Ecclesiastes 11:1-5

Service recording Sunday 20th September looking at Ecclesiastes.

Watch the service — 20 September 2026

▶ Jump to the sermon (Ecclesiastes 11:1-5) — 0:35:25

Chapters

0:00:00 — Start of recording
0:00:00 — Song: Come Now Is the Time to Worship
0:02:11 — Introduction & call to worship
0:03:07 — Song: Revelation Song
0:07:11 — Song: Jesus, God's Righteousness Revealed
0:10:08 — Children's talk
0:16:24 — Children's song: Father Abraham
0:18:57 — Prayer
0:19:30 — Song: Our God Is an Awesome God
0:23:40 — Offering & prayer
0:25:25 — Notices
0:27:54 — New Testament Reading: 1 Timothy 6:17-19
0:28:46 — Prayer
0:31:30 — Song: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
0:34:11 — Old Testament Reading: Ecclesiastes 11:1-5
0:35:25 — Sermon
1:02:16 — Closing prayer
1:03:47 — Song: It Is Well with My Soul
1:07:48 — Benediction
1:08:12 — Benediction song

Scripture Readings

Let’s open the Word of God together. Today’s New Testament text comes from 1 Timothy 6, verses 17 through 19. You’ll be getting the theme loud and clear by the time we finish our text today.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

The Lord be pleased to bless the reading of His Word today. Please turn in the Scriptures with me to Ecclesiastes, chapter 11, reading again the same text as last week, but with new emphasis, I hope. Verses 1 through 5. Hear then the Word of God.

Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days. Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies. He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap. Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

The Lord be pleased to bless the reading of His Word for us today.

Opening Prayer

Let’s ask the Lord’s help as we open His Word together today.

Father, we thank You again for Your Word, that it directs our paths in the way that we should go to be pleasing to You. It not only brings us to the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, but sends us from His presence every day, so that we might demonstrate by our lives and by our words all that He has taught us, and all that we have come to know by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

We pray, Lord, this morning that You would be with us, and that You’d help us as we consider some of these words together and apply them in our lives. Help us, Lord, not to be a people that are just hearers of the Word, but to be doers of the Word, and make application of it all. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Looking Back

Last week we began looking, and it was just verse 1: cast your bread upon the waters, and after a time you’ll receive it back. Those of you that were here remember that it’s not like feeding the ducks. It is more about scattering seed, the bread seed, upon the waters, so that it will germinate and grow, and after a time you will get a good crop out of it. We looked at that in relation to the fact that as believers, when we are generous, we’re really paying it forward.

A Christian ought to be a generous person. It should be a great part of who we are and what we do in life. Generosity should mark us out as being true believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that is the case, of course, we have to sow generously to get a generous return. You can’t reap what you don’t sow. “Give,” says the Lord Jesus in Luke 6:38, “and it will be given unto you.”

Secondly, we learned that the more you sow, of course, the more you reap. It just makes sense, doesn’t it? G at the moment is planting her seeds to grow our tomatoes for the year. At this time of the year you want to get your seeds in the ground and strike your tomatoes, so that you can eventually plant them out. It’s too early to plant them outside yet, but you want to get them going. And I can report that she’s been very successful. Her first tray, which is half of them, already has 100 tomato plants growing.

I don’t know what we’re going to do with 100 tomato plants. We’re going to give them away. That’s right. Put your order in now to G and she will supply you with tomato plants, or else, I don’t know, we’re going to have to have tomato soup for the rest of the year. We can’t have that. But at any rate, there you are. She obviously planted the seed liberally, and she’s going to receive back from that a very liberal harvest. Remember that the 100 she’s got now is only half of what she’s sown, so we’re going to have 200 plants coming. She’s spread them out a little bit, as the Scriptures have said. She’s a living demonstration of Ecclesiastes, is my wife.

Anyway, the more you sow, the more you reap. No word or action taken for Christ’s sake is ever a waste. “My word will never return to Me void,” saith the Lord in Isaiah 55. It will achieve all that God desires, and it will prosper. We love to sow the Word as believers, and it’s important that we do just that.

