Time Passes

Again, it's a joy to be with you all on this Lord's Day after a year and a few months. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Ecclesiastes 3, and we'll be considering verses 1 through 15. Ecclesiastes 3, verse 1 to 15. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible in front of you in your pew.

Though I am not a member here, I'm sure the members would be happy for you to take that Bible if you don't have one. Keep it for yourself that you might have a copy of God's Word in your home. in your home. The big number is the The big number is the chapter number, and the small number are the verse numbers.

This is God's Word in Ecclesiastes 3, and it reads:

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; 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 avoid embracing; a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted.

— Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (CSB)

This is the word of the Lord Let pray Father, help us understand what you would have for us in Ecclesiastes. Help us consider time and its realities and you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Why Time Matters to the Believer

This morning we'll be considering time. And time is something we're all familiar with because we've aged. We've aged since last year. I have more white hairs this year than I did last year.

But a question that we have is when was the last time that you wished for more time? Did you get it? And when you made that wish, did that also slip through your fingers? Do you constantly feel like you're playing catch-up with the plans that you've made?

Plan as we might. The reality that we live in is one where time always seems to get the better of us There no escaping time and it moving forward So as Christians as those who consider God word how do we make use of the time that God gives This morning we find ourselves in a passage that talks all about time and my hope is that we'll walk away from it knowing this, that we become better time spenders, that we would learn how to spend time wisely, that we would spend time wisely. And how does the text point us to these things? Well, we consider it in three parts.

The first is that time passes in verses 1 to 8. Time passes. Secondly, eternity exists. Eternity exists, verses 9 to 11.

And lastly, today matters. Today matters. Time passes. Eternity exists.

The Reality of Eternity Beyond Time

Today matters. If we acknowledge those three things, So then we'll be those who spend time wisely in this life. And if you've never read Ecclesiastes, it might feel like a random book in the Bible, but Ecclesiastes was written, if you look at Ecclesiastes 1 verse 1, it's written by a son of David, king in Jerusalem. Many would identify this king who writes this book as King Solomon, who came after David, a son of David.

But the writer throughout the book identifies himself as Kohelet, which is a Hebrew word, but we translate it and identify him as teacher or preacher. So Kohelet, Solomon, is writing to people. And this is Solomon in a later stage of life. This is him older.

If you were to write something to the younger generations that come after you—mistakes that you've made, choices that you've made, decisions that you pick and choose from—what kind of advice would you give those coming after you? That's a bit of the perspective that Solomon has when he writes Ecclesiastes for all who would read. The main question that he asks is found in chapter 1, verse 3.

What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?

— Ecclesiastes 1:3 (CSB)

So here are our efforts, our wisdom, and our labor. And here is what do we do with those efforts and labor as those who live under the sun As those who don get to sit outside of time as those who are bound to time who work 40 jobs or study eight hours a day the time that is accumulated in doing things to invest in this life, why shouldn't we consider all of those things as pointless and futile if eventually all of it will fade away. Ecclesiastes 2.11 echoes that same thought. Kahelet says,

When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

— Ecclesiastes 2:11 (CSB)

Wisdom is the reality of what we're dealing with in Ecclesiastes. And yet at the end of chapter 2, this is the turn of the author. He says in verses 24 to 25, And so as we come to chapter 3 having this question in our minds what do we do with futility What do we do with toil What do we do with hardship when everything else will fade away And so we come back to the first question of how do we think about time? Do we feel like we have too much of it, too little?

Have we yearned for more time? When was the last time we hoped that time would move a little bit quicker? Are all of our hopes and dreams ahead of us? Do we despise God for the present?

Because what we desire is two years, five years, ten years down the road, Ecclesiastes 3 confirms and confronts our intuitions, and it will make us look at time as we experience it. It will make us consider God as He controls it. So we turn to chapter 3 and consider the very first line.

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven:

— Ecclesiastes 3:1 (CSB)

And I won't reread verses 2 through 8, but if you just look at it, you'll see opposite extremes of what's listed. We see.

a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build;

— Ecclesiastes 3:3 (CSB)

To weep and to laugh, to mourn and to dance, and when we read those back to back, what Kohelet wants us to hear is that here is life, here is death, here is weeping, here is laughter, mourning and dancing, love and hate. In the same way that a clock tick‑tocks, we're being brought from one end to the other. We're meant to consider the whole of life, the whole of time, and that every aspect of life is controlled in one sense by time, that there's a time and a moment for everything that passes in this world. But for us who sit in a world created by God, how can we be confident that there is life, that there is death, that there is mourning, that there is laughter?

