Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The God of Exclamation - Ecclesiastes 11

0:03 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Come on, put your Bibles down, put your hands together and give God praise today. Raise your voices. Thank him for his goodness and his mercy. Thank you, men, for music today. And for those of you who have prayed and read the scriptures, let's remember our congregation today, particularly Joe and Carrie Poo experienced a real tragedy in their family and made their way to church at eight o'clock this morning. And so we want to really keep them in prayer. for those of you that know them, undergird them with believing prayer. Great chapters of the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 11, commencing at verse 1 in that chapter.

1:11 This text is tailored to remind us That God can and God will Resource our lives when we make investments In him Let me read what The writer says to us this morning From his word cast your bread upon the waters for after many days you'll find it again give portions to seven yes to eight for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land if clouds are full of water they pour rain upon the earth whether a tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where it falls, there will it lie.

2:09 Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. 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. Sow your seed in the morning.

2:40 And at evening, let not your hands be idle. For you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Some years ago, I can't remember when it was actually, I was the guest at Tuskegee University and I stayed at the Kellogg Center across from the famous statue where Booker T. Washington is pulling the veil from over the head of a slave. It was the image, you know, of enlightenment, of how we pull back darkness and let light flood in and how we are to make the world better as we know and go along.

3:36 Ecclesiastes is that kind of literature, is wisdom, and you can imagine like that statue of Booker T. Washington pulling back the veil of ignorance that Ecclesiastes in many ways sit people like you and like me down in the veil of darkness of spiritual ignorance so that the light can illumine us with God's truth is wisdom literature. And wisdom is something that we need, but a lot of people are impatient to receive. But it's good to have wisdom. Wisdom can lead you through life. And those who reverence God are people who typically live by this wisdom. Look at these words that we've read together.

4:35 We have only a few minutes today, and so I want to be succinct in my comments. As you can see, leaping from the pages, two words that happen here. These inevitabilities of life and these possibilities of life. Almost all venerated reverend commentators all agree with this is inevitabilities and possibilities. That is, we live with inevitabilities. There are some things that just are. I was born in 1959. Not in 1859. regardless I want to say I was born in 1759 or 1659.

5:23 Inevitabilities we live with. I was born in Houston, Texas. Not in New York, not in London, not Paris. Not in South Africa. I was born in Texas. Inevitabilities. Have you noticed how the scripture is shaped in a particular way that over these great chapters of the Bible, how all of them reach back in some way to Genesis 1 and 2 to remind us, as you read now, that Genesis 1 and 2 actually becomes the foundation to help shed light on all other chapters in the Bible. and so here in this chapter when we reflect on it with Genesis 1 and 2 Adam and Eve have been given a responsibility to be custodians of this paradise one of the things that has been given to Adam is naming he's going to name there's a dog there's a cat there's an alligator He's naming.

6:33 There's a tree. There's a plum tree, pear tree. There is an orange tree. Naming. And in the naming of this, we see inside of this paradise that there are no problems. No problems. Just promises and possibilities. The inevitabilities are, I'm just there, but there are no problems. There are no big sisters in your ear telling you what to do. I can say that I had a lot of sisters. And so here now, you see the absurdity that accompanies things like inevitabilities. For instance, keep in mind now to really enjoy what I'm about to say, not just sit there, but listen to me as if, and I am doing that, as the writer of this literature is giving you advice on how to live.

7:33 Now, if you can posture yourself that way, you'll read this differently. And here's the first advice that I want to give to you. Cast your bread upon the water. For after many days, you'll find it again. And the first thing that when I finish saying that and walk out the room, you're going to say, I told you, he has lost it.

8:04 Cast your bread. This is why people miss the beauty of reading the scripture. They're looking for these big, heavy points. And here are these quotidian. I like that word, quotidian. These ordinary moments that you miss. You know what casting bread is? So you're going to go put A loaf of bread on the water It's soggy It's not coming back anywhere It could be meaning the flatbreads That they ate the pita bread That these people cook with And they put it on the water And it sails away Some of your translations didn't say cast It said ship it away so you put it on water in a few days it'll come back go figure verse number two moves in the same direction but now it deepens life to say cast your bread on the water don't go looking for it it's gonna come back God bless you.