Fourthly, no immediate return, no problems. Sometimes when we sow, and I know that G’s done very well with her tomatoes, within about seven days she’s got little baby tomatoes, and that’s pretty quick. But sometimes when we sow good deeds and generosity, we don’t actually receive anything back for a while. But we can be assured as believers that as we sow the seed of the Word of God, and as we are generous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to those around us, there will be a return for it. It may not even be in this life, but certainly the Lord, who knows and sees all things, will ensure that you receive a blessing for all of eternity.

Now, in actual fact, there’s a greater blessing in not being recognised for our generosity in these days, and that’s why we should give not letting our left hand know what our right hand is up to. In other words, we should give, and practise our generosity, much in secret, because there will be a greater reward coming to us later. The Lord Jesus Christ notes all these things. He’s the true and faithful witness and will be a testimony to the Father for all of eternity.

And then fifthly, all of course will be accounted for in eternity, which is really just what I’ve said.

Where the Light Came On

Today I want to show you really the application of this passage from Ecclesiastes in an apostolic way. What is the apostolic application of these verses that are before us?

I said right at the beginning of our series in Ecclesiastes, it being part of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, that my personal testimony is that that’s where I began in my Christian life. I received a Bible as a gift from my father for my 16th birthday. At that time, I was not living a very Christian life at all as a young man, and I had many things going on in my life that I would be ashamed to even tell you today.

But at any rate, he gave me a Bible, and he marked in it Proverbs 3:5-6, which simply says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. And it started there. I started reading, and I literally have not put the Bible down since. It was the wisdom writers, really the reading of Proverbs on into Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, all of the Psalms and those areas, that really turned the light on in my heart and my life concerning the gospel, which was found in Jesus Christ.

And so it interests me greatly, when I read in the New Testament the teaching of the apostles and of the Lord Jesus Christ, just how much they do draw from the wisdom writings, and the way that they form their teaching in regards to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So today I just want to share some of that excitement with you, because, as I say, it has excited me, and it really was the catalyst that led me to follow and to believe and trust in Jesus alone for my salvation.

The Expansion of Verse 1

So, let’s cast our eye back. You can see that of the five verses of Ecclesiastes 11 that we read, the first verse is given, but the rest of the verses are kind of an expansion on it. I just want to remind you of what those expansions are. I’ve already done one for the children, but I’ll remind you as we go.

He says that when clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth. We should be like clouds, that when we’re full, we pour out rain. In other words, if God has blessed us, then our cups, as it were, are overflowing, and we should be pouring out the blessing of what God has given us to those around us. We’ll come more specifically later on in our time together as to who we should be pouring those blessings out upon, but just leave it there for the moment.

Remember, as I said to the children, the direction and extent of your generosity today will have a bearing on the rest of your life and for all of eternity. Where a tree falls, there it lies. Where a tree falls, there it lies.

Thirdly, we could say also from the passage that’s before us that procrastination can find many reasons to rule our lives. The picture there is of somebody watching the weather all the time. Not going to sow; the weather’s not right. Not going to reap; the weather’s not right. Anything can happen, anything can come in the way of something that we know we should do, but we don’t get around to doing it because there are always all these other things going on around in our lives. And generosity in our hearts is exactly the same. We can find lots of reasons not to be generous.

The best one that we can often find not to be generous in this life is that the government is looking after everything anyway, so why should we bother? One of the difficulties of living in a welfare state, isn’t it, is that when it comes to helping other people out, we kind of know that nobody is going to starve to death. We have this sort of underlying cradle-to-grave mentality in our socialist world, and so we can think those sorts of things. But really, that’s just watching the weather in regard to other people. We should surely find reasons to be able to help people one way or another. But at any rate, that’s just a by-the-way.

We don’t know how much life we’re going to get and how things are going to work out, so get on with it. In other words, time is short. We all know somebody who all of a sudden has had a heart attack and died, and it was a surprise to us. This is a repeat of an ongoing theme in Ecclesiastes. A little later on, when we get to chapter 12, it’s going to talk about another sort of death, the slow wearing-out sort of death, and I can’t wait to get there, really. But for most of Ecclesiastes the writer, Solomon we believe, Qoheleth, the Preacher, advises us just to get on with life and get going. Do what you’ve got to do. Be generous, in this particular case, because you don’t know when the opportunity is going to go from you.

