Ecclesiastes 3
Secular:
If someone gave you $8000 per day each day
Only requirement was to spend… balance erased…
How hard you would try!
Biblical:
NIV Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-- this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
Personal:
86,400 seconds
How will you spend?
Time to burn…
Wasting time…
Putting in my time…
Bridge:
Eulogy – watched TV effectively
… worked endless hours
… made a difference in his family… his church… legacy of faith and love… not personal renown but endless gift in God.
- Time belongs to the world… everything under the sun is futility
- Live for God – for everything ‘above the sun’
3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
· Time under heaven
· Season… doesn’t last forever
§ Season fall decline, winter pain, death, spring new life, summer fruitful
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
· a time to start life and a time to finish
· death and taxes
· often we embrace the notion of planting, but frown on uprooting
§ weeds okay… but cling to old dying plants…
§ there is a time to turn the garden
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
· there is a time to kill… our world shows us that… struggle between good and evil
· and a time to heal
§ post- 9/11
§ In the church after a trauma
§ In our lives after a death / big issue
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
· weeping and mourning in there time… they will come… believers are not insulated against the ‘seasons under the sun”
· but we will laugh and dance… in the right season…
Col 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
· times of affirmation vs. times of confrontation
§ gather and embrace – draw close and affirm… closeness
§ scatter and refraining from embracing – cold and distant times… they come
6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
· A time for our possession to matter… and a time to realize that they don’t
· Things have a passing level of importance
§ Be ready to detach
§ Search and rescue… hard but reality
7 a time to tear and a time to mend, ** same as above… a time for the hard decisions and a time to repair - …a time to be silent and a time to speak,
· How many times has something escaped your mouth and you desperately wanted it back!!
§ Silence is underrated…
· Listen… carefully
· Too fast to speak… balance!!
· Power when we speak from silence!
8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
· love as Christ commanded us to love…
§ all-people…
§ oppressed
§ widows and orphans
· hate those opposed to God…
§ prejudice
§ injustice
§ evil
· like a time to kill (v. 3) – sometimes we have causes
§ protect freedom of religion
§ protect against the things God hates!
9 What does the worker gain from his toil?
· 14 - Positive benefit / 14 - negative consequences
· what are you doing with the 86,400 seconds….
· Toiling w/o God …. 86 billion seconds
· It is horizontal… birth to death…
o Only peaks are into the realm ‘above the sun’
10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
· God makes everything beautiful in HIS time!
· 86% pray… because we desire eternity even when we don’t know
§ drugs… clinging to something more
§ consumerism… seeking something more
§ sexual sins… experiencing something
· In God all will be made beautiful… perfected… satisfying!
· But we don’t get it! Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
· The master plan is outside of our understanding!!
· James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
· God is in control… the endless cycle is broken outside life “life under then sun”
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