To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
4 sermons cite this verse
… things different events all things under heaven has its time ecclesiastes chapter 3 to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. So I know that God has his appointed times. I just wish he would inform me of them. He doesn't tell me his timetable or what he's up to. Some, he continues, remove landmarks. They seize flocks violently. These are the wicked people. and feed on them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox as a pledge. They have accused Job of this. Job has denied this is the case. But he is describing the life choices of the wicked. And when he says they remove landmarks, if you are writing notes or writing in the margin of your Bible, don't look it up now, but write Deuteronomy chapter 19 in the margin of your Bible. There it talks about not removing the ancient landmark, that is the property markers. Your neighbor would have stones set out on his property that would delineate that that property belongs to him or her. …
… I know that you remember what Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, a very famous saying that has even become a song, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. At the end of that little section, he continues to say, he, God, makes all things beautiful in its time. Sometimes we feel as if God is late. He's late to the party. I want you to imagine a different story in the Bible than the one we're about to read. Imagine being Martha. She is standing outside the tomb of her brother Lazarus. She has prayed. She has sent word to Jesus, saying, the one that you love is sick. She knows that Jesus can come and heal her brother. But he doesn't come. He eventually comes, but he's late. He comes late, not an hour late, not a day late, four days late. he finally shows up, she turns to him and said, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. Essentially, she's saying, you had an opportunity and you blew it. But you know the rest of the story. What seemed like four days late was actually perfect timing because what Jesus had in mind was something far better than just healing Lazarus. We have the same kind of a story here. …
… There's a time for death. There's a time to laugh and a time to weep. There's a time to build up and a time to tear down. All told, in these eight verses, Solomon is gonna give us 14 of these dualistic pairs or two sets of seven, which is a Hebrew way of signaling perfection, completion. In other words, the very shape of the poem is declaring to you, this is the totality of life. the seasons, the cycles. This is life. And just like the actual seasons, none of us can change or predict or control them. Listen, I love the fall here in North Carolina. It literally cannot get here soon enough for me. The temperature is perfect. The leaves start to change and there is no pollen. Spring is okay. Okay. It's okay. The pollen just about ruins it for me. These muggy, humid summer months are something I could forever leave behind. Now, my wife is almost the exact opposite. But of course, our preferences don't change anything in regards to when the seasons come or how long they last. In the same way, all the money in the world cannot stop life's biggest changes. Your body aging, your kids growing up, things in your life changing, friends moving away, relationships falling apart, economies crashing, prostates developing, cancer, a loved one dying. …
… And yes, that is a book in the Bible. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 15 is where we're going to be studying tonight with a message entitled, All in Good Time. All in good time. Now for many of us, we have both heard these words spoken and probably repeated them ourselves. To the little kid who wants it to be Christmas already, to the teenager who wants to drive so badly to the engaged couple anticipating their long-awaited wedding day, we would say, well, all in good time. But is it true, all in good time? Will you and I get everything we desire in good time? Do good things come to those who wait? Well, possibly, but certainly not always. I would suppose it's really dependent on one major factor, and it would be how you and I would define the word good. And rather, who would define what is good? If God, who is the source of all goodness, as the Bible tells us, is the one to define what is good, then the answer to the statement, all in good time, is absolutely yes. …