Doing Time

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Bubba)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Philippians 3:8–9 )

Prayer of Praise (Shelly Robertson)

Run and Run (Christ is All My Righteousness)

Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy

Prayer of Confession (Joel Whitcomb), Impatience

Assurance of Pardon (Galatians 4:4–5)

Before The Throne Of God Above

A Christian's Daily Prayer

Scripture Reading (Eccl. 3:1-15)—page 657 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Bubba)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to trust God’s perfect timing

Prayer for kingdom partner—Thrive

Prayer for US—Vice President

Prayer for the world—Bahamas

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away. [1]

Call me a cretin, but I first learned of this famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley only a few months ago.

The speaker is telling about meeting a traveler, who recently visited the ruins of some ancient kingdom. The traveler saw the legs of a stone statue. No torso, just the legs. At the base of the statue, the traveler sees an inscription: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

So the traveler looks around, and all he sees is the decaying ruins of the empire. Ozymandias, once the self-proclaimed “King of Kings,” the would-be tyrant of the world, is now just a name carved in stone—forgotten by time, swallowed by the sands. He ruled like he was eternal, but in the end, time proved to be the true tyrant.

That’s the message of Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 we don’t rule time—time rules us. And if we don’t learn to think rightly about time, we’ll waste it chasing legacies that crumble into dust.

Time is a tyrant until you trust the One behind it.

That’s the Big idea we’re going to learn with God’s help this morning.

We’ll do so by considering Three Truths About Time:

Time Ruins Us from verses 1-9,…

God Rules Time from verses 10-11, and…

Trust Redeems Time from verses 12-15.

1) Time RUINS Us.

Ecclesiastes 3:1—For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven

The verses that follow feature some of the most beautiful poetry in the entire Bible.

It’s no wonder this is the most well-known section in the book of Ecclesiastes, and one of the most well-known poems in the entire Bible.

But with all due respect to The Byrds—and every couple that included this passage in their wedding ceremony—this is not intended to be a happy and hopeful poem.

We know that by reading the conclusion to this poem, which is regularly omitted when this poem is read.

Ecclesiastes 3:9—What gain has the worker from his toil?

This is almost the exact same rhetorical question that the Preacher asked in...

Ecclesiastes 1:3—What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

And the answer to both questions is the same: NOTHING!

After looking at all the seasons in life, the Preacher concludes that the end result is nothing!

This poem isn’t celebrating the seasons in time, it’s lamenting the reality that time is a tyrant that ruins every single one of us.

Look at the poem again...

Ecclesiastes 3:2–8—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.

Consider a few lessons about time that the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us...

A) Time is UNCONTROLLABLE.

Most of the seasons mentioned in this poem represent things outside our control.

You did not schedule the day of your birth. And you should not schedule the day of your death. Life and death are outside of your control.

Whether or not your nation is at war or at peace isn’t up to you. And even if you do your dead-level best to stay out of conflicts, sometimes they have a way of finding you against your will. Like the US after Pearl Harbor.

Some Bible teachers have taught this passage as if it’s about the wisdom of good timing.

“Make sure you know whether it’s appropriate to embrace or not, whether it’s the right time to be quiet or speak, laugh or weep.”

While good timing is important, I don’t think that’s the point of this passage at all.

Solomon’s point is that these things cannot be scheduled.

“I’d like three months of happiness, followed by just 10 minutes of sadness, please.”

That’s not how it works, and we all know it!

Time ruins us because it is uncontrollable. But also, it ruins us because...

B) Time brings SUFFERING.

Life is filled with flaws. Death, killing, breaking down, weeping, mourning, loss, casting away, hate, and war.

Even some of the more obscure lines in the poem point to the reality of suffering:

In verse 5, the Preacher talks about “casting away stones.” This is probably a reference to the ancient practice of throwing stones in an enemy’s fields so the harvest would be ruined.

In verse 7, the Preacher says there is “a time to tear,” which is a reference to the ancient practice of tearing your clothes as a sign of mourning.

As we think through this poem, it’s helpful to remember the difference between a descriptive passage and a prescriptive passage.

A prescriptive passage is prescribing something. It’s telling us what to do. Solomon will give us a prescription in verses 12-13, but he’s not doing it here.

He’s not telling us to kill, or hate, or start wars. He’s just describing the reality of life in a fallen world.

