Live Boldly

There is a story in the Old Testament that really does illustrate the principles of wisdom that Solomon has for us today in Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Israel has been delivered from bondage over 400 years of bondage in the nation of Egypt. And God has brought them to the verge of the land he has promised them. Moses sends 12 spies into the land to scope out the land. And they come back with very different reports, two groups of them come back with very different perspectives and thus very different responses as to how to look at the land. Ten of them came back saying, we have analyzed, we have observed, we have taken into account all of the risks and challenges. You know, there are a lot of people in that land. There are huge, walled cities in that land. We even saw some giants in that land. There is no way we can take that land. In fact, we are like grasshoppers in their sight. They will squash us under their feet. Two of the spies, however, Joshua and Caleb, having seen the same challenges, analyzed the same risks, looked at the same difficulties, came to an entirely different conclusion. Their conclusion was, this is a good land with abundant natural resources. And after all, God has given us this land. And so we can take this land. Now if you were to ask them, how do you propose we do that given all the challenges? They probably would have said, I don't know, we don't know that. We don't know that. We don't know that figured out yet. But God has promised it to us. And we've got to take it. It's ours. A very different perspective, totally different response, having seen the same thing. And you know what God's response was to those two different responses. To the 10, He said, oh, you like the comfortable, the familiar desert. It's pretty comfortable for you. Desert pretty familiar for you. You're going to see it for 40 years until you die. To the two who are willing to step out boldly in faith and trust God in spite of the risks and obstacles to those two, Caleb and Joshua. God said, you will be rewarded with the land. You will get to see the land. And I love Caleb 40 years later at age 85 when they do go into the land. Caleb goes up to Joshua and he says, you remember that place we saw 40 years ago, that mountain that had the giants in it, give me that mountain. That's the one I want. He's 85 years old. He still has that boldness and that willingness to step out in faith and challenge the obstacles. That story gives us basically two ways you can approach life. Recognizing that none of us can control our future, recognizing none of us can control our circumstances, none of us really can even control the results of our own actions. Recognizing that all the risks and difficulties of the future, there are two ways you can respond and two ways you can approach how you live your life. One way is to try to control all of that and analyze so much everything about the future and the risks involved to seek to avoid all the inherent risks of life that you end up basically doing nothing and receiving no reward for it. The other approach is to launch into life, take each day as God gives it to you with enthusiastic abandon, not with foolishness, but with an enthusiastic abandonment to God. Trusting Him, the one who does know the future, the one who does control the circumstances and the results of our actions and you will see some reward and some blessing for your efforts. That is exactly what Solomon has to tell us in Ecclesiastes chapter 11. It's been three weeks since we've been in Ecclesiastes, so a little brush up, a little reminder, may be helpful this morning. Remember that Solomon, basically in this book, is giving us a biblical philosophy of life and he has said that the proper approach to life, the proper way to find purpose, meaning and fulfillment in life, begins with a relationship with God, not with more education, not with more possessions, not with more pleasure, not with any of the other things that people run after to try to give meaning in life, it starts with a relationship with God, then all the rest of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. That's chapters 1 and 2. Then he said, we need to understand that God has a purpose in life. God has purpose for everything that happens. He is in control of all the events of life even though it may not seem like it or we may not recognize how that all fits. That's chapters 3 through 5. And then he says in chapter 6 through 8, we need to having that perspective, live life and see life from the perspective of God. Now chapters 9 through 12, he's putting it all together and saying, okay, with all of that knowledge and information, with that perspective in your heart, here's how you should live. We've already seen, he says, live with enjoyment. See all of life as a good gift from God and enjoy it fully. We should live with enthusiasm, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your mind, he says. We should live with involvement. Recognizing the race doesn't always go to the swift and the battle doesn't always go to the strong, don't let that stop you. Just stay engaged and involved in life, live with involvement. And then he says, live with realism. Even though some may never recognize your efforts, you may never be rewarded for them, don't let that stop you. It's still worth it to live that way. Just live with a realistic approach that not everybody's going to understand, realize, and recognize what you do for God. Or for others. Live with realism. And then we saw in chapter 10, he said, live with