Living the Word: Faith in Action

Boasting in Tomorrow

Time and chance humble every human advantage

Ed Rangel · Sunday PM · July 12, 2026

Scan for the study guide: outline, questions, every passage.

Sometimes the best runner loses.

Trained. Ready. Careful. And the slower man crossed the line first.

I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 · NASB

Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

Ecclesiastes 9:12 · NASB

Time and chance humble every human advantage.

Stop trusting the outcome. Give yourself to the duty God has placed before you today.

Human Advantage Does Not Guarantee the Outcome

The race is not to the swift.

Speed is a real advantage. Speed is not sovereignty.

Strength, wisdom, and skill follow no formula.

The battle is not to the warriors. Bread, wealth, and favor do not always arrive.

Ecclesiastes is not mocking effort.

The verse is aimed at pride, not at work.

You are responsible to be faithful — not sovereign over the result.

II.

Time and Chance Overtake Every Human Plan

Time is the moment. Chance is the event.

Not blind luck in a godless world — life seen from man’s side, under the sun.

Man does not know his time.

God sees the whole field. What looks sudden to us is not sudden to Him.

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

James 4:14 · NASB

“Suddenly” is the wound in the verse.

The fish never expects the net. The diagnosis. The phone call. The job.

Fear God before the net falls.

III.

The Wise Response: Faithful Obedience Before God

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 · NASB

Uncertainty does not excuse half-hearted work.

The fool trusts the work to guarantee the future. The wise man works and trusts God.

He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 · NASB

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 · NASB

For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:14 · NASB

Stop measuring your peace by your control.

Do the work. Make the plan. Put your soul’s weight on God.

30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

Acts 17:30-31 · NASB

Submit your life to the Lord while you have today.

Hear. Believe. Repent. Confess. Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

Ecclesiastes 9:10

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