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

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

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

3. 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 ?

4. 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 ?

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. All Work can be Sacred unto the Lord Secular Jobs Sacred Work

8. All Work can be Sacred unto the Lord Secular Jobs Sacred Work • “secular” = “of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual or sacred.”

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

10. Sunday / Maybe Saturday : Holy, Smiley, Kind, Loving Monday to Friday : Mean, Quarrelsome, Unjust, Dishonest

11. Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 “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

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. 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

15. Work has become pain without gain, wealth without satisfaction, toil without enjoyment, & success without a worthy successor.

16. “Is work meaningless ?”

17. “Is work meaningless ?” • What is the root problem of work ? • Is there a purpose that goes beyond just earning a wage ? • How can we begin to turn work into a privilege to be enjoyed, rather than something to be tolerated ?

18. 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 Work from the Hand of God VS

19. Work under the sun Ecclesiastes 1: 3, 14 “3What 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.”

20. Work under the sun Ecclesiastes 1: 3, 14 – “3What 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.” • “Under the sun” – a limitation of space. It is an earthly, temporal and humanistic perspective.

21. Work under the sun 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.”

22. 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 toilyou 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.’”

23. Work under the sun • a. Leisure becomes the focus of our life

24. Work under the sun • “It’s just another manic Monday … • I wish it was Sunday … • ‘Cause that’s my fun-day”.

25. Work under the sun • a. Leisure becomes the focus of our life • Perhaps our life’s focus should be on play. • The goal every morning … • every week … • every year … • working hard ….

26. Work under the sun • a. Leisure becomes the focus of our life • Is Work a necessary evil ? • Is that God’s will regarding work for us ?

27. Work under the sun • Leisure becomes the focus of our life • Work becomes the measure of our worth.

28. Work under the sun Work becomes the measure of our worth. 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.

29. Work under the sun b. Work becomes the measure of our worth. • Work then is not just what we do – it literally defines who we are (our status, self-image, identity).

30. Work under the sun b. Work becomes the measure of our worth. • 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.

31. Work under the sun b. Work becomes the measure of our worth. If your god Is work

32. Work under the sun b. Work becomes the measure of our worth. • 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 firstand performers second.

33. Work from the Hand of God • Is there a purpose that goes beyond just earning a wage ? • How can we begin to turn work into a privilege to be enjoyed, rather than something to be tolerated ?

34. Work from the Hand of God • Work : the divine calling • God 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 restedfrom 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.”

35. Work from the Hand of God • 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.

36. Work from the Hand of God • Work : the divine calling Genesis 2:7-8, 15 – “7 the LORD God formed the manfrom 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.”

37. All Work can be Sacred unto the Lord Secular Jobs Sacred Work

38. All Work can be Sacred unto the Lord Secular Jobs Sacred Work Sinful Work

39. Work from the Hand of God • Work : the divine calling But if our work is not sinful, then we should commit it to the Lord as a sacred calling from Him.

40. Work from the Hand of God • Work : the divine calling • Work : the place to mould your character

41. Work from the Hand of God • 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.”

42. Work from the Hand of God • Work : the divine calling • Work : the place to mould your character • Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple

43. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God 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.”

44. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God 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.” • It is important that as parents, we train our children to respect all kinds of work.

45. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God Willing to work and provide for our family 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.”

46. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God 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.

47. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God 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 ?

48. Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of God Willing to work and provide for our family Work unto God Share God’s love – through words and deeds.

49. Work : the divine calling • Work : the place to mould your character • Work : A platform for us to live as Christ’s disciple Work from the Hand of 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. …”

50.  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.”