It's because creation has an order. Creation is ordered; we can expect that someone who is pregnant will give birth. We can expect that someone who grows old and weak will eventually be in the grave. We can expect that if someone makes a joke, we'll laugh. We can expect that if someone passes, we will weep. These expectations happen in the created reality where we as creatures experience time after time after time. There's a rhythm to the life that we live. There's a rhythm that we experience and feel as creatures who wait for the next hour, the next second, the next week.

And sadly time doesn't wait for us; it ever marches forward. Verses 2 through 8 something there hits us, something there relates to us because every human being who has ever lived has experienced something from what's being described—the opposite poles of life, life and death, love and hate. We experience that truly and seriously in the life that we live. We know this to be true: time passes when someone is born, when someone dies, when someone gets married, when someone graduates. And we feel it on the other end when all of those things are what we are hoping for. We are hoping for children to be born. We are hoping for someone to be married. We are hoping to graduate. Things in the future, things are not here yet. And time continues to pass.

The same but different. Same but different, meaning weeping and laughing are the same thing as loving and hating, as warring and peacekeeping, because what they're describing is the entirety of this life. We'll find ourselves somewhere in that spectrum. How do people deal with this reality?

The time keeps moving forward. Some try to stay young, whether it's through exercise, whether it's through other means, whether it's through medical improvements. Others try to maximize their days. I don't know what kind of person you are, but if you list out your hours in 30‑minute blocks and you fill each and every one of those blocks with something to do, others indiscriminately pursue efficiency because for them inefficiency is wasted time. Not doing something so that you can move yourself further along is wasted time. Therefore every hour of my day must be done for something so that I can improve, so that others can improve. And mind you, not all of those desires are inherently bad. There are good things for us to be disciplined about the time that we use.

It's a good thing for us to be disciplined about putting time away for important things that we want to do. And yet, I've said it a lot already, but time still exists and it moves forward and we cannot escape it. We as human beings toil and labor as those who are under heaven. In a world that God created, we are under heaven.

And yet the one who created all of those things that happen in verses 2 through 8, Ecclesiastes 5.2 says, is the one who is in heaven. God sits above us. He is in heaven. Psalm 115 verse 3 says that God is in the heavens and does all that he pleases.

And because God is in the heavens, so everything under the heavens find their orderliness and step with this God who has created So if our first point is time passes and we're supposed to feel that as human beings, so then our second point is this. Eternity exists. Eternity exists. Now eternity, when we speak about it, isn't as though it started at one point and will now move forward into the future and will never end.

Living Wisely in the Present

What we're describing when we say eternity is no past, no future. It is just existent. It is forever the past and forever the future. Eternity is who God is.

He is an eternal God who exists outside of time. And that's important for us to note because as we consider the ending of verses 2 through 8 of Kohelet describing how time takes away and continues to move forward, He describes the relationship between time and toil and asks this question: here is time and all that it does and all that it takes away.

What does the worker gain from his struggles?

— Ecclesiastes 3:9 (CSB)

What does the worker gain from his struggles?

— Ecclesiastes 3:9 (CSB)

Gain is the advantage that we get, but this word that he uses for struggle is describing something else than just a regular work week that we experience. It's not just the ability to be able to complete the tasks that are set before us, but what he's highlighting in using the word struggle is the drudgery and the toil of working. And we know this to be true. If any of us have worked at anything at length, we don't just always work with smiling faces and happy thoughts.

When we work, we don't always go home and then feel energized and ready to serve our family because we had such a great day at work. The drudgery and struggling and toil that he's is what someone should feel after reading verses 2 through 8, knowing that we can't escape time. I work 40 hours, but life still seems hard. I been discipling someone for six months and nothing has changed Why should I continue to do what I been doing if I don see results Why should I keep doing what I'm doing if my perspective of life has not changed?

Nothing has changed is the cry of our hearts when things don't go according to our plans, and yet he continues in verse 10.

I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied.

