1 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; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Introduction
There are few things in life more important than timing. If I were to ask you the secret of great football teams, some of you would say, “Well, it is strength.” Others would say, “It is speed.” Others would say, “It is intelligence—having a good game plan.” But I doubt many of you would mention timing, although most of us know how very important timing is to a football team. That the whole team moves as a unit at one time, at the right time, off of the ball, is oftentimes the secret of success. As I have watched the pros play, from time to time I’ve often been amazed at how a wide receiver can streak down the side of the field, and while he is running at full speed, the quarterback can drop back 10 or 12 yards, rear back and throw the football as hard and as far as he can, and that football and that receiver arrive at exactly the same place at the same time. Every time I see that happen I am amazed. I marvel at man’s ability, especially in sports, to time things. In all of sports, timing is important.
In the business world, timing is important. You ask people who know business (and are honest with you), and many of them will say that the secret of success in business is timing. There is many a man who is successful and rich, not because he is smarter than anyone else or worked harder than anyone else, but because he was at the right place at the right time. You know it is not enough to buy and sell land. You need to buy it at the right time and sell it at the right time. It is not enough to buy and sell stocks. Anybody can do that. You’ve got to buy them at the right time and sell them at the right time. In business, part of the secret is good timing.
We know that timing is important in politics. There has been more than one good man who has lost an election because the timing wasn’t right. We’ve said concerning people, “He was ahead of his time.” And by that we meant that he had good ideas—ideas that one day would be accepted and incorporated into everyday life, but at that very moment he was too far ahead of people in his doing and thinking for those ideas to be accepted. It is a matter of timing.
The Bible continually tells us that timing is important in every person’s life. Did you hear what the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes said in this passage of scripture? “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Now that word season means that there is an appointed or fixed time for everything. Behind that truth is the idea that God—the God of time—is behind this universe in which we live, and he is in control of time. He has ordained that there is a time for everything.
That says to me that life is not haphazard. That says to me that life is not a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury that signifies nothing. It says to me that life is not wild, uncontrolled chaos. It says to me that behind time is the God of time, and he has carefully marked out our lives so that there is a season and a time for everything. [1]In fact that idea is hinted at by the writer of the Ecclesiastes. Some people have read this passage and it has led them to pessimism, despair, and fatalism. They reason that if we live in a world where things are fixed and appointed, then we are helpless to do anything about it. They conclude that we are victims cast into a world where everything is preordained and therefore we have no control over it at all.
Many of you subscribe to more of that idea—that everything is set and fixed and we can’t do anything about it—than you realize. How many times have you said about yourself, or about someone else who was in an accident that could have been tragic, “Well, I guess it wasn’t my time.” Behind that statement is the idea that there is a set, fixed, and predetermined time when you are going to die, and really nobody can do anything about it. That is taking the truth to an extreme. That is not what God intended. When he said that to everything there is a season and to every purpose there is a time, he was not saying that we live in such a rigid fixed universe that we are victims and that we are helpless in the midst of it. He was simply saying to us that God is a God of design and if we are wise, we will seek to know what time it is according to God’s plan. He was simply saying to us that there is a time and a place for everything. There is an appropriate time when a thing not only ought to be done, but when it can be done most effectively. If that thing is not done at that precise time and moment, in all probability it will not be done at all, or it will be done less effectively.
God is a God of design, purpose, and order. Now it doesn’t mean that we can’t break that. The Bible says there is a time to be born there is a time to die. I believe that. But you can hasten your time to die. If you want to, just start smoking cigarettes—that will help. Or start drinking liquor or driving fast—that will help.
Several years ago, I was afraid to go up in one of those little airplanes. A guy who owned one of them was trying to get me to go up. I said, “No, man, I’m afraid.” He said, “What are you afraid of? You are not going to die before it is your time.” I replied, “That’s right, but we may get up there and it may be the pilot’s time.” I am not anxious to hurry up the process.[2]
Ecclesiastes 3:2 says that there is a time to plant and there is a time to reap. Any good farmer knows that. Any nurseryman knows that there is a time to plant. You can go plant anytime you want to. You can go out there this afternoon and you can plant potatoes, corn, or cotton—whatever you want to. But if you are smart you’ll know something about agriculture and you’ll know that there is an appointed time to plant. There is a best time to plant. If you want to share in the harvest you’d better know something about the times.
What the writer is saying to us here is that we need to be aware of the time. We need to accept God’s timing. We need to know that behind this universe there are some laws and principles at work, and if we can get in step with God’s time our lives will be better.