9:17 but here's what you do give portions seven or eight let me translate just that when it says for you do not know what disasters may come upon the land what you think he's saying you know what he's saying you spent your check already Thank you. You just got paid yesterday And you broke today You didn't save none of your money? you do understand that you got six more days to go, don't you? Before you get another paycheck or 14 days, you understand that that's exactly what he's saying.

10:17 You don't know what disasters are coming. So take risks in life, but don't take them without being prudent. let me say it better. Take risks in life, but don't take risks without being wise. Verse 3. if clouds are full of water in the Mediterranean world you look back 3,000 years they didn't have Doppler systems they didn't have barometers they didn't have thermometers anometers they didn't have any of that instruments to measure the speed of the wind the heat of the wind they didn't have any of that so what they would do is look at the sky and when they would see a cloud and they'll say, that cloud is billowing, it looks like, and they said, that cloud is full of water.

11:21 And what does it do? It bursts and it rains. That's how they told it. Stay with me now. And then he said, but what if a tree falls to the south or north and it just lies there, right? He's looking at the beautiful cedars of Lebanon and maybe some insect has invaded its wood heart and ripped it out and now it cracks, crumbles and it just falls. Rain, inevitable.

11:56 This tree that falls is just there and while it's all happening, he's asking a question of what will you do when life reigns and stuff falls? That's what he's getting to. The answer is in verse four. You ready? Whoever watches the wind, look at this,

12:29 or how the body is formed in the mother's womb so you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things. Here's what he's getting at Come here Stop looking for the perfect moment To take a risk on the possibilities of God The clouds burst with rain, trees fall. Verse three, verse four, back in agriculture and in life. And then people want to know about the wind, the wear of the wind.

13:08 And so you're looking for the perfect moment to do what you're going to do. That's some of you. You in the 20th year, of saying what you hope to do. 20 years later, you're in the same place you were 20 years ago, waiting on the perfect moment. Let me tell you something. I am not omniscient. I am not all-knowing, but I know one thing. There are no perfect moments. Okay, you didn't get that. I see where you live. Young man, young woman, you keep putting off, I want to go to school. Ain't no perfect moment. You never have enough time.

14:01 You never have enough money. You never have enough energy. Nothing is ever right. You know what you do? You just do it. Okay. So I see I have to convince you at 10 o'clock. I didn't have to convince him at 8 o'clock. but I see I'm working with a rough crew here.

14:26 Reinhold Niebuhr tells the story of a young man that was born inland that always wanted to see the sea. When he got older he said, I'm going to the sea. He took the rails and he did. He went down to the coastline and he always wanted to see it from the mass of a ship. He was hired on as a crew hand. The captain sailed the vessel out into the waters. The captain nominated him to climb up into the crow's nest to look out over the water and he was so excited because a man of the land and inland, he gets a chance to see it and on his way up he didn't know from the bottom how high the mass or the crow nest was and midway he froze out of fear now he starts making his way down but he can't because the crewmen below are telling him out of cowardice. Afraid to go up because of agoraphobia. Afraid to go down because of the fear of the crew. And he's just stuck there in the middle. Some of you identify with that because you're halfway where God wants you to go, but you're afraid to go up because there is a thing where people are afraid to succeed.

16:01 You see, everybody is not afraid of faith. You put 10 people in a room, you got five or six who are afraid to succeed. They think if they succeed, their life is coming to the end, something's going to go wrong. They're always looking for the worst thing.

16:23 They won't go up, they can't come down, and they're just froze in the moment. these are the people that you meet 25 years after graduating from high school and the only stories they got to tell is what we did in 1977 i've lived 10 lifetimes since then i want to talk about what the world looked like in the next 50 years preach pastor webb Jesus addressed this in the New Testament about taking risks in life prudently.

17:02 And have you ever noticed how much emphasis the Bible puts on doing something? That it never says, the kingdom of God is like a man who is sitting in his lazy chair. You ever noticed that? I have. You just read it sometime and notice that there's always the beginning and that the scriptures are always moving us to be participants in the world. and Jesus says once there was a man who had a business he was going to take a trip he didn't want to lose any of the financial momentum that he was gaining he called in three responsible people that worked for him and gave out according to their ability to manage he gave some five others to one another one and said just oversee what I have and I'll be back and you can tell me how well we done.

