WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.900 Well, good morning. It's good to see you all here. 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:14.200 The late 20th century poet Roger Waters, who's also known as the bass player for the band Pink Floyd, 00:00:14.200 --> 00:00:19.320 ! and the primary lyricist for that band wrote this. 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:21.920 It's time to kill today. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:26.199 And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:30.879 No one told you when to run. You missed the starting gun. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:39.519 And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:47.659 Sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death. 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:52.359 Each year is getting shorter, never seemed to find the time. 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.759 Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. 00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:01.500 Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way. 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:04.640 The time is gone. The song is over. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.560 Thought I had something more to say. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:17.340 I might start every sermon in the series with a progressive rock quotation, just so you know. 00:01:18.020 --> 00:01:21.620 From the dark side of the moon, he writes about his experience of time. 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:26.760 Time that reveals the dullness of the day that we fritter and waste away. 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:31.520 Time as something that we take for granted and then wish we had more of. 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:36.180 Time that marks the progress of human life towards death. 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:39.700 Time like grasping the air. 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:46.200 Like the wind through our fingers as we try to hold on futilely. 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:53.080 You know, we have all sorts of things that run through our head, just as normal everyday things about time. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:54.840 Things that we say, too. 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:56.460 Things like, all I have is time. 00:01:56.780 --> 00:01:59.420 Some people mean that by saying, I've got all the time in the world. 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:00.320 I can do everything. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:06.119 Some people think, all I have is time and I've got nothing to do and I'm bored out of my mind. 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:11.219 Some of us will say things like, where did all the time go? 00:02:11.819 --> 00:02:17.020 In awe of something wonderful or in sorrow of something lost. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:22.240 Many of us say, there aren't enough hours in the day. 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:24.040 We wish we had more time. 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:29.620 Some of us will say things like, I've got to make the most of my time. 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:34.539 Some of you are new here to a college career or a university path. 00:02:35.359 --> 00:02:36.939 You have an urgency of purpose. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:38.739 How do I take advantage of this? 00:02:40.340 --> 00:02:44.739 Some of us have been saying, I've been waiting for this time to come with great anticipation. 00:02:45.239 --> 00:02:48.639 Or, I've been waiting for this time to come with great dread. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:56.179 Some of us later on in life may say, I've wasted all those years in painful regret. 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.759 And some in our youth will say, when will my time come? 00:03:01.459 --> 00:03:03.779 In anxious and eager expectation. 00:03:04.919 --> 00:03:09.979 And all of us can probably point to a time when we said something like, 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:11.379 do you remember the time when? 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:15.799 When we think back at a time of a wonderful memory. 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:19.200 Why are we talking about all this? 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:25.800 Because today, as we continue in our series in Ecclesiastes, the topic turns to time. 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:28.680 We're going to be looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 3. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:32.120 If you want to turn there in the Pew Bible, it's page 519. 00:03:32.980 --> 00:03:35.880 The Scriptures will also be up on the screen when we read them. 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:37.620 Remember what we've seen. 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:41.640 Ecclesiastes is a book of exploration. 00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:48.759 The writer is leading us into a journey of looking into the very corners of human existence 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:52.819 in a search for meaning, in a search for purpose. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.619 But he starts at the very beginning in chapter 1, verse 2, by saying, 00:03:57.759 --> 00:03:58.699 vanity of vanities. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:03:59.919 All is vanity. 00:04:00.179 --> 00:04:01.159 Meaningless, meaningless. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:02.759 Ephemerality. 00:04:02.959 --> 00:04:04.199 Not lacking substance. 