The Bible Breakdown

Ecclesiastes 09: Grow Where You Are Planted

• Brandon Cannon • Episode 546

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Speaker 1:

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, and today's title is Grow when You're Planted. Grow when You're Planted. Today in this chapter, in verse 10 to be specific, solomon gives some amazing wisdom that can be really hard to do. It can be really really hard, especially in the culture we live in today, to do what Solomon is suggesting. But if you're willing to take this route I have seen it over and over again and if you read biographies of other people, you can see it pays off time and time again to grow where you're planted. We're going to get all that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review on the podcast it really does help and, as always, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. Go to the Facebook page Bible Breakdown and make sure you like that so you can see the daily chapters in your social media feed. But then go to the group and engage with us. Let us know how you're interacting with God's word, give us some of the takeaways that you have and then also make sure you tell other people, share it on social media, because we are just rallying around and creating this tribe of people that were just wanting to know God more by knowing his word, and I can't think of a better thing to do with our time and a better reason to gather than to know God more by discovering his word.

Speaker 1:

I already heard so many people say that they had never loved the book of Job as much as they did when we had a chance to do it together. And I'm curious and I want to know in the comments below on the social media posts and on the YouTube channel did you realize you were going to like Ecclesiastes so much? I know I love it and it's been such a joy to share with one another, and the more we dig, the more we find. So if you have your Bible, we want to jump into it. Open up with me to Ecclesiastes, chapter 9. And while you're doing that, I want to remind you that the overall theme is Solomon is saying the key to have a life well lived is a life full of God, and what Solomon is doing is he has written for us kind of a long sermon and he started off with just saying everything is meaningless, none of this is worth anything. And now he's starting to pivot and he's saying but do this instead. And he's helping us have a better perspective on life. And what he's going to talk about today is the idea of growing where you're planted. Not to always look at the grass on the other side of the fence and say, oh, the grass is always greener over there, but to realize there's probably a reason if the grass is green on the other side of the fence, there's a lot of manure over there, or the water bill is higher. It's almost never what it seems, and also, where we are is almost never what it seems. It's easy to take for granted what we have when we realize that somebody else is looking at us from another side of the fence, wishing they could be where we are. How many times, if we're not careful, do we complain about what we used to pray for? And also to be careful that some people are praying for what we're experiencing today and so, instead of praying to be somewhere else, I think Solomon is going to encourage us and challenge us to grow where we are right now. Let's dive into this and see what God's word will say to us today you ready?

Speaker 1:

Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verse 1, says this. This too, I carefully explored. Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God's hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous, wicked, good or evil or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, righteous or irrighteous excuse me religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don't. It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. This is nothing ahead. There is nothing ahead, but death anyway. There is hope only for the living. As they say, it is better to live, to be a live dog, than a dead lion. In other words, what he's saying is it doesn't matter if you're a good person or a bad person. Everybody dies. The difference is is what hope do you have waiting for you on the other side? Let's keep going.

Speaker 1:

Verse five the living, at least, know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. Whatever they did in their lifetime loving, hating, envying is all gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth. So go ahead, eat your food with joy, drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this. Wear fine clothes with a splash of cologne. Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. Isn't that sweet, son, the wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil, isn't that sweet? But also, what he is saying is as well is. He is not saying that when you die, you cease to exist at all, because that would be atheism. He's saying you cease to exist here. You can't make a difference on earth anymore.

Speaker 1:

Which also helps us understand when people talk about how they go to psychics and they talk to their dead relatives. Or you go to a haunted house and people act like you are talking to the person who used to live there. That is wrong and it is heresy. If you go to a psychic, you are not talking to your great aunt Susie, you're talking to a demon. It's just what it is. It's a familiar spirit. I'm sorry, surprise. If you go to a haunted house and you are certain that you saw some dead dude over in the corner. It's not a dead dude, it's a demon. Okay, so surprise, there it is. Once you die here, you is dead. All right.

Speaker 1:

The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die. After that is the judgment. So that's how that works. Okay, I know it took a dark turn, but we just got to cover these things as they come along. All right.

Speaker 1:

Verse 10 is the verse I want you to pay attention to. So erase, erase, erase, moving forward. All right, here we go. Whatever you do, do well, for when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning, or knowledge or wisdom. In other words, once you're done here, you're done. Verse 11,.

