Expect the Unexpected

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, you can take out your copy of God’s Word and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. And while you’re doing that, wake up! Seriously. It’s a new year. More than that, we get to study God’s Word together. And if you were here a couple of Sundays ago, you remember we looked at that paragraph, Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 7 through 10, the most positive, exciting paragraph in the book of Ecclesiastes so far, where we considered Solomon’s call to all God-fearers to eat with joy, and to dress with joy, and to be married with joy, and to work hard with joy. We are called, we are commanded in that paragraph, to pursue a life of joy in the process as we relate properly to God.

And you can, at least I can, smell the aroma that comes from that kind of lifestyle of the wise and righteous. This is the kind of approach to life where you are digging in and dressing up and maximizing marriage and working hard. That is the kind of life approach that we are to have. And undoubtedly, you know at least one person who lives life to the full, who grabs the bull by the horns and decides it’s going to ride at least for as many seconds as possible. You probably know at least somebody like that. But for those of us who are God-fearers, That’s how we all should be living. That should be our lifestyle for those who fear God.

What’s interesting though, I think instead of being content, Ecclesiastes 9, 7 through 10, enjoying the food that you have, the drink that you have, the clothes that you have, make them white, put them on, instead of being content and enjoying the process, what do we typically do? Instead of being content and enjoying the process, We typically try to control the process and then to pursue results. We’re typically not satisfied with the experience. We want the accomplishments. And so instead of being satisfied with what we have and finding fulfillment where we are, we’re tempted to think that joy comes from accomplishments and from treats and from luxuries rather than the practice, the path, the journey itself.

We’ll talk about having joy in food when it’s good food. And we’ll talk about having joy in our clothes when they’re expensive and nice. We’ll talk about enjoying life with our wife as long as it’s the right wife. And we’ll talk about enjoying our toil and labor as long as we’re successful and we make a profit. It’s the kind of job that we want and we mistake. This is key to what Solomon is about ready to tell us in this paragraph. We mistake our responsibility to enjoy the process for thinking we’re responsible for the results of the process. And we start looking to the end to the accomplishments to the results for our joy rather than enjoying the journey to get there.

The problem is those are two very different things. And the primary problem with believing that joy comes from the results is that the results are never reliable. If you try to do anything, you know that you cannot always guarantee and accurately predict the results of what you pursue. This is Bible 101. This is certainly Ecclesiastes’ basic theme and message. We cannot control the process of life under the sun to guarantee the end that we want. It doesn’t matter how many talents you have, how smart you are, how strong you are, you cannot control what happens in life to guarantee what you want. That’s not your responsibility.

Your responsibility is to enjoy the pursuit whether you end up getting the thing you’re pursuing or not. I think Solomon knew that we would slip into this kind of self-sufficient self-effort to secure the joy that he commanded in Ecclesiastes 9, 7 through 10. He says, eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, always be wearing Let not oil be lacking on your head. Be getting ready for the party. That’s the kind of lifestyle. Maximize life with your wife. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Take a hold of every opportunity. And he knows that we will easily slip from recognizing that joy is good and that joy in the process is possible to thinking that it’s about the results.

It’s about the end. The problem is that if there is one thing we can expect under the sun, it is the unexpected. You can’t guarantee pretty much anything. Success often does not go to the smartest or the strongest. That could be really frustrating. That success does not go to the smartest or the strongest. That’s only a threat to your joy if your joy depends on the result. It’s not a threat to your joy if joy is something that you get in the process. If you’re concerned about the results, you’re in trouble because you should expect the unexpected. And in Ecclesiastes 9, 11 through 12, the paragraph we’re going to look at this morning, we’re going to see two things that are unexpected.

Unexpected results, an unexpected death, or at least an unexpected time of death. Look at verse 11. Again, I saw under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge. But time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them.” And in verse 11, we see unexpected results. And this so challenges us as Americans, because I think especially in our culture, we’re a group of people who believe that not only is it up to us to be all that we can be, but that we can be all that we can be, and that we will be all that we can be If we just work harder, if we just put the right things into place, that’s not really something we can expect, but yet we believe that it is talented people who succeed.