wisdom. Lot that he had to say there, the absence of folly, of calmness, of caution, a discipline that speaks of wisdom. Live with wisdom. Now in chapter 11, we pick it back up. Chapter 11 verse 1, he's going to say, live with boldness. Live boldly. Not fully sleep, but live boldly. Not brashly, not bossy, not some kind of external flashiness or anything like that. He's not saying that. But he's saying live with boldness and faith. Take initiative. Trust God for the things you can't face on your own. And go ahead. Take hold of life day by day as God gives it to you. Live with boldness in action. Be faithful. Be diligent. Live life with wholehearted involvement in whatever God lays before you. Stretch yourself a little bit. Reach out to do what God wants you to do. Take the challenge of each day and trust him for the unseen things that hold you back or the risk that may stand in your way. In these first six verses of chapter 11, Solomon is going to use different illustrations to help us understand six principles describing a bold lifestyle. So Solomon's going to give us here six principles that describe a bold lifestyle. If you're going to live with boldness, the way God wants you to, a boldness of faith and action, then number one, verse one, you've got to be willing to take some risks. You've got to be willing to take some risks. Now for some of you, that's not very hard. That comes natural to you. I understand from what I read that we live in a risk-taking culture. Entertainment, activities, even holidays are now built around risk in a June 2009 article in a magazine entitled More Intelligent Life, although I question how this article got in a magazine with that name. They talk about the risk-taking activities that are so common today. Maybe what the article says is that they call them adrenaline holidays are now not just a niche market, but they are a mainstream market. And some of you know what this is all about. First of all, he says, danger is an international business. First of all, there was bungee jumping. Then free running. You know what free running is? Free running is running along the tops of buildings and jumping from one building to another. That's free running. You've seen videos of that. Look it up on YouTube sometime. It's fascinating. Free running. And then came base jumping. We're familiar with that because of bridge day, parachuting from a fixed location off a fixed point. Now he says that's been joined by zorbing. How many of you have zorbed that pigeon forward or somewhere else? That's where you get one of those cylinders. You get strapped inside and they just roll you down a hill. It sounds like fun, doesn't it? No citing. That's where you get dropped out of a helicopter on a snowboard and you just hit the slope and take off. There's a new one today called co-steering. You heard of that one. It's exploring uncharted coastlines without the aid of a boat. What you do is you swim along the coastline from what I hear about this. Then you clamber up the rock cliffs and if you find a cave, you dive into it hoping there's water at the bottom. Now that is risk taking. But that's become big business. Parachudists, hang gliders, rock climbers, skiers dropped from helicopters, deep diving without the aid of oxygen, swimming with sharks, goes on and on to describe how this is big business today. Risk taking. Well, is that the kind of risk Solomon is going to advise? Look at verse one. It's really not, but it involves the same principle. So with your adrenaline pumping a little bit now, just from what you've heard, read verse one. Ship your grain across the sea. You may have a translation that basically says, cast your bread upon the waters. After many days you may receive a return. Literally casting your bread upon the waters, which is what it literally says, was basically a way of saying, take some risks. That's standing for grain. The result for the whole process. Take your grain. Literally send your grain and Solomon probably is talking about shipping ventures. So the new NIV does have it right. The idea is ship your grain across the sea. Solomon was the first Israelite king who began shipping as a part of his economic outreach. You can read about it in first Kings chapter 9, first Kings chapter 10. He built a large shipping fleet that was bringing gold and the Bible also says apes and baboons and all kinds of intriguing stuff to Israel that they'd never seen before. Now there's some risk involved in that, especially in that day and time where shipping basically kind of went along the coastline because of the danger of storms. There was danger. There was risk involved, but Solomon was willing to take the risk knowing that if you don't take any risk, if you don't send your grain across the sea, you're never going to get the reward. Yeah, you may lose a ship here and there. There are some risks involved, but you'll never be able to expand the kingdom business-wise economically to be a world power unless you're willing to take the risk. That's what verse 1 is about. You say, well, I'm glad I don't have to take that kind of risk. I'm not the kind of businessman that is in charge of those kinds of things. I don't have to venture those kinds of risks. Wait a second. Apply this to your life and my life. The concept is the same. Oftentimes we let the danger of risks scare us into inaction, into not doing anything. There is risk in all of relationships, not just business. There's risk in sharing your life with other people. There's risk in opening up your heart and your life and sharing that with