Good morning. In 1989, 35 years ago, some of you weren't alive. Some of you had been living a long time already. But in 1989, there was a movie that came out, and Robin Williams was the star of it, called Dead Poets Society. In this movie, he was a teacher at an all-boys preparatory school. He was an English teacher. He had graduated from this school that had existed for over 100 years, and he came back, First year teacher with some unconventional methods and he was trying to teach these boys to have an appreciation for poetry and tried to bring it to life. There's a scene near the opening of the movie where, I guess it's the first day that they actually show up. And he actually has them leave the classroom and they go into this lobby area. And they have their title of the 17th century by the English poet Robert Herrick. And it said, gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying. And he reads it and he asks them, he says, do you know what that means? Why did the poet use those words? And one of the boys says, because he was in a hurry. And he goes, thank you for playing. And then he says, the meaning of that poem is that these rosebuds, these flowers that are blooming right now, they're gonna be dying. And all of us are going to die. We're gonna be food for worms. And he gets the boys and he takes them and they're on the wall and kind of this trophy case. There are these old pictures of students who lived long ago and went to that school long ago and now have passed away. And he said, lean in boys and look at them. And then the camera pans in really closely and they're looking at them. And he said, they're just like you. They were young. They had ambition. They had dreams of doing something extraordinary with their life. And what are they saying to us? And he used the Latin phrase that's on the screen. Carpe diem. Seize the day. That is kind of the whole philosophy of that movie. You're here for a short time, all of us are going to die, so seize the day and make your life extraordinary. And you know a lot of people live with that as their life philosophy. Now the passage that we're gonna look at today from Ecclesiastes in chapter three, is one of seven in the book of Ecclesiastes that can sound familiar to that. It sounds something like it, this philosophy of seize the day. But we need to study it carefully. We need to ask the question, is God's view of Carpe Diem the same as Robin Williams' view was? Is it seizing it for yourself or for something else? So we're going to, the plan today is to look at all of chapter three, but at first we're just gonna read the first eight verses. So we're gonna talk about time and eternity, and I invite you to Ecclesiastes chapter three, verses one to eight, and I ask you to stand with me as we read these. We're reading out of NIV today. These are some of, I think, the most often quoted verses from this book. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to search and a time to give up. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war. and a time for peace. This is the Word of God. You can be seated. Now, let me set the context for Ecclesiastes chapter 3. So far in this book, the teacher, who is essentially the writer, not technically the author, but we have an author who wrote a little intro and a conclusion, and most of the book is reflections of the teacher. So far in Ecclesiastes, this teacher has described his quest for fulfillment through some very specific life experiences that he named. But now he turns in chapter three to reflect more broadly on how to make sense of the dilemma that's described really all through this chapter, and in some ways all through Ecclesiastes, but especially in verses 9 through 11, which one writer describes as, we are bound by time, but wired for eternity. So for instance, we started out in Ecclesiastes chapter one, and it talked about the cyclical nature of all things. People come, people go. The ocean comes, it goes in, it goes out. We go, we go, we go, and we learn that every one of us living in this generation is just the generation that follows the generation that lived before us, and the generation that proceeds the generation that's going to come after us. There's this cyclical nature to history and human existence. That was Ecclesiastes chapter 1. In chapter 2, we were reminded that all the pleasures and pursuits of life that somebody could enjoy and say, I'm going to chase this, and I'm going to chase that, and I'm going to chase this other. I'm going to do all these things to be fulfilled, but we learned that none of them can bring ultimate satisfaction. And now we come to chapter three, and we learn that someone with a capital S other than us is in control. That we are not the ones in control of life, and that one of the reasons we struggle continuum, although we're intended to live for eternity, So God has put eternity in our hearts, but we're stuck here in time. That's a recipe for tension. That's a recipe for struggle. Verse nine, what do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. So if you want to picture it, it might look like this. Here you are, and you've got this tension between time and eternity. You and I are here in time, and yet God has put eternity in us and designed us to live for eternity. And it creates some frustration. It creates some tension, and so Today, as we look at Ecclesiastes 3, I want to talk about some ways to deal with this tension between time and eternity. I'm not asserting that this teacher sat down in an organized fashion and said, all right, I'm going to give them three ways to deal with this tension. These are musings, the whole book is this way. It goes here and then it comes back and it goes there and it comes back and it goes here and there. But as I've analyzed this chapter, I see some ways that we can deal with it and hopefully these will be biblical and helpful. The first way is to accept God's perspective as he sovereignly ordains every event in life. Accept that. Accept God's perspective. Verse 1 establishes the basic point. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. That's it. That's the way this chapter starts. And that is the basic point. There are seasons in life. And now through the rest of the first eight verses, which is poetry, we're gonna see an elaboration on that. And there's a figure of speech called Marism where opposites are put To stress the totality. So we might say as far as the east is from the west. Or we might say day and night. But there are a lot of opposites here in the from birth to death and everything in between. A time to be born and a time to die. All of life has a time in which it begins. Every one of us was born at a certain time. If you want to know when my birthday was, ask me afterwards. I'll be happy for you to put that on your calendar. And every one of us is going to die at a certain time. We don't know when that is, but it's going to happen, except if the Lord does return, some will still be living then, but there's a time to be born and a time to die. And it's all controlled by God. God controls that. We don't control the day we were born. We don't control the day we die. And there are 14 pairs like this. 28 different experiences are listed that go back and forth with it that summarize the seasons of life. A time to plant and a time to uproot. That's the end of verse two. Verse three, a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down, a time to build, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search, and a time to give up, a time to keep, and a time to throw away. You know, every marriage consists, I think, of somebody whose philosophy is there's a time to keep. And there's the other person, they want to throw it away. That's another sermon. But there's a time to keep, a time to throw away, a time to tear, time to mend, time to be silent, time to speak, time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Now, in some ways, and sometimes, life is wonderful reflected in these verses. I mean, it includes laughing and dancing and planting and loving. And there are other times in our lives and our world that remind us. We live in a world that is cursed by sin ever since the fall of humankind in the Garden of Eden. And we live in a world cursed by sin. And there are things like killing and tearing down and weeping and mourning and hating and war that God has structured our lives. And to be wise, we need to learn what is appropriate for each time. This summer, just several weeks ago, my aunt in Virginia passed away in her 90s. I attended her memorial service and these verses were read at her service. How many of you have ever been to a funeral and heard these verses read from Ecclesiastes 3? Let me see your hands. It's somewhat common. But I don't think that I have ever heard anybody go beyond verse eight. It's like, okay, here's this, and it's true, but the way Ecclesiastes three is structured is verses one to eight is a poem, and it lays out the basic point. There's seasons in life, but then the rest of the chapter, verses nine to 22, kind of answer that, and put it in perspective, and elaborate on it. So we have to take the rest of the chapter. I mean, this is a lot of verses. I mean, when I thought about it, I thought, man, can we really start our sermon at 10.30 and end it at 2.30? I thought, well, we got to do it. It's just all one. There's a time to preach and a time to leave. It says it right there. Well, it says in the margin of the Hebrew text over there. It's a lot of verses. I'd rather take eight verses than preach on, but I just felt like we need to put all this together. We got this basic truth in one to eight, all right? A time for this, a time for that. God is sovereign. God is in control. And then we get verse nine. What do workers gain from their toil? Boom. All these times, but at the end of all of them, what do you gain? What's gonna be there? He's already asked this question earlier in the book. I think it's verse three of chapter one. What profit is there? And that's, it's like it's almost like it's shattering. God is sovereign, we have all these times and seasons, but in the end, you're just gonna die, right? If we're only considering life on the human plane, if we're only looking at life under the sun, that's what we're left with. We're left with an English teacher telling students seize the day because that's all you have. But we know that with God there's more. Verse 10, I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He's also set eternity in the human heart yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. And now we discover in these verses why there is a time for everything. It's because God is the one who made it that way. God has made everything beautiful in its time. He's also set eternity in our hearts. Have you ever thought about that? Every human being has eternity set in their heart. It's an intuition. that you just know there's more than just this life. Saint Augustine wrote in his confessions, you have made us for yourself, oh Lord. And our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Eternity is set in our hearts. And this is where science comes up short. Science can look back to within microseconds of the creation of the world, which it would call the Big Bang. They're not able, of course, to observe that event. But the way science is practiced cannot and will not ask the question at the other end of the spectrum, why did this happen? What's all this for? Why is there life? Why is there any order? For that, we need revelation from God, which we have in the Bible. He is the only one. He is the creator of the universe. He is the creator of humanity, and He can answer the question why we exist. This tension that we feel now between time and eternity is because we want to know those answers, but we can't. We want to see the big picture because God has put eternity in our hearts, but we can't understand how it all works together. As much as we try, we live in time, but God does not. He is God and we are not. But if we know and rest in that truth, we can walk through the various seasons in our life in a different way. We can walk through those seasons knowing they are part of the bigger picture that God sees and knows that are good. David Gibson says that Part of growing up in the world is learning to grow small. God intends us to be like children who trust their parents to know best because they, the parents, can see what the children can't see, and they know what the children are not yet able to know. Does that sound familiar? Maybe Romans 8, 28, and 29, perhaps? This leads us right into the second way to deal with the tension between time and eternity and it's to accept human limitations and enjoy God's provisions. But most of all take the