Ecclesiastes 10:10 – A Change Will Do You Good
(NOTE: Most of my thinking for this flows from Brian MacLaren’s book "A New Kind of Christian". Some of this was really quite hard to say. Use with caution.)
Pastor Rodney Buchanan shares a thought with us:
We used to sing a song entitled, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” And in the song it says, “It was good for the Hebrew children, and it is good enough for me.” But it wasn’t good enough for the Hebrew children. The faith of Abraham was not adequate for them; God had something more. God had to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt and show them something new. The Red Sea would part, Mount Sinai would explode with fire and the voice of God. Commandments would be given and there would be new lessons learned in the wilderness. The song says, “It was good for Paul and Silas.” The truth is that the old time religion was not good enough for Paul and Silas. For years Paul wanted it to be good enough, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He wanted to keep the old wineskin of Jewish tradition, but Jesus was bursting the seams of that wineskin. New wine had come and new wineskins were called for.
You can’t have the old time religion. Your mother’s faith will not do, it has to be your faith. Your father’s faith is not adequate, you have to have your own experience with God. In fact, your faith, the faith used to get you by several years ago, will not do for today. If your faith has not grown since you first met Christ as a kid, the wineskin has dried and become brittle. It will not do for the new thing that God wants to do in you today. You can’t remain static. You can’t stay where you are. Yesterday’s experience will not do for today. Your faith must be current. The Lord says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Is.43:18-19).
Tonight I am looking at some random thoughts based on our passage from Ecc.10:10. READ. Look at what the Teacher is saying to us. He’s saying that it is possible to cut down a tree with a dull blade. A person can do it. It takes a little more strength, but it’s possible. Now, look at the last line: “…but skill will bring success.”
What is the skill? What skills are involved in knowing how to cut a tree? There’s knowing the wind, knowing gravity, the bend of the tree, keeping the angles right, and so on. But what skill, what is the most useful thing in cutting down a tree? Sharpening the blade. Perhaps the most useful skill in cutting down a tree is not the strength used, but the wisdom used. That’s pretty consistent with what we already know from Solomon’s writings. Ecc.9:13 says, "Wisdom is better than strength."
Which means some things for us. It means that getting ahead in life is more working smarter than working harder. Not to say that being lazy is the way to go, nobody said that. No, what it means is that doing the wrong things even harder does not accomplish anything.
There’s an old saying, “Practice makes perfect.” Know what? That’s not true. What practice makes is permanent. Practice makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect. But if you keep doing something over and over and over but you’re doing it wrong, it means you’ll likely never get it right.
It turns out that’s true about the spiritual life, too. If you come to believe things are a certain way, and you believe it and preach it all your life, then anyone who disagrees with you is obviously wrong. If you believe that a woman has to wear a skirt to go to church, and any woman does doesn’t wear a skirt to church is un-spiritual, and then it comes time to be too cold to wear a dress to church, and you stay home because of it… that’s crazy. That proves that practice makes permanent, but that’s a far cry from perfect. Your own rules keep you from church. That’s foolish.
You can see that working hard at something doesn’t make it worth working at. Some try to pray harder. They pray at night and fall asleep. And they try harder to pray better. But trying smarter would be not praying at night. That’s working smarter, not harder.
You can try studying the Bible better. It makes no sense to you, but you keep trying anyway. Well, instead of trying harder, try it smarter. Try a new translation. Try a Bible with study helps. They couldn’t hurt, and they could only help. That’s studying smarter, not harder.
But ahhh… change is hard. They say the only person in the world who likes change is a wet baby. To change the way that you run your life feels next to impossible. To change something almost feels like running away from God. Sometimes, to change your mind almost feels like embracing heresy, as if you were falling away from the truth.
But sometimes it’s necessary. Christians look different from age to age. If you were to pop into the church in the early 1500’s, they wouldn’t recognize you. If you could go back in time and arrive in the year 1500, and announce to people that you loved Jesus and you were a Christian, they’d likely kill you for heresy. You can’t wear colors and be a Christian. You can’t say that the pope is wrong and be a Christian. You can’t say that kings aren’t there because God wants them there and be a Christian. You can’t say you can pray without a prayer book and be a Christian. You can’t say the earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around, and be a Christian. Folks, theology changes.
