11:1-6

I want to let you all know that I love being a pastor.

I love preaching and teaching God’s Word.

I love counseling and listening to heartaches while seeking God’s counsel in helping you navigate the situation.

And I want you to know that pastoring doesn’t come without frustration.

Leadership doesn’t come without many questions.

And one of the questions I ask myself often, and this isn’t meant to be a pity party, just a real moment of vulnerability, is what impact am I having.

What difference am I making.

Is what I am doing for you all and ultimately for God having an impact?

Are you learning, growing, and being transformed by God’s word?

And this isn’t a unique experience to just pastors.

This is true in most of our relationships.

Whether it be with our kids, family members, or friends.

Are we making an impact?

Are we representing God and his word sufficiently?

Are we bringing him glory?

Are people being transformed by who we proclaim, that is Jesus, and how we live our lives.

If we pray for someone will that prayer be answered?

If we give money to someone are they going to use it wisely or are they going to spend it foolishly?

When we share the gospel is that person going to believe?

Here’s the truth: We may never know what impact we have.

We may never know if someone believes in Jesus b/c we shared the gospel with them.

We may never know if someone’s life was changed b/c of something that we did.

And I want to tell you some of the sweetest moments are when we get to see the fruit of our labors.

When someone comes up to me and says hey, what you said last week helped me with a conversation I had with a co-worker.

Or They text me and ask about the books I mention for discipleship.

Or they want to talk about what God is teaching them through their bible study.

Or they have questions about what they read.

Or when your 4 year old can recite the Gal. 5:22-23 and tell you what the fruit of the Spirit is.

Sometimes the investments we make are shown to us, but we shouldn’t be doing the right things expecting a return.

B/c the reality is we may never know the extent of the impact that we have.

That’s up to God and his goodness and grace.

“Even when we do not know how God will use our work to advance his kingdom, we should continue to pray, continue to serve, and continue to hope” Knowing that Paul tells us

1 Cor 15:58 “58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

If you are working for the Lord.

If you are doing his work.

Then it is never in vain.

He always uses our efforts in his name to bring him Glory, honor, and praise.

In the first 6 verses of Ecc 11. Solomon wants to see that we are to live a bold life, knowing that we may never know the impact we will have.

We can be bold.

We can be courageous.

We can continue to work in the Lord, b/c we know that it is never in vain.

If we work for the Lord we are never wasting our effort.

We are never pointlessly and vainly working.

Rather we are simply doing what he has called us to and our faithfulness to him is more important than seeing the results of our labor.

Ecclesiastes 11:1–2 CSB

1 Send your bread on the surface of the water, for after many days you may find it. 2 Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.

Send Your Bread

Solomon is continuing in ch. 11, a list of proverbs that are relaying to us the best way to live life.

How life can best be lived under the sun, while at the same time glorifying God.

And in true proverbs fashion, sometimes we come upon a phrase that makes people tilt their head to the side like a curious dog.

What does this mean?

There’s some difficulty in interpretation when we are 3000+ years removed from a language and idiom.

What does Solomon mean when he says Ecc 11.1 “1 Send your bread on the surface of the water, for after many days you may find it.”

Send your bread on water?

Doesn’t he know what happens when bread gets wet?

It gets soggy, breaks apart, and is no longer delicious.

Now obviously, Solomon is literally talking about bread here in this text.

So what is he talking about?

What could he possibly mean?

There are two leading theories.

Both are interesting.

One interpretation is that Solomon is talking about investments.

Commerce on the Sea.

Buying a ship or sending goods on a ship out to sea.

He is encouraging the hearer to engage in commercial enterprises involving over sea trades.

The people who use this as an explanation for these verses cite 1 Kings 9:26-28

1 Kings 9:26–28 CSB

26 King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. 27 With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon’s servants. 28 They went to Ophir and acquired gold there—sixteen tons—and delivered it to Solomon.

1 Kings 10:22 CSB

22 for the king had ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

So according to them Solomon as king is encouraging people to make much out of their money and embrace commerce.

With that there is no real knowing when the ships are going to return, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t take the risk.

That doesn’t mean that the risk isn’t work taking.

There is uncertainty in the investment, but when it comes back, if it comes back, the rewards will be great.