00:04:04.199 --> 00:04:12.919 Everything under the sun that is without reference to God seems to be without meaning in purpose 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:13.819 in our world. 00:04:14.579 --> 00:04:22.860 It is like grasping at the wind to try to find in this life under the sun what we most long for. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:29.800 And so, our writer would call him Kohelet because that's the transliteration of the Hebrew word. 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.139 It might be translated preacher or teacher in your Bible. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.300 But he is leading us as our expedition guide. 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:43.040 And today, he's going to explore key questions about time. 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:47.019 And as we look at this, we're going to look at two questions from the passages 00:04:47.019 --> 00:04:52.840 and then one question that leads us beyond the passage to the rest of Scripture. 00:04:53.580 --> 00:04:55.939 So, if you're taking your outline, there we are. 00:04:56.060 --> 00:04:56.819 That's where we're going. 00:04:56.819 --> 00:05:03.719 So, first, in chapter 3, verses 1 through 9, he asks the question, 00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:08.180 what is time for and can we find life in the times that we live in? 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:10.199 Let's read that together. 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:13.420 Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:19.959 For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:25.779 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:31.519 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, 00:05:32.059 --> 00:05:37.179 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 00:05:37.539 --> 00:05:41.819 a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, 00:05:42.479 --> 00:05:45.739 a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 00:05:46.579 --> 00:05:48.539 a time to seek and a time to lose, 00:05:48.739 --> 00:05:50.919 a time to keep and a time to cast away, 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:58.640 a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:07.780 and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:13.360 So if you're a classic rock fan, you also recognize that the Byrds made this a very 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.740 famous song. It's a Pete Seeger song. To every season, turn, turn, there is a reason. 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:28.759 So anyway, if you want to look it up, the Byrds with a Y, B-Y-R-D-S. So this passage was turned 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:33.460 into a pop song. But the question is, what is he actually saying when we look at this? 00:06:34.900 --> 00:06:39.980 He says there's a season for all these things, and he has this long list of time, a time for this, 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:44.980 and a time for this, and a time for this. And I think there are a couple of approaches that are 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:51.280 not right that we need to expose. The first one is that some people might read this and think, 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:58.560 life is completely prescribed for you, and there is nothing you can do about it. So for every season, 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:05.960 your life is predetermined, and you live a life like a puppet in the play. Someone else is controlling 00:07:05.959 --> 00:07:14.139 the strings and has written the script, and you are just following that along, and you have 00:07:14.139 --> 00:07:21.979 nothing to say about it. I don't think that's what it says. A second one is a call to discern 00:07:21.979 --> 00:07:28.019 every moment, where we might think about, okay, what season are we in now? And then tomorrow you think, 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:32.879 what season are we in now? Or each hour of the day, what season are we in now? And always saying, 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:37.219 okay, we've got to determine the seasons that we're in so we can figure out what we're supposed 00:07:37.219 --> 00:07:42.719 to be doing. Are we supposed to be mourning, or are we supposed to be weeping? Now look, or mourning 00:07:42.719 --> 00:07:48.500 or laughing. There we go. Now here's the thing. There's something true about that biblically, but I 00:07:48.500 --> 00:07:57.759 don't think that's what he's saying here. The third thing that could be is an affirmation of, hey, what this 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:03.379 means is that everything has its place. You know, there's a time for you to be rejoicing, and there's 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:09.659 a time for you to be weeping. Everything has its place. And so we want to know that when we do things 00:08:09.659 --> 00:08:19.839 that we're affirmed, you know, and, you know, maybe it might be thought of, like, if we're on a journey, 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:26.679 right, and we're like, well, if we have time, we can stop by the ice cream shack on the way to the 00:08:26.679 --> 00:08:32.159 beach and get some ice cream if there's a time for it, right? And we think as long…and there's an 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:39.559 appropriate time for everything and an affirmation that, oh, there's time for all these things in our 00:08:39.559 --> 00:08:48.279 lives. But I actually think that, as is typical in the book of Ecclesiastes, the writer here is simply 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:57.319 describing. He is saying life is full of many things. And if you look through the list, half of 00:08:57.319 --> 00:09:03.159 it is things that are positive or good, and half of it are things that are negative or things that we 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:10.699 