others, but there's also a tremendous reward. And you'll never reap the reward if you're not willing to take the risk. If you're not willing to admit some failures or concerns or some very deep personal prayer requests, there's reward in that. It's risky, yes. It's a risk investment, yes, but there's reward in it. What about witnessing? Some of us let the fear of failure or the risks involved. Maybe they'll ask me something I can't answer or maybe they're not ready yet or I'll be ridiculed. Many of us let the risks inherent in sharing our faith stop us and some of us in this room have never shared our faith with anyone else. We're afraid too. We let the risks hold us back. The same thing is true in church ministry. Many churches, many church leaders are hindered because they're not willing to take a risk, not willing to step out in faith and say, we are going to trust God. There's risks involved in forgiving someone. Some of you have held on to resentment and bitterness against someone in your past because of the risk of opening yourself up to future hurt if you forgive. And so you see, this principle applies to much more than expanding a business empire or a kingdom. It applies to the way you live life. And that Solomon's point, be willing to take some risks. Be willing to trust God with what may happen in the future to go ahead and do what you know is right to do. Don't be paralyzed into inaction because of the fear of the future or the fear of risks. Be willing to take some risks. If you're going to live boldly, it includes that willingness to take some risks. Secondly, and in verse two, Solomon says, if you're going to be bold, if you're going to live boldly, fight off a miserly attitude. Fight off a miserly attitude. Verse two, invest in seven ventures. Yes, in eight, you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Now some translations translate the way I've just read. Continuing the shipping business theme of verse one, the idea is this, if you're going to take some risks in business, at least, you know, diversify your portfolio a little bit. The directions are eight. So if you lose one or two, you're still not hurt that bad. And that may be involved here, but I think literally the idea is give portions to seven or eight. And so really it goes more than just the business risk continuing that theme of verse one. I think there's a different theme in the words here. And that is being willing to be generous, being willing to give. If there's some risk involved in that. And what Solomon does is he uses a very common Hebrew way of speaking using these numbers. You see what he says there? He says invest in seven ventures, just in eight, or give your portions to seven or eight. And the idea is not, okay, count them off. I've given to seven, maybe eight, and then I can stop. Now the idea, basically, as used by Solomon, and he uses this several times in Proverbs, Amos uses it in his prophecy. The scripture is used in other places as well. And the idea is stop pounding when Jesus said forgive seventy times seven. He was using the same Hebrew way of speaking. Don't worry about the numbers. If you're going to air air on the side of generosity, that's the idea. Distribute your portions to seven, go ahead and go eight. The idea is be generous. Be generous. On the side of generosity, quit counting. Quit saying, well, I've served this long, I've done this much, and I didn't get anything out of it. Be generous. He's saying, go ahead and give of your life. Live a generous lifestyle. Don't keep track. Quit counting. I ought to receive this much because I've done this much. Solomon is saying, stop counting. Throw away the records, all the expectations. Just give of yourself. And giving of yourself, whether it means in finances or in your time or in your energy, or even taking those risks to open up your life to others, in giving of yourself to others, you will find a return for that, a blessing that comes back to that. Notice how Solomon says it. He says, give your portion to seven or eight. You do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Again, there are a couple ways to look at that. Diversify your portfolio because if one fails, you're still not hung out to dry. You know you can still, because you don't know what disaster is going to pop up where. But the other way to look at this, and I think fits the context even better, is this. Be generous. Open up your life to others. Give of yourself, of your resources, of your time because generosity is the best preparation for hard times. Now this goes against everything we're taught in economics classes. This goes against everything we're taught with American wisdom. But I'd kind of rather turn to God's wisdom than American wisdom. And what God literally is saying is rather than pulling back, rather than hoarding because of the fear of future reverses, unfortunate, rather than hoarding, be generous. Give. Now I realize there are certain lines that you don't cross where it becomes foolishness. What Solomon is saying is if you're going to air, air on the side of generosity, not on myazir aliveness, not on hoarding and withdrawing and pulling back, distribute, he says, give. Give your portions to seven. Even eight. Go ahead. You don't know what hardship is going to come. That should not keep us from generosity. The blessing of then receiving from God as he arranges things and people in our lives to then bless us is what Solomon is talking about. Are we willing to trust him with that? Generosity is the best preparation for hard times. I read about a man by the name