17:56 And when he came back, two of the people who he had employed, they doubled what he entrusted to them. And then the other guy, he didn't do anything with it. Nothing. Come here. He didn't do nothing with it. And he felt proud about himself. He said, I'm giving it back to you the same way that you gave it to me. I didn't lose nothing. I didn't gain nothing. And here's the thing. And that's all right. It's not evil. but that's not how life is designed, and that's what the story was, that I gave you that big life. I didn't give it to you to give it back to me the same way that I gave it to you. I expected you to do something with the life that I gave you, and you can't keep blaming the wrong side of the tracks. You can't keep blaming my daddy wasn't here, my mama wasn't this. You can't keep blaming that I don't have this college degree and I don't have that certificate. You can't keep blaming on that.

18:58 You would think on a point like that, this whole room of upper middle class, Negroes and white folk, we'd have stood up. But it's because we're guilty by association. Because we love to blame circumstances from keeping us from reaching our possibilities. But not me. I tell people I've never been the brightest bulb in the room. I work hard. Real hard. Where most people can read it and get it one time, I got to read it four, five, six times. but I'm going to keep on working at it because I'm not giving my life back to God the same way that he gave it to me.

19:53 And there's always that one moment in which you have to decide. I fly a lot, and I think often on plane rides on why I need to pray for the pilot and the equipment, especially when you think about the people that got the contract had the lowest bid. You don't want to think about that too long sitting on a plane.

20:33 And then you think about that moment where those engines rev. And for those of you that fly or don't fly, flying is a dangerous act. Takeoffs and landings are, they're serious. And so when those engines are revving, those RPMs at 18,000 RPMs a second, I guess, and the thrust to push those huge pieces of metal down a runway, there comes a moment. When you reach a certain speed that you have to make the decision that you're going to pull back in order to go up or you're going to push forward to shut that thing down. Let me tell you what you don't want to do. You don't want to get 10 feet up off the ground and then say, I think I'm a land. Because it's too late at that time.

21:29 And some of you are right on the runway. trust God to thrust you up and just enjoy the ride enjoy the ride There's always that moment where you want to turn back.

21:50 You ask anybody who's done anything of significance, you ever wanted to quit, you better know it. Sometimes you just get so far down the road that you say, quitting ain't no option. that's what Harriet Tubman would remind us all she wanted to do was learn how to read on the plantation and that was denied her by her master and one day when he threw a weight it hit her and left her with narcolepsy and there were moments where she would be just sitting there it's not funny but just imagine she's leading people and then just go to sleep come back It's amazing where humor can show up. So she crosses the river, walks through the woods, through the plains, over around the mountains, and finally make it to Philadelphia. And then she says, wait.

22:46 Wait, I can't stay here. I got sisters back there. She goes back through the woods, the valleys, around the mountains, across the river, and she go get her sisters and she leads them across the river, and through the valley, the woods, the forest, around the mountain and get them to Philadelphia. And she's happy now. And then she said, wait, I got brothers there. And she goes back through the woods, through the valley, through the meadows, across the water, collect her brothers. And then they go across the river and through the woods and mellows and through the forest. And then it hits her. Wait, there are some other people that need to be emancipated from the shackles of slavery and she makes 19 trips and she leads over 300 people to freedom and emancipation and she said, I could have got more if I could have gotten them to break the shackles from up here.

23:47 and some of us can't do more it's because we're shackled up here I remember how we would go to Ringley Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus and they would have these huge elephants chained up to a stake.

24:17 And those elephants could have broke the chain or pulled up the stake whenever they wanted to. But the handlers had conditioned their minds that they could not do it. I don't know where you are and what your circumstance, but free your mind and the rest will follow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me finish up verse 5. I got four minutes. Now look at this, where he goes back to agriculture, whoever watches the wind, keep that, whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. That's that whole idea of looking for the right time. Verse 5, as you do not know the path of the wind, then or how the body is formed in the mother's womb.

25:16 So you can't understand the work of God, the maker of all things. All he's getting to is, he says, you don't understand the ways of God. That's what it's translated. You don't understand the ways of God. And he uses the illustration. First it says, track the wind then. You smart. and then he says and then look at you know I mean you know when a seed is planted in the ground you know how it germinates and all that but you don't really know how it grows it grows invisibly you don't know how that soft tissue grows beneath the breast of a woman that heartbeat you don't know that scientists say oh yeah we know and so they created you remember this when they manufactured a sheep in the laboratory I'm saying no you didn't do nothing you didn't create no sheep you took a sheep that was a sheep to make a sheep.

