Up Next: make a move

Ecclesiastes 9:7–12 NIV

7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. 11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. 12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.

IBM has been around for a while. IBM stands for International Business Machines. The company started out in 1911 as a manufacturer of tabulating machines. Back then, the machines used punch cards to make their tabulations. In 1953, IBM made its first computer. It was a machine that worked on a vast combination of glass vacuum tubes which filled an entire room. And the first IBM computer was nothing more than a giant calculator. But it did mathematical calculations instantly in a way that had never been thought possible before. The first IBM computer was groundbreaking technology that opened an entire new field of electronics.

Thomas Watson, the pioneer of IBM’s computer development division, was instrumental in creating the first IBM computer. But even Watson, with all of his ingenious innovations, had no idea where his invention would go from there. It is famously recorded that Watson once stated in a presentation during the 1950s that he predicted the world would not need more than five computers.

With all the imagination, foresight, and innovation it took to come up with the first computer in the world, Watson sure missed the mark on his prediction of where the computer would go from there. Five computers. Today, just about every one of us carries a computer in our pockets that is more than 10,000 times more powerful than that first IBM computer. The predictability of where life would take the steps of Watson’s actions were wildly elusive. Nobody saw it coming. Nobody back then knew where computer technology would take us. There was no way to know.

The predictability of life is pretty hard to figure out. I think the wisdom teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes understood this. Time and chance happen to all of us, he says. There is simply no way to know any predictable certainty in our lives and in our world. So, how do we land on any kind of ‘up next’ moment in our faith in a world which is so wildly unpredictable? The writer of Ecclesiastes gives us a hint in this passage at what that next step forward looks like in a world like this.

Understanding the Moment

Ecclesiastes is a tough book of the Bible to comprehend. The writer is taking stock of everything he observes in the world around him and searching for a way forward. He is seeking to understand the moment in which he finds himself. Let’s consider, then, a few details about Ecclesiastes that will help us understand the words of this Bible passage.

understanding “meaningless” life

Hebrew hebel = momentary, fleeting, brief

One of the key words in Ecclesiastes that keeps repeating over and over again from the very beginning of the book all the way to the end is the Hebrew word hebel. In the NIV English translation we use here it is translated as “meaningless.” If you are familiar with other English translations of the Bible, then maybe you recognize this repeated word from Ecclesiastes as “vanity.” I agree with many biblical commentators that the better understanding of the Hebrew word hebel is “momentary.”

One of the points that the wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes is observing is how fleeting and brief our lives are in the grand scope of God’s universe (everything under the sun, as the writer poetically puts it). Chapter and chapter, the writer describes everything in life he sees as momentary, as brief, as fleeting; here for a short while and then it’s gone.

This is the backdrop of today’s passage. Look at everything in this life that is so very momentary. His writing about the grave is not meant to be morbid or depressing; it is a simple reminder that our life on this earth as we know it is not forever.

time and chance happen to all, and all arrive at the same end

And in the span of years that we have in this life, he goes on to say, there is no certainty of what we can predict or control in our world around us. Here again, he is not being depressed or sad about it. He is simply stating it as an observation. You and I cannot stop the passing of time. You and I cannot control the world in which we live.

Make the most of the moment in which God has placed you.

So then, what can we do? What is there left for us to do? This is the question that remains for the wisdom writer. And after all the chapters that the writer uses to chronicle everything he observes in the world, the answer seems rather simple and basic. Make the most of the moment in which God has placed you. He says enjoy food and drink and family. Accept the blessings that God provides with gratitude.

understanding my "lot in life"

Hebrew heleq = portion, share, distribution

He says in verse 9 this is your lot in life. Other English translations state verse 9 as this is your portion in life. I think the word portion is a better translation of the Hebrew word heleq. It carries the idea of a share or distribution. God measures and portions out the shares of his blessings day by day for the people he created and loves.

Portion control is something that I am not always very good at. I will admit that when there is delicious meal in front of me, I love a second helping, not because I need it or because I am still hungry, but because it tastes so good. I often want to take more than the portion of what I need even though I have already had enough.

portion control

We all struggle a bit with portion control when it comes to God’s blessings. He has given me a portion of blessing that is enough for what I need. And how often it is the case that I still want more. How often isn’t it true that when I think about the next step of faith God has for me, I cannot help but project grandiose wishes on an enormous scale. I want to reach for the Elijah on Mount Carmel kind of moment. I want a David and Goliath kind of event. I want a Moses parting the sea event. I want a Peter walking on water moment.

