Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 Who is my BIG BIG Boss ?

Ecclesiastes 2:17-26

Who is my BIG BIG Boss ?

What is the Biblical Understanding on the work we are doing most of the week, most of our lives ?

First :

I’m just driving a taxi ? I’m just adding and subtracting

numbers ? I’m just changing baby diapers ? I’m just doing the usual task until

6pm ?

Second :

I’m helping my customers get to their destination ?

I’m making sure I can complete the balance sheet ?

I’m taking good care of my grandchild ?I’m helping to manufacture a good

product for my company ?

Third : I am contributing to the road safety of

Singapore, and well-being of families coming home safely every evening.

I am ensuring that my company is transparent in its accounting and continue to provide jobs for its workers, and services for its customers.

I am loving my grandchild with God’s love, protecting and nurturing her.

I am enabling people to use my company’s products to enhance their lives.

Third : I am contributing to the road safety of Singapore, and well-being

of families coming home safely every evening. [Taxi-driver]I am ensuring that my company is transparent in its accounting

and continue to provide jobs for its workers, and services for its customers. [Accountant]

I am loving my grandchild with God’s love, protecting and nurturing her. [Grandmother]

I am enabling people to use my company’s products to enhance their lives. [Factory operator]

I am doing the will of God, I am worshipping God with my work.

SecularJobs

Sacred Work

All Work can be Sacred unto the

Lord

SecularJobs

Sacred Work

All Work can be Sacred

unto the Lord

“secular” = “of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual or sacred.”

Sunday / Maybe Saturday :Holy, Smiley, Kind, Loving

Sunday / Maybe Saturday :Holy, Smiley, Kind, Loving

Monday to Friday : Mean, Quarrelsome, Unjust,

Dishonest


“17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort

and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

21For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

22What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

24A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

26To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

– Ecclesiastes 2:17-26

Work has become pain without gain, wealth without

satisfaction, toil without enjoyment, &

success without a worthy successor.

“Is work meaningless ?”

“Is work meaningless ?”

a) What is the root problem of work ?

b) Is there a purpose that goes beyond just earning a wage ?

c) How can we begin to turn work into a privilege to be enjoyed, rather than something to be tolerated ?

Ecclesiastes 2:17, 24

“17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. …

24A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, …”

Work under the sun VS Work from the

Hand of God

Ecclesiastes 1: 3, 14

“3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? …

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Work under the sun

Ecclesiastes 1: 3, 14 – “3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? … 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Work under the sun

“Under the sun” – a limitation of space. It is an earthly, temporal and humanistic perspective.

Ecclesiastes 2: 21

“21For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.”

Work under the sun

Genesis 3:17-19

“17To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it’, ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’”

a. Leisure becomes the focus of our life

Work under the sun

Work under the sun

“It’s just another manic Monday … I wish it was Sunday … ‘Cause that’s my fun-day”.


Work under the sun

Perhaps our life’s focus should be on play.

The goal every morning …every week …every year …working hard ….


Work under the sun

Is Work a necessary evil ?

Is that God’s will regarding work for us ?


b. Work becomes the measure of our worth.

Work under the sun


Work under the sun

Ecclesiastes 2: 19 “Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.


Work under the sun

Work then is not just what we do – it literally defines who we are (our status, self-image, identity).


Work under the sun

Work then is not just what we do – it literally defines who we are (our status, self-image, identity).

For work, some have forsaken friends, family and even health. They forsake not by intentional abandoning, but by neglect.


Work under the sun

If your god Is work


Work under the sun

Where did all this begin ?

When parents were driven to focus so much on academic performance that they neglected the need to help their child discover that they are persons first and performers second.

Work from the Hand of God

b) Is there a purpose that goes beyond just earning a wage ?

c) How can we begin to turn work into a privilege to be enjoyed, rather than something to be tolerated ?


1. Work : the divine callingGod works, and so must man.

Genesis 2:2-3 – “2By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”


1. Work : the divine calling

God works, and so must man.

The Son of Man (Jesus the carpenter) worked for 18 years so that we might understand that work is the dignity of man.



Genesis 2:7-8, 15 – “7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. … 15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

SecularJobs

Sacred Work


Lord

SecularJobs

Sacred Work


LordSinfulWork



But if our work is not sinful, then we should commit it to the Lord as a sacred calling from Him.



2. Work : the place to mould your character



2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 – “10For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’ 11We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 13Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”




3. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple



i. Willing to work and provide for our family

1 Tim 5:8 – “8If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”




1 Tim 5:8 – “8If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

It is important that as parents, we train our children to respect all kinds of work.




ii. Work unto God

Colossians 3:17 – “17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”



ii. Work unto God

Work takes on a divine calling as we become witnesses to who Jesus is. God is the One who has sent us out into the workplace, and when we work with a Christ-like attitude, according to Godly values, we turn our workplace into our mission field.



ii. Work unto God

When we work with a Christ-like attitude, according to Godly values, we turn our workplace into our mission field.

How do you think Jesus worked as a carpenter ?




ii. Work unto God

iii. Share God’s love – through words and deeds.


1. Work : the divine calling2. Work : the place to mould your

character 3. Work : A platform for us to live as

Christ’s disciple

Eccl 2:24-26a “24A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

26To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. …”

Eccl 2:24-26a – “24A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without Him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

26To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. …”

Revelations 14:13 – “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

How does God judge ?

What is more important is what are we doing in the job we are having now ?

How does God judge ?

What is more important is what are we doing in the job we are having now.

Was Jesus doing a secular work when He was a carpenter for 18 years ?

No, Jesus was doing the PERFECT will of God !!


My BIG BIG Boss is my Lord Jesus Christ.

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Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 Who is my BIG BIG Boss ?