of Richard Sterns. He wrote a book in 2010 called The Hold in the Gospel. And in that book he tells his own personal story of learning this lesson, the hard way. Let me read what he says. In 1987 he says, the largest single day stock market crash since 1929 took place. In one day my wife Renee and I lost more than a third of our life savings and the money we had put aside for our kids college education. He says, I was horrified and became like a man of zest. Each night working past midnight, analyzing on spreadsheets, all that we had lost. And the next day calling in orders to sell our remaining stocks and mutual funds to prevent further losses. And they put in parentheses, of course, that turned out to be the absolute worst thing I could have done. He says, I was consumed with anguish over our lost money and it showed one night when I was burning the midnight oil. Renee came and sat beside me. Honey she said, this thing is consuming you in an unhealthy way. It's only money. We have our marriage, our health, our friends, our children and a good income. So much to be thankful for. You need to let go of this and trust God. She writes, don't you hate it when someone crashes your pity party? I didn't want to let go of it. I told her. I felt responsible for our family. She didn't understand. It was my job to worry about things like this. She suggested we pray about it. Something that hadn't occurred to me. So we did. At the end of the prayer, to my bewilderment, Renee said, now I think we need to get out the checkbook and write some big checks to our church and other ministries that we support. We need to show God that we know this is his money and not ours. I was flabbergasted at the audacity of this suggestion, but in my heart I knew she was right. So that night we wrote some sizable checks, put them in envelopes, addressed to various ministries and sealed them. And that's when I felt the wave of relief. We had broken the spell that money had cast over us. It freed me from the worries that had consumed me. I actually felt reckless and giddy. And this is what he said he prayed, God, please catch us because we just took a crazy leap of faith. Have you ever done that? Do you live with a miserly attitude? Well tough times may be coming. So I'm going to put all I can in the can and I'm going to sit on the can and make sure I got plenty. Here's the way Solomon says it in another one of his books in Proverbs 11, verse 24, one person gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. So that's not the way it works. You're talking about the way God deals with things. He goes on to say a generous person will prosper whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God's blessing on the one who's willing to sell. Generosity. What Solomon is saying is don't live with a miserly attitude. What's going to happen in the future? God knows what's going to happen in the future. You don't know what's going to happen in the future. I don't know what's going to happen in the future. Nobody knows what's going to happen in the future except God. And God says if you let the fear of the future prevent you from giving generously and being generous with your life, you're not living the way I want you to live. Some of you may remember seeing this video if you enjoy sports. We remember seeing the video a few years ago, a couple years ago, an Arizona Diamondback baseball game where a player running off the field as they often do tosses the ball up to a little boy in the stands. Well, he didn't quite measure his toss quite right and it fell short of the little guy. And it was a scramble for the ball and somebody else got it other than the little guy it was intended for. Let's watch what happens. There's nothing better when you go to the ballpark to get in the souvenir. Oh, look at that young brewer span. The wait a minute he is. Did he get? Oh boy. He is sour. The diamond backman got it. Not the brewer fan. Huh? He's bummed. Are you kidding me? This kid's going to do this. Yeah. That is big. Oh my goodness. What a nice young man. He's got a diamond back. We have to get something for that kid. We got to do something for the kid in the red. Something for the kid in the red. That's the opposite of that lady in Houston. I can't believe I just witnessed that. That is awesome. You young man are awesome. Alright, that was cool. We got to get something for him. I mean, get the contract, right? Something. And we got to get him a baseball. Everything signed back by somebody. Yes, you young man. We know where you're sitting and we will find you. And you will be the recipient of some good stuff. Huh. Isn't interesting how they forgot all about the game. They're not even calling the game. The carer McKeebs going back to the game and said, come on. There's a game going on here. They forgot all about that because they're so impressed with what they've seen of this young boy who gave up the baseball. He realized all of a sudden that wasn't meant for me. It was meant for that other little guy. He gave it up. But if you read the rest of the story, you realize that they did know where he was sitting. They did find him. They did reward him and honor him. They gave him free ticket to another ball game. They gave him a signed baseball and a signed bat and other kinds of stuff just to recognize what he had done. Here's my point. If you live with generosity, like God says, be willing to give the seven up eight. You never know what hardship is going to come. Don't let that stop you from a generous life. You know what God's saying? I know where you sit. I