26:24 God takes 24 chromosomes of a man, 24 chromosomes of a woman. We got genodomes and all of that DNA and we still don't know how that map got you looking the way that you're looking right now. Other than God works behind the scenes. You don't know and let me tell you something and I know and nobody has damaged this kind of thinking. The only way you don't shout when I do stuff like that because you listen to your other preacher who got an answer for everything. But I'm here to tell you something, you and your preacher, y'all don't know every day. There are some things that belong to God. The secret things the writer says belong to God.

27:21 And I'm glad of that because the fact is I have to rest on the confidence of who God is. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but God knows. And if he knows, I'm all right with that. Preach Pastor Wes. Now let me close now. I'm done. One minute, 19 seconds. One minute.

27:46 Verse 6. Sow your seed in the morning. now listen to this sow your seed in the morning and at evening let not your hands be idle for you do not know which will succeed whether this or that or whether both would do equally well now for those who say I need an outline it's just hard for me to listen to any preacher he ain't got or she ain't got no outline well the outline is what I just read you started verses 1 and 2 and just say that's an admonition and then verses 3, 4 and 5 is our observations and then verse 6 is an inclusio and if you want to keep it alliterated you say inclusion okay that's it so notice how verse six sounds very much like verse number one and i'm done cast so then cast your bread up on the water and when you least expect it it'll come back to you cast it on the waters.

29:09 And you don't know when it's coming back. Because see, we are pragmatists. It's hard for us to have faith. You want to join church. You want to give your life to the Lord. But you want God to give you your five-point life plan now. Because you read Stephen Covey. And you had a Franklin planner. And so your life was made up by the one-minute manager. You got to be able to be in control of your life. And he said, that ain't how life is lived. Life is a mystery. And if you really want to enjoy life, cast your bread on the wall. Come here. Have you ever heard of Salvation Army? I'm not trying to be funny. You've heard of Salvation Army? Thank you. I wasn't asking you that to test your knowledge because that may be something who've never heard of. Salvation Army is a 19th century para-church ministry founded by a man named William Booth.

30:10 Booth, if you dig him up on Google now, they call him Crazy Booth. When I say this, I am not trying to be humorous. If there's anything that caught look crazy, he did. His hair was all over his head. He was poorly dressed. He was 36 years old at the time. six children, no job, no future. And God told him, get a drum and play it. And he stopped beating his drum and singing, had you been washed in the blood of the lamb. People would throw their waste from the second floor of the tenement buildings in East London when he would walk by. They would throw tomatoes at him. They would throw cabbage heads at him. And he kept playing his drum and singing, have you been washed in the blood of the lamb? After enough waste and enough cabbage, 10 people started walking with him and he beat the drum.

31:21 And then tens of people, then hundreds of people, then missions. And now, I guess, worldwide, Salvation Army can be found because of somebody who dared to cast his bread on the water. You remember what happened a few years ago when the founder Ray Kroc died? His widow, Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, his widow gave the largest gift that Salvation Army had ever received. $1.5 billion. All because he was crazy enough to take a risk and cast his bread upon the water. Is that not the story, the biblical story?

32:19 That God called Abraham at 75 years old and here you are talking about, I'm too old. and said, I'm going to start a nation with you. And then God didn't start it at 75. He waited until he became a centenarian, and the next thing you know, you got Abraham and you got Isaac.

32:48 It moves over when God says, I'm going to lead a campaign. Moses is found with a two sentence resume zero to forty prince of Egypt forty to eighty backside of the desert and God used him not like Charlton Heston in the movie who sound all articulate and was bronze that brother Moses couldn't talk and God used his tight tongue to set a nation free. Crossing over Red Seas and Jordans and you would think that if God emancipated you he would put you in a place where you don't have to work. And God said here's your land that flows with milk and honey but you got to cut the trees down.