And in Ecc 11:2 “2 Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.”

What he’s saying is make sure you diversify your investments.

B/c you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket.

You don’t want to put all your hope in one stream of income.

Rather you want to spread it out, so if something happens to one investment you aren’t lost at sea, so to speak.

This is a perfectly good interpretation and application of this passage.

I think it works pretty well.

We don’t know what the future holds, so make sure that you are set up for success.

Make sure that you can be financially secure regardless of what life’s circumstances throw at you.

Though this is a good way to interpret this passage.

I don’t believe it’s the best way.

Traditionally and historically, this passage has been viewed as an encouragement toward generosity.

Giving to the poor and unfortunate is a big theme throughout the scriptures.

Sharing your table.

Or sharing your bread is a great way to give to someone.

If they are hungry feed them.

If they are thirsty give them drink.

We should feast together, poor and rich, young and old.

There should be a desire for us to share what God has blessed us with.

And if you are surrendering or sending your bread on the waters, this is giving generously without any expectation of personal benefit or reciprocity.

When we give to each other, to the church, to a charity, we should not expect to receive anything in return.

Rather we should give generously out of a recognition that God has been generous toward us.

And we should just give to one place.

As Solomon says we should give to “seven or even eight” places.

And I want to be quick to let you know that generosity in different places also takes place in different ways.

It’s not just finances.

It’s not just money.

That’s the first thing that most people think about when it comes to generosity.

Generosity does come from finances, and it comes from time, talents, and energy.

Now, I would love for you all to be generous toward the church.

With your finances, time, talents, and energy.

But not all of your generosity should be toward the church.

Rather your generosity should be diversified.

You should give to the church and to your struggling neighbor.

Both are good and Godly ways to give.

You should use your talents in the church and in the world.

If you’re a good cook, cook a good meal for someone.

If you’re a mechanic, work on a single mother’s car.

Whatever it is that God has gifted you with, you should use it for his glory in every circumstance and scenario.

That’s one of the ways that we live redemptively.

But that’s not all.

We can use our gifts, talents, time, energy, and money to help people.

But we also must be willing to pour into people spiritually.

Feeding both their belly and their soul.

Whatever we have has been given to us.

So we should be investing it in the people around us.

We can’t be hoarding it all for ourselves.

As followers of Jesus, we must invest in the world around us.

We must know that God has given us the gifts to be venture capitalists for his kingdom.

We should be out preaching the gospel of Jesus.

The greatest investment that you can make is sowing the seed of the gospel.

And here’s the thing, you never know what impact or influence that seed may have.

You may see the reaping of the harvest.

You may see someone come to give their life to Jesus.

It may happen immediately.

It may happen in days, months, years or you may never see it with your own two eyes.

Let me give you an example.

Growing up my family wasn’t anti-religious.

We like Jesus. We even went to church sometimes, but we weren’t committed Christians.

We weren’t living our lives sold out to Jesus.

Then through some twists and turns in life, God finally got through to me and I surrendered to him.

I submitted to him and followed his call into ministry.

Now my Dad, I know he’s probably going to listen to this, was raised catholic, like many of you guys here.

We didn’t speak much about Godly things, but he started to see the ministry I was doing.

He started going to church, when he can, with his wife.

He started to serve in the church.

He got connected. He grew in his knowledge of Jesus.

This is something I prayed for.

Something my heart longed for.

Something I wanted to see.

Then one Sunday, I saw that he was baptized in the church he was going to.

And My heart leapt.

The prayers and small conversations I had with him had made an impact.

The sermons I preached and he listened to had made an impact.

I didn’t know what was going on in his heart.

I didn’t know what God was doing, but God knew what he was doing.

And recently, he was asked to be a deacon in his church.

What a transformation.

What an amazing miracle of the gospel.

I didn’t get to harvest that seed, but I got to water it.

And it took a while for the seed to grow.

But the investment wasn’t in vain.

Those prayers didn’t go unanswered.

They were answered and now I have a new brother in Christ.

That’s not to brag on myself, but to show you that we should never give up.

and we should trust that if we are doing the work of the Lord then it is never in vain.

But it takes time, energy, and investment without any expectation of return.

