Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Main Idea: God has put into our hearts a longing to enjoy Him and live forever.

Text:

An article in Business Insider from 2014 made these observations:

Most human beings get about 75 years of existence. That’s about 3,900 weeks. Or 27,000 days. Or 648,000 hours. We spend about a third of those hours sleeping, a number that hasn’t changed much over the centuries. What has changed is what we do with the remaining time.

There are 168 hours in a week. 56 go to sleeping, which leaves 112 for everything else.
150 years ago, we spent about 70 of those 112 waking hours working.

[Chart of Working Hours over time]

So you can see here a chart of how the average work week has changed since 1870. Because of things like the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of the common 8-hour work day, the number of hours we work has dramatically decreased.

The article goes on:

Thanks to the remarkable productivity enhancements we have made over the past 150 years, the average workweek in most countries has dropped by about 30 hours…So what do we humans do with all the extra hours our miraculous progress and productivity enhancements have allowed us to create for ourselves? We spend them watching television.

[Graph of Time Spent Watching TV]

As this chart shows, the average person in developed nations spends almost 4 hours a day (28 hours per week) watching TV. We use about 93% of our new-found freedom from work on the passive absorption of mostly mindless entertainment. And we Americans seem to be the worst offenders.

Paul wrote this in Ephesians 5:

Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)

The days are evil in the sense that they’re working against us. We only have so much time in this life, and we’re constantly inching closer to the end of our time on this earth. So we shouldn’t spend our time doing frivolous things. The wise thing to do would be to make every second count.

Of course, we’ve all failed at that. We’ve squandered our precious time, adding to all of the other ways we’ve sinned. And yet, Jesus came in time, died on the cross for our sins according to God’s plan for the fullness of time, and in so doing, invited us into eternity.

So as we talk this morning about how we might spend our time, we can’t help but also talk about eternity.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15

What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)

Father, help us to see the beauty of what You’ve done, and what You’re doing throughout all of history. And help us to join the mission and end of all history and eternity of glorifying Your name. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

I like to play chess. I often play quick games of chess online throughout the day between other tasks just as a brief reward for completing things. But I wondered the other day how much chess I typically play in a day, so I checked my stats online, and it said that I played 14 games of chess blitz chess, and I always play 3 minute games (meaning 3 minutes on my timer, and 3 minutes on my opponent’s timer), which means that each game is about 6 minutes long, so in total that day, I played about 84 minutes of chess.

Was that time wasted? Probably. But it did help me to get a lot of other things accomplished that day.

One of my most favorite things to do is to read books with my kids. It takes about half an hour a day, and we always read a couple chapters of the Bible, and a chapter of whatever other book we’re reading at the time. Right now, we’re reading chronologically through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), and we’re also reading Russian literature, The Brothers Karamazov, which is probably my favorite book outside of the Bible.

So, reading with my kids, is that time wasted? Probably not. But I guess some of it might depend on what we’re reading together.

Last year, my kids started teaching me how to play Minecraft. It was hilarious! They’d play tricks on me, and I’d walk right into them, because I had no idea what I was doing!

[Video clip of learning how to play Minecraft]

Was that time wasted? I don’t think so. I think it may have been some of my most precious and productive time from last year. After all, Jesus said:

Let the little children come to me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Luke 18:16)

So how do we determine a good use of our time, versus a bad use of our time? Because certainly most of these things – playing chess, playing Minecraft, reading books – can be a poor use of time if done unwisely. In other words, how do we balance our time today, with all of its obligations and enjoyments in light of the importance of living for eternity?

As we’ve been studying the book of Ecclesiastes, we’ve been searching for meaning in what happens on the earth, under the sun. And we saw last week that there’s a time for everything that happens under the sun. There’s a time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot, and so on. But you may have noticed from that list that all of those things had to do with what we do. And, of course, that makes sense because that’s how we usually think about life. We think life is all about what we do, and what we can accomplish. But what if life is more than what we do?

We saw from that list last week that there’s often a struggle in life between two extremes. There’s love, and there’s hate. There’s war, and there’s peace. And so much of life, we feel this struggle taking place. Verse 9.