maybe would not like as much. And they're set as polar opposites, right? It's that life has a whole 00:09:10.699 --> 00:09:18.240 gamut of things, right? And it doesn't say these are the only seasons in these eight verses that will 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.680 happen, but he's saying, this is representative. There are…there are going to be seasons of your 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:30.680 life that will cover the whole of the scope, from life to death, from mourning to rejoicing, 00:09:30.680 --> 00:09:39.919 from war to peace, from love to hate. This is what…this is what human life looks like. It's got all of 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:48.899 these things, right? And why does he write this? I think he writes this because we as human beings have 00:09:48.899 --> 00:10:00.079 a tendency to see times and seasons as commodities for us to try to spend or use or control. We too often 00:10:00.079 --> 00:10:09.120 want to see time as something that is in our purview to shape, mold, and make in a particular way. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:17.659 Right? We might want to live as people who make sure that we have quality time. And look, quality 00:10:17.659 --> 00:10:22.620 time as a concept is good, right? As opposed to just quantity watching TV. That's not…you know, 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:28.440 there's something good about relationships. But sometimes we think, well, I can replace time with 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:35.480 people and control it so that my quantity time, that's really going to be the…or my quality time, 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:43.220 that's really going to be the thing, right? Or I know that, you know, nowadays often people will say, 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:49.360 YOLO, right? You only live once. What does that mean? I've got to take it all today. I've got to get 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:56.960 everything that I can and squeeze like a lemon every drop of juice out of this day because you only live 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:05.879 once. These are some ways that I think we try to take time and control it. You know, it's funny, 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:11.420 if you're a Harry Potter fan, you know in the Prisoner of Azkaban, spoiler alert, I'm just telling 00:11:11.420 --> 00:11:19.500 you, spoiler alert, Hermione Granger gets a time turner. She's given it by the leaders of the school 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:25.940 so that she can attend twice as many classes as any other student. And she does it at the same time. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.159 So she goes to one class and then she turns her hour back and goes to another class. And she's 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:33.580 completely overwhelmed and it's really not good for her. And then in the end, it turns out to be a 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:42.460 very fortuitous gift for her in all that. But what a picture of our life. Don't we wish we had time 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:48.639 turners so that we could do more with our days and just ratchet up our ability to accomplish and to 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:58.000 achieve? We're so busy rushing around trying to control the time to get as much as we want out of 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:10.439 it. One commentator likened time to the ocean water that fish swim in. We all live in time. We can't 00:12:10.439 --> 00:12:17.460 escape it. But can you imagine a fish trying to control the currents of the ocean? Can you imagine a 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:24.740 fish trying to say to the ocean, well, you've got to work this way today for me to accomplish my goals? 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:33.019 But I think that's what we do. We kick against the goads of the seasons we find ourselves in. 00:12:33.820 --> 00:12:40.920 Whether we rebel against science, seasons of quiet or rest or loss. Whether we insist on life, 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:53.059 seasons of productivity or joy or celebration, we wrestle with time. And Koholet is saying to us, 00:12:54.279 --> 00:13:00.219 there are times and seasons for everything. This is how we are going to experience life, 00:13:00.339 --> 00:13:06.039 and we don't have control over it. In fact, this is one of the most important things that you see in 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:14.079 this is that inherently He is saying, behind time there is a Creator. There is a Creator of time who 00:13:14.079 --> 00:13:22.539 determines these seasons. He sovereignly oversees life because He created time, and He created purposes 00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:26.519 for the seasons of our lives that we may or may not understand. 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:35.100 And this is why verse 9, I connected to the first eight verses, because this is the question that 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:40.019 comes out. So, what's the point? Why do I do anything if God has determined all these things? 