We assume that people with better brains get better grades. We expect the big kid is always going to beat up the little kid. But if we wake up and actually open our eyes and look around, that’s not actually how it goes, is it? The first part of verse 11, again, I saw under the sun. This is the same playing field that Solomon has been observing and surveying since the beginning of the book. He is concerned with life on earth. He is concerned with life under the sun. It is another truth. This is reality. This is something that the preacher Solomon himself saw and experienced for himself. I saw this under the sun. And then he lists five pursuits and five favorites.

And what I mean by favorites is people that you would bet on, people that you would expect to win or to triumph in these five different pursuits. People that you would expect, they’re the favorites. But in each of these cases, the result is not what we expect. The first pursuit or arena is that of competition. He says the race is not to the swift. The adjective swift describes someone who is light and therefore speedy, somebody who is light on their feet. As a person who does some running, I can tell you that the difference between running at 185 and 255 is actually pretty substantial. When I ran my first marathon in 2001, I probably weighed somewhere around 235 pounds.

And Mo actually added up, she is the math kind of person, so she added up what it would be like if I was just at 200, how many steps of having an extra 35 pounds over the course of 26.2 miles, how many less pounds I would actually carry over the course of a marathon. And it was like some ridiculous number in the millions of pounds I would carry less over the course of a marathon per step if I just lost some weight. They call the runners who are over 200 pounds and who run marathons. They put them in a special class, and it’s called the Buffalo class. I kid you not. The people who win the marathons are the people you could, it looks like you could just blow really hard at them and they would fall over.

So when you’re light on your feet, instead of gravity yelling your name and just basically reaching its fist up to pull you down on the ground and make each step along the race a difficult thing. The swift person is the light person, therefore the fast, the quick, the speedy kind of person. But what’s significant is that the quickest person doesn’t always cross the finish line first, do they? All kinds of things can happen. The fact of the matter is you could be the fastest person out there. You could have won every race you’ve ever run before. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win this race. The race doesn’t always go to the swift.

And the second pursuit is the arena or the pursuit of war, nor battle to the strong. As Sal Solomon describes it, the strong is the mighty or valiant warrior. It’s the man who’s got power and skill in fighting. But again, victory in the fight is not always guaranteed to the big guy. Just ask Goliath. In fact, you can’t ask Goliath anymore. Why? Because his head is chopped off. Because he lost to a little scrawny burly guy. Or a little scrawny guy beat the big burly guy. The battle doesn’t always go to the strong. The third pursuit relates to daily provisions. Solomon says, nor bread to the wise. Bread is a word that represents the necessities of life.

It represents primarily then food that you need to continue your physical existence. And by extension, then bread kind of represents security in life. You have bread, then you have food. If you have food, then your life is probably going to continue. But being wise doesn’t always mean you’re going to be well fed. Wisdom does not always translate into food on the table. There are a lot of wise, very hungry people. Just because you’re wise doesn’t mean that you’ll win the bread. The fourth pursuit concerns money or possessions. as nor riches to the intelligent, you may be brilliant. Some of you are totally brilliant.

You may be insightful. You may be ridiculously discerning. You may know more than your co-workers. You may know more than your boss. That actually doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be wealthy. It doesn’t even guarantee it’s going to keep you out of the poor house. Just having intelligence It doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to get rich. The fifth pursuit, the final pursuit, concerns acceptance. And then I think influence. Solomon says, nor favor to those with knowledge. Favor is a word that speaks of getting esteem from someone else, having a reputation among people and therefore opportunity to make an impact on them.

When you receive the favor from someone, they’re pleased with you. And typically then they’ll listen to you. But being learned does not mean that people listen. Having info is not the same thing as having influence. The first two situations we see demonstrated that physical superiority does not guarantee success. And in the final three pursuits, mental acumen or mental ability doesn’t guarantee anything either. Neither better brain nor brawn are sure successes. After almost every game I lost, because I played sports when I was growing up, almost after every game I lost, my dad would say something like, it’s better to be lucky than good.