His point is that life is filled with suffering. And the more time marches on, the more suffering we will endure.

Time ruins us because it brings suffering. But also, it ruins us because...

C) Time doesn’t LAST.

You’ve heard the saying, “This too shall pass!” It’s commonly used to encourage someone going through a hard time.

Your baby is screaming at all hours of the night? This too shall pass.

Your teenager is screaming at all hours of the day? This too shall pass.

Work is hard? Traffic is bad? You’re sick again? This too shall pass.

But you know we could just as truthfully use that phrase to talk about the good things in life.

Oh, you’re on a wonderful, restful vacation? This too shall pass.

You like that food, do you? This too shall pass.

You’re in a really great spot with your spouse? Everybody’s healthy at home? This too shall pass.

Oh wow, you’re still alive? This too shall pass.

The Preacher’s poem is filled with lots of wonderful things we enjoy in life: births, harvests, healing, buildings, laughter, dancing, the warmth of an embrace, the joy of finding something that’s lost, the goodness of love and peace.

But time ruins us because it doesn’t last. Finally, it ruins us because...

C) Time takes EVERYTHING.

People say time heals all wounds. That sounds nice, but the reality is if you wait long enough, time won’t heal your wounds. It will bury you with them. In the end, time takes everything from everyone.

I can’t explain this any better than Bobby Jamieson does in his book Everything is Never Enough.

“Given enough time, time will take back all it gives. Given enough line, time will reel back all it cast your way. Every blessing time brings will eventually make way for a burden. Time runs in only one direction, but it gives and takes equally. All its gifts are loans. Each of time’s goods gets shoved off the shelf by its opposite. In all time’s changes, the constant is the balance sheet’s relentless homing in on zero. No profit stays put for long. . . . Once time finishes you, your final balance will perfectly match the zero you started with.” [2]

In the end, whatever you gained in this life will be taken by the tyrant of time.

Even if, like Ozymandias or Solomon, you ascend to the highest position of power and wealth in the universe, you’ll still lose it all in the end.

The point of this beautiful poem in Ecclesiastes 3 is that time is a tyrant.

Time ruins us because it is uncontrollable, it brings suffering, it doesn’t last, and it takes everything.

Aren’t you glad Solomon kept writing after verse 9?

Remember our Big Idea: Time is a tyrant until you trust the One behind it.

The light of hope cannot penetrate the darkness of time until we look behind the curtain to the One who created it.

So consider with me our second truth about time...

2) God RULES Time.

Remember how we said a few weeks ago that the book of Ecclesiastes has two angles?

Sometimes—in the parts that sound the most depressing—the Preacher is looking at the back side of the tapestry. All he sees under the sun is a tangled mess of string with no discernible pattern.

But then occasionally he switches his perspective to the other side of the tapestry where he sees purpose and beauty and glory. There he sees the Designer.

And that’s exactly what happens beginning in verse 10 as Solomon looks at time from another angle...

Ecclesiastes 3:10—I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

If we stopped at verse 9 we would get the impression that time is sovereign. It’s a tyrant we cannot control that ultimately takes away everything it gives.

But here in verse 10 we see that there’s Someone behind time: a personal God who existed before time and is sovereign over time.

This means that the seasons we experience in this life are not the result of fate or chance. They are gifts from God Himself.

Think back over some of the seasons Solomon mentioned: death, weeping, loss, hate, and war.

Is Solomon really suggesting that God is sovereign over racism? Or the wars in Gaza or Ukraine? Or the loss of your loved one?

Some people say, “Absolutely not! God is in charge of the good things, not the bad things.

Like Rabbi Harold Kushner, who argued that “God is doing the best He can under the circumstances.”

Here’s the problem with this idea: you end up with a puny god who cannot be trusted. Meanwhile, the tyrant time keeps marching on and there’s nothing anybody can do to stop him.

It’s no comfort to believe in a good God who isn’t sovereign.

It’s also no comfort to believe in a sovereign God who isn’t good.

On the morning of October 21, 1966, in a small mining village in South Wales, disaster struck. A massive pile of mining waste collapsed. The heavy, black sludge came rushing down the hill like a wave of mud, crashing into the village below.

Tragically, it struck the local elementary school first. Inside, the children had just settled into their first lessons of the day. They never had a chance. The thick sludge smashed through the walls and filled the classrooms, burying everything in its path. In a matter of minutes, 116 people were dead—109 of them were children.

