Romans chapter 8 is one of the most comforting chapters in all of Scripture. It's a chapter that begins with no condemnation and it ends with unstoppable eternal love. And this is what we need to hear, this hope, this peek behind the curtain to see divine reality, what God is doing. So let's read Romans chapter 8. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus far our reading. Our text this morning comes to us from Ecclesiastes chapter three. Please turn there with me. Now, Ecclesiastes is an interesting and unique book of the Bible. It's a book where the author seems to go out of his way for a lot of the book to ignore God. Assuming that God doesn't exist, what is the meaning of life? What is life under the sun? Forgetting, ignoring who is over the sun. And this is good for us to consider, to begin in the hopelessness that we may feel because we are forgetful so often of what is eternal when we're confronted with pain and tragedy. And this is no coincidence. This is exactly what the devil wants us to be, forgetful. So this morning, let's fight back a little. Let's read Ecclesiastes 3, the first 15 verses. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. 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. What gain has the worker from his toil? I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He's made everything beautiful in its time. 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. I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man. I perceive 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. After the sermon, we will sing our Amen song of Psalm 139, the stanzas 8, 9, and 10. May God bless the preaching of his word. Beloved in Christ our Lord, it all seems so senseless. It all seems so meaningless. As we've heard now a few times this week, we've heard via email, phone call, text message, in person. On Monday night, our brother Jordan Emery was struck and killed by a car. A hit and run. They heard this, and our first reaction was shock. We didn't believe what we were hearing. Surely not. It didn't happen. Or if it did happen, it was someone else. Not Jordan. We just saw him in church on Sunday, ushering. There was just a post about Jordan and his new UNO t-shirt on the Facebook page. It was going to be Jordan's birthday on Thursday. But Jordan did not get to see Tuesday with the Young's family. He didn't get to do any number of the things that he had scheduled for his birthday on Thursday. He didn't get to go to the shootings for dinner on Friday or spend time with the Ikemas on Saturday. Instead, he's just gone. There's this gaping hole for the family. There's a gaping hole for the congregation. And that's what death does. Especially a sudden death like this one. Everything's changed. There's no going back. And we would expect, we would expect there to be some evidence then of this earth-shattering change. But seemingly nothing. The sun rose every morning in the east and set in the west. Businesses still operated. People still went about their normal lives. And this is, in a way, heartbreaking. Why did this have to happen? It's senseless. And why does it seem to have made no difference to the world? Is everything really that meaningless? You live, you die, and the world goes on. Tragedies or joys. Maybe some people will take notice, but by and large, what matters so much to you, what is the biggest event of the week, the month, the year, maybe even the decade, goes largely unnoticed. How can this be the case? Well, our God, knowing everything as he does, our God, caring about our difficulties and speaking into them, he saw it fit to inspire King Solomon to tackle exactly this question in the book of Ecclesiastes. This book poses the question, is it all truly meaningless? Solomon, he wants to find out the meaning of life here on earth, the meaning of life under the sun, and so he tries out everything. And then he writes down a journal, he writes down his thoughts on what he's done. He tries out women and wine and wealth and wisdom and various other things, and none of them work. Not a single one of them gives him the meaning that he desires. And even though there is a conclusion at the end of the book in chapter 12, he says, now all has been heard, here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. This conclusion seems to come out of nowhere. This conclusion, it doesn't even seem to provide meaning. Because if you fear God and keep his commandments, your life still appears to be meaningless. Because what happened to Jordan on Monday had nothing to do with his morality. What happened on Monday had nothing to do with what Jordan believed. It had nothing to do with the fact that he loved God. The same thing would have happened if Jordan wasn't a Christian. Both Christians and non-Christians die. And so this morning, with broken hearts, with confusion, We ask that same question that Solomon asked all those years ago, is it all truly meaningless? We'll examine that in two points. We'll look at the emptiness of time and then the fullness of eternity. Is it all truly meaningless, the emptiness of time? For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, 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. It's a beautiful poem, inspired by the Holy Spirit, but it's empty. This is a description of life. My pages were in the wrong order. One moment. So these famous words. These famous words from Ecclesiastes, they're often said, they're often shared when tragedy strikes. These words, they are shared to provide comfort. What the people say is, well, what God is revealing to us here in Ecclesiastes is that everything happens for a reason. What God is saying here is that everything is ordained by him. And so when we experience something tragic, well, something good is coming right around the corner. But that's not what it says. To say that the message of Ecclesiastes 3 is everything happens for a reason, that's putting words in the preacher's mouth. All that is actually said here is everything happens. Just that. Everything happens. It just does. It's a beautiful poem, but it's empty. This is a description of life, everything happening. In life, there's birth and there's death. In life, there's war and there is peace. In life, there is love and there is hatred. Everything happens. The author, known in the book as the preacher, very likely King Solomon, he's an old man as he writes these words. He's an old man reflecting back on his life. And Solomon, the wisest man on earth, the one endowed by God with special wisdom from above, all that he can say after all these years, all that is written on the scroll of truth is the words, everything happens. We're tempted to throw that away. We're tempted to consider this to be useless. Everything happens. I was hoping for