A time for Everything! Ecclesiastes Chapter 3.

Sermon Notes: A time for Everything! Ecclesiastes Chapter 3.

Question: How can I make the most of the short time that I have on earth?

This Chapter reminds us that we are running out of time, and that once it is gone, it can never be recovered. You know what they say? Time waits for no one!

Questions: What am I working for? What am I living for? What am I doing all of this for? What is the purpose of it all? What is the point of my life?

1: I recognize God’s timing, God’s control, God’s purposes and God’s plans over my whole life – both the good times and the bad! V1-8

V1: ‘There, is a time for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven.’ Things have a season – things are here in your life for a reason. And thankful the seasons don’t last forever. Solomon here gives us a real cross section of life: 28 activities, verse 2 to 8 – 14 good/14 bad! 14 positive/ 14 negative! 14 bringing pain/14 bringing pleasure! And over it all God is working out His timetable – God is arranging our dairies!

Psalm 31:14-15, ‘But I trust in You, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands.’ Is that not good to know this week? Lord, my times are in Your hands. Could you pray that at the start of each day this week? Question: How much are you willing to allow God to have His way and His will, His time in your life?

2: I want to trust God when I’m going through the painful and the confusing times in my life, v9-11.

V9, ‘What do people really get for all their hard work?’

Well, ask yourself that at the end of the week when you come home on Friday, and ask yourself – what have I gained apart from a wage packet? What have I gained for all the hard work this week? Is there not more to life than this? Surely there must be more to eating – working – sleeping – that endless cycle that goes, round and round.

There is, it’s a spiritual dimension to our lives! V11, ‘God has made everything beautiful in it’s time. He has placed eternity in the human heart.’ He’s put this deeper, intense longing for something more in the heart and soul! God has put into our hearts a desire for something more, we were made to be in relationship with Him.

Question: Can you trust Him with your life, with your future?

3: I want to enjoy the time that God gives me and use each day as His gift to me, to do His will. V12-13

It’s a gift of God, v13, ‘that every man should eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his work.’ To be happy at your work is a gift of God.

If someone gives you a gift of £1,440 each morning and said, take this money, use it in whatever way you want, but the only condition is that you must spend it all by the end of the day. What would you think?

At the start of each day, God has deposited into your time account, 1,440 minutes, 24 hours at the start of each day. You choose how you get to use it, but if you don’t use it, you lose it!

Sometimes we say that we haven’t got time, but you make time for the things that you really want to make time for! Make time for God! Make time for family! Make time to love and care for the people that God bumps you into each and every day!

Jesus said at the end of His life to His Father in John 17:4, ‘I have brought you glory here on earth by doing everything you told me to do.’

Would that not be amazing if you and I could say that to God our Father at the end of this week?

Question: Have you done what God wanted you to do with your time this past week?

4: Be sure of this, however you use your time, you and I are going to be accountable at the end of our lives for how we’ve lived, and how we’ve used our time here on earth.’ V14-22.

Don’t waste your time in trivial pursuits, because if you waste your time, you’re wasting your life away. Romans 14:12, ‘Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God.’ You and I have certain responsibilities in this life and are going to be held accountable for every thought – word – action to our Maker and our God!

How have we used our time and our abilities here on earth to serve Jesus, and to care for others, both inside the Church family, and outside in our everyday lives and relationship? Are we using our lives to serve God?

‘Only one life, it will soon be past – only what’s lived for Jesus will last!’