And I’m going to talk about lucky in just a moment. But he always said that, it’s better to be lucky than good. And it doesn’t take too much observation of life around us to see that a lot of people have succeeded who, looking at them, you’re like, how could that possibly be? They can’t tie their shoes, let alone how could they run a successful company or win the race and not trip over their shoelaces. And yet, some of the most capable, smart, strong people that we know, we look and we see them and they’re basically wiping the potato chip grease on their shirt because they don’t have anything to do and they don’t have anything.

Now, it is important before we move on to the final part of verse 11, it’s important for you to think about this accurately because Solomon does not say. You can look at the verse again, verse 11. Solomon does not say that the swift always lose. He doesn’t say that the strong always suffered defeat. He doesn’t say that the smart always fail. What he is saying is that even if you are strong, or fast, or smart, You should not expect, based on that, to always come in first. But if you get joy running the race, this is the beautiful thing, if it’s all about, I’ve got to win the race in order to have joy, if it’s about the result, then we’re going to work at being faster so we can guarantee ourselves to win the race.

Problem, the fastest person doesn’t always win the race. But if you enjoy running the race, enjoy the running of it, then winning is just icing on the cake. You can have joy twice instead of maybe not at all. The problem with all of these pursuits is found in the last part of verse 11. Solomon reveals the reason that we should expect the unexpected. He says, but time and chance happen to them all. Now this is a major problem, no matter how you look at it. If that is really true, if you’re a pagan person, an unbelieving person, if that’s true, that really bites. Time and chance happened all. Sorry. No guarantee. It’s a problem for somebody who’s not a believer, but it’s probably an even bigger problem for the believer, Is this really saying that God is not in control of something?

Time and chance happen to all. Things outside of our control. And is He also saying things outside of God’s control? Happen to everybody? That’s a significant problem. It’s a problem either way. But I don’t think that Solomon is throwing his hands in the air exasperated by random, haphazard, impersonal forces that both keep men from doing what they want and keep God from doing what He wants. I don’t think that’s what Solomon is saying. Remember the playing field we’re talking about. Solomon’s observation is looking at what? Life under the sun. He’s looking at life from our perspective, From the human, from man’s perspective, is where his observation comes from.

And from our perspective, we can’t explain why bad things happen to good people. It doesn’t seem like that’s what they deserve. That doesn’t seem right. It seems like time and chance happen to good people who should have gotten something else. From the human perspective, it makes no sense that David could have defeated Goliath. From the human perspective, all you can do is look at that and go, wow, that was a lucky shot. I mean, that’s as good as you can get under the sun. Can’t explain how that happened. That’s totally crazy. Based on what we see, it all depends on time and chance, the bounce of the ball, the luck of the draw.

But the key is that’s what it seems like from our perspective. It’s interesting the word chance does not have the same philosophical God-denying bent that we typically would hear people using the word chance, what they would be referring to. When people today talk about luck and talk about destiny and fate and chance, they’re talking about it in a way that replaces God. They talk about it like chance is uppercase C. And Chance has his own throne somewhere, just willy-nilly throwing out different things for people. Ah, let this person win. Ah, let this stone go here. I don’t like that wise person, so pfft, fawn you.

But the word Chance in Hebrew does not actually have any kind of God-denying attitude about I’m not sure about it at all. The Hebrew word pega refers to an event that was just not arranged. It was referred to some occasion that was accidental, that was not planned. But the question is not planned by who? Well, not planned by you. All kinds of things happen in life that you didn’t plan. Probably, if your life is anything like mine, You make lots of plans, and they don’t happen. Let alone not having a plan and something else happens. Accidents happen all around us from our perspective. The point is, the event is not planned by us.