In his book Trusting God, Jerry Bridges tells about a pastor who was interviewed about the tragedy. When the pastor was asked, “Where was God when this happened?!?” he responded, “Well . . . I suppose we have to admit that this is one of those occasions when the Almighty made a mistake.” [3]

I’m sure this pastor was trying to comfort people. But believing in a God who makes mistakes isn’t comforting!

Instead, we need a theology that believes God is both sovereign and good. We need the theology of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 3:11a—He has made everything beautiful in its time.…

Life under the sun is filled with death, decay, and ugliness.

But the God who lives beyond the sun is able to take the evil things we experience in time and turn them into good.

One of the best examples of this in the Bible is the story of Joseph.

You remember the story: he was hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and imprisoned.

His life was a lot like Ecclesiastes 3: joy, then suffering, then joy then suffering, over and over again.

And yet, because God rules over time He used Joseph’s suffering to orchestrate a series of events that led to the salvation of the nation of Egypt and the preservation of God’s people.

And when Joseph’s brothers eventually apologized to Joseph for their actions, Joseph said this...

Genesis 50:20—As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

The Apostle Paul takes this idea and makes it even more clear when he writes...

Romans 8:28—And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

I can look back through seasons of great suffering in my life. And after that season moves to the rearview mirror I can often look back and see evidences of how God made everything beautiful in its time.

But what about when you can’t see what God is doing? What about those times when it feels like you’re driving through the flatlands of suffering and all you can see is hardship and pain for miles and miles and miles.

If you feel that way, you’re not alone. Look at the second half of...

Ecclesiastes 3:11b—Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

God put in our hearts a desire to figure things out. To understand what God is doing under the sun. And yet, no matter how hard we try we can’t fully figure it out.

If our time on this earth is like a beautiful tapestry that God is designing, than you and I are like a severely nearsighted person. We’re standing in front of a massively glorious tapestry, but all we can see is an inch at a time and we can’t zoom out enough to see the big picture. [4]

It’s important to note that God isn’t hiding from us. The truth is, we wouldn’t know much of anything about God if He didn’t tell us.

We can’t figure out what God is doing because we are so finite and so feeble.

It would be easier to teach quantum physics to a newborn.

The only way we’ll ever be able to understand how God makes everything beautiful in its time is if we spend eternity with Him.

We are often tossed and driv'n on the restless sea of time;

Somber skies and howling tempests oft succeed a bright sunshine;

In that land of perfect day, when the mists have rolled away,

We will understand it better by and by.

By and by, when the morning comes,

All the saints of God are gathered home,

We will tell the story how we've overcome,

We will understand it better by and by. [5]

Time is a tyrant. But it doesn’t have to be, because God rules over time.

But it’s not enough to acknowledge that God exists. You need to trust Him.

Consider with me finally how...

3) Trust REDEEMS Time.

Consider the truths we’ve learned so far about time.

It is uncontrollable, it brings suffering, it doesn’t last, and it takes everything in the end.

And yet, God is sovereign over time and He makes everything beautiful in its time.

But, in this life we can’t fully understand what God is doing in time.

Putting all that together could lead us to some sort of fatalism: “God’s going to do whatever He wants to do anyways so it doesn’t matter how I live!”

But that’s not at all how the Preacher wants us to respond to the truth about time. He wants us to trust the God who rules over time.

But what does it look like to trust God with our time?

First, you can only redeem your time under the sun if you...

A) FEAR God

Ecclesiastes 3:14–15— I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

We'll come back to verses 12-13, but we started here because the Bible is clear...

Proverbs 9:10a—The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

To fear the Lord is to recognize that God is the sovereign Creator of everything.

Every night before Holly and I go to bed we clean up our house. But before lunchtime the next day it’s messy again.

The work we do under the sun is like that—it’s easily undone.

But not the work of God. When He does something He does it with permanent ink. Nobody can change the plans of Almighty God.

That might seem comforting, but it’s actually terrifying when you realize how corrupted we are by the curse of sin.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve sinned in ways that you have tried to forget.

But God doesn’t forget. And the reckoning is coming. I think that’s what Solomon means when he talks about God “seeking what has been driven away.”

Time alone cannot wash away the stains of your sin. You need something much, much stronger.