Jesus understood that, and he lived his life according to God’s watch and God’s calendar. He came preaching and saying, “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand.” And he didn’t start preaching until the appointed, fixed time by God. During his ministry his disciples had to get him to perform some miracles. There were people who didn’t believe in him or recognize him as the Son of God. The disciples wanted to rush the whole process and they said, “Lord, go out and perform some miracles and people will know that you are the Son of God.” And Jesus said, “My time has not come. You are trying to rush. You are trying to get ahead. Don’t you know that for everything there is a season? Don’t you know that for every important project there is a time set in the calendar? According to the wristwatch of God, my time has not come.”
Then when Jesus sent the disciple to get the donkey so that he could make the triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem he said, “You go and tell the man who owns the donkey the master has need of him, for my time is at hand.” All of his life was lived with the consciousness that God is in control of time—that God has a timetable and there is a best time for anything and everything to be done.
Maybe by now you know what I am driving at, for in the midst of all of the truth about there being a time to be born and a time to die, or a time to plant and a time to reap, the writer of Ecclesiastes also says that there is a time to build. What I am saying to you is that not only does God have a time for our lives individually, God has a time for his church, and there comes a time when the church needs to build. We are at that time right now. In fact in this passage of scripture, we’re given a series of 14 contrasting things that cover the whole scope of life. God has a time and a place for everything. If you can find that time and place, fit in with it, and march with God through it, life goes better. And far from causing me to be pessimistic, fatalistic, or in despair, this passage about God’s timing encourages me. To know that God has a time for everything does three things for me.
1. It gives me a sense of excitement. First of all, it excites me to realize that I can get in step with God. It excites me that there is something in this universe that is beyond me and my plans and my dreams and my schemes. That one little individual down here in Tyler, Texas, can get in with the vast purposes of God. That in God’s timing and in God’s plan and in God’s dreams, he ordained and set aside an appointed a time for us to do certain things. It is my hope and my prayer in my life individually and in the life of our church that we shall always know what time it is according to God.
You see, I don’t want to run ahead of God and I don’t want to lag behind him. I want to walk right beside him and in step with him because that way I can see the most accomplished. The prayer of my heart and the prayer of every believer ought to be, “Oh God, what time is it according to you? And what do you want me to do at this time, at this moment, in this place?”
I learned the importance of good timing several years ago when I went on my first deep-sea fishing trip. Well, in reality that was two trips in one—my first and my last. I put them both together, side by side. Some of us were going down to Trinidad in the West Indies and Charles Moore, who is reported by himself to be a fisherman, said, “Why don’t we go deep-sea fishing?”
Well, that is where I made my first mistake because I said, “Okay.” I made the second mistake when I said, “You make the arrangements.” So he met Billy Bob Moore, who was one of our missionaries who was down there then and later came to Tyler to serve as our interim associate pastor for a while. Billy Bob said, “Oh, I can fix that up, no problem. There is a man in our community I’ve been trying to win to Christ. He asked me to come down the other day and dedicate his boat. We’ll pray over his boat, and he’ll take us deep-sea fishing.”
In my mind I could see that boat. I could imagine a 35-foot cabin cruiser with all kinds of fishing gear on it because this man was a fisherman by trade. Plus, I always thought you prayed over new boats, but I discovered that down there they pray over old, sick boats. When I got there and saw that boat, it was nothing more than an oversized rowboat. We got in that thing with an outboard motor and we sailed out into the Caribbean Sea. He didn’t have a rod or a reel on the boat. We wrapped the fishing line around our hand and dropped it over the side of the boat. That is the first time that I have ever fished and hoped that nothing got on the line. I sat there leaning over the edge of that boat and it started rocking and I got sick. I ate a box of Saltine crackers just to keep everything solid. I just wanted to go home.
Finally I suggested the idea that maybe we weren’t going to catch any fish that day. I had a pair of black and white two-toned shoes on and said to the fellow who owned that boat, “You take me to shore and I’ll give you these shoes.” With a longing in his eyes, he said, “My friend, I’m sorry, but the tide is out.” I hadn’t realized it, but when we left the shore, the tide was in and the water was deep. But now the tide was out and we couldn’t get back in. We would wind up in the mud and we couldn’t get to shore. I said, “You take me close and I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
Well, finally we persuaded him to go in. When we got close to the shore, we pulled off our shoes and rolled up our pants and jumped over into that mud to pull that boat in. I was never so happy to have mud between my toes in all my life. But I discovered that day the importance of timing. If you want to get in and out of the harbor—at least at that place—you’ve got to know something about the tide and you’ve got to flow with it. If you are not aware of what is going on you can go out with the tide and get stranded out there, and there is no way to get back in until the tide comes back. We must realize that in God’s plan there is a tide. There is an ebb and a flow and a rhythm to what God does, and we need to get in step with God.
