You're reminded of it every time you look in the mirror or flip the calendar to a new year. The passage of time is the focus today on Turning Point as Dr. David Jeremiah turns to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and considers how time affects not only your body, but also your soul and your spirit. David explores these areas and more as he shares today's special New Year's message, Beautiful in His Time. The Bible is filled with special verses in special places and These are certainly verses that qualify for that description, because these are some of the most beautiful verses in the Bible.
Here in this passage of Scripture, we are told that everything is beautiful in this time, and we're also told that God has put eternity in our hearts. What a tremendous passage for us to meditate upon as we look forward to the new year. We'll get started in this in just a moment. But I need to tell you, these are the last two days ahead of us right now and tomorrow that you can order the new devotional from Turning Point. And it's so simple: just send a gift of any size and say, please send me the devotional.
It won't get there on the 1st of January, but it'll be there very soon. You can just jump in wherever you find it, whatever day it comes, and begin to read along with. Thousands of other people who will be reading along with you, and you won't even know who they are, but they're everywhere. And we'll be sharing this truth from God's Word every day in the new year. I hope you'll give us a chance to do that.
And the way you do that is to send a gift to Turning Point, a year-end gift.
So special, what you do at the end of the year to help us. And we thank you in Jesus' name for your gift because it makes it possible for us to continue to sow God's word in the. In the fields of the world, and we do that so faithfully here every day, every year. Here is part one of Beautiful in His Time. It is said that on Veterans Day, November the 11th, 1963.
President John F. Kennedy visited Arlington Cemetery to pay his respects. to Americans fallen heroes. Gazing over the rolling Virginia hills, From Arlington House, he remarked, Quote. It is so beautiful that I could stay here forever.
Two weeks later. He returned in a flag-draped coffin to be buried beneath an eternal flame. What an amazing coincidence. Kennedy's favorite passage from the Bible was Solomon's poem. In Ecclesiastes 3.
which begins like this. To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born. and a time to die.
What is it about Ecclesiastes 3 that has fascinated a charismatic young president? Why has this passage endured the ages as one of the oldest philosophical poems in our collection of literature? It's certainly among the most pensive passages of God's word. A beautiful meditation that casts a near-hypnotic spell over readers of any generation. We've all read it.
Some of you probably have memorized it. But most of all, this chapter helps us to understand that Almighty God is in control. Nothing escapes him. And he makes everything beautiful in his time.
So, I want to just take you through this passage and remind you of some incredible truths that Solomon left us. And I should explain to you that it is a different kind of book than any book in the Bible. It is Solomon reasoning about life as if God didn't exist. He goes through this period of time in his life where he's full of doubts and he's reasoning about life and. And he comes to the conclusion that without God, all is vanity, nothing but vanity.
He comes around at the end. and figures it out. But in the meantime, he leaves us with some information about living our lives in the here and now. Years that are past and the years that are coming that are very important. First of all, some impressions about life.
In his poem, here in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon presents 14 couplets. and 28 statements. There are 14 negative statements. and there are 14 positive statements. and they fall into three separate categories.
The first describes the influence of time on our bodies. The second focuses on our souls. And the last focuses on our spirits.
So we're going to talk about how time affects our bodies, how time affects our souls, and how time affects our spirits. We're human beings with bodies, souls, and spirit. And Solomon's main thought is It doesn't take a Hebrew scholar to notice that time has an effect on all of us. Did you know that the word time occurs 29 times in these verses? We rarely turn our backs on the time.
You and I probably have a dozen clocks. Four or five calendars. Our computers tell us what time it is, what day it is. We carry a timepiece attached to our wrist. Time indicators are built into our phones, computer screens.
Every major corporation in America teaches its people time management skills. Remember that Solomon was the greatest leader of his day. A head of state to whom all of Israel and much of the known world looked for guidance. He pondered carefully the allocation of time and he was aware of how quickly it passed. Here are some of the things that we can learn from what he wrote.
First of all, how time affects our body. There's a time to be born. and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal. time to break down and a time to build up.