know where you are. I'll find you. You're going to be the recipient of some good stuff. Now don't misunderstand that. Don't take that in the way the health and wealth people do. If I pay you $100, I get a thousand, right? God's obligated to give me. No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I am saying you've got to trust God with the future. And rather than being miserly, be generous and let God take care of the future. He knows where you sit. He knows where you are. He knows how to take care of you. There are two ways to live. Remember, you can live like the 10 spies. We can't do that. We can't take that land. Or you can say God wants us to do this. Let's go for it. How are you going to do it? I don't know. We'll figure it out sometime. I don't. God will show us how, but we're going to do it. That is living with generosity. So fight off a miserly attitude, Solomon is saying. Principle number three about how to live with boldness is in verse three. And it's this, except the things you cannot change. Again, more illustrations here. Verse three, if clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whenever a tree falls to the south, whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the place where it falls, there it will lie. I love these really homey proverbs that Solomon gives us so true to life. Basically, he's giving us two illustrations. Clouds do not ask you where to dump their water or when to dump their water. They get full, they release it. That's where it works. These do not ask whether it's convenient that they fall in a certain place. Your car may be under the tree, your house may be under the tree. It may fall on your neighbor's property and he gets all the firewood before you even know it's fallen. But the tree doesn't ask you. There are certain things in life that you cannot change. They happen and you cannot change. You cannot predict them and you cannot change them. And beyond clouds and where they drop their water and trees and how they fall and when they fall and where they fall, the principle is this. Accept the things you cannot change. There are things in life that happen that you can't change. After they've happened, they're done. The tree has fallen. It's going to lay there. You can't change that. And so many people live with the perspective in life, fearful of what's going to happen or spending all their time in what ifs. If only I had done what if we ruined more energy and more life space that God's given us in those kinds of worries, what if or if I'd only and it paralyzes us from future action or afraid that another tree would fall or it will rain again. And so we're paralyzed from action. And what Solomon is saying, there are things that are going to happen in life that you cannot undo. You cannot predict them. You cannot change them when they happen. Don't let that hold you back from living as God wants you to. Don't let that paralyze you and don't live in an ocean of what ifs and guilt. Leave the results to God. Pick up and go on. So the tree fell. So it rained when you didn't want it to go on. Leave your life. Don't live with regrets as to what all has happened. Take the next day and move on. Accepting the things that you cannot change. You're going to live boldly. You've got to have that spirit. Got to have that attitude. Fourth principle, Solomon says about living bold is in verse four. It's this, don't wait for perfect conditions. I love the illustrations he gives again. For those of you who have done any farming or gardening or even yard work, you'll relate to this. Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. Again, two illustrations, very simple illustrations that everyone and that agrarian culture would identify with and smile about. Oh yeah, yeah. I didn't want to sow my seed because the wind was up and I was afraid it would blow some of it away so I just didn't. Or I was afraid it would rain so I was going to put off the harvest for a few days. After all, there was a 10% chance of rain today and I just don't think it's a good day to harvest. What Solomon is saying is if you wait for perfect conditions, they will never come. And you'll find yourself wasting all kinds of life. In fact, if you're waiting for perfect conditions, you become the kind of person that finds excuses until those perfect conditions come. Solomon says this in another way in Proverbs, look at Proverbs 22, 13 on the screen. The sluggard says, this is about a lazy person. There's a lion outside. I'll be killed in the public square. Now, do you realize how foolish that that excuse is? There were lions in Old Testament times, but they were in the thickets of the Jordan River. In the middle of Jerusalem, for quiet out loud, there's not one in the public square, but here's a guy who will find any excuse he can not to do what he's supposed to do. I'll burn out, go out today. There's a lion out there and I'll be mauled in the public square. Are you kidding me? Really? If you wait for perfect conditions, you'll end up being lazy, do nothing that gets nothing accomplished. I read what the National Weather Service said about what a thermostat, what kind of thermostat you should have. Excuse me, thermometer you should have. If you have a thermometer to gauge the outdoor temperature or a remote for your atomic clock that tells the outside temperature, here's the way the National Weather Service says, especially if you're in town, here are the guidelines. A thermometer or its sensor should be located over grass in a white, ventilated shelter, four to six feet off the ground, at