Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Time
Time is a funny thing isn’t it.
We all have the same amount of hours in a day.
We all are afforded the same segments of time on a day to day basis.
But the effects of time are different for each one of us.
I remember when I was in middle school and high school how quickly the summer went by while the school year seemed to drag on forever.
I also remember how quickly school ran past me when I was in college and seminary.
All of a sudden the semester’s end was here and hopefully I accomplished all my requirements to pass.
In fact, I remember telling someone when I was in seminary, that I no longer looked at time as a day in and day out thing.
Rather, I viewed time in semester blocks.
When school started and when it ended and when I was going back again.
We use phrases like, it feels like it was just yesterday... when our kids were born.
Time is one of the few things in life that humans haven’t learn to conquer.
We can’t stop it.
We can’t slow it down.
We can’t add to it, we can’t take away from it.
So in all reality time is an uncontrollable constant that we have to learn to endure as we live this life.
If you hadn’t guessed yet, this morning’s subject is going to be Time.
Part of the passage we are going to look at this morning is probably the most well known passages in all of Ecclesiastes.
It’s read at funerals, both religious and secular.
In fact this passage was turned into a popular song back in 1965
American folk singer, songwriter, and political activist Pete Singer was writing a lot of anti war, anti government songs.
His record label approached him and demanded that he write a new song that wasn’t about protesting the government.
What he then did was look for inspiration for this new song.
And he turned to Ecclesiastes chapter 3.
With the exception of 6 added words, Ecc.
3:1-8 were turned into a huge success.
The song was recorded and made popular by a band called The Byrds and the title of the Song was “Turn, Turn, Turn.”
This song and the scripture that inspired it resonated with the nation b/c we are all affected by time.
We are all frustrated by time.
For the older time flies by so fast we can’t seem to keep up.
For the younger, time creeps by until adulthood.
And again in all the frustration of time and our inability to stop its progress, what do we do.
How do we deal with this uncontrollable constant in our life?
Like much of what we have learned in Ecc. its all about perspective.
The way that we look at and view time is going to have an impact on us either negatively or positively.
I’m going to give you the solution b4 we even look at the problem.
We need to trust God.
We need to know that he is in control
The big theological word that is used to talk about God’s oversight of the universe is Sovereignty.
God’s divine rule and reign is covered in this one word Sovereignty.
It means that he has all authority.
All influence and all direction of what happens with in his creation.
And his Sovereignty means that he is working everything out for his good and his glory.
So let’s keep that in mind as we read these scriptures.
A Time For Everything
This is a beautiful list of the reality of life.
There is a time for everything.
A season for everything.
In this list one of the things that is interesting is there are 14 pairs of opposites.
7 positive and 7 negative.
And all these pairs encompass the entirety of human life.
Now, one of the things that I find interesting in this poem is that Solomon has a shift in perspective.
I don’t know if you noticed it.
I certainly didn’t the first time I read through it.
But for the whole of Ecc.
his focus has been about everything under the sun.
But here there is a shift.
He doesn’t say that there is an occasion for everything under the sun.
He says there is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven.
So at this point he is recognizing the reality of life being under the eye of God.
That God is overseeing and aware of every season that we come across.
These seasons are as much a reality for God as they are for us, but God isn’t bound by the time and seasons as we are.
heaven is outside the bounds of time.
Meanwhile everything under the sun is bound by time and seasons.
And as I said earlier, God is the overseer of these times, these seasons of life.
And it all begins with birth and death.
If there is one thing to be sure, you aren’t in control of your birth.
You cannot dictate when you are going to be born, and in most circumstances you aren’t in charge of when you die.
So right off the bat, Solomon is pointing us to the reality that there is someone outside of ourselves that has oversight.
And he sees the beauty in that truth.
Notice, that Solomon doesn’t resent or make judgments on the seasons of life in this poem.
Rather, he simply states that they exist.
Notice that one of the things that Solomon is communicating here is that there is an order to even the seasons of life.
Even the word he uses for occasion or season in v.1, means an appointed time.
The things that happen in the world and in our lives are not chaotic from God’s standpoint.
He is not caught off guard by our circumstances.
He is not confused or overwhelmed.
Rather these times.
These seasons are arranged in such away that they have been appointed by God.
And I know that it can be hard to wrestle with and even resent God’s sovereignty.
We look at the events in our lives and in our world and question why God’ has allowed these things to happen.
Why are Christians in China and the Middle East being captured, imprisoned, and in some instances beheaded for their faith?
Why are friends and family members that we love and care about being ravaged with illness, cancer, and other diseases?
How can a good God allow all these bad things to happen?
How can a God that is in control of the universe let me slip through the cracks?
If life is orderly b/c God designed it that way, why does my life feel chaotic and crazy?
Here’s the truth that we have to hold fast to.
Our God is working his purposes out.
And whether we want to acknowledge it or not, his purposes are always perfect, holy, and just.
Not only that, but God doesn’t leave us alone in our seasons of life.
He is there in the pain.
He is there in the joy.
He is there in the birth.
He is there in death.
He is there in war.
He is there in peace.
Here’s one of the big things that we have to combat in our society and culture.
There are many who don’t actually believe that God is in control and present in our situations.
These are what we would call deists.
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