What Time Is It?
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
June 6, 2021
In his letter to the Ephesians the apostle Paul wrote:
Ephesians 5:15-17 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Paul certainly said a mouthful there
In regard to understanding the proper use of our time.
• Paul knew that we live in an evil day.
• He also understood that there was kingdom work to be accomplished.
• And so Paul encouraged the Ephesians not to be foolish but to “make the most of your time.”
IT’S THE ISSUE OF PRODUCTIVITY.
(or as we have said, not wasting your life)
AND YOU UNDERSTAND THAT.
Especially in America we are tapped in to the concept of time.
• One of the things that many of us have found so refreshing about Africa is the “laid back” atmosphere.
• They don’t plan events according to the clock
• They don’t figure in how long something will take
• They sort of just live in the moment and things happen when they happen
• There is an African proverb which says, “Americans have all the watches, but Africans have all the time.”
If you go to Africa you will either find that mindset
To be refreshing or it will drive you absolutely insane.
We are definitely linked to time in America.
• We run on watches, day planners, schedules, and calendars.
• We plan mornings, afternoons, and evenings.
• We question how long an event lasts so that we can plan the event after that.
• And when something pushes us outside of our schedule it can breed instant panic, anxiety, and even anger and frustration.
TO AMERICANS TIME IS A UNIQUE CURRENCY.
(some value their time even more than their money…my dad did)
In many ways we think about time the same way we think about money.
• People try to save money, and they try to save time.
• People will spend money, and people will spend time (i.e. I’ve got time to help)
• People can waste money, and they can certainly waste time.
The main difference between the money and time is that
While it is possible to know exactly how much money you have,
No one knows how much time they have.
It is a currency in our culture, but it is an uncountable one.
TIME IS ALSO AN UNYIELDING OPPONENT.
Time always wins.
Think about sporting events.
• Think about football or basketball or hockey.
• There is the same winner for every single one of those games.
• The clock wins every single game.
While the competing teams play each other,
They are also playing the clock, but the clock always wins.
Baseball is of course the exception, having refused the constraint of the clock,
But even it is called “The American Pastime”
Reminding us that if you watch or participate you are letting time pass.
Time is an unyielding opponent – it will win.
TIME IS AN ELUSIVE ATTRACTION.
• We think of New Year’s Eve.
• Many celebrations and parties as people await a countdown of 3-2-1,
• And in a split second that anticipated moment becomes the past
• And it can never be visited again.
You anticipate it, and in a moment it is gone.
We like to say that “Time waits for no man”
WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT TIME THEN IS THIS.
• It is sought but never owned.
• It is saved but never secure.
• It is spent but never sufficient.
• It is used but never mastered.
All we can do is manage the time we have.
Or as Paul said we “make the most of your time”.
And the overwhelming message of Scripture on the subject is that
How we manage time here has ripples that last for eternity.
Well, this is the next message that the preacher has for the young man.
• He has addressed those common temptations of wisdom and pleasure and legacy,
• And now he addresses another very important issue that the young man needs to understand.
He’s going to talk about how the young man views time.
And this is so important.
• You understand how important it is to have a biblical view of money.
• You understand how important it is to have a biblical view of relationships.
• IT IS ALSO SO IMPORTANT THAT WE HAVE A BIBLICAL VIEW OF TIME.
And that is what the preacher is about to give us
Here in the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes.
We’re going to break our text down into 4 points this morning.
#1 THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Ecclesiastes 3:1
The preacher clearly SHIFTS GEARS here now in his sermon.
• He has momentarily moved on from wisdom and pleasure and the stuff of life
• And has now decided to talk about time.
And he opens with what is a very important truth about time.
“There is an appointed time for everything.”
This is a very important statement, if you will ponder it for a moment.
What is immediately clear is that as the preacher talks about time,
He is NOT so much talking about a cyclical view of time.
We often think of time in a cyclical way.
• There are 60 seconds to every minute
• There are 60 minutes to every hour
• There are 24 hours to every day
• There are 7 days to every week
• There are roughly 4 weeks to a month
• And it is a cycle that goes on and on and on and on
The preacher isn’t so much talking of time in that way,
So much as he is speaking more of
OPPORTUNITY or APPROPRIATENESS in our actions.
For example, as you will see in a moment he makes that famous group of statements, “A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted…”
• He is speaking of events, behaviors, actions, emotions.
• He is speaking of what is appropriate in any given moment.
• He is not talking about timing life, but rather your timing in life.
• He is speaking about living in time correctly or appropriately.
It is NOT a question of how long your life is,
But rather how did you use the time you have?
That is his perspective.
But there is also a very important clue
That must be understood right off the bat.
The preacher says, “There is an appointed time for everything.”
