Time In A Bottle Series

Time In Bottle-3 1-22.docx

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Just to let you know I will not sing Jim Croce—Time In A Bottle—" If I could save time in a bottle…The first thing that I'd like to do…Is to save every day…'Til eternity passes away…Just to spend them with you

Or I wont sing The Byrds song Turn! Turn! Turn!--- To everything (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die

A time to plant, a time to reap

A time to kill, a time to heal

A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down

A time to dance, a time to mourn

A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate

A time of war, a time of peace

A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)

There is a season (turn, turn, turn)

And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose

A time to rend, a time to sew

A time for love, a time for hate

A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

People hear those songs and think oh those are great. But little do they know that Solomon wrote those a long time ago.

You all have heard this before but let’s play pretend

So the bank calls you on Friday afternoon and tells you that someone is going to be giving you a deposit each day of 86,400 pennies each day starting on Monday morning. That is $864 a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year

But there is one stipulation… you have to spend all the money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day.

Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use

You start to think about that $864 times seven days is over $6000 a week and almost $315,000 that you could spend if you were diligent

But remember what you don’t spend is forfeited

Well so much for “pretend”

Now let’s play “let’s get serious”

Every morning someone who loves you very much deposits into your account of time 86,400 seconds of time—which is 1,440 minutes which of course is 24 hours each day

Now you’ve got to remember the same stipulation applies, because God gives you this amount of time for you to use each day

Nothing is carried over on credit to the next day

There is no such thing as a 26 hour day (though some of us wish there were)

From today’s dawn until tomorrow’s dawn you have precisely determined amount of time

As someone has put it “life is a coin. You can spend it any way you want to, but you spend it only once”

One of the most fascinating (and I might add frustrating) of all subjects is this four-letter word time

It’s amazing

We all have the same amount of time

Whether we are penniless or whether we are the richest person on earth

Whether we are old or young

Married or single

Think of how much “time” is woven into the fabric of our conversation every day

“what time does the meeting start”

“what time will the meeting end”

“I don’t have time for that”

“how much time will that take”

“don’t waste your time on that”

“its time to go”

“I need a time out”

“its time we had a long walk”

“what time is supper”

Time has been defined as a “stretch of duration in which things happen”

This reminds me of the fact that we will have all eternity to enjoy our victories, but only one life in which to win them

In our text, Solomon saw something above man, a God who was in control of time and who balanced life’s experiences (v. 1-8), then he saw something within man that linked him to God (eternity in his heart) vs. 9-14. Thirdly, Solomon saw something ahead of man—the certainty of death (v. 15-22). Finally, he saw something around man, the problems of burdens of life (4:1-5:9).

God seems to use four factors to keep our lives from becoming monotonous and meaningless

They are: time, eternity, death and suffering

When Michael Jordan retired from the NBA he said, “I have nothing left to prove.”

What was he most proud of?

That his father saw him play his last NBA game.