right posture towards God, which is reverence. I know verse 12 that there's nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. that each one of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil. This is the gift of God. Again, sounds like carpe diem, right? One of seven statements in Ecclesiastes that say life is good, so enjoy it. But this is very different from the way the world views it. The world views it as you have it, take it for yourself, get all you can, but The writer here is at least realizing this is a gift of God. If there are things that you can enjoy, enjoy them, but enjoy them and receive them as a gift from God. Last Sunday in the sermon, we saw from chapter two in verse 24 to 26, a chasm. There's a chasm on the one hand between the apparent meaningless of life, and then on the other hand, between the sheer goodness and joy in God's creation. We said it's a chasm. Both of these things are presented. And now we've just seen another gap. Verses 10 and 11 show us there's a lot we cannot know. Put that on one side. But verses 12 to 15 are now showing us that God is in control and life is good. There's this tension. Verse 14, I know that everything God does will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken from it. God does it so people will fear him. Unlike us, God will live forever. God does live forever and his purposes will never change and he sees and knows the big picture unlike us. He is sovereign and verse 14 the end of verse 14 tells us why he does it that way so that people will fear him. We'll hear about that again in chapter 5 verse 7. We'll hear about it again at the end of the book in the last chapter. We can also find it in other places of scripture like Deuteronomy and Job and Proverbs. This fear of God means to reverence him, to stand in awe of him, to respect him, to revere him, and to obey his word. That's what we do as this relates to it. We humans are limited to time, but God is not. We humans are limited by time, but God is not. Now let's move to the third way to deal with the tension between time and eternity. And that is accept the fact that in spite of injustice now, God will bring everything to judgment and make everything right. Look at verse 15. Whatever is has already been and what will be has been before and God will call the past to account. God is just. We would give a positive answer to the rhetorical question that wasn't asked rhetorically, I don't think, The way we have it now, what Abraham asked in Genesis 18, will not the judge of the earth do right? And we would say, yes, God will do right. But of course we don't always see justice now, not in our world. We do not see justice always in our world, nor was there justice in the world of the teacher. Verse 16, I saw something else under the sun. In the place of judgment, wickedness was there. In the place of justice, wickedness was there. Sometimes it seems like oppressors and conmen and crooks get off scot-free. It seems like there is oppression and people get by with things. and there's not justice. But it's especially frustrating when the places where you would think, I can go there and see justice and it doesn't happen, like a court, a court system, or in leadership, or maybe even in schools. This writer saying I looked around why where there should have been justice, but it was it was wickedness. Verse 17. reinforces the truth of verse 15, showing that that's not the final word. I said to myself, God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed. What an interesting way to tie it all together. The first eight verses is there's a time for this and time for that all these seasons. Guess what? God also has a time. There is going to be a time when God says enough is enough and we are going I am going to set everything right. Christopher Wright says there will be no loose ends. There will be nothing just swept under the carpet. The past lies open before God, and there will be a putting right. It is good news that evil and futility will not have the last word. We are baffled and angered by injustice in the world, but God knows the difference between the righteous and the wicked, and God will be the final judge of all human conduct. We don't have time to look at all these verses. But God hates oppression, and he cares for the oppressed. Verses like Proverbs 14, 31, or 17, 5, 22, 22, and 23, Isaiah 58, 6 to 10, Ezekiel 22, 6 to 12, Amos 2, 6 and 7. This would include, but not be limited to refugees, Women who are mistreated and trafficked, violated. Parents who were bereaved. Like think about the parents in Georgia this week who just sent their kids to school. There's a lot of injustice in our world, a lot of pain. But in spite of that, there's going to be a day that God is going to bring judgment finally. Except the fact that there's often a difference between what we as humans observe and feel or observe or feel and God's eternal truth. This is what we're going to see as we look at verses 18 to 22. Now in verse 17, the teacher told us what he believes. Sometimes he's just laying out these observations. And you go, is this a cynic? But back in chapter two, the teacher had noticed. that both wise and foolish people die, right? He wrestled with, is it better to be wise or foolish? It's definitely better to be wise, but both wise and foolish people die. But now these verses and what he observes takes it to another level. Verse 18, also said to myself, as for humans, God tests them so they may see that they're like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals. The same fate awaits them both. As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath. Humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place. All come from dust. And to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth. This is sticky material here. It appears that he's saying there's no difference between animals and human beings. But let's dig in with a couple of important observations. First, I don't think he's saying that he believes that theory 100%. There is some agnosticism in his words, verse 21. Who knows? We see that often in Ecclesiastes. Well, who knows if this? Who knows if that? He is stating his belief that we cannot be certain about what happens after death. That's his belief. Sometimes his belief doesn't always match up with what God teaches and we'll talk about that in a minute. Second, the