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:47.840 If the seasons are fixed, if God is under control, then can I get any gain by doing what I do? Does it 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:58.620 make any difference? Well, it's a good question, isn't it? Let's keep reading and see what else our author 00:13:58.620 --> 00:14:04.540 has to say to us this morning about our struggle with time, because in verses 10 through 15, I think 00:14:04.540 --> 00:14:11.160 he gets to some of the roots of why we struggle with time. So, let's look at verses 10 through 15 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:18.759 this morning. It says this, I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:25.779 busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, 00:14:26.219 --> 00:14:30.279 yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:38.399 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:45.699 and that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to 00:14:45.699 --> 00:14:52.840 man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything 00:14:52.840 --> 00:15:02.000 taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before Him. That which is already has been. That which 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:11.779 is to be already has been. And God seeks what has been driven away. Okay. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:20.620 Our struggle with time has three sections to it. If you look at this, interestingly, you can see 00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:29.039 their verb. The writer says, I saw in verse 10. Verse 12, I perceived. Verse 14, I perceived. These are 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:36.019 the three things as he explores our relationship with time. In verse 10, 11, describe the crux of our 00:15:36.019 --> 00:15:42.179 experience of time. And I want to do a little bit of translation reworking here, because we love the 00:15:42.179 --> 00:15:48.459 verse in verse 11 that says, He has made everything beautiful in its time. And we love that God makes 00:15:48.459 --> 00:15:52.779 everything beautiful. And there's a sense in which that's wonderfully true. But I don't think it's 00:15:52.779 --> 00:15:59.319 actually the best translation of that word. It's more that God has made everything appropriate in 00:15:59.319 --> 00:16:07.299 time. That is, that He has fixed those times for us. That He has chosen them each in its season for 00:16:07.299 --> 00:16:15.959 good purposes. And this is how we experience life. Right? When we're young, we want to go out and take 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:22.300 all of life. As we get older, we realize life just comes at us. And we think, you know, I do this in 00:16:22.300 --> 00:16:27.860 marital counseling. When I tell married couples, like, do all the discernment you can as you're getting 00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:34.080 ready to get married, to choose a good partner, and to start and lay a good foundation. But be prepared, 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:40.860 because you never know what God is going to throw at you. You never know what challenges, what 00:16:40.860 --> 00:16:48.680 disruptions, what changes in your life will come. And when you're prepared for that, then you're ready 00:16:48.680 --> 00:16:54.500 to do this. Right? God has appointed seasons. And if we fight against those all the time, we're fighting 00:16:54.500 --> 00:17:04.759 against God. So, He says that there's this, that there's this appointedness to our every, to our seasons. 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:11.680 And then He says in the very next sentence, but He's also put eternity into our hearts. And this is 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:17.839 why we wrestle. Because we think that our life should produce something that has eternal value, 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:24.819 that has eternal weight, that has eternal worth. And then He goes on and says, but you're limited, 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:29.279 and you're fallen, and you can't understand all that God is doing from the beginning to the end. 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:34.799 So, you have a sense of eternity without having the ability to grasp the fullness of it. 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:43.619 This is the crisis that we have in our experience of life and our experience of time. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.680 We have both a problem with now and a problem with not yet. 00:17:50.399 --> 00:17:56.599 All of them seem less than what we hoped they would be. We want them to be clearer. We want them to be 00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:05.019 more sustainable, more controllable, more manageable. And they aren't that. 00:18:08.459 --> 00:18:15.559 You know, I grew up with golden retrievers. They have no sense of time. They don't know that you're 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:21.319 going to come back later to take them out for a walk. When you arrive in the door, they're like, 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:24.980 yay, you're here, you're here. And they jump up and down, and they're like, so excited. And they're 00:18:24.980 --> 00:18:30.099 like, walk, walk, food, ball? What can I do? Right? And then when you walk out the door, they sit down, 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.819 they put their paws in front of them, and they look at the Moosers, their very sad eyes, and they say, 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:38.559 oh, I can't believe you're leaving me again. Right? Have you had dogs like this? This is, right? 00:18:38.779 --> 00:18:45.140 But it's fascinating because they don't have any sense of time. This is a uniquely human experience. 