A Matter of Time and Eternity
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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14
May 3, 2026
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14: For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil ā this is God's gift to man.
I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
Sermon Outline
1. Introduction
Main characters and side characters
Destroying the delusion that we're the main character
Main point: We grow in worship when we learn to number our days
2. The uncomfortable reality of being bound by time
Life is seasonal
Everything meets its undoing
3. The ultimate reality of a sovereign God
He rules with supremacy
He functions independently
He exists eternally
4. How eternal creatures should live right now
God placed eternity into the human heart
People cannot truly find out by natural inquiry what God is doing from beginning to end
How do we find out what God is doing from beginning to end?
5. How do we number our days?
Acknowledge that treasures on earth are temporary
Adopt a posture of gratitude to God for what he gives you
Revelation 1:4b-6, 8: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come... and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