Solomon begins his contemplation with a sobering observation. that birth and death both have their appointed times. And life goes by so fast. We spend our own time making that trek. between entrance and exit, between womb and tomb.
And meanwhile, there is a time to plant and there's a time to harvest.
Solomon refers to the food supply because he knows that God sets the boundaries of the seasons. Just as a composer of beautiful music builds certain rhythms and repetitions into his song, so God has built certain rhythms into his world and the steady repetition of the seasons provides comfort and a workable cadence to our lives. We are a bit discomforted to read that there is a time to kill as well as a time to heal. Yet, if we stop and think about it, our bodies are in the process of dying every moment. Scientists tell us that every seven years we replenish all the cells within our bodies.
There is an ongoing maintenance department in the human machine that is constantly changing out the old for the new, and it is governed. By time. Cancer cells, infection cells, or simply worn-out cells must be killed, so even killing has its time. And we should understand that and not be overwhelmed by it. We should be grateful.
There must be a time for these things to die so there can be a time for them to grow again, new and better. And what of a time to break down and a time to build up? We build up in our early years. And we start breaking down as we get older. I hate to tell you that, but this is the truth.
Painful, but true.
Someone said, We know we're getting older when the type gets smaller. And the steps get higher. And the voices get softer. And the muscles get weaker. and our medicine chest gets larger.
I remember a birthday. Many years ago, when my grandson David Todd heard me talking about time and he said this. If Poppy was a dog's age, he'd be dead. And he was right. Wasn't he?
Time is relative for God's creatures. But it rules their itineraries. How time affects our body. The time, the To be born, time to die. Time to build up, time to break down.
Time just Rolls on. It's so ministering to me that we take these courses on time management, but you can't manage time. Isn't that interesting? I think we should change all those to self-management. That's more honest.
Self-management means we have to manage the time God has given us. We have to manage ourselves because time isn't going to get managed. It's just going to keep on going no matter what we do. How time affects our soul. Listen to this: a time to weep.
A time to laugh. Time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
So time is also involved in the operation of the soul, the seat of our human emotions. There's a time to cry when tears flow freely. There are also times for laughter. Hopefully, the latter outnumbers the former. For in another passage, Solomon prescribes cheerfulness as a good medicine for the soul.
He says, when we laugh, when we smile, when we're alive with joy. That's good for your soul. And tears are a part of life too, whether we like it or not. The Bible says Jesus wept. He groaned in the spirit and he was troubled.
Job said, My eyes pour out tears to God. The psalmist asked God to store his tears in a bottle. for they are precious. Psalm fifty six eight. Your tears are God's jewels.
They are precious to him. The greater your suffering, the greater his ministry and grace for you. We need to laugh.
Sometimes we need to cry. The Lord is near us in both sadness and gladness. And one day, Thank the Lord He's going to wipe away all tears. Tears will be wiped away, and the days of crying will be forgotten. But for now, there's a time to laugh and there's a time to weep.
And it says in the scripture, there's also a time to mourn and a time to dance. There's a time to hug and there are times when hugging is inappropriate. God has given us a wide spectrum of emotions and sometimes we feel like we're at the mercy of our anger or our depression or our grief. It helps us to know that each emotion is simply playing the part allotted to its own special time. We need a blue sky and we need green meadows.
We need clouds that are willowy white. In the same way we need our full spectrum of God-given emotions. for they are the emblems of our humanity. They mark us as children of a God. who also has anger and grief and laughter.
I remember when I was thinking about this passage, and another time I read a story. They were trying to illustrate this principle, and they had a pianist come up. and play a song only using the black notes. You know, on the piano there's white notes and black notes. And the song was okay.
It was pretty average. And then they told him, use all the notes. And what came out was a masterpiece of music and harmony and. production And yet Both those notes are necessary, aren't they? If you take all the black notes away, you have a pretty vanilla.
