Get Busy Living

Mar 22, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Good morning, Church. Good to be with you. Glad that you're here. Glad to be together. If you're a guest here this morning, certainly extend a welcome to you. My name is Pastor Mark, as I was already introduced, and it's my privilege to lead you in the Word of God this morning. The Word of God is living and active, it is powerful and effective. And I'm always pleased to see how God will use his word in the lives of his people. And I'm glad to lead you into it this morning. If you have your Bible with you, take your Bibles out and turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Ecclesiastes chapter 11. If you didn't bring a Bible with you this morning, there should be one in the seat back in front of you. And if you don't own a Bible, certainly you can take that one with you. We'd be glad to have that be our gift to you. Ecclesiastes 11. The book of Ecclesiastes is found right in the middle of your Bible. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Isaiah. That's where you'll find the book. And we're in chapter 11 this morning. Just want to let you know that this week and then next Sunday morning, we'll be done with our journey through the book of Ecclesiastes. The week after that, we'll be at the Dow Event Center celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I trust that you're looking forward to that. In two weeks, when we gather at the Dow and celebrate the resurrection, we do not have three services that Sunday. We'll have two services, which means there's a pretty good opportunity. You're going to bump into some people that you know that you haven't seen in a while. And typically, when we bump into people that we haven't seen in a while, we often introduce ourselves or we greet them by saying, Hey, how are you? And when we say, hey, how are you? We don't actually expect to get their life story. We actually don't expect to get much back in return. We expect when we say, hey, how are you, for that person to say, I'm fine or I'm good, how are you? That's how that exchange frequently goes, right? How are you? I'm fine. How are you? I'm fine. You're fine, I'm fine, we're all good. And the conversation might end there. It might just simply be a simple greeting that we give one another, or the conversation might go on further. And if the conversation goes on further, if we have the time and the space and the relationship bandwidth to do that, uh, we might circle back to that very question and say, No, how are you really? And then we can carry on the conversation. As I was thinking about that, I was reminded that uh my father, uh, my late father passed away a couple years ago. He had disciplined himself to ask a different introductory question as a form of a greeting. Uh my dad would never come up and say, Hey, how are you? My dad would ask a different question and he would say, Hey, what do you know? What do you know? And that simple change in introduction just caught you off guard enough to make you think about what you know. It was it was different enough to change the dynamics immediately. If someone comes up to you and says, Hey, what do you know? You can't say, I'm fine, how are you? And if someone comes up and says, Hey, what do you know? You can't say, I know nothing. Because you either sound ignorant or guilty. Like, I don't know what's going on. But that that question, what do you know, is just different enough to catch you off guard, make you think through your life, and come up with a better answer. I thought of that question, what do you know? As I was reading through Ecclesiastes chapter 11, where I had you turn this morning. The preacher, the author of Ecclesiastes, he doesn't ask, What do you know? Instead, he tells us three things that we don't know. So the preacher in Ecclesiastes wants us to know what we don't know, and he's using that as a platform to inspire us into action. So, what do you know? What do you not know? How is what you don't know, how is that influencing your present life? Well, let's look into the biblical text. I've had you turn to Ecclesiastes 11. It's a short chapter. It's too long to put on the screen, but it's short enough to read all of it. So I'm gonna read verses one through ten. I'll actually read down to uh the first verse of chapter 12, and I'd encourage you to listen along as I read and follow along in the text. And as I as I read this, I want you to listen for what are the three things in particular that the author of Ecclesiastes is telling us that we don't know. He's gonna give us three things here in the text. So listen along. Chapter 11, verse 1 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 do not know what disaster may happen on earth. If the 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 which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. Everyone in Michigan says amen to that. Eighty per cent of our days since the first of the year have been cloudy. It's pleasant, light is sweet, and it's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will also be many, all that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity, heavily, brief, short. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. All right, God bless the reading of his word this morning. As we were reading that text, did you pick up on the three things the preacher tells us that we don't know? Three things the preacher tells us that we don't know. First, we don't know what disaster will happen on earth. If you still have your Bibles open, you can look at verse two. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth. We don't know what disaster is coming our way. How does that land on you? Any of you watching March Madness this weekend? Some of your brackets have fallen apart. That's a real disaster, isn't it? Well, no, not really. This this text is telling us we don't know what disaster may happen on earth. You your next great calamity might be just around the corner. You just don't know. My next great calamity might be right around the corner. I just don't know. Unplanned, unexpected disasters happen. They're not on our calendar. We don't plan for them. Often we don't see them coming, but they come anyways. The text says, when the clouds are full of rain, it rains. We hear that and we're like, duh. When the clouds are full of rain, it rains. Where where a tree falls to the source to the south or to the north, well, there it falls and there it lies. And when disaster comes, it comes. And we don't know what disasters will happen on earth. Uh, the second thing that we don't know is we don't know the work of God. We see that in verse five. If you look back in verse five, the text says, You don't know, as you don't know the way the spirit comes to the bones in a womb of a woman with child, so you don't know the work of God who makes everything. Uh, since I last spoke here, which was just a couple of weeks ago, uh, Lynn and I experienced grandbaby number 12. Isn't that awesome? Little Archer Lee. Yeah. Archer Lee was born. How does God impart life in a person who is living inside a person? That's a mystery. That's amazing. We understand the biology of that, we understand the physiology of that, but we also know that every birth is a miracle. I mean, a baby is living in amniotic fluid, it comes out of the womb and it breathes air like it's supposed to happen that way. That is amazing. Then they turn that little baby upside down and spank it. And they say, disasters happen, little one, this is life. If we don't have a full grasp or a full understanding of the miracle of human birth, which happens to every one of us, how can we possibly begin to think that we might know all that God is up to all of the time? I mean, we have a limited grasp on basic things. We don't know all that God is doing. We can't know all that God is doing. The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts, he was preaching it uh to the Athens philosophers, and he said, God is an infinite spirit. In him we live and move and have our being. We are his offspring, he's the creator, we are created, he's infinite, we are finite. How can we possibly know all that God is up to? We don't understand basic things, let alone all that God is doing. So, a couple things we don't know. We don't know what disaster will happen on earth, we don't know the work of God, and then thirdly, we don't know what will prosper. We see that back in verse six. The text says, In the morning, get after it. In the morning, sow your seed, and at evening stay with it, with hold not your hand, for you don't know what will prosper. This or that, or maybe both alike will be good. So we don't know what disaster is coming. We also don't know what prosperity is on the way. We just don't know. We don't know what might prosper, this or that, or both, or neither, we we don't know. Now, what's amazing as I read this text is that the preacher is not looking to paralyze us with our lack of knowledge, but he's telling us what we don't know because he intends to move us, to inspire us, and to propel us into action. In the context of what we don't know, the preacher says, Cast your bed on the water, do it, uh, give portions away to seven or eight. In the morning, get after it, sow your seed in the evening, withhold not your hand. So the preacher is declaring to us stuff that we don't know, but that isn't to cripple us or to limit our activity, but it's intended to put our lives into drive, into action. In the midst of what is unknown and mysterious, we are called to remember our creator. Uh chapter 12, verse 1. Uh rejoice in your days, remove vexation from your body, and remember your creator. We don't know what might crash and burn, we don't know what might be successful. But we know the one who makes everything and who knows everything, and he hasn't lost control of anything. The things we don't know, he knows. And for those of us who know him, well, that's liberating. Here in this passage of scripture, the preacher is telling us get busy living, even in the context of life's mystery and life's unknowns. If you want the big idea for this morning's sermon, here it is. Remember your creator and spend your life living. Remove frustrations and anxieties from your heart and rejoice in your days and spend your life living. As we read this passage, the preacher is warning us hey, if you're waiting for perfect conditions, if you're waiting for perfect conditions, you'll never act. Because perfect conditions don't happen under the sun. If you're waiting to know God's mysterious will, you're gonna be waiting indefinitely. If you're waiting for the future to be clear, well, the future's never gonna be clear. For us, it's going to be fuzzy. We don't see clearly into the future. If you're waiting for a life of absolutely no risk, you're never gonna take a step. And the preacher in Ecclesiastes is saying, don't waste your life by not living. Don't be paralyzed by what you don't know. No, remember your creator, get after it, get busy living. Uh, back in verse 10 of this passage, uh, the preacher says, Remove vexation from your heart, put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Uh youth comes and goes, right? It's quick. We don't put it in our pocket and save it for a later day. Youth comes and goes. Matter of fact, he's