— Ecclesiastes 3:10 (CSB)

Them occupied. This task, Kohelet describes again in Ecclesiastes 1, verses 13 to 14. And there, this is how he describes it. I've

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

— Ecclesiastes 1:14 (CSB)

Verse 13 describes that pursuit as a miserable task to keep them occupied. Is this really how God thinks of his creation? Is this how Solomon is seeing the world, what he's observed, that God has given us a miserable task to do to pursue to complete In chapter 3 the business that Kohelet is referring to is the gain the advantage that's associated with struggling. If in Ecclesiastes 1, why should we pursue wisdom if we combine all of our efforts, compiled all of the wisdom that we've gained from this world, and we were to put it on a list and everybody were to read that list, we still wouldn't be able to make all of the right decisions in this life.

And if we followed his trajectory, coming from this understanding of time, that it will eventually kill, destroy, take away everything that we love. So he asks the question in verse 9,

What does the worker gain from his struggles?

— Ecclesiastes 3:9 (CSB)

Because it is a struggle. It is drudgery. It is hardship. And if chapter 1 is describing the task that man has been given as a miserable task, what can move us away from concluding why this life is worth living according to the way God has put it?

We would expect him to say after verse 10 that it's hopeless, that time erodes all things, and that toil and struggling will lead to nothingness. There is no gain nor any advantage because all of it will fade. But that's not how he continues in chapter 3. He says instead in verse 11, he—he being God—has made everything appropriate in its time. The ESV says that God has made everything beautiful in its time. God makes everything beautiful. Time passes.

Eternity exists. God, who is over time, makes everything beautiful. God is eternal and we are not. God makes all things beautiful.

And isn't that hard to believe? Really, God makes all things beautiful? He makes all things appropriate in their time? How can that be when the world still seems broken?

That with the same rain, God causes floods, and with the same rain, he waters the crops. With the same wind, he destroys homes, and with the same wind, he carries the wings of birds. Within the same family, he allows life to be born and allows life to be taken away. Deuteronomy 32.39 says of God see now that I, even I am he and there is no God beside me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal and there is none that can deliver out of my hand this would be terrifying if all God is is someone who stands in the heavens does all that he pleases with no respect for his creation.

If all He is a God who has no love and affection for those He created, this would be terrifying. And before we go to relief, Bobby Jameson says this of our creatureliness and of God being high up and us being down below: Happiness comes not from trying to freeze time's flow, but from receiving its limits. Time passes. Eternity exists.

And we are creatures bound to time. will experience the passing of this life from one moment to the other. And Kohelet continues in verse 11 and says, He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. God, all-knowing, all-powerful, placed eternity into man's heart.

What does that mean, that eternity is in our hearts? Well, think for a moment. Do you know the feeling of yearning for another day with a loved one who's passed?

Hoping that children would stay young a little bit longer. Wanting the sons to stay up just for a little while longer that you would be able to spend time with your wife or your husband on the beachside Do you yearn for times when marriages were warmer, when relationships weren't so strained, when there were less things to worry about from day to day, that it feels like as we keep moving forward, the burdens of this life increase and we don't know their end? And yet that yearning that you feel, the desire for more than this life has to offer, is eternity in your heart. That yearning of knowing that even when you accomplish the goals that you've set out and that you can't fulfill them, is eternity in your heart.

The reality that God exists and is out there. that all of those longings that we feel and our aches and pains, we ask who has done this, that we feel this way, and the answer that Kohelet gives is that God has done it. Verse 11, He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end God is the one that makes everything beautiful in its time that the timeline of the Almighty can often escape us We aren't sure how things will unfold, that there's one thing that we can be sure about, is that God is the one who moves history forward.

If the opening poem points to different aspects of life, then God is the one who puts all things together according to the counsel of His will and makes everything beautiful, appropriate in its time. All of these longings that tug at our hearts, seemingly in different directions, culminate in the same burdened sigh we feel. Burdens add up. Time won't slow down.

Try as we might, we can't begin to fathom what eternity means because we're creatures who experience this moment to the next. We will be unable to go back to the time at the start of the sermon; we only experience this. God, on the other hand, is eternal. And by that we don't just mean that He was the first thing ever here, that started it all. He was before anything was. God always existed and He was outside of time.