Expression. And I can't speak about this as well as a musician could to explain how this all works. But just like we need the black notes and the white notes on the piano for there to be a great melody and a great symphony, we need the black notes and the white notes in our lives. You show me a person who's never had any sorrow or sickness or sadness in his life, and that person is incomplete. Because God allows those things in our lives to make us better people, to give us a greater heart for others, and to help us be better.
be able to reflect his spirit among other people. That's how time affects our body. And time affects our soul. But notice in the sixth verse of the third chapter, we learn how time affects our spirit. It says there's a time to gain and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. The last three verses have to do with our inner decisions, the deep commitment of our lives.
Sometimes we gain, sometimes we lose. Money, weight, hair. Loved ones, privileges, rights, responsibilities, joy, possessions.
Sometimes we store things in our garages, and sometimes we clean out our garages. We collect and we throw away.
Sometimes we need to speak up, and sometimes we just need to shut up.
Solomon knew there was a time to keep silence and a time to speak. There is also a time for love and even a time for hate. A time for hate? Oh, yes. Even Jesus hated He hated sin.
He hated its mastery over human souls. He hated the wake of destruction. And we need to know how to hate that which is evil without hating the people who are evil. We may hate the act of abortion, but we have compassion on both the aborted and the aborting. We may hate the ravages of alcohol, but we love those who struggle with it and we want to do whatever we can to help them.
Do you see the difference? The passage ends by reminding us that while we all long for a peaceful world, there is even a time when war is morally necessary. A time of war. and a time of peace. I don't have this written down in front of me, so I can't quote it exactly.
But I remember reading when I was preaching a message on war. long time ago a statement that war is not the worst of things. that the worst of things is living a life for which nothing is worth dying. And I believe there's a great truth in that. There's no such thing as peace.
in the world in which we live today. And what scares all of us, if you want to be honest, is We're developing an attitude in our country right now where nothing is going to be worth a war. I don't want war. I hate war with all of my heart. I hate it because it's so devastating.
But I hate what happens if we're not willing to fight for what we believe and for what is right. Amen? We need to keep our eyes on that one. Because If you see what I'm seeing, you know what I'm talking about.
some impressions about life that Solomon gives us. all of those things that there are time for. But I don't want to leave this message with just those analyses. I want to leave them as Solomon left this chapter with some applications for our own lives.
So we've had some impressions about life.
Now here are some insights about God. First of all, God's plan is good. Can I just say that? God's plan is good. Ecclesiastes 3.9 says, What profit has the worker from that which he labors?
I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in his time.
Solomon faces this attitude of futility and despair. And the middle of chapter three, he gives three answers for us to ponder, three things for us to think about. In verse 10, he says, our busy work can obscure the true meaning of life. unless we stop and take a close look.
So doing, we realize that God's plan is good. The truth is, He has made everything beautiful in its time. If we allow the meaning of this statement to sink in, we will realize that everything is beautiful in God's sight. Everything in life has a purpose. Life is not empty and random and godless, but full of precisely aligned and God-ordained issues.
It's not that your most important work is meaningless, it's that your most trivial moments are also significant. Everything matters to God. And you may think that what you do is insignificant and not meaningful. If you do it as unto the Lord, it's beautiful in God's sight, and it should be in your sight as well. Ruth Bell Graham.
The wife of the famous Billy Graham used to have an inscription over her kitchen sink. It said, divine service conducted here three times a day. Yeah. She understood that whatever we do, even washing a dirty pot, is worthwhile if done in God's will and for Christ's glory. Everything.
It's beautiful. in its time. What profit has the worker, Solomon asks? Much profit. If our tasks are God-given and Christ-centered, the real question is, am I doing what God wants me to do?
Am I in the place where he wants me to be?
Solomon goes on in verse 11 to add this beautiful sentence: He has made everything beautiful. in its time. We don't have any problem connecting with that truth in the nice moments. I mean it's easy. For instance, in my house with all my children and grandchildren having such a great time, opening presents and laughing and all of that.
Wow. Everything is beautiful in its time. That was a beautiful time. But what sets the true saint apart is his ability to apply this during moments of unpleasantness. When young couples fall in love and get married, they are convinced that God has made everything beautiful in its time.