telling, he's just telling us life is short. In verses one through nine, the preacher is telling us life is a mixed bag of disasters and prosperities and and mystery. We don't know the future, we don't know what's going to fail, we don't know what's going to succeed, we don't hold tomorrow. Our tomorrow's come quickly, we don't know all that God is doing. But in the context of that, in the context of life's brevity, and in the context of life's mystery, the preacher is saying, get busy living. Don't waste your life. Don't wait around to act. Life is way too short, and God is way too big and kind and gracious and giving. Remember your creator, remove grief and irritation from your heart, rejoice in your days, and spend your life living. How's that landing on you? Wow, it's quiet. Now, before we run out of here, and Carpe Diem sees the day and take over the world, we also need to know that in this very context, the preacher also lays some guardrails down that guide us into wisdom as we spend our lives living. What guardrails does he give? What parameters does he give to instruct us as we spend our life living? Well, there are four of them. In verses one, two, and three, he tells us to be generous. In verses four, five, and six, he tells us to be productive. In verses seven, eight, and nine, he commands us to be joyful. And in verses nine through chapter 12, verse one, he tells us to be wise. So remember your creator, don't waste your life, spend your life living. And here are the lanes that we run in. Let's consider them briefly this morning. Verses 1, 2, and 3, be generous. Why be generous? Why be generous? If life is short and we're gonna spend our life living, why cast our bread on the water? When I cast my bread on the water, you know what happens? The ducks eat it. And if the ducks don't eat it, the fish eat it, and if the fish don't eat it, it just sinks to the bottom and disappears. And he says, cast your bread upon the water. For you might get a return. He says here, give a portion to seven or eight. Well, if you give it away, what if what if I don't get a return on that? Why not just spend what we've received upon ourselves and on our own pleasures? I mean, why not we just spend our hard-earned dollars on ourselves? Isn't that life's greatest reward? Isn't that we're told every day, go out and make a lot of money and spend it on yourself? Why be generous? We are generous because we remember our creator. And you and I, we have been made in his image, and God is constantly giving. God is constantly sharing, God is constantly giving away. The whole paradigm of our salvation comes from the overflow of his love and generosity that he has been experiencing eternally. God doesn't save us because he overvalues us. God saves us to display the extreme magnificence of his generosity toward you and me. It's remarkable. God, our God, our creator, is a benevolent God. God is a giver. And when you and I, when we live generously, we image our creator. And when we image our creator, we fulfill our created purpose. And we live right in line with our design. Living generously is how God lives. Living generously is how life is meant to be lived. It's how it's designed, it's how it's supposed to be. Don't let the unknown paralyze you from being generous now. Spend your life living, and lane one, be generous. I'm sure all of us have heard the command, do unto others as you would have done unto you. We've all heard that. Do we keep that command because Jesus said so? Or do we keep that command because we believe Jesus told us the truth? And he's right, and his way is best. Did Jesus tell us to do unto others as we would have done unto you, so that he could bend our wills in an unwilling obedience? Or did he give us that command for our good? You see, generosity reflects our creator. And when we're generous, we are living in line with our purpose for our own creation. Generosity reflects our creator. It's glorifying to him when we're generous. It's good for us, it's good for our neighbor, it's good for the world. It's the way life was meant to be lived. So the preacher is telling us this. Remember your creator, get busy living. Don't be paralyzed by what you don't know. No, get after it. And lane one, be generous. Second, he says, be productive. The text, I think it's in verse six, it says, In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, stay after it. He gives us a warning on the other side, and he says, Don't wait around, don't observe the wind and watch the clouds before you act. Because if you're observing the wind and watching the clouds, you'll never prepare. You'll never sow. You'll never plant, you'll never reap. If you're waiting for better conditions, you know, if you're waiting for blue skies and no wind, in Michigan, that's never going to happen. If you're waiting for blue skies and no wind, you're never going to get out on your bicycle. If you're waiting for blue skies and no wind, you're never going to get on around to anything. You'll be constantly waiting. Ecclesiastes 11 6 says, we don't know what will prosper. Well, we certainly know one thing that won't prosper. Doing nothing is a sure way to not prosper. The preacher tells us, don't wait around for better days. Don't punt your decision making down the road. As you are able, get up and go to work. And do it now. In the most basic and simple terms, get up, take a shower, go to work, be productive. You were made for this. This is living. As we said earlier, God is our creator, and you and I have been made in his image. God is generous and God is productive. We've been made in God's image. We've been made for relationship. That's why we share. We've