And he who was outside of time created time. he created it so that his creatures could experience all that was listed in verses 2 through 8 and creatures who rightly understand their place in the world are able to rejoice in the world that God has given but the problem is is that the first creatures Adam and Eve sinned in the world that God created they chose to use their time for something else something they desired more. They chose to be like God in a manner that God did not want. Their selfishness and desire, rightly judged by God, moved out of the garden.

And yet the Father who sits in the heavens, God who feels out of reach, enters into His creation in time. Galatians 4:4 describes this entrance: "In the fullness of time, born under the law, born of a virgin, Jesus came."

When our yearnings for this life burden us when we choose to sin because time is not going according to our plans when we would rather do it our way and not God's way because we think it's better, it's quicker it's more convenient in the fullness of time Jesus entered into his creation he who was outside of time entered into it that he might fulfill the law as he is under it that he would tabernacle with us that he would dwell with us and that as Kohelet is dealing with the burden and the hardship of life that time continues to move forward that what can he do with his drudgery and toil and to that as David reminded us this morning that Jesus says to all who are weary and heavy laden come to me For his yoke is easy and his burden is light That if you think you'll find your value in the work that you do, put your trust and your hope in the work of the one whose work will never be uncounted.

That in heaven, all of Christ's work is not just displayed on our behalf in front of the Father. But because we're united to Christ for all of those who believe, His work is ours. And so our sin, His. sin his.

The promise of Jesus is that for all of those who would repent and believe and trust in Him, to recognize themselves as sinners in need of a Savior, who are tired of the drudgery and toil that leads to nowhere. He calls you to trust in him. That you would lay your burdens at Jesus' feet so that you can have peace, that you can have hope, that time would be redeemed In a world where the passage of time is inevitable rest your hopes in the one whose work never fails and is always true, and that's Jesus. And so in considering And so in considering that time passes, so then eternity exists, this third point is that today matters.

Joyful Work and God’s Purpose

Verses 12 through 15. Today matters. Life is a gift. Life is a gift that we get to enjoy.

And notice where Kohelet turns in verse 12.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts.

— Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (CSB)

When the writer says, "I know," he's not just affirming observations about life. He's not just saying, "I know that life happens this way because I've seen it." When he says, "I know," he says, "I know because, yes, he's seen it, but he's also experienced it." This experience of knowing eternity, of knowing God, is something that he hasn't just observed in the life of another, but is something that he's living according to. It's the difference between knowing something factually and knowing something experientially. And this joy and this call to delight in the things that God has given is precisely the encouragement that we need after reading that eternity is in our hearts, but we'll never be able to understand all of it. Look what he says.

Be joyful and do good as long as you live. Eat, drink, and take pleasure in all your toil. The only one who's able to rejoice and make much of his toil, his struggle, his work, is the one who knows the God who has created the world, because when we know that this is God's world, it orders how we understand our work.

We know where our work leads. We know where our struggles lead. We know that they will all be put together by the God who sits in the heavens and who is near us in Christ, because God is eternal and you are not. Enjoy life and do good, because time is finite and fleeting, so enjoy what God has given you as a gift. And we can read a verse like this and not think twice about the directions.

Like we could just read this and move past it and never consider it again. But I encourage you to take it to heart because Kohelet is saying that because our lives will at some point expire, because we will eventually die, at some point in time we will be in the grave, delight in what you've been given. And if we think about it, it can be hard to follow that, to enjoy this life, enjoy the life that God has given, it becomes hard to enjoy and obey when there are endless complaints we make about the life that we currently live.

That if we were tasked, if we were, well, all of us in the room right now, were to write down something that's been hard about this week, I sure we could exhaust the paper that we have in this room And yet do we do that same thing of counting the ways that the Lord has been faithful, even as we count our complaint? Don't neglect the precious time you have with those around you. What does it mean to know that time exists, that time passes, that eternity exists, and that today matters. It means take the trip that you're going to take with your family.

Go to the restaurant that you're planning to go to later today or the one that you've been putting off because it's too expensive. But if you're trying to budget, maybe don't do that, but it depends. Sit and watch the stars together. Go get ice cream with your family.

Go take a walk. When we say enjoy, we're not just saying do the things that look Christianly. It's because we're Christians that these seemingly dull moments others would say in life are worth nothing, so we can extract the most amount of joy in them because God has made us. So we get to enjoy those moments in this life where we wish time would slow down, and yet we know that it doesn't. And yet even still, we can rejoice.