main point might be that the reality and the certainty of death renders pointless any effort that human beings might make to, during their earthly lives, to find some kind of gain or advantage over the rest of creation. I've pointed out already in this series that sometimes in Ecclesiastes, we have a wrestling going back and forth. We have this wrestling with trying to figure it out. And sometimes there's a struggle between different views, sometimes very opposite views. I think these verses, this is an important place to note that the teacher is most likely sharing what he observes and what he feels, not necessarily what God has revealed in his word. So, his conclusions about how people should live in light of certain death comes in verse 22. So, how do we know? How do we discern? whether his views reflect God's. When you're reading through Ecclesiastes through the week and you read something, how do you know, because you're gonna read some things and you go, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Then you read other things and you go, hmm, I don't understand that. Or you might go, that doesn't seem to match up with what I've always believed. How do you know? Well, let me give you two very important ways to deal with that issue. Number one is context. What is the context of the verses that you're reading? And secondly, compare scripture with scripture. Compare what you read from this writer with what else the Bible says. Because it kind of comes down to this. If the context is developing a point, and so to develop that point, there are different angles you use. But most importantly, If this is only his observation, you don't want to equate that to what God is saying. And the only way to know that is to look at the rest of Scripture. Because Scripture does not contradict itself. And so if you know that Scripture, later Scripture, or even earlier Scripture, teaches something different than what you're reading in Ecclesiastes, you know, aha, we don't have the full story yet. And also, we're not at the end of Ecclesiastes yet. We're working it through. That's why it's challenging to take just even one whole chapter because this is a book that leads to a conclusion. So let's compare some scripture, some things he said. Let's compare it with the other scripture. Are animals and humans alike? Are they the same? Do we all just live and then we just die? Well, The context, he's already said in verse 11, God has made everything beautiful in this time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. I don't wanna break your hearts, but you pet lovers, they're sweet, but they don't have eternity in their hearts. Only humans are said to have eternity in their hearts. That makes us different from animals, right? Animals are sweet and they're wonderful, especially if they're dogs, the other opposite of dogs. You know, there's a time for dogs, no, it didn't say that, a time for dogs and a time for cats. The Bible just did not say that. But whether you love dogs or love cats or whatever, They don't have eternity set in their hearts like we do. That is different. And isn't it funny in our weird society that some people value seemingly the lives of animals more than the lives of unborn babies, for instance? Well, how about other scripture? Genesis 1. When God was creating, what did he say about these human beings he created? God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. That's the image of God. God created male and female. Animals weren't created in the image of God. At the end of the book, we're gonna get to chapter 12 and find this as part of the conclusion. Remember him, remember God. before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken, and before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel is broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Or how about in the New Testament, Hebrews 9, 27, and 28? Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, So God was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. Afterlife is judgment that is coming. And one more, 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5, for everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving because it is concentrated, consecrated by the word of God in prayer. Now think for a minute about the differences. between us as human beings and God. The things that we do in life are going to come and go, but what God does endures forever, 314. We cannot control the day that we are born or the day we die, but God controls everything We humans are limited by time, but God is not. That shouldn't discourage us, it should elicit this response. It comforts us and it challenges us. It comforts and it challenges. How so? Well, I wanna encourage you this morning to receive the comfort that exists in knowing that God is eternal. And that this eternal God also chose to forgive the ungodly. So if you're not saved, if you don't know him personally, reach out to him, to Jesus for salvation through faith. And realize that his death, his burial, his resurrection, it was for your forgiveness of sins. for those who are believers. Call on his name like Moses did in Psalm 90 to establish the work of your hands. Live for God, not just for gain or pleasure or self. Trust God that he will make everything right at the final judgment. Stop trying to control everything. We know that we can't control everything, right? But boy, do we try. Rest in God's sovereignty and faithfulness and love in times of pain, especially if you don't get the answers you desire in times of pain. One writer says, nearly always we live only in and for each moment. What difference would it make to our now to begin to live in the fact that there will be a then? Except these seasons of life, good and bad is coming from God's hand. Don't seek satisfaction and pleasures, accomplishment. Just receive them as a gift, but don't build your life around them. So, to me, the biblical carpe diem is not what Robin Williams' character tried to instill in his students. Selfishly grab all that you can because you've just got one little quick opportunity to make something for your life. but it's receiving life daily as a gift of God and taking a posture of worship that He is God. And we will worship Him for everything. We humans are indeed limited by time, but God is not. And that comforts us and it challenges us. Will you bow your heads with me please?