• He DOESN’T just say that “There is…[a] time for everything”
• But rather that there is an “appointed” time for everything.
In other words,
• There is someone who is pulling the strings.
• There is someone who is in control.
• There is someone who is sovereignly delegating out time.
And of course we know this is God.
Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
While we do not have power over time there is One who does.
We merely live in time, but God reigns over it.
We think of miracles in the Old Testament
• Like when God caused the sun to stand still for Joshua
• Or when He caused the shadow to move backward 10 steps as a sign for Hezekiah.
We think of Jesus purposely waiting 4 days to raise Lazarus.
• It not only demonstrated His power over death.
• But also His power over time.
Time does not constrain God.
Time bows to Him.
• There is a sovereign over our time.
• There is a sovereign over our days.
• There is a sovereign over the events of our life.
YOU MUST GRASP THAT.
YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT.
You are not in control of your time at all.
Jesus would ask questions like:
Luke 12:25 “And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?”
• Certainly it was a rebuke about worrying, but you might also ask, “What event can you perform to add a single hour to your life’s span?”
None of us has control like that.
David understood that, and he understood that God alone did have that power.
He said:
Psalms 39:4-5 “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.”
There is a sovereign who sits above time and who controls it.
We have no control, but He appoints it all.
The preacher goes on to say:
“And there is a time for every event under heaven”
That is to say that nothing that occurs here is by mistake.
There are certainly events that seem wrong or even untimely to us
But not to the One who sits sovereign over all things.
God appoints every event.
God is sovereign over them all.
And this is the first announcement of the preacher to the young man.
You had better first get this right in your mind.
• You are not in control over the span of your life.
• You are not in control over the events of life.
• BUT THERE IS ONE WHO IS.
There is a sovereign God who is at work,
“And there is a time for every event under heaven.”
The Announcement
#2 THE EXPLANATION
Ecclesiastes 3:2-8
Here is perhaps the most famous passage from the book of Ecclesiastes;
Namely because of the song sung by The Birds.
Here the preacher gives 14 examples of what he means when he says that “there is a time for every event under heaven.”
And the key word here to help you understand
Would be the word “appropriate”.
There are events orchestrated by the sovereign hand of God alone,
And there are appropriate and inappropriate responses to them.
The first is a great example of that.
(2a) “A time to give birth and a time to die.”
You don’t have any control over either of those things.
It is the universal biography of all men.
• When you go to a cemetery and you look at a headstone,
• There may be a statement there regarding the life of the person,
• But what they all have in common is a bracket of dates. 1923 – 1984 etc.
• They represent a person’s life span.
• And that person had no say in them.
• They were ordained by God while they were yet in their mother’s womb.
Paul and David both said that.
So there are some events here that orchestrated by the sovereign hand of God.
But the bulk of the list speaks more to
How we respond to the sovereign appointment of God.
Most of what the preacher discusses
Is not regarding what God sovereignly does,
(we often don’t know what that is)
But rather if we respond appropriately in life to what God does.
For example:
(2b) “A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.”
Farmers and gardeners understand this.
• There is a time to plant and a time to harvest.
• You don’t just get to plant whenever you want.
• You don’t just get to harvest whenever you want.
But God has sovereignly designed the seasons
Which dictate when you can do both of those things.
When will it be warm enough?
When will it be wet enough?
When will it be light long enough?
So the point is that you must respond appropriately
To the sovereign timeline of God.
HE CONTROLS THE SEASONS,
You simply respond at the right time to what God is doing.
And you can go on through the list
And see that this is what the preacher is talking about.
(3a) “A time to kill and a time to heal”
• It may sound harsh that the Bible says there is a time to kill,
• But if you encounter a rattlesnake when you get home this afternoon
• You’ll understand the appropriateness of “a time to kill”.
There is a time in the orchestrated events of God that killing is appropriate
Just as there are times when healing is the appropriate response.
(3b) “A time to tear down and a time to build up.”
You remember the prophet Jeremiah and how God told him:
Jeremiah 1:10 “See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.”
Jeremiah was the prophet who announced the tearing down of Jerusalem.
• It was appropriate because God’s people had sinned against Him
• So discipline was appropriate in order to turn His people back to Him.
• There are times when brokenness is certainly appropriate.
• There are times when you break behaviors or attitudes in your children;
• There are times when you build them back up.
If you do either of those at the wrong time
Then you miss the sovereign work of God.
(4) “A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance.”
Think funerals and weddings here.
• It is inappropriate to laugh at a funeral or to weep at a wedding.
• It is inappropriate to dance at a funeral or to mourn at a wedding.
It is to respond incorrectly to what God is doing in time.
Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”
(5a) “A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones”
• Sometimes you need a road and stones must be scattered,
• Sometimes you desire a field and stones must be removed.