least 100 feet from all paved surfaces, and at least 500 feet from any building. Really? You wait for those kind of conditions, you'll never know what the temperature is outside. Okay, so it's not right in the perfect place. I may be a degree or two off. Is that really going to throw the whole cosmos off of the kilter? Is it going to interrupt the interplanetary movements? When you wait for perfect conditions, you will not accomplish what God wants you to accomplish. By the way, again, this applies to lots of things in life. Well, I'm going to wait for my schedule to lighten up a little bit. I'm going to wait till the kids get older. I'll wait till I have a little bit more spare time to do that. One day I know I'll feel better. One day we'll have a little bit more money. We'll have a bigger house and we'll be able to do this. Then I'll get a better job someday and then we'll be able to, or maybe one day my neighbor will be more receptive to the gospel and someday I'll get to that. Always waiting for perfect conditions. What Solomon is saying is God gave you this day and whatever in places before you this day, don't put it off. Jump in with boldness and do it. Don't wait for the perfect conditions or you will find yourself getting into the kind of pattern of life that gets nothing accomplished. Don't wait for perfect conditions. Principle number five, if you're going to live boldly, verse five, trust in the providence of God. Verse five, he says, as you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things. What he's doing is he's taking away our arguments for inaction for not doing what is before us to do. One of those is that we can't really understand all that God does. Some of you are probably thinking, wow, this verse may have been true in Solomon's day but it's not true anymore, we do know the path of the wind. We've got all this tremendous technology that tells us where the jet streams are and how the wind is going to move and exactly what's going to happen, right? Tell that to the people in more Oklahoma. Do we really? Yeah, we're very sophisticated with our technology. We still want to know exactly what the wind is going to do. You say, wait a second, we've got three D ultrasound today. We know exactly how baby forms in a mother's womb, right? Well, we may be able to observe what's happening but there's still a lot of mystery involved as to what is happening with the formation of a young life in the womb. And if we really did understand what was happening, we wouldn't take those lives in the womb. So do we really understand? We really know. So the verse is still very appropriate, still very relevant. The idea is there are a lot of mysteries in life. There are a lot of things we don't know all the information about and certainly we don't know all the information about the work of God and what he's going to do, the maker of all things. We don't know. We don't have all the information. And the idea is this, if you wait till you understand everything and you can be certain how it's going to turn out, you know exactly what God's going to do. You'll never accomplish anything. Because we cannot know everything that God is going to do. Please don't be so arrogant as to think you will ever understand everything about God. We will never understand all of his character, all of his ways. And so if we're waiting for that to step out and do something, knowing that we'll be assured of exactly what God's going to do and exactly how he's going to respond, you won't accomplish anything. Never when God told Israel as they were approaching the river Jordan. And he said, I'm going to roll back the waters of the river and you're going to cross on dry land. And so the priests are holding the ark of the covenant about an eighth of a mile or so ahead of the rest of the Israelites. And they're walking toward the water and nothing is happening. The Jordan is still rolling. There within 50 yards of it and nothing happens. They are getting right up next to it and nothing happens. And it isn't until they put their foot in the water that it rolled back. That was a test of faith. If you wait till you know exactly everything God's going to do and how it's going to work out before you take that first step and you'll never get into the promised land. You'll never get where God wants you to be. The way to live is live with boldness and that means trust in the providence of God. It is my responsibility to approach and do whatever God has put before me to do this day and leave the results to God. I don't know exactly what he's going to do with it. I don't know how things are going to turn out. I have to leave that with him and that's living boldly. That's living boldly. One other principle, he gives us in verse 6 and it's this, take advantage of every opportunity. Verse 6, he says, so your seed in the morning and that evening let your hands not be idle for you do not know which will succeed whether this or that or whether both will do equally well. Here's the scene. A farmer trying to figure out when is the best time to sow my seed. I've done all the analysis. I've factored in all the risks. I know the weather patterns for the last 15 years. I know on this date and time exactly what should happen. I've got to figure out whether it's better to sow in the morning or in the evening. It doesn't look like it's best to sow in the morning. I think I'll wait till this evening and then the evening comes. It didn't turn out quite like I thought it would this evening. I think maybe the morning would be better. We'll try it again tomorrow. You