Applying Eternal Perspective to Daily Life

Because God is delighted as his children delight in his creation. How can we spend the time we've been given wisely? By living wisely before the face of God, knowing that it's his world.

That if the eternal God who causes all things to come to pass is the one who makes everything beautiful in their time, should we not trust him when he says, enjoy this life? Again, do we count our blessings as hurriedly as we count our sorrows? That when you find yourself counting the days and the hours of the feeling of abandonment, count the hours of the Lord's sustaining grace in your life. When it feels like an eternity for each difficult day to pass, remember that Jesus suffered an eternity of wrath on your behalf on the cross.

And for an eternity of suffering, we can enjoy the life that we've been given. In verses 14 through 15, we're reminded that only what God does endures forever. Since the beginning, God has been acting. He acted in speaking the world into existence.

And what's one of the reasons that God acts? In 3:14, we see, "So that people fear before him." And the kind of fear that Proverbs says is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those who rightly know their place in the world, those made in God's image, are the very same ones who get to experience this life truly for what it is.

God not only controls past events but he repeats them over and over again until we finally understand what he desires to teach us. At least that's what Barak says in verse 15, this description of justice and those who are persecuted. God's making sure that what happened before is brought in front of us again, that we might learn what he has for us in this life. Yes, time moves forward. Yes, life is difficult, and yet God sits in the heavens. And though while we are under heaven, we know the one who has put all things together.

Beloved, today matters. Therefore, make the sacrifices you need to today for the glory of God. Today matters. Therefore, rest.

Yes, eternity has been placed in our hearts and you might feel the tension of needing to work all things out for yourself, but you aren't the eternal God. God rested from his labors, so should we. Today matters; life is short, so don't underestimate the daily habits that build up spiritual virtue and discipline in your life. Today matters, so pray with your children even when you're tired. Read scripture with your spouse so that both of you can draw from the life‑giving word. Today matters, so watch a movie, go on a walk, play a game. Why? Because God holds the universe together.

Because God holds the universe together. the Christian delights in the realities of this life the Christian enjoys and weeps and desires and cries and all of those things under the banner that though we are under heaven we serve the one who is above it and we serve the one who is drawn near to us in Christ, in creation, in life one hymn says this is my father's world I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees of skies and seas his hands the wonders wrought if God cares that trees would grow that waves would crash that birds would be fed why would he not care for you who has been made in his image and enjoys his creation in time?

Beloved, this morning we've come to realize and are confronted with that time, as a master, can be cruel. Time passes, eternity exists, and yet today matters. Before we knew it, time turned our hairs white. Time wrinkled our faces.

Still, time allowed us to enjoy life with family, to be part of faithful churches with faithful members, to allow us to grow in patience and humility. Time passed and allowed us to see children graduate, to see people married. Time might ultimately erode all that we love and hope for, but God helps us because even time obeys God. Time is created and God is over it. And what Ecclesiastes tells us is that God makes everything beautiful in its time. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you know us and you hear us. We thank you that you make everything beautiful in its time, and as we struggle with the hardships of this life, not knowing what to make sense of, even the burdens and trials that we experience, help us trust that you know better than us. Help us remember that you're a good God who knows us, knows our thoughts, knows what we'll do. Keep us near the cross.

Help us trust in the One who keeps us near you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. When our race is complete, still our lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. We get to get this glimpse of what our eternity will look like right now as we stand to sing, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Please stand. What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer?

There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. To this I hope; my hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to His. Oh, how strange and divine I can sing. Now He's mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the Savior, He will stay. I lay her home in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need His power is dismayed. To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me.

Through the deepest valley He will lead. For the night has been won and I shall overcome, yet not I but through Christ in me. No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future should, the price it has been paid. For Jesus led and suffered for my pardon, and He was raised to overthrow the grave. To this side all my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever in my pain, all the chains are released. I can't sing, I am free, and not I but through Christ in me. With every breath I long to follow Jesus, for He has said that He will bring me home.

And day by day I know he will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne. To this I hold my hope is only Jesus. Oh, the glory evermore to Him. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Receive this benediction. Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever.

Amen. Dismissed.