. We're planting, we're plucking up, we're tearing, we're sewing, we're laughing. We're mourning back and forth in all of these times. God is in control.

But where then does our confidence come? Lets go to Paul Romans chapter 8, verse 37-39

Romans 8:37–39 ESV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is our confidence. Life or death. God is still with us. That is our confidence. Paul takes us life death, angels demons, height depth, and those are the same sorts of places that Paul is taking us. So To go back to Ecclesiastes, we can say with boldness: there's a time to be born and a time to die but Nothing can separate us from the love of god that is in christ Jesus, our Lord.

There's a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, but nothing can separate us from the love of god, that is in christ jesus, our lord,

There's a time to seek and a time to lose, but nothing can separate us from the love of god that is in christ jesus, our lord,

There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak, but nothing can separate us from the love of god. That is in christ jesus, our lord,

That is our confidence. So we serve Him. And love him.

If Ecclesiastes is, as a book, how do we live life in this broken world? And i said at the beginning of this sermon, part of that is understanding our place in this broken world. Here's your place: If you are in christ, You are safe. And secure. In him.

Paul lived... Paul lived this poem. I know, he would write to the Philippian church. I know What it means to have much and what it means to have nothing. What it means to feel hunger. And what it means to be full. I can do all things through christ, who strengthens me. For there is a season for everything. There is a time, a time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up. A time to kill and a time to heal and i can do all things through christ. Whose strengthens me?

That's the point, That's where our confidence comes. May we look to the god who saves us.