The Reign Of Time And The Glimmer Of Hope

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Good morning. This week I was thinking about how much we VALUE LIFE. And don’t get me wrong. It’s good that we VALUE LIFE. GOD gave us this LIFE. God put within us the will to fight with every last breath we have to keep this life. But listen, eventually DEATH will find us all. Death will find our LOVED ONES. And after they’re gone we still GRIEVE for them don’t we? But think about this just for a minute. After the last person that personally knew them dies, themselves, it’s not too long until they’re forgotten.

A few years ago I was researching some of my family from way back. I enjoy researching Genealogy. Anyway I found my GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS on my mom’s side. Before this time I didn’t even know their names. But anyway, I found where they are buried. Springtown Cemetery just to the East of Tulsa. So we went to find their graves. You drive out Highway 412 and just before you get to the Verdegris River you go South a ways and then you go back to the West a ways down a dead end road. And this is what I want you to get. You go out into a field where the CHIGGERS and the TICKS will almost carry you away (Believe me I know), and you’ll find the Springtown Cemetery. And as you wade through the GRASS that’s higher than your head you’ll find TOMBSTONES. Many from well over 100 years ago. And I found my GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS stone. James and Josephine McCleery. They both died in 1896.

They died a 128 years ago. There’s NO ONE ALIVE who knew them. No one knows what they LIKED. What kind of people they were. Did they have a HAPPY MARRIAGE? Were they FOLLOWERS of JESUS? I will NEVER KNOW on this side of eternity because their TIME to be BORN came and then their TIME to DIE came.

And someday the same will happen for you and I. That TIME to be BORN has come and gone for us but that TIME to DIE is fast approaching. It’s very likely that at least one of us here today, probably more, will be DEAD by this time next year. And as the years go by those who knew us will also die and we will be remembered NO MORE. That seems kind of DEPRESSING doesn’t it? LIVE, DIE, BE BURIED then FORGOTTEN. That sounds HOPELESS but Ecclesiastes 3, Verse 1 tells us something important. Let’s read it.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

There is a PURPOSE for LIFE. A REASON why we’re here today. I have preached out of Ecclesiastes 3 in the past but always for funerals. But that’s NOT why we’re here today is it? No, God has given each one of us LIFE, at least for the time being. Some of you all may not look alive but I’m confident that you are. So the PURPOSE, the REASON for us being here, is what I want to talk to you about today.

Before I do let’s go to the Lord in Prayer.

Brother ____, would you lead us?

I. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born and a time to die”

So what was the PURPOSE of James and Josephine McCleery to be born? What was the REASON?

Why were your FOREFATHERS and FOREMOTHERS BORN?

Well, first of all, to PROCREATE. To have children. Listen, this is the way God has chosen to continue on the Human Race. He could have continued to CREATE HUMANS just as He did Adam and Eve but He chose US, you and I as humans, to join in WITH HIM by CREATING CHILDREN. Now I know not everyone has children but I’m talking about as a whole, the HUMAN RACE continues on because children are born. I’m thankful today that my ancestors had children or I wouldn’t be here today. I know my Great Great Grandfather, James McCleery, certainly did his part. He fathered AT LEAST 18 children and one of them was my Great Grandfather, Samuel McCleery. Samuel McCleery fathered my grandmother, who gave birth to my mother who gave birth to ME. Life goes on. People are born and people die.

But THIS RIGHT HERE is the PURPOSE of God. God told Adam and Eve, He told you and I, to have CHILDREN.

A. Genesis 1:27 and 28, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”