Time and Chance Happen to Them All (Ecclesiastes 9:10-11)

William. You see how I blame that on other people? My wife says I'm really good at that. Blame it on William. Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know he was that capable of doing it inside the truck. Sorry. I am. There we go. All right. Now we're better. We are recording. And as I was saying, and my gosh, my head's filling up the whole screen. Feel like I feel like Neil now. Um. All right. Come on. Come on. So, I have no idea what you think. I love you, Neil. Oh, Neil's a great guy. So, so Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 9:10 and 11 and Solomon is really in the book of Ecclesiastes talking about how where we're at here is temporary.

Um, but that it's not to be dismissed that this is we're supposed to enjoy our lives here and there's more we can talk about that. But in this verse in verses 10 and 11, I'm only going to touch on the first part of verse 10. So, we would call the A section and then I'm really going to get to verse 11, which is really where I want to land today. And so in ver the first part of verse 10, Solomon says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." So we'll we'll we'll we'll pass on that now. We're going to just go right to verse 11.

And the reason why I wanted to read that because verse 11 really pulls verse 10 back into that. And so verse 11 says, "I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or wealthy to the brilliant, or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all. And so I I find that interesting because so I I know that there's probably everybody on this call who says, "Man, just good stuff just always seems to happen to that person. Oh my gosh. It's like I I I do more than they do or I work harder than they do or I serve more than they do or pick whatever your or is and good things happen to them.

Um we can weigh that with we you know no one really broadcasts the bad that happens to them and so we have to weigh that you know with with with that thought process as well too. But what what Solomon is saying in here is that you we should work hard at whatever we're going to do. We don't we don't not do that. We don't not prepare. But at the end of the day, the outcome, the result does not belong to you. It belongs to God. If you've put your faith and your trust in him, you go work as hard as you want. Solomon says right here, the race doesn't always go to the fastest guy.

Sometimes we're in a season where God says, "I'm going to sit you down. You might be right now the best qualified person for this, for that, the strongest, the the fastest, the smartest, the wisest, uh the best work ethic, but God says at this moment, I want this to go to someone else." And for a reason. That's his reason. The outcomes don't belong to us. They belong to him. But what Solomon is saying is it doesn't mean that you that you there's two camps. Well, I'm not going to bother working hard because I don't control the outcome. That's not right.

We don't do that. That's not that's not the concept, you know, or I'm going to work as hard as I can because I'm going to definitely win this and I'm going to beat everybody else out. Well, that doesn't hold true either. So, what God wants us to do is put our faith and trust in him. Do the work. Faith without works is dead. put our trust where he is and the outcome is what he wants it to be. You may want to win and he may allow you to but at the end of the day the outcome belongs to God and not to us. So work what did he say in verse 10? I don't want to mis misread.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. So that that doesn't mean to give it a half-hearted attempt. That means give it every ounce of who you are and what you should do and what you could do and then we we give that to God and then God controls the outcome. All right. Well, I did that one pretty quick, babe. It's only 9:22. Good job. Good job. Go me. All right. Thoughts, comments, suggestions? Good job. Mic drop. Mic drop. All right. Go null. I should go nulls. I should I should All right. Everybody's laughing. All right. So, okay.

Well, and then All right. Well, then let's bow our heads. Let's let's pray out. Father, thank you so much for today uh for your word, for gosh, something that was written thousands and thousands of years ago that has every bit of meaning today as it did then. That we know that we we have this illusion of control, but it it's not ours. We we can prepare and we can plan, we can train, we can do all the things that we know that we're that we need to do, but at the end, we know that the outcome is yours, Father. And we accept that you our faith and our and our and our uh and our hearts for that.

And so, Father, we just pray that you walk with us this day, that you guide us. Uh, I pray for everyone on this call today that that they would they would continue to work hard regardless of what their eyes see, regardless of what the natural mind sees, Lord, that we know that you own the outcome and that our job is to live faithfully and to work uh hard at whatever our hand finds to do. Father, we love you. We praise you and as always in your son's mighty name. Amen. Amen. All right, all we'll see you guys tomorrow.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.