Aug 19 2018 The Wisdom of Hard Work!

Joe is home from the hospital – God did an amazing thing there – he is encouraged and happy and Gigi and Joe thank you for your prayer support.

Lord, thank You for our morning – to worship You and sing praises to You – as we listen to Your word, may all of this encourage and comfort, challenge and transform us. May we be different – not the same – when we leave here this morning. Help us to be growing in our relationship with You to become more like You.

Today – as we go through Ecclesiastes – it will be practical – talking about work – your job – your vocation. When it comes to this topic – there is much to learn from his sayings – but stuff to unlearn from his attitude –

Ecclesiastes 5:16 This too is a grievous evil: As everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain, since they toil for the wind? 17 All their days they eat in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger. 18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for people to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them--for this is their lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives people wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil--this is a gift of God. 20 They seldom reflect on the days of their lives, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.

The Teacaher is basically saying this: Life is short, hard, and bad! The best you can do is to find some enjoyment in your work/job and the reward it provides for you – even if it is little.

To contemporize it – you have to work to get money – so you can do the things you enjoy, but work is kind of miserable. There are practical, real, concerns he addresses with his negative bad attitude.

Here is one: You work hard, but your pay is too low. The Teacher addresses that.

Another – you work hard, you are a loyal, responsible employee, but you get passed up for raises or promotions because of political issues on the job. The Teacher addresses that.

There are always injustices in employment – and that is true – even in the best companies. There is always stuff to complain about. Bosses – the job itself – other employees. The list goes on.

Ecc. 2:11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Charming guy…

21 When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity. 24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.

What he is saying – all of us, in our hearts and minds – understand that our hard work should be rewarded proportionately. That is what we get – that is how it should work – but our experience tells us otherwise. Often our hard work is not rewarded – and this story runs in our minds – and it works out like this:

We work hard, and it doesn’t work out proportionately – so we work harder – and then what happens? We are not rewarded – and eventually we give up or become bitter or angry – because of how things work.

In the end – He is saying – because of this – find what joy you can in your stinking job!

That is what he is saying.

I say this – we need a higher purpose in our work than the teacher. I am not going along with him. We can have a higher purpose for our work. Question – how do we do that –

You might think theology has nothing to do with my job. We need to believe that we as humans were created to work. Some mistakenly believe that we were given work as a result of the curse.

What it says is that our work will become unproductive – the ground will not produce as it was meant to – having weeds and roadblocks and barriers – God’s first words to humankind:

Created to Work

God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1:28 NAU)

Here are God’s first words – after fruitful and multiply – subdue it! Rule! Work by caring for creation! You’re hired! Now work it!

Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. (Gen 2:15 NAU)

It gets more specific – Adam – you are a gardener. Work is intimately connected with the blessing – God’s original blessing. The work God gave would be fully productive and fully satisfying. Imagine going to work and knowing that it would be completely fully productive and satisfying. You would wake up excited to go to work!

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Gen 2:3 ESV)

God rested from all of what? His work! God works! Whose image are we created in? God! So what does that mean? To be in God’s image, we must work.

In Gen. 1 – God speaks – and things are created – Let there be light – and what happens? There is light. And it is a picture of God as a ruler or king – the king commands – and what do you do? You obey.

In Gen. 2 – we have a different picture of God – like these invisiable hands that come out of heaven – and these hands start building, working, and making things. It starts off as a potter – molding Adam from clay. Then a gardener, planting trees in the Garden of Eden, planting bushes and trees – and then he becomes an anesthesiologist and a surgeon! Then He becomes a builder as He builds Eve.

God is a worker – a Creator – they are all tied together. God wants us to have that attitude.

I know it is hard in our jobs.

Tim Keller has a week on work in the Wisdom devotional in October.

“The deeper background on work is in Genesis, where we see God’s hands in the dust – where work is one of the good things." God is happy in His work – and we are made in His image – no wonder there is nothing more humanizing than good work.

Romans 12:1 – Service of worship – would be underlined – it is one word – one Greek word that has two meanings – service – and worship.

Ecc. 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go.

Jeff leads us in worship. And then he types the message in. And that is just as important a form of worship – as when we sing praises.

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Rom 12:1 NAS)

No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. (Rev 22:3 TNIV)

Serve him. Wow. So we won’t just sit around playing Joan’s harp? IN heaven, you will work! It is not an eternal retirement plan in the sky! You know what we’ll be doing? I don’t know what it will look like, but we will be ruling over the new creation. Will God give you a galaxy? I don’t know. But that service will be productive and satisfying – filled with all of the joy and none of the burden.

Those who love gardening love to get their hands in the dirt, planting things – watching it grow – picking the fruit. They don’t like weeding – unless they are weird. Think of loving gardening as all of the good stuff. Heaven will be all of the good stuff of the service we do – the singing – all of the deeds and the giving of our selves. You will not be selfish in heaven – you will live your life serving others. There will not be a selfish bone inside of you. Because that is what God is like. Have you discovered the joy of serving? We have all done something where we benefited ourselves zero but benefited another significantly and you think, WOW!

I want to contrast The Teacher with God’s better perspective on work.

Ecc. 9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go.

Very cynical. This is not a ringing endorsement of work.

Colossians 3: 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Working for the Lord – not for your boss! Work with all your heart for the Lord – not the boss – not the company – not the paycheck! We can work just to pay the bills – OR – we can work for the Lord and pay the bills – and get an eternal reward! Your choice! When we get up on Monday morning – you can get up to pay the bills or get up for the Lord and get an eternal reward!

How? Paul gives an extreme example in using slaves – this is not an endorsement of slavery – in fact, Paul encourages slaves to be free and plants the beginnings to end slavery forever. But this is their lot, so this is how to serve God and survive in the most terrible of conditions. The language is subversive. This was used in the 19^th century to promote slavery – but Paul is saying – Make sure your owner knows that you are not serving him – but God – yes, he gets the reward of your service to God – yes, you do the activities he tells you to do – but your service is to God. Imagine the master: what do you mean, Paul, he is not serving me? They would not have liked this in Rome. Not at all.

I think Paul is taking the most extreme situation – so he can say – hey look – how much more – those of us who have lousy bosses, lousy jobs, difficult circumstances – how much more can we change our perspective.

Work harder and be more productive. Working for the Lord gives you this freedom – working to please the Lord and not simply to appease the boss.

This informs us that there will be things that we refuse to do because they are immoral because we work for the Lord. It allows us to be a Jesus person – as we work for the Lord, it allows us to be a witness in our workplace – not because we preach to others – though there is a time for that – but when we have a different attitude than everyone else. You are not working for your stinking employer – your Boss is amazing – the best ever.

Finally – you get an eternal reward! You get more than a paycheck – you are rewarded more by God.