Good morning. Along the way today, if you have questions that you'd like to get answered, I've got a couple of ways to do that. You can text that number that's on the screen. You can send an email to me, jerryatharvestcharlotte.com, and we'll either give you a direct answer back or answer it in a future message. We're getting close to the end of this series. We're working through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Living with the end in mind. So let me start today by mentioning the Alaska-Canada Highway. This was built on it now, all 1,382 miles of it are paved as it goes through Northern British Columbia and up the Yukon, but back then it was not. And in the 1960s, when you were driving into Alaska, there was a sign posted that said this, choose your rut carefully you'll be in it for the next 200 miles. Now, not all ruts are bad. Some ruts can be good. Some patterns can be good. But sometimes we can fall in a rut. Sometimes our lives can become a rut and we can become afraid to step out. We can be afraid to step out for God and to do things maybe that he's leading us to do. Our passage today, Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verses one to six, has some things to say about that mentality. So I invite your attention there, whether you have a physical copy of God's word or you're following on an electronic device. Will you stand with me as we read God's word today from Ecclesiastes chapter 11? Send your bread on the surface of the water, for after many days you may find it. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you don't know what disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the north or the south, The place where the tree falls, there it will lie. One who watches the wind will not sow. And the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Just as you don't know the path of the wind or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman, so also you don't know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning, sow your seed. And at evening, do not let your hand rest, because you don't know which will succeed, whether one or the other, or if both of them will be equally good. This is the word of God. You can be seated. Now, let's set the stage here. The context is the teacher, who is the speaker in most of Ecclesiastes, is giving advice on wise living. We're in a section, and it's actually starting to come near the end of the book, and there already had been some advice in the last chapter, chapter 10, about wise living, but this section talks about wise living, but especially in light of life's uncertainties. There are many things uncertain in life, and we have seen that over and over and over again in Ecclesiastes, that there are a lot of things that are not certain. But what do we do in light of it? That's what this is all about. Now let me just show you how the passage is laid out. We're gonna focus on this thought of how uncertainty can lead to opportunity. In fact, that is the title of this message, From Uncertainty to Opportunity. In these six verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 11, there are three things here. He talks about what we do not know. He also talks about what we do know. And you'll see if you have an outline in front of you that It's not like he writes, here are all the things we don't know, and then here are all the things we do know, and now let me give you some advice. It's sprinkled in and out. So if you're following the outline, don't get dizzy this morning. We're gonna go from one section to the other. Of course, we're just gonna go one, two, three, four, five, six. We're gonna follow God's word as it is written, and we're gonna see what advice, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he gives us. This is a passage. that urges us to take action. Don't wait, don't wait. So let's start with what we do not know in verses one and two. We do not know what is going to happen in the future. Verse one, send your bread on the surface of the water for after many days you may find it. Now, this image in verse one seems to be referring to long-term investments, right? Send them out there on the water, send the bread, and the bread could stand for any kind of commodity or trade. So you would send it out on a ship, you'd put it out on the ocean, and it may at first appear to be wasteful. Oh, you're sending it away, but After many days, you may find it. It may come back and more may come back. So it could definitely be referring to investment. It also could be to refer exactly what is going to happen either way. And so both giving and long-term investment strategies are addressed in verse two. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you don't know what disaster may happen on earth. One of the most basic rules of investment is what? Diversify, right? Don't put all your eggs in one basket. This might be encouraging the readers to engage. Okay, if they're going to engage in this trade, we're going to put some commodities on ships and send them out. Well, don't put them all on one ship because what if that ship sinks? If you put it on seven ships or eight ships, you got a better chance that more of them will come back. Now it's different context. And I don't think he got it from Ecclesiastes. My dad, who's been in heaven for 10 years, was a master salesman in his life. And his mod, I worked for him at times as I was doing some of my training. And he always would say about sales, if you throw enough mud on the wall, some of it will stick. Maybe he got that from Ecclesiastes. Send those ships out there. Give the portion to seven or eight. But you know, it might also be referring, because this is a principle. This is not a specific application. It's a principle. It's a proverb. So it may be referring to encouraging us to be giving. Give to seven people. Give to eight people. Give to a lot of people. You don't know what disaster may happen on earth, and that could apply either way. You don't know what disaster will happen to them, and they will need it. You don't know what disaster will happen