Trusting in God.

Having faith that he is going to be magnified and glorified b/c we are faithful to what he has called us to do.

In the uncertainty of life, we can’t stop working just b/c we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.

Just b/c we don’t know what God is doing doesn’t mean that we need to stand idly by and wait.

There’s still work to do.

And that’s what Solomon is going to lean into next.

Ecclesiastes 11:3–4 CSB

3 If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain on the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or the north, the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4 One who watches the wind will not sow, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap.

Uncertainty

Here Solomon wants us to first see, that humans don’t and can’t control what happens around us.

We can look at the clouds and believe that it is about to rain.

And we can get ready for that heavy cloud to dump out it’s full bounty, but then if moves past us never to rain down on us.

This happened to us in NC a lot.

Meteorologist would predict storms.

Heavy rains.

They would tell us to be aware that tonight’s storm may bring hail and high winds.

So we would prepare.

Take the kids toys off the front porch and the like.

Only for the storm to perform this magical split right before it got to our town.

The storm would literally split and go around Wake Forest.

It was the most bizarre experience.

But even as we planned for the rain, we had no control on whether or not it would fall.

Solomon uses another proverb in v. 4 to help further prove his point.

Not only can we not control the rain clouds, we can’t control the wind either.

This would be important to an agricultural society.

The winds and the rain are essential for farming.

But how useless would it be to wait for the perfect conditions to arise in order to seed a field.

Certainly wisdom should be used in farming and in life, but if you are going to always wait around for the perfect conditions they will never come.

Here’s a couple of examples.

When Corrie and I first got married, I wanted to have kids right out of the gate.

We were relatively young when we got married.

She was 20 and I was 22.

We were both still in school.

We were both still growing up.

We had dated for about 3 years, but we still needed to get to know one another.

So Corrie decided that we were going to wait to have kids.

We wanted to finish school, get established in the work force, and get our life in order before we had kids.

Sounds like the responsible thing to do.

We wanted to be ready to have and raise a family.

We wanted every condition to be perfect before we had a child.

So seven years after we got married, Levi was born.

We waited to have all our ducks in order.

We waited for the stars to align.

We waited till we were ready to have a family.

Til everything seemed perfect

And you know what that experience taught me, we weren’t ready.

There is no perfect time to have kids.

No amount of preparing can prepare you for having kids.

No amount of stability can prepare you for the world to be upside down when you have a screaming infant at 2 in the morning.

And I have friends that are the same way when it comes to marriage, I had some friends who were believers and they were living together.

And I continued to encourage them to get married.

To have their love honored by God in holy matrimony.

But the guy, kept saying, I want to be financially secure before we get married.

He wanted the perfect storm of life to come together before they got married.

Rather than doing what God wanted him to do and get married to this lady, he wanted to wait til everything was perfect.

Til all the conditions were right.

And I constantly told him that there will never be a perfect time to get married.

There is always going to be something that will prolong your decision making.

There will always be a reason not to get married.

There will always be an excuse.

So why do people withhold from doing what God has called them to do?

Why do they stare at the sky and not do any work?

They do it b/c they are afraid.

They fear failure.

They fear uncertainty.

They figure that if they can get everything in line than it will all work out just fine.

But the reality is sometimes even if we do everything “right” that doesn’t meant that it will work out the way that we think it should

We can never account for all the factors when it comes to life.

Uncertainty is a constant in this world we live in.

“The only thing certain in life is uncertainty.”

That doesn’t mean that we don’t plan for what we have or want.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t look at the forecast of our lives and try to plan accordingly.

It means that we plan with an open hand.

Planning is not bad, in fact, God wants us to plan

Pro 16:9 “9 A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Pro 15:22 “22 Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

God doesn’t mind if we want to make plans for the future, and he wants us to know and be okay with him upsetting the plans.

We are called to do what is good, wholesome, and right regardless of if we are ready.

We can’t wait around for perfect circumstances, but we can plan out what we are going to do with what we have.

If God is calling you to do something, don’t wait around.

Have faith in him.

Follow after him.

Trust that he will do what he has said he will do.

The truth is we will never know what will happen in life.

We will never know what tomorrow brings.

