“Planting seeds of wisdom is wise.”
Ecclesiastes pt. 12
Opening Illustration: Clip from Blue Fish TV “Super Bowl Sunday”
Thesis: Solomon tells us to plant seeds of wisdom even when we are young because then we will reap a great eternal harvest with our life. Invest now with your life and reap eternal dividends – squander your life now reap anxiety and physical trouble later.
Scripture Text: Ecc. Chapter 11
1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
7 Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
8 However many years a man may live,
let him enjoy them all.
But let him remember the days of darkness,
for they will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
9 Be happy, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.
Introduction:
Solomon in this chapter seeks to awaken us to the importance of how we are using our time. He challenges us to plant seeds of wisdom with our lives especially when we are young. He emphasizes the importance of planting and harvesting in life. Solomon is once again highlighting the importance of sowing seeds of wisdom into our life while we are young because then we will have a harvest to draw from in our later years. He reminds us that being young and full of energy is good but it will only last a short while.
Illustration from a Treasury of Bible Illustrations - Only One Life
With a shining quarter, a tiny little boy went into a candy store. With the utmost seriousness, studying each assortment with deep thoughtfulness, he wandered from case to case. Tired of waiting, his mother called, “Hurry, son, spend your quarter. We must be going.” The child replied, “But Mama, I have got to spend it carefully; I only have one.”
You, too, have only one life. How are you spending it?
Solomon has been warning us to not waste away our lives by living a life filled with foolish ways which have not eternal value attached to them.
He is crying out to us to get busy for the Kingdom of God. He is telling us to live life for the Lord and make a difference with your life. Quit waiting around just decided to do and then do it. Why are so many people just standing around staring into the sky and living a life which has no meaning, no purpose, and no value?
Video Illustration: Moth and rust from Blue Fish TV – What are you doing with your lifetime?
We need to quit hoarding things and instead give them away!
We need to quit drifting through life with no eternal direction and instead become purpose driven people.
We need to quit being afraid of life and live life with a courageous trust in God to see us through.
Too many of us have bought into the philosophy of the world – Swindoll explains their philosophy this way:
Get all you can,
Can all you get,
Then sit on the can! (Living on the Ragged Edge, page 319)
Swindoll notes: The last couple of chapters of Ecclesiastes are penned by the wisest man to have ever lived and he pleads with us too:
Be bullish – Be bold – Be joyful – Be godly – then I add as a result of doing these 4 things, “Be blessed for eternity!”
T.S. - Let’s jump into chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes and learn the lessons that will bring a eternal blessings into our lives in the future – let’s learn how to invest into eternity!
I. Plant seeds of wisdom with your life now don’t wait (vs. 1-3)!
a. What is Solomon telling us in these verses?
i. CEV 11:1-3: “Be generous, and someday you will be rewarded. Share what you have with seven or eight others, because you never know when disaster may strike. Rain clouds always bring rain; trees always stay wherever they fall.”
1. Cast your bread on the water and it will come back to you – this is the law of sowing and reaping!
a. Give now - don’t hoard things and it will all come back to bless you later – this is God’s law.
i. We need to invest into eternal things with our life now and we need to give to eternal things now because this is the best investment you can do with your life!
ii. This eternal law is as sure as the law of gravity when a tree breaks it falls to the ground and it will always fall to the ground. When clouds are full of water it will rain and unleash the moisture this is a fact of nature and a law set in motion by God himself.
iii. The law of sowing and reaping is as precise and true as these natural laws.
2. Give portions of 7 even 8 away because you never know when you will need the benefits of this giving in the future.
a. Swindoll says that Solomon is telling us to “diversify.”
i. We need to be giving ourselves – no investing ourselves in more than just one way with our life.
b. Solomon tells us to give because giving sows seeds of future blessings in our life and to diversify means we invest in many ways.
i. Giving of your time
ii. Giving of your talents
iii. Giving of your resources
iv. Giving of your finances
v. Giving of yourself to God and His ways
vi. Giving of your will to God and His Kingdom
vii. Giving of your heart to God and His Kingdom
viii. Giving of your mind to God and His Kingdom
ix. Giving of your family to the Kingdom of God
x. Giving of _______________________?
1. He is really saying – diversify and it will come back to you from God.
a. Find ways to invest into eternity – don’t hoard give yourself away!