As far as we’re concerned, anything can happen. But that is not the same thing as saying that events are outside of God’s control. that the stone in David’s sling wasn’t in God’s control on its way to Goliath’s head. Solomon, in fact, already explained in Ecclesiastes that everything happens under the sun, under God’s control. That God is the one who makes it happen. Look back at Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 14. After this whole poem about times and seasons, he explains who is in control of those times and seasons. Ecclesiastes 3, 14, He has made everything beautiful in its time. If you looked over at chapter 8, verse 17, he says, Then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun.

Solomon then is not denying in any way, shape, or form that God is in control, or that God doesn’t know, or that God hasn’t arranged for the fast person to lose, and the strong person to lose, and the wise people to go hungry. He’s not saying that God doesn’t know that, or has arranged that. He’s saying we don’t know that from our perspective. Not only has he said that already in Ecclesiastes, Look at Proverbs 16. This is in an extended section of Proverbs that Solomon himself wrote, starting in Chapter 10. Look at three verses in Proverbs 16. Starting in verse 1, The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

You can totally sit there all day long and think about what you’re going to say to this person when you have this meeting. You can prepare, you can arrange, you can set it up, you can outline it, write it out. Your tongue, like don’t you have control over your tongue? It’s pretty close right there even to your brain. Out of all the parts of your body, the tongue is close to the brain. You could think that the brain could have some control over this one. But God is the one who’s in control of your tongue. Look down at verse 9. The heart of a man plans his way. But the Lord establishes his steps. That couldn’t be any clearer that what we have is I make a plan.

I start to pursue something, but ultimately God is the one who turns me in the direction and heads me in the way that He wants. Look down then at verse 33. Not only in animate life with people who have brains and wills and thinking ability. Proverbs 16.33, The lot is cast into the lap, but it’s every decision is from the Lord. The best parallel for us would be dice. You throw the dice. The numbers that come up are the numbers God has ordained to come up. Now, I realize you’re going to be thinking about that. It’s going to blow your mind. Especially blow your mind when you realize No spoon. All of that to say, God is in control of all the things.

But we don’t know what it is that He is doing from our perspective, especially from a perspective that is not considering God. Time and chance happen to all. Everything, though, is caused by something. The Bible teaches that it is caused by someone. And to say that something happens by chance is simply a way for us to say we don’t know what the cause was. And this kind of summarizes verse 11. The point is that providence, God’s providence, God’s control of all things, trumps your ability and your ingenuity any time He wants. You can play your, I’ve got a good brain card, and you can play your, I’ve been running 80 miles a day for the last 10 years of my life card.

But God can, anytime He wants, say, great, look at what I’ve got. And somebody else wins, or someone else gets the job. Humanability, human ingenuity, Human physical strength, human mental strength is just not a match for God and His providence and His sovereignty. While providence regularly corresponds to the swift, the strong and the smart, that is oftentimes the fast person wins. Oftentimes the strong person, the big kid, beats up the little kid and gets the lunch money. Oftentimes it is the smart people who get the job. Well, Providence often goes with that. Providence is not bound to go with that. And if you are expecting results based on your abilities, you are missing a key thing, and that is you’re not in control even of the results.

You could line up all of your pieces in the perfect positions on the game board, and God can at any moment just come in and overturn the board. He doesn’t need to come in and skillfully move his pieces around. He’d just throw your pieces into another room. That’s his prerogative. That’s why we need to be depending on him. No event is arbitrary. That is based on random, not reason. No event is capricious. That is sudden or unaccountable. No event is whimsical. That is frivolous or insignificant. Everything happens for a reason. It’s just that we don’t always, in fact, we probably most of the time don’t know the reason.

But just because we don’t know doesn’t mean that God is not in control. For those who don’t think about life under God, it seems like luck has more to do with the final score than anything else. My encouragement to you is If you think that lucky people win, that those who win races and win wars are just the lucky people, don’t bet on it. It’s God who controls, who wins, and who’s victorious. That’s unexpected results, v. 11. Unexpected death is the point of v. 12. Things don’t always go to plan. Everything can change in a moment, especially if you die. If you want to talk about a real life-changing moment, death is probably at the top of life-changing moments.

