I'd like you to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. We're going to be in verses 1 through 6. Let me read this passage for you. Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. If clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know what will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. The word of the Lord, brothers and sisters. What do you make of this? What do you do with a passage that speaks of these things? This is about giving. Let me tell you what happened to me. In 2005, the elders had asked me to do a sermon on giving. And I went, oh, okay. I thought, this is fantastic. Except one of the elders came and whispered in my ear, we haven't heard a sermon on giving in quite some time. This might be a little bit of a challenge. So when everybody came in, some of you were here, the first thing I said, and I'm gonna ask you to do the same thing, get your wallet out. Whatever you keep your money in, get it out. If you give on the phone, on your tablet, a checkbook, whatever, just get it out. And I see you're all doing that, but right now everybody's got a little knot in their stomach. What's going to happen? Okay? And so let's be honest with each other. Talking about giving is awkward. It's hard. You know, it's hard for the church to stand up and say, oh, you should be giving because it sounds self-serving for us. And also, it's a matter that we're just a little bit uneasy with. But this passage is about giving. So at the end of that sermon, I told everybody to put their stuff away. I'm gonna tell you to do the same thing. Richard was standing in the back going, Don't do that. And he was right to do it, but we didn't take a collection that day. Yeah, you see, we've already done the collection today, so I don't have to worry about that. But what God was after was that first thought that you had when I said, take your money out. What do we do with that? That's what this passage is about. And we're going to address this. Now, the last time we were in Ecclesiastes, we heard about wisdom and foolishness in politics, another sensitive subject. Our teacher taught us about worldly wisdom that's fragile, but wise and cautious when navigating the political arena. It's a really timely message for us this year. And those characteristics we saw should guide us as believers, knowing that the call of the church, listen carefully, the call of the church is not to the political arena. It's not even to a political platform. Those are good things, there's nothing wrong with them, but that's not the primary call of the church. Our highest priority is not politics, not a political party, Our highest priority is a concern and a love for souls that are lost regardless of who they are, regardless of where they come from or what they do. Today we're going to hear how we can be effective in our giving. It's a touchy subject. Again, some folks don't like hearing about it, but that's the theme of this passage. How can we impact those around us in a positive way, not just in our tithes and our offerings, but in what we offer as members of God's kingdom, how we render up our treasure, our time, and our talents. This is Catching the Wind, Part 13. We'll finish up the series next week, I think. So as we get near the end of this incredible book, we're going to see some guidelines for generosity. Keep in mind that these guidelines are intended to help people get along in the world, and the whole thrust of Ecclesiastes has been getting along in the world without God as the primary focus. God's there. He's in the background. He's acknowledged, but he's not the first thought of the teaching that's in this book. Still, as we've gone through it, we've seen more emphasis on God and on His presence as the book progresses. Today, we're going to look at the guidelines, think about how effective these worldly guidelines could be if they're used by members of the kingdom, if they're used by God's children for His glory, to help build His kingdom, put God on display to a world that is absolutely desperate for answers. So we're gonna see three actions to avoid and one that we should do. Don't be stingy in chapter 11, verses one and two. Don't be slow in verses three and four. Don't be sly, I'll explain that in verse five. And then there's gonna be a doobie, a doobie sowing in verse six. So let's take a look at don't be stingy starting with verse one. And I just want to set the scene here. Consider the situation in Israel at the time. It was incredible prosperity, 4th, 5th century BC. Israel is at the intersection of all of the major trade routes in the world, north, south, east, west. They've got Asia to the east. They've got Rome to the west. Egypt and Ethiopia to the south, everything's going through Israel. Most of the world's commerce is just passing right through at one time or another. There were business opportunities, money to be made, but as is always the case during really prosperous times, there's money to be lost as well. So not all business ventures were successful. And times like these can create, very easily, two types of people. people who have gone broke and are desperate for money, and people who have been wealthy and are desperate to hold on to their