Apostolic Application: Instruct the Rich

Enough. Apostolic applications. The first passage that we read in our worship today came from 1 Timothy 6, verses 17 through 19. Remember that Christianity in its very early stages was predominantly adopted by people that were not wealthy, that were not well off. It was a very appealing religion to those that were not well off, because you had the elites, you had the Sanhedrin, you had the lawgivers, you had the Pharisees, and they were really quite well off in many ways.

But your average person in the early church in and around Judea that adopted the Christian faith was not a wealthy individual, because the gospel offered them a hope and a richness that they could never experience, or didn’t expect to experience, in a literal sort of way. So, remember that. But there were exceptions, and there are exceptions of course today, as it was in biblical times. We spoke of Erastus. He was one individual who was a very well-paid vassal, or servant, of the Roman government.

There were others as well. Just off the top of my head, there was a businesswoman called Lydia, very wealthy. She traded in purple fabric, and she had a large home which became the base of a church for the Apostle Paul. And there were people of the household of Caesar who would have been very well off. But they were probably more the exception rather than the rule.

Because there are people that are well off in the church, Timothy is instructed by the Apostle Paul to instruct the rich to be rich in good works. In other words, be full clouds raining out on the earth around you. We know that it’s difficult for the rich to come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In another place He talked about it being easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than… no. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to become a Christian.

So, if you’re rich, and you’re well off, and you’re a Christian, a miracle has happened, in other words, which is absolutely marvellous, isn’t it? But the rich are susceptible, of course, to fixing their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, and that’s why the Apostle Paul is advising Timothy to give this instruction. He says, look, they’re susceptible to fixing their hope on the uncertainty of wealth. And for people that are well off and rich, of which our church is representative in many ways, the greatest temptation that we have is that we’re going to fix our hearts and our lives upon this uncertainty of riches.

Instead, he instructs them that they should train themselves to fix their hope on God, who supplies all things for them to enjoy. Be generous, in other words, ready to share, storing up for yourselves riches in heaven. So that’s why he’s instructing the rich. But you can see where he’s drawing the ideas from, straight out of the wisdom of God in the Old Testament. He’s drawing it right out of there and making application to those that are rich that Timothy is reaching at this particular time.

Apostolic Application: The Collection for Judea

There’s another passage we didn’t read, probably because it’s just too long, but you can check it out: 2 Corinthians, chapters 8 and 9. When you go home today, please open up your Scriptures and read 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, because the Apostle Paul there directly addresses the Corinthian church about a matter that is deeply on his heart.

What he’s doing at this particular time is running around the churches in the wider area that he would cover in his missionary journeys, and he’s making a collection. He’s making a collection for the Christians that had remained back in Judea. The reason for that was that there was a great famine at that particular time, and things were going hard, particularly for the Christians. If you became a Christian in Judea in the early part of the church, then you were really excluded from the help of the government or of the local authorities.

And so, as people had come to faith in Christ and then a famine came along, they were in great need. It needed to be that other Christians in the wider area would help them out. So, the Apostle Paul is just doing his thing here. He’s running around all these different churches, and he’s gathering together an offering from them to take back to Judea, so that they might be helped in that particular situation. Exactly the same as we do in the church today. But perhaps we don’t do as well as we ought to do. We might talk about that as well.

If we take it up in chapter 9, and we’ll go back to a verse in chapter 8, I think perhaps the most important verse in this regard. But if we just go to chapter 9, verse 1, Paul, in gathering his support for the Christian brothers, first notes that it is actually quite superfluous for him to make comment about it to the Corinthian church. In other words, the Corinthian church were known to be a very generous people. So he says, look, we want to get this organised, but I know that you already have a heart to share and a heart to give.

And I just thought, well, man, that is our church, isn’t it? It’s marvellous. I think this church is perhaps the most generous bunch of people that I’ve ever known collectively together. You are extremely generous, and I’m very proud as a pastor that you are just that way. So just as in one sense it was superfluous for Paul to talk about these things, it’s almost superfluous for me to talk about it to you, because I know that you are a very generous people, and I’m very glad of that. There is an exceptional generosity.