It is exciting for me to know that I can move with the vast purposes of God and I can have my life and my church ebb and flow with the movement of God’s time. That really excites me.
2. It gives me a sense of urgency. But knowing that God has a timing has done more than create excitement in me. It has also created in me a sense of urgency. It challenges me. If God has a time, then I want to be ready when that time comes. If there is a moment when I need to sail, then I want to be ready to sail. If there is a time when I can land in the port, then I want to be ready to land in the port. I don’t want to be caught off guard and unprepared lest I miss out on the great purpose of God and find myself stranded out in the mud flats unable to move. That can happen.
Jim Redding, a Baptist preacher in Cleveland, Ohio, founded the Helping Hand Halfway House for ex-convicts. He wanted to help men who had been in trouble with the law get back into normal life again. As a result of a year of preaching and working with ex-cons, he came to the conclusion that with the exception of a few hardcore criminals, there comes in the life of every criminal what he called a redemption point. This happens when the man realizes the futility of time and hungers to get out of it. In that moment, in that redemption point, if you do not throw him a lifesaver, he will surely slip back into the sea of sin and will be drowned.
I want to be ready when the redemption point comes. If I’m in charge of a lifesaver, I want to be poised with that lifesaver in my hand and throw it out there at the moment when the man can be saved. To know that there is a season for everything under the sun, and to know that there is a time for every purpose in this universe tells me that I need to be ready, I need to be prepared, and I need to be urgent about God’s work.
[3]In 1950 the president of the United States called on General Douglas MacArthur to assume command of the U.S. troops in Korea. MacArthur was 70 years old. The North Koreans had crossed the 38th parallel and were invading South Korea. We needed to take drastic action to stop them and to drive them back. They called on MacArthur to do it. One of his plans was to land and invade behind the enemy line at a place called Incheon. But it was a dangerous mission because the tide at Incheon varied up to 30 feet. If he was going to land the forces and put his men and his artillery in there, the project had to be timed perfectly. The tides came in 30 feet high. They were in for two hours and then back out again. MacArthur had to get all of those men and all of those armaments in there in that two-hour period of time, get everything situated, and move out what he wanted to move out or they would all be caught in the mudflat. One of the secrets of his success was that he moved with the tide. He had perfect timing.
Shakespeare put in the mouth of Julius Caesar, in his play by that name, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted and all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
Friend, there is a flood in the affairs of men and churches, and unless we are ready to move with God’s time we may miss it. To know that for everything there is a season and for every purpose there is a time not only excites me that I can get in step with the eternal God, but it challenges me to be ready at the moment—the precise moment when the time comes to do what needs to be done.
3. It gives me a sense of confidence. Not only does it excite me and challenge me, it also assures me to consider that if God has a time and I’m fitting in with it, I can’t fail because I am linking myself to something more than my own ability and my own resources—I am linking myself to the eternal plan of God. And if I can just find out what time it is with God—what he wants me to do here and now at this time—then I don’t have to worry about the outcome because God is at work and this is his plan and his design. The more I fit in with it, the more confident assurance I can have that things will go well. That’s why I say to you, the time is right. We need to get in step with God and march by his side. It excites me. It challenges me. It assures me that the victory can be ours.
I could not close without saying that while there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to sow and a time to reap, and a time to build, there is also a time to be saved. The Bible keeps hammering at that. Behold, today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts; chose today whom you will serve. God’s word keeps saying to us that in the plan and in the economy of God there is a time to be saved. There is a time to respond, a time to give your heart to Christ.
In Acts chapter 24, Paul the apostle was speaking to Felix the governor about righteousness, temperance, and about judgment that was to come. Felix felt the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and in fear he trembled. But instead of responding to the call of Jesus Christ he said to Paul, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee” (Acts 24:25). He didn’t know that to everything there is a season, and as far as we know, he never called Paul back again. He never heard the Gospel again. He had passed up the time to plant. He had missed the flood tide of God.
That is why when the Spirit of God speaks to your heart and begins to call you to follow him, to serve him, or to do anything—you had better be ready to say yes, for you may miss God’s appointed time for your life and your salvation.
Am I speaking to someone here today? Maybe God has already spoken and this is your season. Maybe this is your appointed time and God through the Holy Spirit is saying, “I lay claim to you and I call you.” Will you today answer that call and say yes to him? If you miss everything else I say, remember this: To everything there is a season. There is an appointed time when it is best to do that thing. And if we do not do it, in all probability it will never be done.
Come to the Savior today. Give him your life and your heart today. Link your life and your heart to this church today, because this for some of you is the appointed time of God to decide.
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