If it seems like life is random, death is even less predictable. Verse 12, For man does not know his time, like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. Just like it was a problem under the sun Time and chance happened to all. Verse 11, So now it’s a problem that man does not know his time. It’s possible that the description, his time, it’s possible that that refers to any kind of negative or bad event. We know that there are times and seasons. It’s possible that he’s saying, man does not know his time.

Like he doesn’t know when he’s going to win or when he’s going to lose. When something good is going to happen when something bad is going to happen. But I think that based on the verse itself, it’s best to see His time as referring to death. Part of the reason I think that is because the chapter has had a lot to say about death, not just bad things. Starting in chapter 9, verses 1-6, we saw that death is certain for everybody, no matter who you are, the righteous and the wicked. Death is coming. Death is certain. It’s just that you don’t know when your death is coming. That’s the problem. And I think based on the context of the chapter so far, His time refers to death.

I think it’s also significant that each time the word time is used in verse 12, it’s singular. You kind of think if good things are bad things, good events or bad events were what he was thinking about, he would have said times. Man does not know his times, plural. Because ideally, if you live a couple days, you have more than one time. That happens to all of us. I think based on the fact that it’s singular, he is thinking about death. The same event happens to everyone. Death is certain. The problem is no one knows when. And two pictures in the middle part of v. 12 demonstrate that. Two illustrations demonstrate the sudden, unexpected timing of death.

First, he says like fish that are caught in an evil net. There you are, going about your business, trying to find Nemo. Everything is going along swimmingly. And all of a sudden, you’re hauled up out of the water, thrown onto the deck with a bunch of other smelly fishes, and inevitably going to be dinner on somebody else’s plate later on that night. Like that. The net catches you. You weren’t suspecting it. And suddenly, there you are, now you’re dinner. The second picture is similar, like birds that are trapped in a snare. Typically with a snare, you have some kind of bait. And so something catches the bird’s eye and the bird goes to the snare.

The bait catches the eye and then the snare catches the bird. They weren’t thinking about being trapped. They certainly weren’t preparing for it. And then it was too late. And those two pictures show us how fast and how unexpected death is for men. Obviously, there are people who are sick for extended periods of time where doctors tell them, years in advance, you’re going to die. Look, I can tell you right now, you’re going to die. So if that makes me a prophet, Awesome. You’re going to die. It’s not a question of you’re going to die. The thing that’s unexpected and unanticipated that you can’t finally and ultimately prepare for is when that happens.

And that’s the point that Solomon makes at the end of verse 12. The point of the application of the pictures is so the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. This is the universal condition describing the children of man. If you are a son or daughter of parents of human beings, this is the case for you. The whole verse emphasizes then the abrupt and unanticipated end of life. Eternity is never, never more than one heartbeat away. We don’t think about it that way because we’re attracted by the bait of life under the sun. But the fact is, every heartbeat, any heartbeat, could be your last one.

We have no influence on our entrance into this world, and we have no ultimate influence on when we cross the finish line. God is the one who’s in control. And men who don’t fear God can only be frustrated by unexpected results and unforeseen death. But we’ve already seen that in Ecclesiastes. So why repeat the point here? We already got the point that man is not in control, and especially for those people who don’t fear God, that’s just frustrating. So why tell it to us again right here in verses 11 and 12? I think he’s reminding God-fearers of this truth. It has application for those who don’t fear God, but it has application, I think, primarily to those people who are trying to enjoy the process like Solomon commanded in verses 7-10, who need reminding that joy isn’t necessarily about winning.

Joy isn’t necessarily in results or in riches. Maybe you’ll have some of those things. Maybe you’ll have all of those things. Maybe you won’t. It doesn’t have to impact your joy. Maybe you think you should win. You should profit. But you don’t. Maybe you shouldn’t actually win. You’re in the Buffalo category in the marathon. Maybe you shouldn’t win, and you do. You can’t always expect what the results are going to be. The point is to fear God and enjoy the process. It’s about the process. It’s about lifestyle, not life, accomplishments and achievements. In case you wonder, the pessimistic preacher of Ecclesiastes isn’t the only one who makes this point.