The church is not the same as it was 100, 500, 1500, 2000 years ago. The church had to change, because the culture changed. If the church didn’t change at all, we would still be meeting in houses, we’d have no pianos, and I’d be preaching till midnight.
We’re afraid that if we change methods, we’re changing the message or something. Listen: our understanding of the Bible has changed over the years. For years people looked at the Bible to say that slavery was alright. Now we don’t. That thought changed. For years people looked at the Bible to prove that since Peter was the first representative on earth, we still need a “pope”. Even good, godly, intelligent people believed it. Now, it’s quite alright if you don’t. That thought changed.
Theology evolves. It changes as years pass. That’s what the quote at the beginning of my message was about. Paul thought he was right, but he wasn’t. The Pharisees thought they were right, but they weren’t. They needed changes. That’s what Jesus talked about with wineskins. You need to be different, and that requires a change of mind. It’s not about Paul working harder at being a Pharisee. It’s about working smarter as a believer. Smarter, not harder.
We like changes in others, but not ourselves. Maybe you heard about the guy from the back mountains of Tennessee, who found himself one day with his son in a large city, for the first time standing outside an elevator. He watched as an old, haggard woman hobbled on, and the doors closed. A few minutes later the doors opened and a young, attractive woman marched out. The father hollered to his son, “Billy, go get mother.”
Now, let’s think about this church. It really isn’t growing. And you ask, Why? I mean, some of you folks do a good job of talking about the Lord when He prompts you, as far as I can tell. Some people are praying. We don’t get many to prayer meetings, but we have some. People are praying for salvations and so on. Is it simply as easy as “if we pray, people will come?” You know, I don’t think so. I look around the district and see godly men and women pastors, and think, “Why isn’t that church growing?”
I wonder if what we offer is what people want. You can chalk it up to ungodliness or desires for the flesh, but it’s always been that way. We’re offering heaven, yes, but obviously there is something wrong with something else. Some of you don’t come to SS. Clearly, what we do for SS isn’t what you want or need. What we do doesn’t feed you, or meet your needs or desires or interests. Same with prayer meeting. What we are doing doesn’t meet people’s needs.
You could compare it to a person who wants to combine the cross of Christianity with, say, a Native American symbol. Some would say the person is selling out, trying to combine things that are opposites, and blame it on the love of the world growing cold. Or, you could say that there is something in Native American culture – loving the beauty of creation, being in touch with nature, and so on – that isn’t found in a lot of Christianity. Honestly, honestly, is the church all you want it to be? Do you find everything in the church that you need?
Now, I don’t mean Jesus; I mean the church. We know that Jesus is the Savior. That doesn’t mean the church is. Christianity never saved anybody. But I think that a lot of what we do is just trying to keep things comfortable for us. We like what we like, and that’s what we do. We find comfort in that. And if someone comes in and questions it, we take offense to it. Folks, can we question the church without losing our faith? Can we say the church is not what it should be without doubting Jesus? Can we say that what we are offering just isn’t what people want? Can be we honest and say that even though I don’t doubt Jesus, I sure doubt the church?
I’m not offering many answers here. I’m not sure what does work. I’m saying that we are offering doesn’t. We’re not getting many new faces, and even most of our own believers avoid prayer meetings and SS. There is something wrong if believers don’t want to pray or learn. You can say that it’s carnal believers. And if it is, there is a problem with all these carnal people in our church.
It must be more than carnal Christians. It must be more than unpleasable non-believers. There must be more. It’s a shame that we preach to them the Bread of Life but don’t satisfy their needs. It’s sad that we serve the Water of Life, but we’re not salty enough to make them thirsty.
We must serve smarter, not harder. We must sharpen our axe to cut down the tree. To make a difference in this town, we have to throw out things that don’t work. We must remain faithful to the message of salvation, but find new ways to present it. To give new wine in new wineskins. The problem isn’t so much what’s inside, as it is that what it’s being stored in is old and cracked and faulty.
Check your life, folks. Ask what you think we as a church could do to reach out and help others get closer to Him. How can we give the life-changing message in a way that people actually like and need?