money. The teacher has some advice for both types. He says in verse 1, cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. So I want you to just Take this for what it means, just for a moment. We're going to set the metaphors aside and look carefully at what is being proposed here. Throw your bread out on the waters. Anybody ever fed ducks? OK. You go by the lakeside, the ducks are there, you throw your bread out in the water. If it doesn't get eaten right away, what happens to it? It sinks. It sinks. It's gone. You're not going to get it back. If you're by a river, and you're trying to feed the fish, and you throw some bread into the water, what happens to it? Either it gets eaten by the fish, or it gets carried down the river. You're never going to see that bread again. Cast your bread upon the waters. You know, the NIV has an interesting translation here. They say, ship your grain across the sea. After many days, you may see a return. Now, it sounds a little bit at odds, but listen carefully. Sending anything by ship in those days was extremely risky. Ships were small. They were fragile. The Mediterranean Sea is dotted with shipwrecks all over the place. They're finding new ones every month. There were pirates. There were thieves. There were thieves on the sea. There were thieves in the ports. Anytime you sent something by boat, you had no idea whether or not it was going to get there. Ship your brain, your grain. Some of us ship our brain. Cast your bread. Both are correct interpretations. And what they connote is a risk of loss. I may not get this back. Being willing to let loose of your money. So our author is trying to encourage us to take a risk here. Now, it can pertain to money, and it certainly does. But it can be about time, effort, and many other things. He wants us to avoid being stingy with our treasure and our talent and our time, to toss it out there, to take a step of faith, trusting that we'll get a return, some kind of return at some point. But that might be a little risky. Now listen carefully. This is not, I remember, being a new believer, and I followed a guy named Fred Price, and he preached on this passage about casting your bread out on the water. And his summary at the end of his sermon was, one day I looked on the horizon, and I saw a bit of bread, and then I saw a loaf, and then I saw a hundred loaves, and then I saw a million loaves, and they were all coming back to me. This is not what this is about. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. This is not a way to invest your money and get a big return. It's about being generous with our assets, with those things that God's given us, and even being willing to suffer a loss and being patient with what comes afterwards and how it comes. We're reminded of Jesus' parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25, aren't we? The people who wisely spent their talents got more. To the man who buried his talent and did nothing with it, he lost everything. So the teacher wants us to take a risk, to avoid hoarding our money, but he doesn't want us to be foolish about it. It provides a wise way to give. In verse 2, he says, give a portion to seven or even to eight. In other words, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't count on a return. Spread your gifts around. Be bold in your giving and sharing, but be wise as well. Notice he says to spread it among seven or even eight. Seven, to the Jew, is a number of perfection. He's saying, give to perfection. Give with the right motive. Give to the right resources. And then give a little bit more, even to eight. That's what the Jews would have seen here. For you do not know what disaster may happen on earth. Well, we've heard this theme frequently. You don't know what's going to happen. You could lose it all unexpectedly. But taking a closer look, isn't it during these crises that may occur that folks begin to hoard or become stingy? Teacher says to do exactly the opposite. When your heart tells you, I've got to preserve this, I've got to save it, I've got to take care of myself, who knows what might happen? The teacher's saying, give, give, give. It's counterintuitive, isn't it? The fact of the matter is, Our natures are being changed as believers. Now, he doesn't know this back in the 3rd, 4th century BC, but we know it today. Our natures are being changed. God's always asking us to do something counterintuitive. Oh, the world will tell you, follow your heart. What's Scripture say about that? Deceitful above all other things. Follow the word. Okay, so we do that. What if we don't get it back? What then? I mean, that's a worldly concern, isn't it? Listen to this, Proverbs 22, 9. Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. Someday we'll talk about the poor, not today. Deuteronomy 15, 10, speaking of one who asks. You shall give to him freely. Your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake." Giving confers a blessing from God. Now, don't mistake it for the false teaching that tells us, if I give, I'll get more back. God's blessings can take a lot of different forms. God is not an investment strategy. Do you hear me? Don't be stingy. Be extravagant. Leave what comes afterwards to God. So that's our first action to avoid. Here's our second action to avoid. Don't be slow. We may not know the future. We may not know what's going to happen. But there are some things we kind of know. In the next two verses, we get some practical advice on being generous. And it comes through two images we can all see. Verse three, if the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. For the Jews, when they saw clouds coming off the Mediterranean, they knew it was a rainy season. They knew there was going to be a lot of rain. When the dark clouds hit our way, we can see it. If you look over towards the mountains and you see dark clouds, you're thinking pretty much it's going to rain, right? I mean, that's how it works. And if you've been around Warrington long enough, you know if they're coming from the south, it's probably going to be a lot of wind and a lot of commotion as well. It's very likely to rain. The darker the clouds, the more rain we're going to get. We can watch the sky, and we can know when a storm is coming. The storm itself is unstoppable. We can tell when it's on its way. And if a tree falls to the south or the north, the rest of the verse says, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. We see a tree fall in the forest. It doesn't matter which way it falls. That's where it's going to stay. Trees don't get up and move. It's not going to get up and reposition itself. Now, we know this to be true. These are kind of hard facts. But what did it have to do with giving? We know certain things. We know pretty much when it's going to rain. We know trees don't move themselves. And we like those truths. As human beings, we crave certainty, don't we? We like to know what's going to happen. We like to know what's around the corner for us. Our souls are fed by that. But we don't always have it, do we? We don't always have it. We want to know how things are going to turn out, and we can usually surmise, but we never know for sure. Yes, clouds warn us of rain, but it may pass by. It may blow over. Trees don't move themselves, but the next time you go into the forest, it might be in a different position. We don't know. There's actually very little that we can be certain of in life. Listen to me carefully. There's actually very little that we can be certain of. Why God gives us faith. Since this passage is about giving, we should see that uncertainty can cause us to hesitate in our giving. If we give, how can we know our giving will bless us? If we demand certainty, we can miss the blessing. Look at the next verse. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. Now, look at this through the eyes of a 4th century BC farmer. He didn't like to sow when it was windy. If it was a windy day, he might not go out and sow. When there was no wind, he could spread his seed evenly. He would have a good, healthy crop. If the wind was blowing, all the seeds could gather in one place, and you'd have a mess. But if he waited too long for perfect weather, if he observed the wind and waited too long, he could miss the prime sowing season and have no crop at all. Likewise, a nice sunny day would be ideal for harvest time. Rain could ruin the harvest. But if the farmer waited too long for ideal conditions, he could lose the entire harvest. At some point, the farmer would have to commit to sowing while in the season and harvesting during harvest time, whether it's windy, whether it's rainy, whatever. Yes, he would be taking a chance, but too much hesitation would cause him to lose everything. Hesitation in our giving could cause us to lose the blessing. We should not wait for the perfect time to give generously. We should step out in faith and do what the Scriptures tell us to do. Trusting the results of our Father in heaven, our generosity guarantees a blessing. Don't misunderstand me. It does not guarantee a return on investment. It guarantees that God will bless us in some fashion. We would like to tell him how we would like to have that blessing. He might not agree. We want to avoid overthinking our giving. We want to avoid waiting too long. We want to avoid being slow. Really, what we want to avoid, if you stop to think about it, what we want to avoid is second-guessing God, questioning his wisdom. In other words, don't be sly. Now, this is our third action that we should avoid. Verse 5, as you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. You know, back then, very little was known about how a baby was formed in the womb. It was a mystery. Psalm 139.15 says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. And the Jews attributed all that process to God working mysteriously to bring life and soul to an unborn baby. And you know what? They were right. They got it. We understand a lot more about the process today, but we still don't get it all. There's still some mystery here. What makes a human baby different from an animal? You know, we live in a time where some folks would tell you there is no difference. But there is. We know there is. Maybe it's not the most popular thing to talk about, but some think that there's no difference. That's really a silly notion. And if you're offended by that, I'm sorry for you. No other created creature will grow