00:18:45.140 --> 00:18:53.500 Because we have eternity in our hearts. Because we were made for seasons to live under God, 00:18:53.640 --> 00:19:00.580 and we can't quite fit it all into a coherent picture, can we? But the writer goes on, having 00:19:00.580 --> 00:19:06.560 said this and exposed our problem with time a little bit more clearly, this now and not yet 00:19:06.560 --> 00:19:11.259 problem. And he says, well, let me tell you about each one of them a little bit more. So verses 12 and 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:19.279 13 gives us an affirmation about how do we handle the now. It is good for us to enjoy life and to do 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:25.619 good. This is what God has appointed us to do in this life under the sun, to eat and drink and enjoy 00:19:25.619 --> 00:19:32.720 the fruit of our work while we are able. Why? Because this is God's gift for us. And this is an ongoing 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:39.019 theme in the book of Ecclesiastes, and I want you to keep your eye out for, is that there's this 00:19:39.019 --> 00:19:48.039 contrast between this grasping and this gifting, right? The grasping is when we try to rest control 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:54.639 and meaning and purpose in our lives, but the gifting is recognizing that what we get from God, 00:19:54.759 --> 00:20:02.879 we're meant to receive and rejoice in. And so he's saying that in our heart response, all that we 00:20:02.879 --> 00:20:09.000 experience, the seasons that we experience, both the good ones and the bad ones, both the hard ones, 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:17.099 and the rejoicing ones are meant to be received as God's good gift. And in the midst of that, to enjoy 00:20:17.099 --> 00:20:24.259 His goodness and provision. And this is not existentialism. This is not just, ah, who knows 00:20:24.259 --> 00:20:29.259 where you get meaning? We'll just, you know, eat, drink, and be married for tomorrow, we die. You know? 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:34.180 It's not just squeezing meaning out of life. It's saying, no, there's a God in the universe who's 00:20:34.180 --> 00:20:40.160 determined everything, who's giving us life, who's giving us breath, who's giving us bread, who's 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:46.600 giving us anything that is good in our lives, and who is even giving us the hard things in our lives 00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:51.180 that we might see them as gifts from our sovereign Creator. 00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:59.840 Zach Eswin, who wrote a great commentary on Ecclesiastes, if you're interested, said this, 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:07.500 learning to receive rather than resist these rhythms, we draw nearer to God and His purposes 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:15.279 of the life and lot that He has given us. In short, we enter an already established routine that we did 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:24.819 not choose, but that shapes how we live. I thought that was helpful. We do not choose our seasons, 00:21:24.819 --> 00:21:32.579 but in our recognition of them, we are able then to live rightly in light of it. 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:40.599 So, in verses 12 and 13, He talks about the now, and then in 14 and 15, He talks about the not yet, 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:49.200 the forever part of time. He basically comes out and just says, only God can do eternal things, 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:53.559 because He is the Creator, only He can do eternal things, because He is the Sustainer, 00:21:53.559 --> 00:22:01.559 only He can sustain these things. We can't add or subtract at all to eternity. Only God is able to do 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:09.919 the eternal work, right? Rather than trying to contribute, let alone control, to the eternity, 00:22:10.379 --> 00:22:16.259 we are to respond with awe and wonder, right? This is what verse 14 says, 00:22:16.259 --> 00:22:25.359 He has done this so that people may fear before Him. That is, fear not in the sense of abject, like, 00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:32.660 oh no, what is He going to do to me now? But fear in the sense of, there is a power far greater than me 00:22:32.660 --> 00:22:40.619 who controls all of my life and all of my seasons and my eternity. And He is the one who holds it from 00:22:40.619 --> 00:22:49.699 the beginning to the end when I can't. And in my human finitude, I can actually find rest and joy in 00:22:49.699 --> 00:22:58.219 knowing that it is God who holds, that it is God who holds the seasons of our lives, and it is God who 00:22:58.220 --> 00:23:11.299 holds our eternity. What an amazing thing it is. So, the writer of Ecclesiastes leads us into this. 00:23:11.620 --> 00:23:18.740 Okay, so we feel all of these tensions and pulls of time, and then He leads us to say, don't you see? 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:24.440 There's something more under this, and not just something more, but some one more underneath all 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:31.160 of this. And so, when we look to God, this then leads us to our third point in our third question, 00:23:31.299 --> 00:23:38.160 which is, what are God's eternal purposes? What is God doing in time and eternity? 00:23:40.360 --> 00:23:46.420 Think of the storyline of the Bible, right? It starts with God creating a perfect world 00:23:46.420 --> 00:23:53.900 where Adam and Eve live with joy receiving everything from God, but instead of receiving it joyfully, 00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:59.160 eventually, eventually, they rebel against Him, and they reject God and His good provision and say, 00:23:59.580 --> 00:24:05.980 I'd rather be like God and provide for myself and control time myself and do things on my agenda and 00:24:05.980 --> 00:24:15.540 my time frame, right? And the result of this is death. This life that was meant to go on forever in 00:24:15.540 --> 00:24:22.120 fellowship with God resulted in death. But God had a purpose even in this, because in the end of the day, 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:27.239 we see that from the beginning of time, as the passage that Matt read earlier, before the foundations of the 00:24:27.239 --> 00:24:36.919 world, God had a plan to redeem a people for Himself, to rescue us from our estrangement from Him, 00:24:37.179 --> 00:24:46.599 from our meaningless lives under the sun in a fallen world, into an eternal and life-abundant 00:24:46.599 --> 00:24:56.079 eternity in relationship with Him. And this is what Jesus came to do in the fullness of time. 00:24:57.419 --> 00:25:04.679 And so, Mark 1, 14 and 15, as Jesus begins His ministry, His earthly ministry as an adult, He says, 00:25:05.199 --> 00:25:11.379 Mark records this, now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God 00:25:11.380 --> 00:25:17.820 and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. 