Speaker 1:

I have observed something else under the sun the fastest runner doesn't always win the race and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy, and those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or bird in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy. Now pause one more time. He is not saying that God doesn't have anything to do with it. He's basically saying we can't control those things at all. Okay, verse 13.

Speaker 1:

Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. A poor wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued, but afterward no one thought to thank him. So, even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long. Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king. Better to have wisdom than weapons of war. But one sinner can destroy much. That is good and that is true.

Speaker 1:

So the overall scope of what Solomon is saying is there's so much in life that we can't predict. There's so many things and factors that we just can't choose. And the reality is most of us have become painfully aware of this. Have you ever talked to someone who you know? They thought they were going to be married to the same person for the rest of their life and through something that they didn't expect that's no longer true. Someone who thought that they were going to have the perfect kids, but they realized their kids were actually just human, like they were, and they have struggles. Someone who thought that when they got to a certain age they were going to retire and kind of sail off into the sunset. Only now they have some physical issues that has robbed them of their retirement and of their time. The reality is we don't get to choose so much of what happens in our life.

Speaker 1:

That's what Solomon is saying. He's saying the wise don't always become wealthy, the educated don't always become successful, the strong don't always win the battle, the fast don't always win the race. There's so many things that we can't control. He said it's almost like playing a game of chance. We don't know, god knows, but most of the time he doesn't tell us he has his reasons for doing that. We can get mad at God all day long, but he's still going to do what he wants to do, and so what Solomon is saying is make sure to take that into stride. But then also I love what he says in verse 10. He says whatever you do do well, for when you go to the grave, there will be no more working or planning or knowledge or wisdom. Grave, there will be no more working or planning or knowledge or wisdom. So, in other words, be sure that whatever you find your hands to do, do well. It reminds me of two things I want to share with you before we pray and finish our time together. One is I was watching this TV show called Dirty Jobs one day and it was by a guy named Mike Rowe and someone had asked him the question.

Speaker 1:

He said you know, what are the people that you found that were the most passionate about their job? There's so many people nowadays who are looking for the perfect job, this kind of stuff. And he basically went on this long description and he said the most passionate people are probably not the ones that you would expect. And he started talking to people who are passionate about being garbage collectors, passionate about being sewage septic tank emptiers, being passionate about cleaning out these other things, and he said it wasn't the job, it was the opportunity. And he talked about how many of the people who did these jobs they didn't go to school to be a septic tank emptier. They needed to support their family, and so they took the job that was in front of them, only to find out that as they did it, they became passionate about it.

Speaker 1:

And he was careful to say I am not saying that you shouldn't try to do something you know, he said, but how many times do we miss what could be amazing? Because we're always looking somewhere else rather than what's been put in front of us, and I wonder how many of us have ran into that before. We get passionate about something for a season, but we're always looking for something better, and so we find ourselves jumping from, maybe, job to job to job, or passion to passion to passion, relationship to relationship, because we're always looking for something better rather than growing where we've been planted. This is where I am. I'm going to make the best out of what I have and see what happens from there, finding a way to become the best at whatever's been put in front of me.

Speaker 1:

It reminds me of something that Martin Luther King Jr once said. He said whatever you do, be the best you can be. And he said if you're a street sweeper, then may they one day hang outside your front door a plaque that says here is the best street sweeper in the world. In other words, whatever you find to do, do it with all of your heart. What would it look like in your life and in my life if we quit trying to reach for the sun, moon and stars and instead looked around us and said what can I become good at with what I have? And what we might find is there is more than enough passion and excitement all around us. Instead of looking to make a difference out there, what if we looked in our home and said what is the greatest difference I can make with my family, instead of trying to find another job, what if we said what is the greatest difference I can make right here? And if we truly trust the Lord, then maybe, when God is finished with us there, he will move us and open a door. Or maybe he wants us to stay there and stay faithful and find that there's passion already there. I don't know, but maybe it's worth thinking about.

Speaker 1:

Let's pray, god. Thank you so much for today. I think that your word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. I pray that it will encourage those who need to be encouraged and it will challenge those who need to be challenged. We celebrate you in all things today In Jesus' name. We pray Amen. And what God's word says in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 13, solomon says here is now my final conclusion Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. In other words, he's saying if you want to have a full life, make sure your life is full of God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Ecclesiastes, chapter 10.

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Brandon Cannon

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