Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verse 1

 Solomon is definitely feeling quite poetic in this chapter! However,

this statement of his (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) makes

you think… Have you ever thrown a piece of bread into water?

According to AI, bread in water will last only a few hours to at most a

day before fully disintegrating. So, what is Solomon talking about…?

 I spent my first 8 years on this planet in Kentucky. I was born in

Louisville, moved from there to Bowling Green, then to Corbin,

Kentucky…, and finally, when I was 8 years old my mom and step-

dad threw in the towel and my mom, sister and I moved to

Fredericksburg, Virginia to live with my grandparents, who were

wonderful people. Jerry and Gladys Lawrence.

 They lived in a beautiful home that they had built, that my

grandmother, Gladys, had helped design. 100 Goodloe Dr. My safest

and sweetest memories are there. The neighborhood is called Twin

Lakes and right across the street from 100 Goodloe are two very small

lakes. You can walk around both of them in probably 10 or 15

minutes…

 I used to walk over there alone when I was about 10 years old and

spend a few hours fishing. But I never had worms. I always used either

cheese or bread. But to get the fish to bite, I’d just throw the first piece

into the water and it would be gone in about a minute… This poetic

verse sent me back to those lakes…

 Some have said that Solomon is talking about charity. Which is

completely viable. Solomon is most likely talking about the trade of

crops. All of the work that goes into getting your wheat, your bread, to

a ship and set it sale with a merchant. From the planning, to the

bartering, to the preparing, the packaging and the traveling… And

then the reinvestment, for a profit, to repeat the cycle all over again.

 Or, you could let your crop do something else. Sit in the field. Be

harvested for personal use and much of it go to waste. You could do

nothing with what you have been given and it will be gone. But apply

diligence, and many days you will continue to find it.

 So it is in your marriage. In your ministry. In your walk with the Lord.

In your career. Grass is always greener on the other side, right? Well,

what if you couldn’t care less about the other side because that’s not

what has been given to you? That’s not YOUR grass. All you care

about is investing the heart and diligence into your own so that your

grass stays so green, there is no other… This is the point I believe

Solomon in his Godly wisdom is hiding for us to find in his profound

poetry.

Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verse 2

 Ah the principle presented here is so essential to living by wisdom.

Key in on two terms, give and serve. In the Christian life, truly life in

general, these two things are the echinacea of evil. Hear me out on

this. I’m no medical doctor and I don’t even know if the stuff works,

but before you go into a situation where you may be exposed to germs,

I’ve always been told to take some echinacea. It’s a booster for your

body. An encourager of your immune system so that you may be better

protected for any type of exposure.

 Serving and giving are like that in life. John 16:33, Jesus said, “These

things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the

world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome

the world.” We don’t prepare for the winter once we are exposed out

in the snow. We put on our sweats and winter coats… Where?

Inside… not outside.

 Giving and serving prepare your heart with encouragement. These

two willful acts on your part will boost you and prepare you for what

is ahead. That when you face what you face, you do so in Christ. Not

next to Him. Not near to Him. Not following Him. In Him… And you

are well prepared to do very well. Your heart is strong. Hope is

empowered…

 And so, you give and you serve more than you should, could or ought

and in so doing, the evil that is ahead for us all doesn’t get the grip

that it has planned but you get the victory that God has planned!

Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verses 3 – 4

 Verse three describes natural occurrences without variation. It always

happens this way and everyone knows it. Everyone can understand

that… Solomon says so is the next statement. That’s the poetry here.

The difference is, the truth in verse 3 everyone perceives, everyone

sees it, everyone has experienced it…, but the truth of verse 4,

everyone experiences it but not everyone perceives or sees it. This is

where wisdom is necessary…

 Observing and regarding are good, but at some point, you need to

get to work. If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll miss so much

of what could have been accomplished. Such as making decisions

with imperfect knowledge. A situation that arises daily in business!

 If you have good work in front of you, an opportunity to respond to a

calling or capture something good, go for it! Make a plan, bounce

that plan off of a trusted advisor, one hopefully for you being the

Lord (prayer), and then move out. Better to get going and course

correct than to wait for perfect conditions, always!

Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verses 5 – 6

 God’s ways are past finding out. Paul wrote in Romans 11:33, “Oh,

the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

So, Solomon’s direction is do what is right! Do what you ought to be

doing, why? Simple! God’s ways are past finding out but His results

are not past our ability to experience them!

 God is always doing more than we think. More than we know. He’s

always planning a result beyond our finite forecast! Ephesians 3:20,

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that

 Our responsibility is not the result of the thing. We think it is. Our

responsibility is to work unto faith. The result is the Lord’s! Solomon

is truly trying to help us out… If all we do is focus on the result, we

actually could be dissatisfied even when God over-delivers because it

doesn’t look like what we wanted…! WILD!

 So, focus on the joy that comes in the journey of simple, consistent,

diligent faithfulness. Proverbs 13:4, “The soul of a lazy man desires,

and has nothing; But the soul of the diligent shall be made rich!” This

is why, check this out, such alignment, Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23-

24, “Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the

inheritance!”

Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verses 7 – 8

 If you live only for the longing of the perfect day, the day where he

will love you the way you want him to, the day that she will respect

you the way you want her to, the day the boss treats you the way you

want them to, the day your neighbor stops being petty about your

property line…, whatever it is…, if you live only for the days of the

sun, you’ll lose that which even God is purposed to bless you with

through this short life…

 An embracing of the imperfect leads you to a deep understanding of

God’s embracing of you. Because you find that the rejoicing was

never in the sunny days at all but in that you made the decision to

withhold and restrain loss more on those days than others. Would to

God that I would live by the Spirit and not by the flesh, because truly

it’s all the same vapor…

 Listen, the fact that this life is what it is isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If

God were to take each one of us and give us one day with Him in

heaven, we would all see…, we would all look at this life so entirely

incredibly much differently! What would all the days of loss be worth?

All the arguments over temporal things that we wouldn’t drop or just

forgive or just accept that it’s or them are imperfect but whatever…,

let’s live…! In truth, they’d all be vanity and we’d drop it all and just

live in total freedom! Try to get there before it’s too late and you’ve

left so much life unlived in yours…

Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 Verses 9 – 10

 Solomon is so amazing to us! Live a little, man! That’s his entire

message that he is skillfully weaving for the seasoned seeker! Fill your

heart with the eternal. Simple as that and then the things of the non-

eternal turn eternal… Does that make sense? This is the secret cheat

code to living life! Solomon found it but couldn’t tell it outright.

Maybe because of his example he set with his life, but this is what he

found after his unique experiment upon this earth with every resource

available to all men, including power, relationship and riches!

 His conclusion is that life isn’t in the having its in the living. Life

isn’t in the achieving; it’s in the living. Life isn’t in the perfect spouse.

It’s in the living. Life isn’t in the control of great power and

possessions. Life is in the living. And Jesus clarified it all once and for

all of us… He said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!”

 So, YOU remove sorrow from your own heart, Solomon says. Still

blaming everyone else for it and waiting for someone else to do that

for you? You do it for you. You take the control that God has granted

to you not only by free will but by His Spirit and His decree…, and in

so doing you will naturally, inevitably…, evil will be put away from

your physical daily finite experience.

 And remember, this whole book, “ALL is vanity and a great evil…,”

over and over and over again Solomon as told us…, just to get us to

this moment. That all IS vanity and by the power of the Spirit of God

in a heart of man, we can overcome ALL. Flip vanity to humility,

humbleness, selflessness…, flip vanity to worship and flip life from

loss to victory!