You don’t need to turn there, but the prophet Jeremiah says this Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24. “…Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.” “…Let not the mighty man boast in his might.” “…Let not the rich man boast in his riches.” Are you kidding me? That’s like three out of the five pursuits he’s mentioned. You’ve got the wise man, you’ve got the mighty man, you’ve got the rich man. “…But let him who boasts in this that He understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

The Lord delights in us when we depend on Him, not on us. Psalm 147 verses 10 and 11 make a similar point. The Psalm writer says, God’s delight is not in the strength of the horse, for His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love. Your attitude in life is the key to joy. Not your accomplishments and not your achievements. God wants you to depend on Him through the process whatever happens. If you succeed and you win, awesome. If you don’t, awesome. If you enjoyed trying to win, trying to get there, to those who read this paragraph in Ecclesiastes 9.11-12, with faith, even though we might not have a chance under the sun, we do have a prayer.

And we have opportunity to depend on God. Now, on this first Sunday of the new calendar year, I can’t help but think about how verses 11 and 12, especially as they come after verses 7 through 10, relate to making New Year’s resolutions. And though not everyone agrees, I think, and I have said over the last couple years, I think that the New Year provides a great opportunity to examine if there are any major obstacles you need to remove or any major lifestyle attitude adjustments you need to make in order for you to better enjoy the process. I’m not as interested in making resolutions per se for the results, unless the result I’m looking for is better joy in the process and an increase in Christlikeness.

If you are eating your bread with dissatisfaction and dressing down and wasting your wife and loafing around, If you are wasting your opportunities under the sun, then you need to make some resolutions to get busy and reshape your whole MO, your whole modus operandi, your whole way of going about it. Now, the question is, in light of verses 11 and 12, and the reality that the race doesn’t always go to the swift, maybe we wonder, well, if the race doesn’t always go to the swift, Why should I try to get faster? Or if bread doesn’t always go to the whys, then why stay up late and finish my assignment? And if we might die in 15 minutes anyway, is all of this wearisome effort really worth it?

The answer is yes. It is worth it. It is worth it if you do it for the right reasons and you’re pursuing the right things. It is proper to work hard at whatever your hand finds to do. Because God commands that. God commands it. Ergo is good to do and make happen and give effort to. God requires it for us to work hard at whatever we’re trying to do. We ought to look for and take advantage of every opportunity that we can. So resolve to do something new or something old better. Yes! To obey verse 10, you’ve got to do that. If you have a wife, you are obligated. God says, enjoy her. That’s a requirement. If you’re blowing that, if you have a wife and you’re blowing that, then you need to make some changes to get on the right path.

But resolve to improve your joyfulness in the process, not just waiting for joy until you achieve the goal. The goal needs to be joyfulness on the road, not just waiting to have joy at the destination. Why? Because the destination you might not ever get to, but you can at least get on the road and get going. You might not succeed, but at least you can die happy trying. The fact is, if you don’t enjoy running, you are not going to stay on the treadmill than a couple weeks no matter how much weight you want to lose. It’s just not going to happen. Achieving your goal is good, yes, but what about the thrill of the chase?

Too many miss the joys along the journey because they can only think about the destination, but as I said, the problem is you might never get there. So can I give you just three? I promise there are quick three credos or principles as you think about making resolutions, having both verses 7 through 10 and verses 11 and 12 in your mind at the same time. That we’re responsible to pursue joy but expect the unexpected. How can we keep both of those in our minds as we try to make progress? First of all, seek out opportunities, but submit to God. Work hard. Find another opportunity, but then submit no matter what happens.