more, to be honest. Now, there is a bit more here. There's much more here, actually, but don't get your hopes up just yet. It has to get darker before the dawn. Take a look once more at these 14 pairs. Each positive is matched up with a negative. Birth is matched up with death. Love with hatred. War with peace. And so, do you know what that means? It's more than just everything happens. It's worse than just everything happens. You have in this list 14 positives and you have 14 negatives. So you have 14 and you take 14 away from that, what's the total? Zero. Life, so says the preacher, is a zero-sum game. Life, so says the preacher, is meaningless. There's a time. A time, a time, 28 times. It's like the seconds ticking by on a clock or the bells chiming out the hour. A time, a time, a time, a time. And time spent under the sun is meaningless. And we cannot, no matter how hard we try, find meaning for it under the sun. In verse 9, what do we read? What gain has the worker from his toil? I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. The ESV here, it has it, it's a little softer, it has it a little nicer than it really should. The NIV brings out the true weightiness of verse 10. I've seen the burden, business is too nice. I've seen the burden that God has laid on the human race. Day after day, things happen. The cries of a newborn baby will one day, 80, 90, or 42 years later down the road, be replaced with the cries of the loved ones around him. Or World War I, the war to end all wars it was called. How many years did never again become let's invade Poland? 21 years. It was the sons, not even the grandsons, it was the sons of those who fought in the war to end all wars, who were conscripted to fight in the next world war. That is life under the sun. And now this phrase, under the sun, it comes up 30 times in this short book. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity. There is nothing gained under the sun. And on and on it goes. But what's missing here? Do you know what's missing? What is missing when we examine life under the sun? Can you put your finger on it? Well, it's life over the sun, isn't it? It's life above the sun. Because without God in the equation, this is it. Without God in the equation, there's absolutely no meaning. Without God in the equation, I would say amen right now and we'd all go home and we'd never come back. We'd go home, we would crawl into bed and we would cry and hope to forget. And that's our only comfort. Without God is to be without hope. But that's not us. We may have to be reminded. Our grief makes us forgetful. Our tears make our vision very small, and we need someone else to come to us and expand that vision. We need someone else to come to us and turn our eyes upwards, to focus not only on time, but to focus on time in the light of eternity, an eternity that is even more full than time is empty. That's our final point this morning. Eternity is more full than time is empty. And maybe that is too deep of a thought to wrap your mind around, so examine it, imagine it instead like this. Imagine you have a scale in front of you. Now on one side, on this side, is all of the pain, all of the frustration, all of the sorrow, all of the grief, all of the emptiness of the zero-sum game that is life. These are heavy burdens and scale is weighed down quite a lot. But then the other side, on the other side is eternity. The eternity that we have a foretaste of even now. The eternity that Jordan is currently enjoying. He's passed through the veil and for Jordan, empty time has given way to full eternity. And you place this on the scale, it's not even close. When eternity is added, the scale tips drastically to this side. And this, beloved, is not my imagery. I didn't make it up this week in my study. This is what the Apostle Paul says in our reading. Romans 8, verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. So as much as we are mourning here, Jordan is more joyful than we are sorrowful. Right now. Right now in heavenly glory. Life under the sun is meaningless, but only if there's not a life over the sun. Only if there's not a life above the sun. And this is our problem. We forget. More accurately, Satan works very hard to cause us to forget or even doubt that life over the sun. But God, do you really think, do you really think that God would have left us defenseless to these temptations, to these attacks? No, he's given us verse 11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart. The devil tries to tell us that it's meaningless. Who cares about beauty now if there's going to be ugliness later? Who cares about the baby born now if there's going to be death later? Who cares about the joy now if there's going to be sorrow later? What's the point in being happy now if you'll be sad later? for precisely that reason, because you'll be sad later. There's more to it than that. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Do you see? Not only has God created all of this, the sun that shines, the moon that glows, even birth and death, every day written on his scroll, but he's also filled them with meaning. By themselves, meaningless. With God, meaningful, beautiful, glorious. Just as God created the oceans and then filled them with life, God created life and then filled it with meaning. He's made life. All that happens, all of our times, and he's made them good. He's made them beautiful. And how? How has he done this? He's done this by reminding us of eternity. He's done this by placing the concept of eternity in our hearts. Because you see, the hunger, the hunger that God has placed in our hearts is infinite. He has put eternity in man's heart. And that's why it will ultimately be disappointed by anything finite. We experience this frustration. We experience this disappointment in our life when we think that this is all that there is. When we think that the purpose of this life is this life. Because if everything that Jordan did, if everything that Jordan experienced led to him being struck by a car on the road, if that's where it ended, there's no greater sorrow. So no amount of Jordan stories or flowers or food or hugs could provide any hope or comfort. But that's because we are putting infinite expectations on the finite. But the finite, life under the sun, it is a gift to help us get elsewhere, to get to the life over the sun. Time is given to us to get to eternity. Time is the road. and eternity is the destination. Verse 11, he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has made it that you can enjoy the road as long as you realize that it's a road. There's hope even in this broken world. Romans 8 verse 20 says, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. And Jordan has been set free from bondage and corruption. He has obtained the