2. When we give, we actually plant seeds of wisdom with our actions and this brings blessings back to us in the future.
a. Matthew 6:19-21: “19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
3. The key is we need to be sowing now so as to reap the harvest later.
a. 2 Corinthians 9:6: “6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”
i. Paul tells us this is a law not an idea – its the way it is with God.
b. Who Is Robbed in Unfaithfulness?
i. An interesting fable is told of a rich man who wanted to help a poor man. The rich man hired the poor man to build a house on the hillside and went away on a long journey. The carpenter said to himself, “My boss is away and I can use cheap materials for the parts of the house which will not show. The house will be weak and undesirable but nobody will know except me.” But when the rich man returned he said, “The house is not for me: it is for you!” The carpenter accepted the key in astonishment. Instead of a first class home he now had a fourth-class home. God gives us a job, a life to build. We have to live in the house we build. If we do a shoddy job, we cheat one person—our self.
ii. When the cloud banks of your spiritual investments are full it will rain showers of blessings back onto you.
1. Galatians 6:7-10: “7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
b. We need to be doers of God’s Word and follow His ways if we want eternal blessing’s later in life.
i. James 1:22-25: “22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”
T.S. – We need to invest our lives into eternity by giving and we must make sure that we do not become daydreamers just drifting through life without any eternal purpose or meaning.
II. Don’t be a daydreamer or drifter -be a doer of the Word of God (vs. 4-6).
a. Listen to Solomon’s words again from the CEV:
i. “4If you worry about the weather and don’t plant seeds, you won’t harvest a crop. 5No one can explain how a baby breathes before it is born. So how can anyone explain what God does? After all, he created everything. 6Plant your seeds early in the morning and keep working in the field until dark. Who knows? Your work might pay off, and your seeds might produce.”
b. The reality check is daydreamers will not harvest anything because they have not done anything.
i. Daydreamers never do anything with their life because they just drift along.
ii. They allow fear and worry to cripple their lives.
1. They talk about doing it but never do it and in the end they will lose out!
2. They are idle and fruitless and this will never bring any eternal rewards.
3. They will end up living a meaningless useless life.
c. Jesus tells us the importance of actually planting and reaping.
i. Parable Matthew 13:1-23:
1. 1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear.” 10The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 11He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. 18“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
a. What type of soil is in your heart and your life?
b. Jesus respected the Law of sowing and reaping – it’s an Eternal Law set in motion by God Himself.
i. God set the Law of Gravity into motion and when we break it we suffer the consequences. The same is true with the Law of Sowing and Reaping – you break the law you suffer the consequence!
c. Mike Murdock notes this from his book Leadership Secrets of Jesus page 209:
i. He starts with scripture verse “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7.
ii. Everything begins with a seed to sow! Someone plants a small acorn. It becomes the mighty oak tree. A small kernel of corn is planted. It produces two cornstalks. Each stalk produces two ears of corn. Each ear of corn contains over seven hundred kernels of corn. From that one small kernel of corn, a seed, 2,800 more kernels are created. Look at seed as anything that can multiply and become more. Love is a seed. Money is a seed. Everything you possess can be planted back into the world as a seed.
iii. Your harvest is anything God gives back that benefits you, joy…peace of mind…a friend…finances. Sowing a seed of faith simply means to give something, having faith God will honor His Word and give you a harvest of what you have given to Him.
iv. Sowing a seed in faith is using what you have been given to obtain what God has promised.
v. Jesus taught that giving was the beginning of blessings. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).
vi. “Giving is the only proof that you have conquered greed.”
vii. “Everything you have, came from God. Everything you will receive in your future will come from God. He is your total source for everything in your life. Never forget this.”
viii. “The secret of your future is determined by the seeds you sow today.”
ix. “When you let go of what is in your hand, God will let go of what is in His hand for you.”
1. Quotes above from pages 209-213.
d. It’s important to note that the concept of sowing and reaping and giving to get does not make sense logically but God does many things beyond our comprehension.
i. The key is you must believe God, trust God and do what God directs you to do even when it’s not logical.
ii. This Law – is God’s Law and if you violate it by doing nothing or being fearful of obeying then you will reap the consequence.
T.S. – Don’t be a daydreamer of drifter in your life, be a doer of the word of God and learn the lesson of Sowing and Reaping while you still have time.