Verse 10 is a divine command to do that. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Whatever you do, work hardily as for the Lord. Commit your work to the Lord. But don’t forget that no matter how detailed your plans are, the Lord is the one who directs your steps. And if you get upset about that, you have crossed the line from serving God to trying to direct God. God doesn’t need your help. He doesn’t need any directing from you. But He does tell you, find new opportunities and work with all your might, and I’ll take care of it. I remember when I was in high school, one of our staff leaders gave me this illustration.

I just have not forgotten it since then. You can’t steer a semi-truck if it’s sitting still. So get the semi moving and then watch where God turns you. Seek out opportunities, but submit to God. A second principle. Work as hard and as smart as you can, but rely on God. Students, it is a sin for you to be slothful. Your lack of energy and enthusiasm for your work is wrong. God requires more from us than that. One of the Proverbs says, Whatever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. Don’t run aimlessly or half-heartedly. Instead, be diligent. It’s the plans of the diligent that typically lead to abundance.

So work harder than anyone else. And wisdom, as we’ve seen in Ecclesiastes, does have value. It has relative value over folly in that both wise people and foolish people die, But it still has value. So work as hard and as smart as you can, but don’t forget that if you do work harder than anybody else, it was God’s grace in you who enabled you to work. As soon as you go from realizing I’ve got to work hard to I’m going to depend on my hard work, you have again crossed the line into a position where you’re now out of position to receive joy. Because if it depends on you, you depend on you. You ain’t got enough to keep your joy secure and to give you more.

Work hard, work smart, but rely on God. Third, play to win every time, but enjoy the process. Solomon, and for that matter, the Bible, is not anti-competition. There is nothing wrong with winning. There may be something wrong with the big kid beating up the little kid. It depends on what the fight is about. He is not telling the mighty valiant warriors just to lay down their swords. Because it really doesn’t matter. I’m in control. He’s not saying that victory is bad or that winning is bad. Obtaining the race is always the goal. Obtaining food is important. Triumphing in battle is better than the opposite. Making profit can be good.

Earning influence has great benefit. He isn’t saying those things are bad. He’s saying don’t depend on the result for your joy. Pursue the result. Go for it. Mat Foley, go for it! But don’t depend on that for your joy. Pick up your pace to obtain the prize. Don’t you know that runners run in a race to get the prize? So run to get the prize. Yes! But don’t depend on the getting of the prize for your happiness. The breeze on your face as you run around the track is just as much, if not a better part of the gift, than the trophy at the end. To experience and to participate in the process as we fear and depend on God, that’s where the joy comes from, regardless of then what happens, what the outcome is.

We don’t have the power to control the present. We don’t have the wisdom to predict the future, but we can fear God, work hard, and enjoy the process. And if you do that, you’ll not only have joy on this earthly road, but you will also secure for yourself eternal joy. And you’ll get both. That’s fine if you don’t make resolutions. It’s not fine if it’s just so you can sit on your couch and watch TV and play video games. That’s not fine. You not only are obligated to pursue Christ more than that, you are obligated to enjoy life from God more than that. Obligated. Your responsibility. So get up and get going and work hard, but as is the theme of Ecclesiastes, enjoy the work.

Enjoy the race. Enjoy the treadmill. Enjoy the portions you’re eating if you’re trying to lose weight. That’s all great. that you’ve got to embrace now from God, not just then. You might not get to then. Father, we need Your help to do this. Of course, You’ve given us Your Word and the instruction that Solomon, the wise King, has recorded for us. And we value the truth He’s given. But we need Your Spirit to help us not only understand it, but to put it into practice. I pray that You would cause us to be a people who are not lazy, not lazy workers, not lazy Christians, that You would cause us to be a people for as many trials and tough things come into our lives that we would still have a joy that was bigger, and that You would keep us always focused and dependent on Your strength and Your wisdom more than our own.

Not only because yours is secure and ours is not, but ultimately because that’s what gives you glory and not us. How great it is that we can have the greatest joys when you get the greatest glory. It’s like that’s how you’ve arranged it. Keep us focused on you this new year. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.