Learning To Understand And Enjoy Your Job

Learning to UNDERSTAND and ENJOY Your Job

THEME:

Due to its importance in our lives, either our Christian life will impact our working life, or our working life will impact our Christian life. Therefore, we must develop a biblical perspective of our professional lives in order to avoid the trap of sin and to receive the blessings which God has created for us to enjoy.

LOGO: Either our Christian life will impact our professional life, or our professional life will impact our Christian life.

For many, work is THE most significant issue of life. People define themselves by their work. They refer to themselves by what they do -"I’m a minister", etc.

Solomon tried that and it did not work.

Read Eccles. 1:11, 2:17-26

I would like to show you four truths from Ecclesiastes which will help you understand and enjoy your professional life.

1) The original purpose was worship.

2) The obvious problem with our work.

3) The overwhelming perspective of the world.

4) The operating plan of wisdom.

I.The Original Purpose was for Worship.

Read Genesis 1:26-28; 2:8-9,15-17

God created work as a part of us. He created it as something that is innate to who we are as human beings. That is the reason that it is so fundamental to who we are. That is also why it was a significant area of concern and problem for Solomon.

This is also why so many people struggle with their jobs, careers, etc. It is one of the 3 great decisions of life.(salvation decision, marriage decision, career choice)

See that God created 3 basic motivations for work that are central to our makeup and design. (1)Duty (2)Reward (3)Honor

I.A.Duty:

God commanded us to work. God commanded us to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Genesis 2:15 clearly says that God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. It was a direct commandment from God.

I.B.Reward:

God did more than make us gardeners. He created for us rewards in the tending of the garden. God placed there both beauty and provision.

Why did God design it this way?

I.C.Honor:

God created the Garden to be beautiful for His glory. God commanded us to tend it so we would appreciate it and then appreciate Him as its creator. He did it this way to get us to understand that He provides for us and to worship Him as our provider.

2)The Obvious Problem with our Work.

Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong with Solomon’s understanding and enjoyment of his career. He was a very successful and prosperous King of Israel. Why did it all go wrong for him? The same thing that went wrong for Adam and Eve as they were going about their jobs of tending and keeping the garden-SIN!

The sin of Adam and Eve in the garden totally changed their lives, spiritual condition, nature, and world. This means that it changed the nature of their work as well.

II.A. Impact on Duty:

What was their sin? Well, there were several, but one of them was not tending the garden and protecting it. If they had been protecting it from evil, then they would never have listened to the serpent and followed him in his plan for tempting them.

Consider what God told Adam what the curse of his sin would include work for him became a toil and unfruitful.

II.B. Impact on their Reward:

Part of their sin was desiring what they could not have. Eve looked at the fruit and wanted the forbidden fruit. She waned it because it was desirable and beautiful; however, God had already granted them the freedom to enjoy all of the other trees in the garden which were described as beautiful and good for food. She desired to have what she could not have and have God’s qualities to boot.

Because Adam and Eve sought the wrong reward, they lost the Godly reward He had created. As a result of sin, the ground became curse and was no longer fruitful. The rewards for their work, bearing fruit, became impossible on any consistent basis. Failure enters into the world as a result of work.

II.c. Impact on Honor:

The Bible clearly states Eve and Adam sought their own ho9nr. They wanted to be wise like God. They were pursuing their own honor instead of God’s glory.

They were therefore cursed by being sent from the presence of God and from fulfilling the purpose for which they were created-to honor God.

III. The Overwhelming Perspective of the World.

Read I John 2:15-17

We now live in a world tainted by sin. That world operates under the power of sin to tempt us to sin. That temptation aims at the fallen part of us, or that part which is tainted by sin. In other words, it aims at our sinful hearts and tempts us using these problems are results of the curse of sin. Our work in the world faces these three areas of struggles and Satan uses this knowledge to cause us to sin. That is what Solomon is describing when he writes this passage.