Thankfully God provided exactly what we needed when He sent His Son Jesus, the Christ.

Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.

On the third day Jesus rose from the dead so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.

The only right response is what John Piper calls a “trembling trust”—to repent of your sin and believe in Jesus.

Have you done that, friend?

2 Corinthians 6:2b— … Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Today is the only time you have, friend. Would you trust Him now before it’s too late?

John Owen—“Satan's greatest success is in making people think they have plenty of time before they die to consider their eternal welfare.”

If you have given your life to Jesus, you’re ready for the next step to redeem the time...

B) PURSUE Holiness

Ecclesiastes 3:12—I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live

That word “good” is connected to the word “holy” in the original language. [6]

If you want to be delivered from the tyranny of time, you have to live for something bigger than good times.

You have to pursue holiness, a life of obedience to God and His Word.

Jesus put it this way in the passage known as the Great Commission...

Matthew 28:19–20—“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Brothers and sisters, life is too short to waste it disobeying Jesus.

As one author said, “Life is too short for us to do everything we want to do, but it is long enough for us to do everything God wants us to do.” [7]

Do you want to get the most out of life under the sun? Learn the commands of Scripture and obey them.

The Word of God will teach you when to tear down and when to build, when to weep and when to laugh, when to seek what is lost and when to let something go, when to listen and when to speak, and how to live in times of war and in times of peace.

Because time is short, we should trust God enough to pursue holiness with the time that we have.

Finally, if you want to redeem the time you must…

C) ENJOY Life

Ecclesiastes 3:13—also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

This advice almost seems secular, doesn’t it?

But the reality is it takes incredible faith to do what Solomon is suggesting.

I think most of us are prone to one of two extremes when it comes to the gifts God gives us in this life.

On the one hand, some of us are tempted to forget the Giver entirely. We are so enamored by the gifts that we ignore the One who gave them to us.

We become gluttons and drunkards and workaholics because we are so enamored with the gift that we begin to worship it instead of the One who made it.

But then when we realize what we’ve done we swing the pendulum to the opposite extreme and we reject the gifts so that we can fully enjoy the Giver.

We become ascetics who deprive ourselves of food, drink, and the pleasures of life so that we’re not tempted to worship them.

The Preacher wants to show us a third way: trust God by enjoying His gifts.

Let me give you an example of what this looks like:

One of my favorite things my wife makes is biscuits and gravy. I ask for it every year on my birthday.

Now, I know Jesus is better than biscuits and gravy. But what am I going to do about it?

One approach would be to say “Since Jesus is better than biscuits and gravy I shouldn’t enjoy biscuits and gravy so much. Maybe I’ll mix pickles in the biscuit dough to spoil the taste. That will help me remember that Jesus is better.”

The second approach is to say, “I want to enjoy these biscuits and gravy as a fleeting taste of the fullness of joy that Jesus offers. So I’m going to enjoy this meal to the fullest. I’m going to wash it down with an ice-cold glass of the finest quality high-pulp orange juice. And then I’m going to take another biscuit and butter it with some Kerrygold then lather it with the best seedless raspberry jam I can find.”

I don’t know why that was so oddly specific, but hopefully you get the point.

In the first approach we try to make Jesus better by making His gifts worse. In the second approach we let Jesus’ gifts be amazing then remind ourselves that Jesus is better still. In the first approach we shrink Jesus’ gifts to make Jesus look taller. In the second approach we let the gifts rise to their full height and then see Jesus towering above them. [8]

I would argue that you cannot truly enjoy the gifts in this life until you recognize the God who towers above them.

Until you find your deepest joy in Jesus, you’ll always be a slave to the tyranny of time—always trying to squeeze the most pleasure possible out of every second of every day.

That’s the problem with emperors and kings like Ozymandias.

Because they’re insecure they have to talk about how great they are. But in the end—like everyone else—they lose their battle against time.

But there is one King whose works do not fade, whose words endure forever, and whose reign is not subject to the tyranny of time. Jesus Christ is the true King of Kings. And when you trust Him, you trade the crumbling legacies of this world for a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Don’t waste your life chasing monuments in the sand. Trust the One who rules time, redeems time, and gives you joy that will outlast it all.

Fear Him, pursue holiness, then kick back and enjoy the life He has given you under the sun.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Christ Our Hope in Life and Death

Benediction (Ephesians 5:15-16)