It is simply the point of appropriate behavior to the time you encounter.
(5b) “A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing”
You’ve likely learned this in marriage.
• There is a time when it is appropriate to hug your wife.
• There is a time when you may be taking your life in your own hands to do so.
(6a) “A time to search and a time to give up as lost;”
• If you’ve ever played golf you understand this.
(6b) “A time to keep and a time to throw away.”
• This is the decision you make when you plan for a garage sale.
(7a) “a time to tear apart and a time to sew together.”
To a Jew you understand the sign of repentance which was to tear you garments.
• During moments of repentance that was very appropriate,
• But it’s not always appropriate to go around ripping your clothes.
Again, there are sovereign appointed times in which we live
And then there are appropriate responses to those times.
If you do the right thing at the wrong time it’s inappropriate.
If you do the wrong thing at the right time it’s still inappropriate.
(7b) “A time to be silent and a time to speak”
Someone once said, “Sometimes silence is golden, other times it’s just plain yellow.”
(8a) “A time to love and a time to hate;”
People again see trouble with this one.
Since it seems like we should never hate.
And yet we read:
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
There are times certainly even in our culture where things should be hated.
• I learned a few days ago that June is being labeled “Pride Month”.
• I hate that.
• I don’t homosexuals for we once also were foolish ourselves.
• But I hate that our culture feels the desire to celebrate sinful behavior and even take pride in it.
There are appropriate and inappropriate response
To all events under heaven.
(8b) “A time for war and a time for peace.”
• When Jesus walked into the temple and saw the chief priests fleecing the flock, it was “a time for war”.
• And when He walked into that upper room after He rose from the dead it was peace which He offered.
Obviously we could spend a lot more time talking about when those various behaviors or responses are appropriate or inappropriate
BUT YOU GET THE IDEA OF WHAT THE PREACHER IS SAYING.
There is a sovereign God who sets sovereign over everything and every event.
• “There is an appointed time for everything” because God has appointed it.
• “And there is a time for every event under heaven” because God has
ordained it.
• And then there is the appropriate response of humanity to those events.
God is sovereignly ordaining the events of life
And you and I will either respond appropriately or inappropriately to them.
Does that make sense?
He’s already shaping the way now you are viewing time.
• You are NOT in control of the major events of time
• But you ARE in control of how you respond to what God is doing.
• You are NOT in control of the time you have
• But you ARE in control of how you use the time you have.
Do you see that?
Well let’s go one.
#3 THE QUESTION
Ecclesiastes 3:9-10
And there is that question he likes to ask so much.
Ecclesiastes 1:3 “What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?”
Ecclesiastes 2:22 “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?”
Well here it is again.
“What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
Now keep that question IN CONTEXT.
The preacher is talking about time which you cannot control.
And he asks “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
It is another way of asking that common question.
• Why am I here?
• What am I accomplishing?
• If God is sovereign over it all then what I am doing…really?
If I have no control over my days…
If I have no control over the events that take place under heaven…
Then what am I really accomplishing in all my labor in this life?
CAN YOU PONDER THAT FOR A SECOND?
Well the preacher strikes again doesn’t he?
He just made me feel totally insignificant and he made my life feel utterly pointless.
He has a way of totally crushing my ideas of self-importance.
That’s because if we’re living only for this life then it really is.
You have to see that.
You are trapped in time.
You have no control over it.
A QUARTERBACK on a football field can make all kinds of decisions,
And he can even manage the clock, but he cannot control it.
Neither can you in life.
And the preacher wants you to realize that.
Now that was the question.
“What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
And he goes on to explain the reason for the question a little better.
“I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.”
When the preacher mentions “the task”, he is talking about LIFE.
And notice how the preacher describes it.
“I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.”
• Have you ever had a job that was really important that you needed to get done, but your kids were all in the middle of everything?
• Did you ever give them something to do to keep them occupied?
Did you see what the preacher just said?
My sister and I have 4 cousins on my dad’s side of the family.
• One summer my grandpa decided to get all 6 of us together to pain his barn.
• But he was afraid my youngest cousin was too little.
• So while 5 of us got brown pain, my youngest cousin got a bucket full of water.
• It wasn’t long before my youngest cousin asked my grandpa if he could have
some brown in his water.
My grandpa let him feel like he was really doing something,
But the reality was he was only keeping him occupied.
And it wasn’t long before my young cousin asked,
“What profit is there to the worker for that in which he toils?”
Now do you grasp the difference between
What God is accomplishing in time and what we are accomplishing?
And the preacher feels like his life again is meaningless and pointless.
So he asks “What profit is there to the worker from that which he toils?”
What profit is there to painting with water?
SO THERE AGAIN THE PREACHER
HAS MANAGED TO PIN US UP AGAINST OUR OWN FUTILITY.