and learn the way a baby grows and learns. No other creature will go to school, play the piano, build a car, then drive it down the highway, make a computer, add software to it, and then use it for information purposes, hopefully. No other creature will fashion a cup and then drink a cup of coffee out of it. No other creature will be the focus of the type of love or heartbreak, none of them in the same manner as a baby. No other creature will pray to one true God or even reject Him. The only explanation that makes any sense at all is that a divinely sovereign God orchestrates this. He makes it happen. All you have to do to know that God exists in the middle of everything that's going on is to experience the wonder and human potential of a baby. But in the final analysis, we don't know all the nuts and bolts of how that baby gets there. And our verse says as much. True back then, it's true right now. Tells us not to think that we can figure it all out. Not to try and reason how God does what he does. It tells us we don't always know what he's doing. We don't even know why he's doing it sometimes. Sometimes, we just have to trust him. Trust his word. A few weeks ago, out of chapter eight, I asked the question, what if we don't have all the answers? Is it okay if we don't know? Does God owe us an explanation? Job thought he did, that didn't end well for him. Can we even come close to fully understanding the creator of the universe, the one who just spoke all of this into existence? Can you imagine Can you imagine what happened in that moment? God speaks, and the planets are formed, and the stars are hung in the sky, and the earth is formed, and all of a sudden there's a man and a woman and a way to worship him. Does he owe us an explanation? I think not. So when his word says to give, we give. We can't know everything that would come from our giving, but we do it because we trust in him. Now, our teacher has seen that even those who don't know God are blessed in their generosity. How much more would those who do know him be blessed? So we've seen three things we should avoid. Don't be stingy in your giving. Don't be slow in your giving, hesitant, and don't be sly, don't be smarter than God in your giving. And it leads us to one thing that we should not avoid. Verse six, in the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. It's another appropriate metaphor for giving. A farmer can either eat his seed and have a meal, Or he can plant the seed and feed his entire family, maybe his entire village. But he has no guarantee that the weather is going to cooperate if he plants. It's not just the weather. Locusts can come along and devour the whole thing. The crop could develop some sort of plague that ruins it. What are we supposed to do when there's no guarantee? And as we saw back in verse four, some folks will hesitate, waiting for the perfect time, a perfect time that'll never come. Some folks won't do anything at all. What a teacher says to do is this, because you don't know what will happen, you sow all the time. You sow throughout the day, in the morning and in the evening. Did you notice that this passage tells us four times in six verses that we do not know. Here they are, verse two. For you do not know what disaster may happen on the earth. Verse five, twice in verse five. As you do not know the way the Spirit comes, so you do not know the work of God. And here again in verse six, for you do not know which will prosper. We don't know. What are the answers? I don't know. Where are we going? I don't know. I know where we're going to end up, I just don't know how we're going to get there. And the only reason I know where we're going to end up is because God has told me where we're going to end up. He hasn't filled in all the details. I would like Him to do that. He hasn't conformed to my will yet. The sower is just a guy who spreads the seed. He's spreading it everywhere. It's on the stones, it's in the thorns, it's in the rich soil, and he's leaving the crop up to God. You're not saying, oh, I'm not gonna spread any seed over there, that doesn't look good. You're letting God make those decisions. So the admonition here is just so liberally. And leave the results up to God. It's the same lesson we saw in Ecclesiastes 11. Our job is to sow God's part, is to do what he pleases with what we sow. There are three actions we should avoid. One more that we should do. Don't be stingy. We're called to be extravagant in our giving and in our sharing, not to hold back, but to spread things around. Now we need to be wise about that so we don't spread things around foolishly. We're not spreading things around down at the casino. So we don't know what the future holds, so we can prepare for it by sowing. Yet we need to be wise, not foolish. For a believer, that means giving in such a manner that God is honored in our giving. Put on display. When our bread appears to sink to the bottom, we release it into the, listen carefully. When our bread appears to sink to the bottom, We release it into the hands of a sovereign, all-knowing, all-powerful God and choose to believe that that's where he wanted it to be. We don't second-guess God on these things. So don't be slow. While