As Solomon said earlier in Ecc 9.11 “rather, time and chance happen to all of them.”

And we will never reap what we never sow.

If we stand staring at the sky and waiting for the right time, opportunity, we will never do anything.

And some of us want to put the “holy spin” on our waiting.

Meaning that we wait, and wait, and wait for God to move.

But what if God is waiting on you to move.

God has called us to be good stewards of the gifts he has given us.

He has called us to use the wisdom he has given to us through his word and the HS.

Sitting around and waiting for God to move is not necessarily the good and Godly thing to do.

Especially when he has called you to work.

Don’t let fear of failure keep you from doing what God has called you to do.

“Do not hold back b/c of fear, but step out by faith—not faith that your own efforts will succeed, necessarily, but faith that God will take what you offer and use it in some way for his glory. But whatever you do, do not use the sovereignty of God or the uncertain difficulties of life as and excuse for not doing anything at all.”

The beauty of what God does is in the mystery of things that we can’t see or know.

Not knowing what is going to happen when we trust him builds our trust and faith in him.

We should be willing to takes risks for the glory of God, regardless of the risk.

We should trust that he’s going to put all the pieces together and be comfortable not knowing all that God is doing or has done.

Ecclesiastes 11:5–6 CSB

5 Just as you don’t know the path of the wind, or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman, so also you don’t know the work of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand rest, because you don’t know which will succeed, whether one or the other, or if both of them will be equally good.

Mysteries of Life

Listen when we compare our knowledge to the knowledge of God we come up incredibly short.

At the same time, when we see the work of our hands and the work of God we should stand in awe at the beauty that he causes to come out of life.

Solomon uses an example here that should have us marvel at the beauty of God’s design.

God creates life inside the womb of a woman.

Bones grow, skin grows, the heart, lungs, kidney’s all grow.

And we know more about what is happening in the womb now thanks to modern science, but imagine that you lived at the time that Solomon was writing this.

They didn’t have the advances of sonograms or ultrasounds.

The formation of a child in the mother’s womb was awe inspiring.

and as an aside, i do believe that our knowledge of fetal development has dulled us to the beauty of God’s creation.

But what Solomon is saying here in v.5, is that we don’t know the way that the wind or spirit moves or the way that God knits people together.

Think of what the David says in Ps 139:13-14 “13 For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.”

God’s creation and providence are so far outside of human understanding that we should stand in awe of it.

Again we should trust that God is in charge of the whole world.

That there is nothing that slips through his fingers.

Just as we don’t the the intricacies as God knits together the child in the womb, so we also don’t know how God is knitting and forming our life together.

And we may have questions about what God is doing?

We may ask ourselves Why did he not give me what I begged him for?

Why does it feel like my prayers are going unanswered?

Why didn’t I get that job, promotion, or ______?

Why did my friend or family member have to die?

Why do I feel stuck? In a rut? What are you doing?

There are mysteries that surround your life.

There are questions that may never get answered.

And we should thank God that he has answered some questions.

We should be thankful that he has saved us.

That he has called us.

That the greatest mystery of all, how do we get reconciled with God, was solved when Jesus died on that cross for our sins.

When his blood was shed on that cross and his body was broken b/c of my sin, rebellion, and shame.

And b/c God has saved us.

And he has called us.

We should live a life of gratitude and thankfulness.

And one of the ways that we demonstrate our gratitude is by doing the work that he has set out before us.

Even when we aren’t sure what the results are going to be we humbly preach the gospel.

We give generously.

We let our lights shine as a beacon of hope and truth.

We live boldly in uncertainty.

We live boldly in the mystery.

We live and work for the kingdom of God all day everyday knowing that God is doing a good work in us and through us.

If you are here today and all of this mystery, uncertainty, and generosity makes no sense, then maybe you don’t know the God who gives life purpose.

It may be time for you to lay down your life and give it to him.

It may be time for you to submit your life to Jesus.

To recognize that you are a sinner in need of Grace.

That w/o Jesus you are an enemy of God.

But you don’t have to stay that way.

You could become a child of God today.

You can call out to Jesus and he will save you.

He will change you.

He will transform you.

He is calling you, will you answer him.

Lord’s Supper

Matthew 26:26–30 CSB

26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.