Well here is where we really start to learn.
The Announcement, The Explanation, The Question
#4 THE ANSWER
Ecclesiastes 3:11
Well let’s learn something here about God.
Remember the point of the preacher is that you don’t control time,
But you do control whether you respond appropriately to the events of this life.
Now let me ask you another question.
Who determines what is appropriate?
The preacher just said that there is “a time to plant and a time uproot”.
Who determines that time? God does.
The preacher said there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh”.
Who determines that time? God does.
Well listen to him here.
“He has made everything appropriate in its time.”
God has determined what the appropriate response in time is.
When God works, He has also determined how you should respond.
What the preacher is doing is:
Introducing to you the concept of a Sovereign Judge.
• There is One who is at work in time.
• That same One is giving you opportunity to respond to what He is doing.
• And He is watching to see if you respond appropriately or not.
He is watching to see if you weep when you should and laugh when you should,
If you mourn when you should and dance when you should, etc.
“He has made everything appropriate in its time.”
• He is the great Judge
• He is the great determiner of what is appropriate.
And then the preacher says:
“He has also set eternity in their heart”
When you read Romans 1 you read how God put the “knowledge of Him” in the human heart.
• Men instinctively know there is a God.
• Now they may seek to suppress that knowledge, but God put it in there.
Well here we learn that
God also put it instinctively in the heart of man to know eternity is real.
• Men just know that there is something beyond death.
• That certainly explains the rise of so many false religions.
• Men are trying to gain understanding to eternity because they instinctively know that eternity is real.
• Somehow man knows that there is more after this life.
• God did that.
Now, GOD DID NOT give man all the answers.
“yet so that man will not find out all the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
That is to say that God allows man to know eternity is real,
But God does not allow man to know everything.
A great verse here is:
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”
• There are a lot of things that God knows that He has not allowed us to know.
• God has revealed all that we need to know in order to know and obey Him.
• We don’t get it all, but we do get all we need to know.
NOW, LET ME PUT ALL THIS TOGETHER.
• We have a God who is sovereign over time and all the events under heaven.
• We have man who is merely responding appropriately or inappropriately to
all those events.
• We have God who determines whether or not that response is appropriate.
• And we have man who doesn’t know everything, but somehow does know that
after this life he will answer to the sovereign Judge about how he lived.
And with that in mind the preacher asked you a question.
(9) “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
If God is in control what good does it do for me to work?
Well the answer is that the profit comes in eternity
When you give an account to God.
• GOD DID NOT put you on this earth to be sovereign over the events of earth.
• GOD DID NOT put you on this earth to be in control of all things.
• GOD PUT YOU on this earth to prepare you for eternity; which He instinctively taught you is real.
To quote R.C. Sproul here: “We live in time, but we live for eternity.”
The God who is sovereign over time.
The God who makes “an appointed time for everything”
The God who makes “a time for every event under heaven”
That God has set all things up for the purpose of eternity.
That means that if you are working for here,
You are in conflict with God because He is working for eternity.
So what is your profit in all your labor here?
• Nothing if you’re trying to get your payoff here.
• But there is great profit if you work for eternity.
My cousin was accomplishing nothing by painting with water,
Except that he was pleasing my grandfather
Who would pay him just like he paid the rest of us.
And this is the message of the preacher to the young man.
As you go out into this world and you face various situations and events
• Know that each of these events is meant to prepare you for eternity
• And your objective is to learn what God’s appropriate response is to all these things.
There is really so much more that could be said here,
But we’ll have to wait until next time.
Let me just leave you with this thought for next seek.
“What time is it?”
And I don’t mean time on the clock
As to whether or not we should be getting out of church.
I’m talking about:
• What time is it in your life?
• What time is it in the life of your spouse?
• What time is it in the life of your child?
Are you responding appropriately in light of eternity?
When a football game starts drawing close to the end, the coach concerns himself with two things:
• The Score
• The Clock
• If he’s ahead in the score he runs the ball and hopes to run out the clock.
• If he’s behind he hopes to throw the ball and preserve the clock.
But all his decisions are made based on
Where he would be when the clock runs out.
Do you understand that?
• You were not put on this earth to live for today.
• You were put here to live for eternity.
• Are you ready when time runs out?
There is a sovereign God who has already ordained your beginning and your end. You have no control over that.
But how you respond to that God while you are in this life
Makes all the difference.
God hasn’t told you everything about what He is doing,
But He has told you that.
Now listen to the final sermon of Jesus.
Acts 1:6-8 “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The disciples wanted to know about the time.
• Jesus said, that is outside of your paygrade.
• You need to rather learn to make the most of the time you have.
Ephesians 5:15-17 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Romans 13:11-14 “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
• What time is it?
• What is your appropriate response to today that will profit you in eternity?