00:25:18.620 --> 00:25:26.140 This was the pinnacle of God's timing plan, that God would, the final, His final and complete work of 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:31.060 redemption would be done in the coming of Jesus and His life and death and resurrection. 00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:37.380 Galatians 4, 4 through 7, Paul writes this about it, 00:25:37.380 --> 00:25:43.960 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, 00:25:44.060 --> 00:25:50.240 to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:57.200 are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:05.280 a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. And He uses the word son there to say, 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:11.980 you are receiving the full inheritance and the riches as a child of God. So, sons and daughters 00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:18.960 receive the inheritance of the firstborn son in the first century vision. He's saying, you have the 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:25.539 riches of all that God has done, most importantly, that He has made you yours, and He has bound you to 00:26:25.539 --> 00:26:34.460 Him, right? That Jesus came to do this, and that through faith in Him, our lives are transformed and 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:40.539 changed. Rather than seeking to gain from this life, rather than seeking to control this life, 00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:45.860 to give it more meaning and purpose, rather than living for today and not counting for eternity, 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:52.100 we instead receive from God the One who came in the fullness of time to redeem us, 00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:59.360 right? To redeem us in both the now and the not yet, so that by faith in Jesus, we might come 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:06.539 into a new saving relationship with Him and then live for Him in this earth, receiving from Him all 00:27:06.539 --> 00:27:11.519 of the graces and goodnesses that He will give us in this earth while waiting still for the fullness, 00:27:12.899 --> 00:27:18.079 the now and the not yet, the fullness of all that He has done for us in Christ, when we will know 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:25.119 unending and eternal joy with Jesus where there will be no more sin and no more sorrow and no more 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:31.119 sickness and no more death, and we will have unfettered fellowship with our God again. 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:42.979 The writer of Peter in 1 Peter 1, 3 through 5, reminds us of the riches of what we have to look 00:27:42.979 --> 00:27:49.119 forward to. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:55.500 He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 00:27:55.500 --> 00:28:01.219 dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 00:28:01.479 --> 00:28:08.679 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:15.219 And so, friends, as we think about our wrestling with time, 00:28:15.220 --> 00:28:24.180 Ecclesiastes points us to the work that God has done in the fullness of time as He sends Jesus, 00:28:24.600 --> 00:28:30.360 and He reminds us that the seasons that we live through now are seasons where we are to look 00:28:30.360 --> 00:28:40.100 to Him, to receive from Him all that He has for us in Jesus in this life, right? Which is not all 00:28:40.099 --> 00:28:46.619 happiness and joy and easiness, right? Some of it will be sorrow and loss and persecution and trial, 00:28:46.759 --> 00:28:51.559 but it will be in fellowship with Jesus who has saved us. 00:28:53.699 --> 00:29:00.919 And to recognize that because of the eternal hope that we have, we can persevere in hope and in joy 00:29:00.919 --> 00:29:06.719 and in faith because of what He has done for us. Can you imagine what it would be like if you woke up 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:11.660 every morning and didn't think, oh my gosh, I have so much to do today, how am I going to get it done? 00:29:12.079 --> 00:29:19.100 Instead, you woke up and you said, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let me rejoice and be glad in it. 00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:26.420 God, what do you have to give to me today? And what are the good works that you want me to walk in today? 00:29:26.860 --> 00:29:30.799 What is the season that you're going to give me today? I don't know what it's going to be, 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:38.139 but let me walk faithfully and joyfully and confidently with you. This, I think, 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:45.919 is what the writer of Ecclesiastes would have us consider as we consider our times. Let's pray together. 00:29:48.919 --> 00:29:53.240 Lord, thank you for this word. We pray that you would help us. 00:29:53.240 --> 00:30:06.019 Lord, help us to embrace this tension of the now and the not yet, and Lord, to live looking to you, 00:30:07.099 --> 00:30:10.779 knowing that you are the God of time and the God of eternity. 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:20.500 Help us, Lord, to see Jesus as the fulfillment and the fullness of all that you are doing in time 00:30:20.500 --> 00:30:24.940 and the foundation of what eternity will look like with you. 00:30:26.220 --> 00:30:28.579 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.