see where that kind of lifestyle leads. What Solomon is saying, come on, just do it. Just sow. sow it in the morning and the evening. Some of it may get washed out. Some of it may not take. But some of it is going to find good soil and produce fruit. He said, you really don't know which will succeed whether this or that or whether both will do equally well. The idea is don't sit waiting for some guarantee of success. Living boldly means that we do whatever is in front of us to do that God places there and we trust him to bless it or not as he sees fit. But if we're not doing anything, we're certainly not going to see God at work. If we're doing what God wants us to do, he will bless it somewhere along the line. That's what Solomon is saying. Paul says the same thing in Ephesians chapter 5. He says making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil and the verse before that he said make sure you live with wisdom. Wisdom, what does that mean? Make the most of every opportunity. Whatever opportunity God puts before you, grab it, take it, do what you can do with it because the days are evil. Got a lot of wickedness, got a lot of bad things that happen. You don't know what's going to happen today. Just do what God gives you to do and he will bless that attitude. Paul said something to Timothy about his approach to sowing the seed of the word. Much the same kind of counsel in 2 Timothy 4. He says, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. When it feels good, when it doesn't, when it seems like it's going well, when it's not, when it's bearing fruit, when it's not, just throw the seed out there. Keep giving out the word. He says correct, review, encourage with great patience and careful instruction. Just stick at it and somewhere along the line God's going to bless some of it. There are days when I preach and I drive home and I think man that was a dud. That would never went off. Those days happen more than the other kind really. Then something will happen that I realize God used it in somebody's heart maybe a year later I'll hear about it or maybe I'll never hear about it. I remember a young man coming up to me three years ago that was in the first church I've passed it in the 70s in North Carolina. Told me something I preached from the book of Job that changed his life. I didn't know about it for 30 years. So what Solomon's saying and what Paul said, throw the seed out there. You're not responsible for the results. Just keep throwing the seed out so in the morning when it looks bad, so in the evening when it looks good. God will use one of them. May use both. You don't know. That's the approach to life that God is telling us to take. What Solomon is saying is be bold in faith and in action. Not foolish, not going off half-cock to do something, not qualified to do but be bold. Don't let the fear of the future of risks, of things that may or may not happen paralyze you and keep you from doing what God wants you to do. Wake up in the morning, take that day and every opportunity God gives you in that day and use it fully to His glory. Don't let anything hold you back. You're going to fall on your face sometimes. Yes. You're going to fail sometimes. Yes. You're going to succeed sometimes too. God's going to bless your efforts sometimes even when you did fall on your face and even when you did fail. That's up to God. It is our responsibility to take life as God gives it to us each day and live it boldly with vision and faith and initiative and action. Throwing ourselves into life earnestly, living each day wisely, getting up and putting ourselves into it. Whatever happens as a result of that is up to God but I'll be able to stand before God if I live this way and say, Lord, I didn't waste my life. I gave every day to You. I'm not sure I can say that personally because there are a lot of days when I don't live this way. I wish there were more when I did. For some of us in this room, this comes harder because our personality's not bent this way. We are more cautious. We are more analytical. We do want to know how everything is going to work out before we step out at all. And God is saying, I'm going to grow your faith. I'm going to test you. Are you willing to trust me? Are you willing to live this way? Are you willing to take some risks? Are you willing to fight off that miserably attitude, be generous with yourself and your resources, your time and your energies? Are you willing to accept the things you can't change and move on? Are you willing to say, I'm not going to wait for perfect conditions? I will do today whatever I can do. Are you willing to trust me? God says, my providence that I will reward. I will work. Are you willing just to take advantage of every opportunity? That is the way God wants us to live with boldness. Let's pray. Are you know how hard this is for me? What a challenge this is for me. You know how reticent I can be at times to step out. And so I pray, laying myself before you, that I would learn to live this way better, more consistently and faithfully, really trusting you rather than my own insight and wisdom and analysis. Oh, there were I tend to be miserably helped me to be more generous. More I tend to be fearful, help me to be willing to take risks in faith. Or I tend to be too cautious, to be willing to seize the opportunity and use it, trusting your providence. And Lord, I pray that maybe some of this counsel of Solomon will spill over to some others in this room too. I will all be better for hearing your word in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.