Okay then, here is where Ecclesiastes hits me smack between the eyes. God has placed most of us into rather ordinary lives filled with ordinary activity. And the portion of blessing he has given to each one of us fits exactly perfectly into our lives to be enough. And so then, God gives me steps forward in faith that also fit into my ordinary daily routine. My portion from God, my share, my distribution is exactly what it needs to be in order for me to take that next step forward; however ordinary that may seem.

Physics and Faith

law of inertia:

object at rest will stay at rest

object in motion will stay in motion

satellites in space

And now for the part about stepping forward in faith. Isaac Newton states in his law of inertia that an object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by another force. And also that an object at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by another force. Satellites that orbit our earth in outer space keep on moving around the earth at the exact same speed because in the vacuum of outer space there is nothing to slow it down. It will keep on going just as it is going until something else makes it move differently. Here on earth we constantly have other forces acting upon our motion, forces like gravity or the friction of moving through the air. But if you take away air and you take away gravity, objects stay perfectly motionless unless something else, like a rocket engine, makes it move.

is my faith at rest, or in motion?

So often faith can work that way too. If our life of faith stays sitting at rest without any movement forward, it is absolutely going to stay that way unless acted upon by another force. Sometimes God comes and pushed our faith in directions we maybe were not looking for without us asking or seeking it. But let’s face it, often it seems that God choses to place his Holy Spirit in tandem with his church. Often God works in and through and with his people. There is a cooperative mission at work in our faith. There is a partnership of God’s Holy Spirit placed upon his church. There is a part of this calling to follow Jesus in which we are given the task of faithful obedience.

what needs to act upon my faith to put it into motion?

act of faithful obedience

Is this the place where your ‘up next’ moment is sitting? Is there an act of faithful obedience sitting right before you waiting for movement? Waiting for you to step up and allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you to take a life of faith that may be at rest and turn it into a life of faith that is moving forward.

And once you start moving in faith. Isn’t it amazing how the Spirit of God pushes and guides to keep that movement going? All it takes is the next step, whatever that is for you.

Up Next:

It is time for me to _________________________

considering all the different angles of moving forward in faith

If you have been with us through the past several weeks, then today should not be the first time you are considering the question of what is up next for your faith. Hopefully you have been forming and shaping some kind of answer around that question for the past several weeks as we have been considering all the different angles of moving forward in faith.

obstacles and barriers | excuses of timing | aligning with God’s Word, support

We have talked about all the excuses we make, about barriers and obstacles that seem to be in the way of moving forward, of putting it off because we think the timing just is not right. We have talked about searching God’s Word to ensure our faith is in alignment with the pattern of the gospel, about finding the support and accountability of God’s people to help hold us up in faith. All that’s left is to write it down and make a move.

need to write it down

In your outline is a blank. On the screen here it is going to stay blank as well. That’s because this is a blank for you to fill in with your own words. I cannot give one answer that fits the same way for all of you. It is time to take some action to step forward in faith. And that step needs to begin by declaring it. Write it down. Share it with someone or a group who you know will support and encourage you.

the church does not move forward with programs

the church does not move forward with events

Over a year ago I came here to this church and as I was meeting people and getting to know many of you, I heard over and over stories about how this church is ready to move on, to move forward, to get going. This is the place where that begins. Here’s the truth. This church can create new programs and opportunities all day. But that is not going to move this church forward because the church is not programs. The church is people. This church could pack a calendar full of events and activities. But that is not going to move this church forward because the church is not events. The church is people. The one thing that will move a church forward is people who step forward in their faith.

Ascension Day | great commission | church was built by people stepping forward in faith

Today we commemorate Ascension Day. The day that Jesus ascended to heaven. The day in which Jesus gave his disciples the great commission to continue being the church. Those first disciples who went out from there and built the church did not do so by putting up buildings; they did not build the church by setting up programs; they did not build the church by creating events. Those first disciples moved the church forward by stepping forward in faith.

the church moves forward with people who step in faith

faith in very ordinary ways through the very ordinary patterns

The writer of Ecclesiastes is reminding us today that you do not need to find a Goliath to take down, and you do not need to find a Red Sea to part in order to move forward in faith. In fact, it is most often that each one of us steps forward in faith in very ordinary ways through the very ordinary patterns of our lives. It does not need to be huge and monumental; it just needs to be a step forward. But it begins with you; it begins here. Write it down; declare it; make it known.

And then make a move. Because if we all make a move forward in faith, then the church moves. Guaranteed.