also been given responsibility. That's why we work. We are created for God. We are created for one another. We are created and we were given responsibility in this world. We were created to improve the conditions and the world around us by our work, by our efforts. You and I, uniquely created in God's image, we have abilities. We have strengths and weaknesses, and we have talents, and we have abilities that the world needs to flourish. You can't do everything. I can't do everything. We weren't made to do everything, but what we can do, Ecclesiastes is saying, do it and do it for others. I learned this a long time ago, and I'll share it with you this morning. The best way you're gonna love your neighbor. You spend most of your life at work. The best way you're gonna love your neighbor is by doing good work at the work that you've been called to do. Doing good work, the good work that you've been assigned. The New Testament, I could spend a lot of time on productivity. The New Testament speaks about this a lot. The Apostle Paul says, those of you who are working, work as unto the Lord. Work as though his eye is on you. Work heartily with all of your might. You want to know why? Because our God is a great rewarder. He's a great giver. He is a great rewarder. So here we're reading, pre uh we're reading the preacher in Ecclesiastes. He's saying, Remember your creator, get busy living, be generous, be productive. The third one, he says, be joyful. This is the seventh time in this short little letter, in this short little book, seventh time that the preacher in Ecclesiastes commands our joy. I believe he actually means it. How about you? Eat, drink, find enjoyment in your work. There's nothing better. Joy in life, joy in your labors. This is from the hand of God. Be joyful and do good as long as you live. This is God's gift. Rejoice in your work, rejoice in your relationships, rejoice in your possessions, enjoy life with your spouse all the days of your short life. Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. Seven times over, he's telling us to be joyful. How remarkable. What a balance to a life of all productivity. My dad used to say, um, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Here the Ecclesiastes is saying, get to work and enjoy your work and enjoy the fruit of your labor and share it with others. Because this is living. Spend your life living. Be joyful. According to the text, we are free to be full of joy under the sun. We are free to be full of joy during our short life. We're free to be full of joy during a mixed bag of disaster, prosperity, and mystery. We are free to be full of joy because we remember our Creator, who has also become for us our promised redeemer. And in this text, we're reminded that our creator is also our judge, the one whom we will stand before at the end of our days. Thankfully, that God's not just our creator and our judge, but he's also our redeemer. And Christ has come and removed the dead of our sin and has given us freedom to enjoy God and to enjoy this life that we've been given. So back into the text, the preacher says, be generous, be productive, be joyful, and be wise. We may not know God's mysterious will. Matter of fact, we probably won't know. We won't know his secret unrevealed will. There's a lot that God is doing that we just don't know. We're too little. We're finite. He's infinite. He's doing things that we can't imagine. We may not know God's mysterious will, but we know his revealed will. He showed us, he's told us. It's written down. It's been displayed in Jesus. We're not left guessing. We're also not looking for some secret decoder ring to help us figure out the mysteries of life. No, we've got wisdom for our life, and it's right here. It's written down. God has told us how life is meant to be lived. He's told us how life is now that the fall has happened. He's now told us how to live during the balance of our life as we're waiting for the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We've been told how to live. We've been given God's word. You know, this isn't in my notes, but I shared it in all both prior services, so I'll share it with you. This is not a prescription. This is an illustration. Don't take it as a prescription. God has given us wisdom for life. It's in his word, it's written down. How long does it take to read through the Bible? It takes 70 hours. If you'd read your Bible 40 minutes a day, five days a week, take two days off. Take the weekend off. You read through your Bible 40 minutes a day, five days a week, how many times are you going to get through your Bible in a year? More than twice, almost three times. I learned that during COVID. Disasters sometimes happen. Unplanned things happen. During COVID, when no one's doing nothing, everyone's sitting around, I Googled how long it takes to read your Bible. 