we shouldn't hesitate in our giving, we should also reject the idea that giving is some sort of investment scheme with a guaranteed return. Some people teach that. God promises to bless us in our giving. The promise is there that we should give. Some folks want to wait until the right time, wait until they have more to give from. It's an easy way to miss the blessing. Take a look at the widow's mite later on this afternoon and see how that works. Don't not to be sly. We're not going to figure it all out. That applies to our giving and every other aspect of our spiritual walk. We do what He tells us to do and we leave the results up to Him. We have to find a way to trust in God. We have to find a way to trust in His Word. But if we're honest with ourselves, we all have our moments of doubt. Don't we? There are those moments we're not so sure about this. The good news is that God loves us. He loves us even in those moments of doubt. He loves us in those moments where we question His Word. We have to be like the father with the epileptic son in Mark 9, who cried out to Jesus for help. Jesus said to the guy, all things are possible for the one who believes. I love that. The man believes Jesus can help him. That's why he cried out. But he is totally overwhelmed by his situation. And he cries out, I believe. Help my unbelief. What a beautiful prayer. And from that prayer, we can see that it applies to every aspect of our lives, including our giving. He said, I believe, but I'm having a rough time right now. I believe you can do this, but I'm having a really hard time taking action on it. and I'm afraid, and I have doubts." And God just looks down and He goes, oh, let me bless you for your honesty. He's not looking down and going, I'm sorry, you can't come and be with me forever. I'm looking for people that don't have doubts. He knows there are none that don't. I believe, help my unbelief. And that man, turns to the Holy Spirit. He might not have known it at the time, but we do. He says, help me. I'm struggling. I'm having a hard time with this. I'm having a difficult time accepting this situation. and I've got some questions, God, help me. Job said, I've got some questions, I demand an audience. He got it, it didn't turn out the way he thought it would. It all worked out okay for Job because ultimately he went down on his face and said, I was talking about things that I didn't understand. This man says, I'm struggling, and God blesses him. The epileptic boy is cured. One action that we should be doing is selling. Pulling all three points together, we hear that we are called to give frequently, liberally, and trustingly, believing that whatever we offer up is used by God in a manner that He chooses, and that in return, we'll receive a blessing. Here's the beauty. We don't choose the blessing. God chooses the blessing. In His wisdom and knowledge, He chooses the very best blessing that we can imagine because He loves us. And we know He loves us because He sent His Son to die for us. So what do we do with all this? Well, the first thing that we do is we understand that all these lessons are not just about giving all the time. They touch every facet of our day. Everything we do, we obey. We read His Word and we do what it says. We choose to believe that God's actions come out of His love for us, even when we don't know the answers, even when we don't know the outcome, even if it may hurt for a while. We believe that He loves us so much that He allowed this moment in our lives, not to punish us because He's mad at us, but because He wants us to be closer to Him. He wants us to turn to Him and say, help my unbelief, and He draws us closer. He blesses us, and we can feel His presence, and we can know His touch, and we can see the results in our hearts and our life. So we give. We give of our treasure, our time, and our talent, and we leave the results up to Him. Talking about giving can be awkward, can't it? It shouldn't. God says it's our path to blessing. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks. We give you thanks for those parts of the Bible that just nourish our souls and bless our hearts, but we give you thanks for those that are difficult as well. We give you thanks, Father, for ways to understand passages that might seem confusing at first. Oh, but Lord, by the presence and power of your Spirit, you lay these things out in front of us. Father, help us to accept them. Help us to appropriate them. May your Spirit move among us and draw us closer to you by drawing us deeper into this word, Father, and deeper into our understanding of how it impacts us and the people around us. And we pray this in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Next week, we hope to finish up this series. We'll see. If anybody would like to talk to me, I'll be standing over here. Have a good morning. Thank you for tuning in. Pastor John here again. I hope you're blessed by the service. You can find us on the web at WBFVA.org or we're on YouTube and Facebook at WBFVA. We'd love to hear from you. If you have prayer requests, we'd love the opportunity to pray for you. You can just message us or you can email me at KUVAKAS at gmail.com. God bless. Hope to see you again.