33:49 You got to dig up the wells. You got to build the houses. Stop thinking Christianity means that God's going to come down from the sky and fix all of your situation. God has given you a mind and empowered you. And when you've done all that you can do, he said, now get out the way and let me do what only I can do. and then the nation wanted a king they made a blunder by selecting the king based off of physicality and prowess because he was loud and noisy and disruptive and would just say anything and no respect for nobody and nobody and just nobody and so the next thing you know God said go down to Jesse's house he got some children down there and they go in there and they bring out 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and say look all these they look good but you ain't got nobody else and he said because I didn't come here to look at the outward appearance I didn't come to look at the outward appearance I didn't come to look at that I need to know, do they have the heart, the mind, the vision, the voice?

35:22 And say, yeah, we got one more in the back. and then when they went back there and they said well we we were looking for a king he doesn't fit the specifications of a king we we need a man say well all i got is carmala back there that's all i got i ain't got no better than that I thought you just needed somebody who could serve the Lord. I didn't know there had to be a man. They didn't know there had to be white. I didn't know that they, I just need to know, do I have somebody that I can help? And mamala came from around that. And the next thing you know, God says, I can use you. Do you love me? Yes. Do you trust me? Yes. Do you care for people in the margin? Yes. Well, do you promise to help people who are downtrodden? Yes. Do you promise to hold on and help those who can't help themselves? Yes. Well, come on in. I can help. I can help you. I can help you. I'm done now.

36:30 don't write me no letters none of y'all who are listening talking about you know that ain't what that scripture said uh let me just say to all who are listening it's called creative imaginative preaching it's it's my it's my interpretation let me close now so so how do you end this and this is a true story uh uh the scottish preacher uh is looking for a close on his sermon on the wind and so he says i'm going to go down to the coast of scotland and i'm going to ask this sailor how do you determine the wind And so he went down and asked this sailor who had sailed the seas, can you tell me how or where the wind comes from, how the wind blows?

37:37 He said, I don't know that. He said, but you've sailed the seven seas. He said, yes, but I don't know where the wind comes from. I don't know how it comes. I don't know that. He said, but you, listen, you've seven seas? he said yeah but that doesn't mean that I know the origin of the wind I don't know that he said well how did you do it the seventh season if you didn't know where the wind come from how he said this is all I know when the wind start blowing raise up your sail and let the wind get caught in the sail and once the wind is in the sail don't fight the wind let the wind take you wherever it wants to lead you john 3 8 and the wind blowing where listeners you don't know the sound thereof you don't know where it's coming from god has a way if you would just open up your life and your heart if you would just raise your sail and let god get into your life he can lead you to places of impossibilities and possibilities. Have I got a witness here? Maybe somebody here can say this.

38:54 I am in a place today that I never thought in my life that I could be there and yet one day I raised my sail when I thought that everything else had fallen and crumbled. I raised my sail and the wind blew me to where I am now. I can't take credit from where I am. I just have to thank God far where I am. this is the God of exclamations I don't know who I'm talking to I'm talking to my members now that you've been battling fighting over getting stuck over just stuck over whatever and the Lord is saying do you think that I ran out a vision when I gave one I don't know who I'm talking to but I know in this room you've been praying over I don't know school, book, job, family do you think that I have run out of blessings?

40:16 Now I'm asking you get off your phone you can wait because they can't help you now I'm trying to help you and you're probably the very one that's just stuck and said, I can't move. Yeah, you can. Turn the phone off and say, I will move. And some of you would move if you stopped waiting on somebody else to move for you. Just move. That's what the wind does. When that wind starts blowing like it picks up a leaf or something. You ever seen that? When the wind blows, it grabs a leaf and it's just all over the place. that's where I want to be with God. I don't want to be so programmed that I know where the next place God is going to take me. I want to be in a place to say, I don't know where the Lord leads me, but where he leads me, I'm done.

41:11 I will follow. How about we end it on that? How about you just turn all around and just tell, say, where the Lord leads me. I mean, say it like you really mean it. Where the Lord leads me. I will follow Hallelujah Give God praise for that I mean where he leads me I will follow And the saints of old Get in that song and they'll say No turning back No turning back Yeah Lord we thank you for today for your word and thank you for the possibilities pray for your people today Lord all of us need to be reminded of those exclamation moments in our life where you can make the difference help us not to be frozen, stuck but where we can say this is my moment and I'm going I'm going with Jesus and I'm not turning back thank you Lord for what you have done and what you're getting ready to do in the strong name of Jesus God's people say amen praise the Lord come on real quick you know who you are the daughter church