But ten years later, when little children are underfoot, bills are due, a job has been lost, and a medical scare has been diagnosed, We wonder what happened to all that beauty. Marriage has lost a little luster, parenthood is less glorious, and homebuilding is more sweat than sweet. Men and women leave their marriages in times like these simply because they're unaware of God's presence. in the rugged times. as well as in the smooth.
Our challenge is to recognize that everything has a time. Everything has a season, a reason, and trust God to bring sense and unity. on his time schedule, not ours. Not only will the beauty be there, but it will be far more beautiful because of the hard polishing we have done. during that season.
In other words, If life were like drawing a picture and your pencil included a nice eraser, you might rub away all the darker marks in the picture. In the end, there would be no real picture at all. for it is what happens at those junctions between light and darkness that really tells the final story. In his autobiographical book, A Turtle on a Fence Post, business leader Alan Emery tells of accompanying his friend and mentor, Ken Henson, to visit a hospitalized employee. The patient lay very still, his eyes conveying anguish.
His operation had taken eight hours and recovery would be long and uncertain. Alex, said Ken quietly, you know, I have had a number of serious operations. I know the pain of trying to talk. I think I know the questions you are asking. There are two verses I want to give you, Genesis 42, 36.
And Romans 8.28. You have the option of these two attitudes. You need the perspective of the latter. Henson turned to those passages in his Bible. then prayed and left.
Alan Emery never forgot those two verses, nor should we. The choice is this. to be beat up or to be upbeat. To say with Jacob in Genesis 42, 36, all these things are against me? Or to say with Paul in Romans 8:28, all these things work together.
for good to those who love God. How do you look at life? Do you see all things against you? Or do you see with Paul that all things work together? The perspective you choose will color your whole life completely and thoroughly.
And it will be Gentle tones of grace and providence, or harsh slashes of despair and emptiness. Tommy Nelson's Book on Ecclesiastes. He tells the story, I told you about the piano. And he called it light music and dark music. All of us have that in our repertoire, don't we?
We've had some light music this year. We've had some. dark music this year. And the thing that you need to remember is, God is in the midst of all of it. You say, well, did He cause it?
No, He's in the midst of it. God's plan is good and his purpose is clear. Here's a great verse from Ecclesiastes 3. He has put eternity in their hearts. Did you know that when you were born, you were born with eternity in your heart?
A missionary scholar named Don Richardson wrote a book called Eternity in Their Hearts based on this verse. He presented more than 25 examples of missionaries. all over the world. Who had discovered cultures completely cut off from all Christianity? in which vestiges of truth about God existed.
He said it was an amazing thing. Where did it come from? The people were looking for God, indeed were hungry for God. Since knowledge about Him had been passed down in their culture for generations, leading them to Christ required little more than explaining how the God they had been searching for had come to earth in the person of Christ. Richardson set forth the idea that every human being has eternity in his heart.
That winning people to Christ is a matter of discovering what piece or what part of eternity they were familiar with and connecting the dots. God has put something in our hearts, a taste, a longing for eternity that cannot be discovered through the experiences of life. There will always be a longing within us for something more than we have experienced until we know God personally. Amen. Amen.
It's wonderful to know that there's an architect. Who has designed and presented to us a plan. The Bible is filled with the information that helps us have confidence in that person who is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of heaven. We are so close to the end of this year, and I just want to take a moment and thank you, all of you, who have faithfully listened and followed us during this year. There have been some challenges this year, but the challenges are minor compared to the blessings.
God has done some amazing things at Turning Point, and you've all been a part of it. and together we are posed for some amazing things in 2026. As we uh pray together and as we give and as we focus on God's purpose. And I just want to thank you for being a part of all of this. You're part of this team, and we love you for it.
Thank you for doing what you do. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's special New Year's message, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected. our monthly Turning Points magazine, and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio.
That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. Or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new 365-day devotional for 2026, A Closer Walk with Jesus. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr.
Jeremiah's decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow for more of our special New Year's message on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