70 hours. I'm like, man, if I read an hour a day, I'd probably read through my Bible four times a year. God has given us his word, its wisdom for our life. He's told us how life is meant to be, how life has fallen apart, how life is now lived as we await for the consummation of our salvation when Jesus returns. And the preacher is telling us, man, get busy living. Be generous, be productive, be joyful, be wise, spend your life living. Well, we've covered a lot of ground this morning. A lot there. So let me just close with a story. And I'm not just going to make a story up, I'm going to steal a story from the master storyteller, Jesus himself. Before Jesus left this earth, he told the story to his disciples. And the story he told is of a great master who had a kingdom and was wealthy. And he was preparing to leave on a long journey. He was going to be away for a while, so he calls his managers together and he gives them his kingdom. He gives them his wealth. And he's going to have them manage and administrate his wealth while he's away. As he's dividing his property among them, he does it wisely because he gives portions of his kingdom and portions of his wealth to each manager according to their ability, according to what they could do, according to what they could handle. And they weren't all the same. So this master that we're learning about is both wise and generous and kind. So he divides up his kingdom, divides up his wealth among his manager, and he goes away. And he goes away for a long time. And then he returns after a long journey and he comes back and he calls his managers together and he's going to settle accounts with them, how they have done. The one manager was given five talents, five portions. He had the ability to handle that. He was given five portions and he was industrious and productive, and he put that money to work. And when the master returned, he had doubled it from five to ten. And he was praised. And he was applauded. And he was rewarded with more responsibility and with more prosperity. The master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little, I'll set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. The next manager was called in and he had two portions. And he also was industrious. He spent his life living and he doubled it to four. He also received the same result. He was praised, he was applauded, he received increased responsibility and increased reward. The third manager is called in, he was only given one talent. That's what he could handle. That was his ability. He had the least risk. He had the least responsibility. He buried what he was given. He didn't gain a thing. His master was away for a long time. Why? Why did he bury his talent? Unbelief. The unwise manager didn't believe his master to be wise and good. And his unbelief or his wrongly held beliefs resulted in a wasted life. An unwise life. The text, it's Matthew 25, tells us the unwise manager didn't believe the master to be kind and generous and good and trustworthy. He believed his master to be cruel, stingy, hard, harsh. And his begrudging attitude toward the master, coming from his unbelief in his master's goodness, resulted in an unwise and unproductive life. He didn't share. He'd have been better off if he just shared it. He said, What you gave me, I gave it away. He wasn't generous. He wasn't productive. What he was given, he buried it. He wasn't happy and joyful. He thought his master was hard, unkind. He certainly wasn't wise. His unbelief in his master's goodness resulted in a lifetime of wasted living. And you read that parable and you're like, well, how sad. The other managers, they believed in their master's goodness, and they received his kindness, and they got busy living, and they did well, and they were praised, and they were given more responsibility and more reward and increased joy. The unwise manager was put out. What a loss. According to the text, he was deemed wicked and slothful. Boy, that story really sinks some teeth into Ecclesiastes 11, doesn't it? It does. Ecclesiastes 11, the preacher is saying, hey, remember your creator and get busy living. Don't let what is unknown paralyze you. Nope. You have a good creator. He knows what you don't know. He's up to things that you don't know he's doing. Remember your creator and get busy living. Because your creator is generous and productive and joyful and wise. We have been created in his image, and if we believe him, then by God's grace we'll be liberated by faith to live that same way. Generous, productive, joyful, and wise. Well, let me close the sermon this morning at the end. Let me let me let me close the sermon by uh asking the question my father always asks as an introduction. What do you know? What do you know? We don't know what disaster may happen. We don't know what prosperity might come our way. We don't know all that God is up to. But we do know that God is our creator and He is good. According to this text, God is our creator, He is our Redeemer, and our judge. We know that life is short. Life is a gift. We know that remembering our Creator, we are to spend our lives in godly wisdom, and godly wisdom directs us to be generous, productive, joyful, and wise. At the end of our days, we're going to want to stand before our creator and to hear from him. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. Ecclesiastes 11 gives us that. Let me close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your kindness to us. You, as our creator, you're constantly giving, daily loading us with good things to enjoy. You send sunshine and rain, food and fellowship, and you send that and you give it to the just and the unjust, the righteous and the wicked. You are a giving God. The greatest gift you've given us is Jesus Christ. And through Him you've freed us from our judgment. We're no longer under condemnation. We've been given life and abundant life and eternal life. And we've been reminded this morning that as we remember you, we are to spend our life living, get busy living, and to live the way you live, with generosity and joy and wisdom and productivity. I thank you for this chapter. I thank you for this book. I thank you for what it teaches us, for how it encourages us. And I pray that you would take, by your spirit, you would take your word, press it into our minds, push it down deep into our hearts, and do your transforming work in our life. For we need this. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.