III. Don’t forget that God is watching you (7-10).
a. Listen to Solomon’s words from the CEV:
i. “7Nothing on earth is more beautiful than the morning sun. 8Even if you live to a ripe old age, you should try to enjoy each day, because darkness will come and will last a long time. Nothing makes sense.9Be cheerful and enjoy life while you are young! Do what you want and find pleasure in what you see. But don’t forget that God will judge you for everything you do. 10Rid yourself of all worry and pain, because the wonderful moments of youth quickly disappear.”
b. Yes, we should enjoy our lives but we must always remember God is watching us!
i. He is watching and seeing the kinds of seeds we are sowing.
ii. He is observing how we handle the sunny days of life and the dark days of life.
c. A foolish person will squander their life away and never invest it into eternity.
i. Their life will be nothing but wasted time, wasted money, squandered resources and missed opportunities.
1. Job 4:8: “As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”
ii. Lately I have caught the show called “Ocean Force” which is a show about life guards and beach police – I have seen so many young people on this show throwing their lives away doing foolish things that destroy their lives.
1. I look around at our world and I see young people enslaved into the deceit of this world. They think they are free but yet in the reality of Heaven they are slaves to sin. They allow the distorted value system of the world to take root and in turn they lose. They live their life in a meaningless way throwing away precious time and digging a rut that they eventually stay trapped in for their whole lives.
2. Their lives have no eternal value or purpose and it creates a future life filled with grief and turmoil!
3. On the Alaskan Highway there is a sign which states, “Choose your rut carefully. You’ll be in it for the next 200 miles!”
a. This is true for young people too!
b. Many young people start off life choosing deep ruts – like drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, like immoral sex, greed and selfishness and these ruts keep them trapped, enslaved in a life with no eternal meaning or value.
i. They think they are having fun but actually they are enslaved in a path leading to destruction.
d. Yes, we should enjoy our lives especially as young people but God has to be a part of the process of living.
i. We must in the journey of life realize the importance of enjoying the Sunny days and then also learn from the dark days of life.
1. You will have both in life – they will come to the rich, the poor, the powerful, the wise, the godly and the weak. This is a reality of life!
a. But it’s what we do with these time frames that matter – it’s how we handle them that decides their eternal value!
ii. We need to be joyful and happy in life while we are young but we also need to be careful what types of seeds we are sowing with our life because if they are the wrong kind of seed we will reap destruction not blessing.
1. We need to remember that God will hold us accountable on what we did with our life even when we were young.
a. We need to remember God in our young age and we need to sow seeds of wisdom because if we don’t then it will affect us later in life.
i. It will affect our state of mind.
ii. Our choices now will either give us peace or anxiety in our future life.
iii. The way we live now will affect our health physically, our spiritual state, and our emotional context.
b. Proverbs 11:18: “The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.”
Conclusion:
Mike Murdoch stated, “You will never possess what you are unwilling to pursue.”
Illustration from “Illustrations of Bible Truths”- Right Priorities
The time to begin to do the things that are important in your life is the very moment you become a believer in Jesus Christ. Your first thought should be, “This life on earth is not forever; therefore the things that count for eternity will have priority in my life.” Don’t be like someone who greatly distinguished himself in worldly achievements. In his last moments, he exclaimed, “I have provided in the course of my life for everything except death; and now, alas! I am to die, although entirely unprepared.” How or when one dies is not important. The important thing is to prepare for the unavoidable happening while you are alive.
Learn to plant seeds of wisdom with your life now then you will be able to enjoy life in your later years from the harvest of these seeds.
Give you life away to the Kingdom of God and watch God bring back to your more than you gave away.
Choose to be foolish with your life then your life will be filled with anxiety and physical problems later on in life and even into eternity.
Understand that you must make the most of your time now when you are alive then you will be investing into your eternal future.
Altar Call: Closing quote from Mike Murdoch, “Your future begins with whatever is in your hands today.”
A Spiritual exercise to search our hearts:
I would like you to look at your hands right now, ask yourself the question, “What are my gifts that I can give to God?”
Now look at the clock on the back wall or your watch, “How much time are you willing to give to God and to His Kingdom?”
One more step – take out your wallet or checkbook and ask, “What am I willing to give to God and to His Kingdom?”
I am going to play Abby’s song which is our theme this year “Saturate in 08.” I am challenging you to spend some time with God right now and to reflect on what God wants you to invest in with your life. I pray that God’s holy presence will touch you as you spend some time with Him this morning.
Reflection time -- Play song “Saturate me” by Abby