freedom of the glory of God. He's gone ahead of us. And where He is, one day we will also be. And so we can live this life. We can walk this road with purpose and with joy and with meaning because God has sealed the roadmap onto our heart. God has given us a taste of home. He's given us a taste of our true hometown. a place where we've never been, and yet the place that we were made for, that place where joy is found, the joy of a refugee who has found a home. What we ultimately long for is not for this life, what we ultimately long for is not for this road to continue on indefinitely, but we do long for the road to end, for the never-ending cycle of life to finish and to finish well. And this is just like the Buddhist idea of nirvana, but with one very important difference. It's for a Buddhist. Life is the cycle of reincarnation until you reach the ultimate enlightenment that's called nirvana. And when you achieve nirvana, so they say, you enter into a transcendent state where you don't suffer, where you don't desire, where you have no self-awareness. Essentially, it's the rest of nothingness. But, beloved, we're not Buddhists. Nothing is not our ultimate destination. Nothing is not our ultimate home. Instead, it's the exact opposite. Our home with God in heaven means more of everything, more joy, more pleasure, more peace, and not only in the amount, but in the duration. Life here is so temporary. Life here is so fleeting, and this impacts us on a deep level, maybe even on an unconscious level, because we were made for eternity. God has placed eternity in our hearts, and yet we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. It is wrong for a life to be cut off at the age of 42. We know that. Instinctively, we know that. But why? Why is it wrong? Well, it's wrong because life isn't over at 42. There hasn't been enough time. And there will never be enough time, not in 40 years or 80 years or 100 years, because we were made to be eternal. We were created with eternity in our hearts. We were made for heaven. We were made for perfect union with God. And our lives there will be spent in worship. Our lives there will be spent living before the face of God, exploring the new creation, exploring, searching out more and more and more of God, experiencing more and more and more of his grace, more joy, more pleasure, more peace, more rest, more love. And this, just like eternity, is something that we have a foretaste of even now. We've been given a foretaste of this in Jesus Christ. For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. God is in control of every day that we live, every mile of the road. And what did he do with that ultimate control that he has over time? What did he do with time in his sovereign hands? Well, he appointed times. One day, there was appointed a time for Christ to be born. And the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son. In the fullness of time, Jesus Christ came to meet us, running towards us as we plod down that dusty dirt road, tired of the journey, unsure of the destination. The incarnation is God shouting for us to return to Him. Reminding us that all is meaningless without him, but with him. A long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. And so the grains of sand slipping through the hourglass, the ticking of the clock that was the prophets, had passed. And the day that he spoke to us by his son had come. just the right time. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to prepare the hearts and the minds of those who would believe in him. During his earthly life, he was the shout of God. Walk this way. Walk my way. I will carry you down the road. When you're too tired to walk yourself, I will carry you clear to the end. And then another grain of sand. Another tick of the divine clock, there was an appointed time for Christ to die. At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. The most important day in the history of forever. The day that changed everything. The day that sins were finally paid for. The day when we were justified. And Jordan, though he lived thousands of years after that day, he was justified on that day. He was justified at that moment. When Christ said, it is finished, it was. In that moment, the most important mile of the road that time appointed by God. Now we have to remember, we have to put our faith in Jesus Christ when the Spirit works faith in our hearts and we see Jesus running down the road to us and we run to him. We have to remember that this isn't the end of the road. So when we come to faith, we're not instantly transported off the road to our destination. Because it's been appointed for us to struggle. been appointed for us to walk, to limp, to crawl down that road. Faith, justification, adoption into God's family isn't a magical transport home. It's not a portal to heaven. It doesn't pluck us off the road. It just changes how we travel. God knows. God knows that we can't get there from here. And so he says, I'm going to come get you. He says, I've put my roadmap into your heart. He says, you're not going to walk alone. He says, take my burden as you walk. Every other burden is heavy. Give those to me. But my burden, my burden will give you wings. Beloved, Jordan was given, as we were all given, a gift, the gift of the road, the gift of time. And Jordan's road was very nearly 43 years long. He ran the race marked out for him, and he is enjoying the prize that is given to the winner. On Monday night... On Monday night, Jordan didn't reach his destination. He didn't make it back to Jared and Mel's house. But in a deeper way, in a much richer way, Jordan did reach his destination. his ultimate home in glory with his heavenly father, surrounded by thousands, by millions of his brothers and sisters. In all these things, Jordan was more than a conqueror through Jesus, who loves him. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation could separate Jordan from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, too, also us. We may feel like it's meaningless, that this was so senseless. But even this, even this cannot separate us from the love of God, even this tragedy. Let's try as he might. Satan doesn't have the final word because death doesn't have the final word. Life has the final word. God has the final word. And Jordan is experiencing that right now. And one day we will join Him, because that day too is appointed. That day too is written on God's calendar. And so between this day and that day, let us walk faithfully the road marked out for us with the destination in our hearts, seeing Jesus Christ there waiting for us. seeing Jordan there now as part of the welcoming committee. The sorrow that we feel is temporary, and it's ours for now. The joy is eternal, and it's his forever. Amen.