to you. and you might end up being in a situation of need. I think either one of those are fateful to the text. But the verses either way stress that we don't know what's going to happen in the future. We cannot be sure, and yet that uncertainty should not lead us to sit on our hands, or our money, or our talents. We should give, we should invest, we should accept the good and bad. Now, something we do know, we skip down from what we don't know to what we do know when we come to verse three. We do know that we're not in control of life's events. Look what verse three says. If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or the north, the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. Now think about that. We can do a lot of things, especially in modern technology, we can control a lot of things, but we can't control the formation of clouds or where a tree falls. The first occurrence is inevitable. It's inevitable that when these clouds, these rain clouds form when they get full, that actually they're gonna rain. And the second one is random. tree falls to the north or south that's kind of like whatever direction the tree falls in it's it's just going to fall it's just going to happen human beings don't control that but God does another thing that we do know is in verse four and that is waiting for the perfect time quote perfect time to act will paralyze us. Look at verse 4. One who watches the wind will not sow, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Now this is a farming imagery, right? It's agricultural. Now, if the farmer is out there watching the wind going, hmm, is it blowing too hard today? Is it doing this? If he watches the wind or the one that looks at the cloud, is it gonna rain or not? They're not gonna bring that harvest in. Farmers just sow, that's what they do. They go out and they sow. And if they wait for the exact perfect time, it may not happen. If they're afraid that the wind is gonna blow the seeds away or they shouldn't harvest because it may rain, it's not gonna happen. And when I relax, I feel guilty. Tim Hansel writes this. The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it or until the time is right or until you know how to do it is one of the greatest burglars of joy. And it's true, waiting for the perfect time to act. And this could apply to a lot of areas in life, marriage, children, career. Well, as we continue through the passage in verse five, we get back to something we do not know. We do not know how to do what only God can do. Verse five, just as you don't know the path of the wind, or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman. So also you don't know the work of God who makes everything. Now here are two more examples of a lack of knowledge, right? The direction of the wind. and the formation of a baby. When the writer wrote this a long time ago, there weren't all the advances that we have made in meteorological science, right, or obstetrics. I mean, we understand more about how babies are formed in their mother's womb than they could have understood. We understand more about the weather patterns. But even with that qualification, The truth remains the same. God is the one who controls the weather patterns. And God is the one that forms that baby in the womb. Unless there's any doubt, we believe the scripture's really clear that that baby in the mother's womb is God's formation and should be honored and protected, right? These practical examples result in a theological point We can see God working in the world, but we don't always know why he's doing, what he's doing, or how he's doing it. You see that? Just as you don't know, just as we don't have full knowledge about these things, the weather patterns, the formation, so we don't know the work of God, But even though I didn't place it in the outline is something we know, we do know that God is working in the world. And I think that is point here. I'm glad the teacher acknowledges God, the creator in this verse, a God who is at work. Well, there's another thing that we don't know. And that is we don't know how to guarantee success. In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, do not let your hand rest, because you don't know which will succeed, whether one or the other, or if both of them will be equally good. Another agricultural image. We don't know whether our actions will succeed. You don't know if you start a new business, if it will succeed or not. We don't know. If you're a farmer, you don't know if the seed that is sown in the morning is going to produce fruit or the seed that is sown in the evening is going to produce fruit. or if both of them will produce fruit. And so what do you do? If you don't know if it's gonna produce in the morning and you don't know if it's gonna produce in the evening, do you sit around and worry and fret and get paralyzed by analysis or inactivity? No, you sow in the morning and the afternoon and the evening. It doesn't say afternoon, but figuratively, if it's morning and evening, it's everything in between. Work a full day. Work a full day. We do know that we shouldn't sit around and wait for the perfect conditions. So here's where the advice comes in. And the advice in this passage is in the very first verse and the last verse. It frames all of these comments about what we do know and we don't know, and the advice is this, act anyway. Act anyway. Send your bread on the surface of the water. That's acting. Invest, give, send it. For after many days you may find it. And in verse six, in the morning sow your seed and at evening do not let your hand rest. Because you don't know which will succeed whether one or the other or if both will be equally good. The key is trusting God and leaving the results with him. Chuck Swindoll writes this, if I'm a farmer and God allows a flood to come and wash away my crops, or God chooses to give me the beautiful seasonal rains and a bumper crop, I trust him and I give him praise. If I am in industry or some profession and someone throws me a curve and God allows my whole world to be reversed, I trust him and give him praise. I take life as it occurs. I don't waste time in the pit of doubt, nor do I worry over crop failures and strikeouts. So sow your seed in the morning. Sow your seed in the morning. Hey, if you're a teenager here, we got a lot of teenagers here sitting here listening. If you're a teenager here, start sowing now. Don't wait till you get old enough to, quote unquote, to serve God. Don't wait till you get old enough to step out I mean, we just had a 13-year-old go to Nigeria on a mission trip, right? 