Give What You Have Purposed in Your Heart

So he begins chapter 9 just like that. But then he goes on almost to quote directly from the passage back there in Ecclesiastes. He says, look, “He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.” So he’s drawing again from the fundamental teaching and the wisdom of God in the Old Testament, and making application, apostolic application, in the church. He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap the same.

Give what you have purposed in your heart, he says. Now, from time-to-time people ask me about the policy of this church on tithing, because some churches, I know, demand from their members a tithe, a tenth, and they see that as a biblical way forward. I don’t want to criticise them for it. But I think this particular verse is the fundamental verse that teaches us in the New Testament as to extent to which each of us should be giving. And the extent is this: what we have purposed in our hearts.

I have every confidence in you as believers, every confidence in you as people, that your hearts will be right in this matter. And so, all you need to do in this particular instance is respond, as it were, and do what you have purposed in your hearts.

Now, over the years I’ve noticed that there are some people that are especially gifted with the gift of giving and of generosity, and that’s fine. Those people will very likely give far more than a tenth, far more, and that’s marvellous. Praise the Lord. And probably most of them keep it secret, because they don’t want to let their left hand know what their right hand is doing, and that’s fine too. But there are others that perhaps don’t give as much as a tenth of their income. That’s no problem either, as long as you’ve purposed in your heart what to do before the Lord, because you generally find that it all evens out somewhat anyway.

So anyway, that’s my understanding of that particular conundrum that comes up. There are churches that will make a law about that. We don’t want to make any more laws than are necessary, because we can’t keep them anyway, so don’t worry about it. Okay, so we should give what we have purposed in our hearts.

Not Grudgingly or Under Compulsion

He goes on then to say, “not grudgingly or under compulsion.” Giving grudgingly or under compulsion is not generosity; it’s paying taxes. Let me say that again for clarity. Giving generously is not giving grudgingly or under compulsion. To give grudgingly or under compulsion is not generosity; it’s paying taxes.

God has promised, he says, to supply abundantly all which is sufficient for us to be generous. If you want to be more generous, ask God to give you more, and I’m sure He’ll just give you more. After all, the cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him. He’ll give you more so that you can give more. Be blessed and be a blessing to those around you.

God’s glory, he says, all of this in 2 Corinthians 9, God’s glory is the end of our Christian generosity. What we want more than anything is to bring God glory. It’s the primary purpose of our lives as individuals and as a body of Christ, to give God glory in all we do. And this is only one thing that we do. But it’s a lovely thing, isn’t it? An opportunity for us to bring God glory by being a generous people.

The Most Generous of All

I want to finish with just one verse that the Apostle Paul points out, not in chapter 9, but in chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians, when he begins this talk about gathering money for the saints and sharing one with another. There are other principles there too, but it comes in the form of 2 Corinthians 8:9, which simply says this:

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Jesus is, and was, the most generous person ever. Imagine all that He had, for all of eternity. In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul goes into more depth about how He laid down His raiment, His eternal raiment, His glory, because He was with God in the beginning and was with God for all eternity. And He laid it all down to become a poor child, born and placed in a manger, a carpenter’s son, living out most of His life in one of the poorest of all places, a place called Nazareth.

When He became a minister of the gospel of grace and His public ministry began, do you know what they said? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Because it was such a bad place. And who came out of Nazareth? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the most generous of all, who put aside His heavenly raiment, His glory, to become like us.

What an example. He became poor so that you and I might become rich. Now, sometimes we might apply that in terms of the riches that we have in these days. Sometimes we could apply it well in terms of the time that we give to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Others might think in terms of energy. But whatever it is, be generous. Be generous with it, we pray.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray.

Father, again we thank You for Your Word and the encouragement it is to us. Help us, Lord, to be generous, because as a church we are being blessed with so much, and there are so many good people here who give so willingly and so generously, in terms of their money and their time and their energy. We thank You for everyone who does that, both those that are seen and those that are unseen.

But Lord, help us to do better. Help us, Lord, to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, who put aside all His eternal glory for a time and became a man, born of a young woman called Mary, who was married to a carpenter called Joseph, and who lived in a place that was not desirable at all. It was not the Oriental Bay of the Judean world.

We thank You, our Heavenly Father, that He did that, and help Him to be our example. Build in our hearts even more generosity, we pray, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.