What does the worker gain from his struggles? (Ecclesiastes 3:9)

For just about every action we do, especially when it comes to work and play, we think about what we have to gain. We think about the money we can earn, or the enjoyment we can have. But the Teacher in this passage seems to be saying that no matter whether we experience good things or bad things, there’s nothing to be gained. Like we’ve seen before, at the end of our lives, we can’t take anything with us. Life can seem so meaningless, like chasing after the wing. So Solomon writes in verse 10:

I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. (Ecclesiastes 3:10)

To keep them occupied. It makes me think about how we sometimes give things to little children to keep them occupied. I’m not saying this is right, but there were many times, especially when our kids were really young, that I just gave them screens to play on because I thought I had more important things to do. According to some pediatric specialists, giving your toddler a screen is just about the worst thing you can do for their development.

And here, Solomon writes about all of our work and struggles that God gives us all these things just to keep us occupied.

Now, I don’t think Solomon was saying that’s how it is, but rather that this is often how it feels. We feel sometimes that God doesn’t really care about what we’re going through, and that He just gives us meaningless tasks to keep us busy.

But that’s not the reality. God cares about what we’re going through. And if God ever seems distant to you, remember that even Jesus’s disciples felt that way. So Jesus said to Philip:

Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9)

One thing I’m sure of now more than ever is that the more important work is to play and spend time with my kids. Being a good dad is more than providing for your family. It’s spending time with your family – laughing with them and enjoying them.

In the same way, God cares about us, and loves to spend time with us. Sometimes that can look like a quiet time, in which you read His word and pray, and sometimes it can look like worshiping at church. But sometimes it can also look like playing with your kids, because Jesus said that whatever you do for the least of these, you’ve done for Me.

Verse 11.

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Some translations say, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” I like both. The idea is simply that God knows what He’s doing, and nothing will be wasted. Every struggle we endure, every sorrow we go through, it’s not random. God makes everything appropriately beautiful in its time.

In its time. That means that there’s a chronological series of events in which God makes things appropriate and beautiful. But we also know that God is outside of time as we know it. God isn’t limited by what we call time. So not only does God work inside of time, He also works outside of time. Even in us, He put eternity in our hearts.

Inside each one of us, God put a longing for eternity. He put in us a longing for the fruition of being made appropriately beautiful in time, knowing that we’ll never get there within our understanding of time, but only when time meets eternity. When Jesus returns at the end of the time, at that time, we’ll be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and we’ll enter eternity with Him.

You see, God has this amazing plan! From beginning to end, God is doing one amazing work, but we can’t figure it out on our own. Even Solomon, with all his wisdom, couldn’t figure it out. We can only catch glimpses of it through revelation. I think what follows is one of those glimpses. Verse 12.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-14)

While most of Ecclesiastes is pessimistic, we do get glimpses from time to time of the beauty of life found in God. While we might, from a humanistic perspective, look at all our life and say it’s meaningless, Solomon writes that it’s good to enjoy it. We can even rejoice in it. There’s nothing better than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It’s a gift from God.

James writes that everything good is a gift from God. It’s not hell to spend time with your kids; it’s more like heaven. So when you enjoy some time with your family, give glory to God. When you have a good meal, praise God. When you have a feeling of enjoyment, whether it’s from work or a hobby or even just a silly little game, thank God for that gift. Because when you live with the recognition that everything is a gift, you have more joy, and less bitterness as you receive everything with praise.

And these aren’t just temporary blessings. I mean, the things that we might praise God for are often temporary, whether food or drink or the particulars of our work, but the enjoyment we receive from God, and the praise we give to God are forever. That’s literally what eternity will be. Solomon writes that everything God does will last forever. We can’t add to it, and we can’t take away from it. God does everything He does so that we might all be in awe of Him.

That’s the end goal for His plan. God is good, and worthy of all praise, so His goal for us is to find joy in being in awe of His plan to rescue us by grace through faith in Jesus.

Verse 15.

Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)

At first, this verse might sound like the Teacher going back to his pessimistic way of teaching. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. But follow the logic here. Solomon was just describing what it would look like in eternity, how God’s goal is for us to be in awe of Him forever as we enjoy all His good gifts, including the greatest gift, which is Jesus. And now, Solomon writes that whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. So it’s an invitation to step into eternity now as we are constantly in awe of all of God’s goodness.

Jesus taught that eternity isn’t someday in the future. Eternal life is knowing Jesus and Him as Savior and Lord.

And even when we see injustice, persecution, and suffering in the world, we can know that God has a plan to make all things appropriately beautiful in their time, just as Jesus said, “Behond, I make all things new.”

We often act like life is just about what we do here and now. But God has put eternity into our hearts. He’s given us a longing to live forever. And we don’t understand it. And yet, what we do in this life is part of what we do in eternity. God invites us to enjoy Him forever, eternally, today.

And we begin that by trusting in Jesus.