What's In It For Me? Series

What do people really get for all their hard work? In 2013 that is a line of thought we’d expect to hear. What do people really get for all their hard work? What do I get out of it? What do you get out of it? But it isn’t necessarily a question we’d expect to find in the bible, but there it is in Ecclesiastes 3:9 What do people really get for all their hard work?

What’s in it for me? Solomon has just finished listing the activities of a lifetime, birth and death, weeping and laughing, keeping and giving away, loving and hating. And when it is all through, when everything has been said and done what’s the purpose. It wasn’t just to provide the Byrds with a hit song.

What do people really get for all their hard work? What is the purpose of it all? What do you gain? What is the purpose of life? Is it worth it all? Questions that are asked by thousands and thousands of people every day. And if you haven’t asked those questions lately you either have at some point in your life or you will at some point in your life. Why do I do what I do? Is what I’m doing meaningful?

Our jobs, our faith, our church activities, what do we really get from all our hard work? As I prepare my messages sometimes I wonder if they have any impact if they change lives or if they just go in one ear and out the other. Kind of like the new preacher who the first three weeks he was in his new church he preached the same message every week. It was entitled “Gird up Your Loins” and it dealt with service and character. After his third week he was approached by the board and they asked him if he had any other sermons to which he replied “Sure I have all kinds, but you haven’t done anything about the first one yet.”

Now I don’t know where you are in your professional life, but let’s talk about the work that we do at Cornerstone.

So Bayley and team do you ever wonder if all the work that goes into preparing the Sunday morning experience is appreciated? And all the volunteers that help out in Nursery, junior church, children’s church and ignite, do you ever wonder if people appreciate the effort and commitment that is involved in Children’s ministry? Last Sunday there were 81 children in all the children’s programs. Stop for a minute and imagine how different the service would have been for you if they had of been in here with the adults instead of in programs designed for them? On your way out hug a children’s church worker.

Mike, do you ever wonder, if when people look at the great financial reports you do, if they realize the amount of work that goes into being treasurer? Or for that matter if they even look at the great financial reports you do.

Each of us feels that we should be contributing to society and the church but there are times when we ask ourselves “Does what I do make a difference?”

What do people really get for all their hard work? I’m here to say that it makes a difference when you work for the kingdom of God. Of course people being people they don’t like to compliment you, in case your head becomes too big. But Bayley go ahead and have the team sing off key and mess up the tempo and see what happens, people will remind you of how good you were on another Sunday. And Mike you go ahead and make a few errors in people’s income tax receipts and that’ll get you noticed.

You never notice the person doing the sound unless it’s too loud or not loud enough. When it’s just right who cares?

Although this isn’t the thrust of the message just let me say that you need to let people know that they are appreciated in church. And you need to let your wives, husbands and children know that you appreciate all they do as well.

So back to the question: What do people really get for all their hard work? Money, praise, glory, satisfaction. Sure, sometimes but not all the time. So this morning we need to look at the three elements of this question and then answer the personal question of; where do you fit into the picture?

The question is asked in the book of Ecclesiastes, which of course is the 21st book in the bible. Traditionally we have been told that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes but we don’t know that for sure, the author only identifies himself as “The Teacher”, “The Preacher” or “The Leader of the Assembly.”