13 years old, obviously with some adults that she had to watch after. Sow your seed in the morning. If you're a teenager, if you're in your 20s, if you're in your 30s, keep, sow your seeds. But if it's in the evening, if you're more mature, Keep sowing your seeds. Don't let your hand rest. Don't quit as you age. William Gladstone learned a new language at age 70, and at 83 became the Prime Minister of Great Britain for the fourth time. Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote Crossing the Bar at age 80. At age 88, John Wesley was preaching every day. with strong voice. Michelangelo painted the Last Judgment when he was 66. Benjamin Ryrie retired as a missionary with the China Inland Mission at age 70. He learned Greek at age 80, and he began reading the Greek New Testament proficiently. And then at age 90, he enrolled in a seminary course just to get a refresher on his Greek. So what is God's word saying to us this morning? I think it's this. Uncertainty can lead to opportunity if we build on the right foundation. Uncertainty can lead to opportunity if we build on the right foundation. What's that right foundation? It's here, it's listed. God is the creator of everything. He's the maker of everything. He's at work. We may see it, we may not. We can't understand fully what he's doing, but that's the underlying fundamental truth, the foundational truth of this passage, that God is the creator of everything. And even though life is uncertain, we can trust God, we can step out for God, we can be used by God. Now what does this look like today? I want to ask that question. And I couch it that way because this teacher writing thousands of years before we exist now and before Jesus lived, right, had a frame of reference about living with the end in mind, about having this full view of life. But even though it's God's word and it's true, we think about the progress of revelation. And now, since this was written, we have a fuller, more complete view about what living with the end in mind means, because we have all the rest of scripture that he didn't have access to. And so I want to just look at some New Testament passages that help flesh this out today, help flesh out this desire to turn uncertainty into opportunity, that apply this philosophy to eternal matter. So let's start at Matthew chapter 7. Verse 24, this is Jesus talking, it's part of the Sermon on the Mount, and it's near the end after he'd given this great teaching. He said, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great clash. What is this saying? Build your life on God's word. That's the foundation. The things that God teaches us, build your life on God's word. 1 Corinthians 3, Apostle Paul, for we are coworkers in God's service. God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it burns up, the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved even though as only as one escaping through the flames. This is encouraging us to build for God. Build for God. You're God's building. He's already building you. Now build on it. Build for God. Luke chapter nine. back to the words of Jesus. Then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Jesus is telling us give your life away. Don't hold on to it. Don't be selfish with it. Don't be afraid. to take up His cross and follow Him. Matthew, another teaching of Jesus, Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven. For moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." He's talking about giving generously, financially. Don't store up for yourselves. These treasures are just going to get destroyed. They're not going to be eternal. They're not going to last. You're not gonna take anything with you ultimately in the end, but use your finances for God. Give generously. And then a parable. We looked at the parable of talents last year when we gold to work with and the master said, I'll come back. One invested and got rewarded, and another one invested who got less and also got rewarded. And then one just kind of sat on it. The man who had received one bag of gold came, Master, I knew you're a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here's what is belongs to you. His master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. So the, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Well, then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags. Whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus is teaching, don't live defensively. God's given you gifts, God's given you talents. Don't just hold on to them. Just go out and invest them for Him. Use them for Him rather than being, oh, well, I better be careful. I can't take a risk for God because I just gotta hold on to this. One more passage, Ephesians 5, verse 15. Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. The principle there is make the most of every opportunity. Look around in life, especially opportunities for God. This is what wisdom is. It's looking around. Here's an opportunity for God. I've got to take it. Now, let me make a couple of qualifications. This is not saying that you should never retire from your job. It's not saying that retirement is wrong or bad, but it is saying you should never retire from serving God and trying to make a difference in the world. This also does not mean that we should be foolish, we should ignore counsel, or we should act on opportunities without praying about them. This is not saying go in that. We have some great opportunities or great examples of people at harvest who have lived this out and are living this out. And I praise God for them. Some of you are new and won't know these people. Some of you may be guests listening online or visiting and you won't know these people. I wish you did. Don and Cy Hill came into this church as unbelievers. They were saved. She was from Thailand and so they got up in their 50s and they wanted to They felt leading of God, and Dawn took early retirement as an attorney, and she sold a little pet grooming business they had, and they moved in their 50s to Thailand. Well, don't say anything about her age, of course. Dawn was in his 50s. To Thailand to plant a church, and they've just actually just recently returned to the States to retire. Maribel Chittenden, back there, Maribel, raise your hand, started two amazing, great ministries for women, Sharing Hearts and Healing Hearts. I'm not telling her age, because I want to be back here next Sunday. Tom and Sherry Muma were a part of this church. They were here recently. If you were here just a few weeks ago, Tom owned a software business. They had a heart for missions. And again, I think in their 50s, Tom sold his business, went to seminary, and they have devoted the last many years in the nation of Chad, the country of Chad. Stephen Kim Thompson, right here, harvesters, left finance chairman even into his 70s. Now, This message isn't just about old people serving God. There are, sorry, Kim and Steve, you're not, I don't mean you. That's what I'm saying, it's not just about old people. There are so many young couples in this church that are serving God in so many different ways, and I'm really afraid to start naming them, so I'm not, because I don't think I can name them all, but I praise God for them. But what about Lynn Randall? Lynn, raise your hand back there. Her professional career was as a music educator. She'd never served on a church staff, but a few years ago, in her 40s, because of her love for children and her sense for God's leading, joined our staff as children's ministry director. Or how about Nikki Powers, who actually is in the nursery today, serving in the nursery. Her professional background was web design. And she had worked many years as a homeschool mom. She had not been in the workforce outside the home. She had never served on a church staff. But about six years ago, she stepped up to the opportunity in spite of uncertainty and became our administrative assistant. And she connects so many people in so many situations and does such a great job, one of our best assistants ever. My nickname for her is Super Glue. So, these people aren't superstars. These are just normal people. But they're serving an extraordinary God. And they're refusing to let uncertainty make them miss out on an opportunity to serve God. So today, wherever you are, I would say don't let uncertainty rob you of the opportunity to serve God. And it starts with knowing Jesus personally. Maybe you've heard about Jesus, you've heard about the message of the gospel. He lived, he died, he was buried, he rose again. He did all of that to pay for your sins and you can follow him, you can love him, you can be forgiven of your sins and become one of his people. You can be saved if you'll repent of your sins and turn to him in faith. And if you haven't done that, do it today. And those of you who have done it, start a Bible study in your school or your neighborhood or at work if it's allowed. Give more money to Christ this Christmas than you'd spend on presents for others. Join a ministry or start a ministry. Take a seminary class. Go on a missions trip. Speak up and speak out for the Lord. Don't just coast along. Start meeting with someone to be discipled or start meeting with somebody to disciple them. If you're older than a teenager, develop a relationship with a teenager or a younger person to mentor them. Invite people over for dinner. Other believers, unsaved people. Yeah, there are a lot of uncertain things in life, Ecclesiastes had made that clear, but rather than worrying about it or checking out, let's look for opportunities. Because life is uncertain, go for it, give. Uncertainty can lead to opportunity if we build on the right foundation. Now, I mentioned several harvesters who've taken opportunities to serve Christ in face of uncertainties. But I want to close this morning by telling you about one more. Micah and Ruthanna Chin were part of Harvest. They're part of our congregation until about 12 years ago. Micah worked for the bank, one of the big banks. but creating North Carolina, that he was really drawn to it. And so at age 36 with three kids, now you can see they're more than three now. But 12 years ago, there were three kids. They were six, five, and three. He was 36 years old. He worked for the bank. He believed God was leading him, and he made up his mind that he was going to leave the bank, and they were gonna move to Hickory and go to work for Hickory Cove Bible Camp. They're one of our missionaries now. He went as director of finance. Now he's the director of the whole camp. When I checked with Micah this week, to just confirm a couple of details, he sent me this text. And I had, I forget a lot of things, I admit. I had forgotten this side of the story completely. He said, we decided to move forward with the camp job about August or September of 2012. and agreed to a start date of March 15, 2013. with the idea of me working at the bank until my March 15th start date while we were also raising support. That's the other piece. This was not a salaried position for him. He had to raise support like most missionaries. And so you see it was August and he was gonna work through the following March, raise support, keep working at the bank. But listen to what he says in the text. He had already made that decision, but then in October 2012, I was let go at the bank and I got a severance package that equated to two weeks for every year of service at the bank, which was nine years. The 18 weeks of pay took us exactly to March 15th. Send your bread on the surface of the water, for after many days you may find it. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand rest.