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.
Read Ecclesiastes 2:17-23.
By leading an unexamined life, we will fall prey to these temptations. We must learn to understand them and to face them with an understanding that comes from scripture.
III.a. Temptation through the motivation of Duty
Eccles. 2: 18, 22 - 23
Work becomes so burdensome that we hate it. The duty becomes a negative, toiling struggle. We are tired and worn down from the burden of it. When this attitude takes over we hate what we do and that permeates everything in our lives.
III.b. Temptation through the motivation of Reward
Eccles. 1: 10 - 11
Eccles. 2: 18 - 20
All of the rewards that Solomon worked for and acquired provided no pleasure or value for him. Satan tempted him to pursue false rewards, but they indeed turned out to be false and provided no lasting or eternal value to Solomon.
People are being tempted by false rewards.For example, a 1998 study on dual-earner families shows the following: From 1966-1994, working, married women rose from 35% to 61% of the population. During the same period, married women with children under 3 rose from 20% to 60% of the working population. Most research reveals this is due largely to 2 factors: (1)increased professional opportunities, and (2)income to keep up with the rising cost of living. When you combine these factors with consumer spending trends, it is clear that this rising cost of living was for bigger homes, more expensive, cars, etc. We have been working more and harder for a more expensive life style and not for simple increased costs in living. We have also seen the obvious breakdown of the family unit.
We have become tied to work for the purpose of making money and/or acquiring stuff. When this happens it is about greed and totally looses it meaningfulness and value. It is not bad at all to be successful. But work becomes skewed and destructive when it becomes solely about money. We learn too late what Solomon learned about the temptations of false rewards.
III.c. Temptation through the motivation of Honor
This is the idea of success for the sake of success or self-gratification. We struggle greatly with our sense of significance since we cannot fulfill our true purpose of worshiping God due to the sin in our lives. This is only healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ in which we obediently worship Him with our lives. This means we work for His glory and not ours.
Have you ever committed your career to Him? This means you are there to be a witness for Him. You are there to touch the lives of people around you because He has brought them to you for that purpose. This is a very different motivation for work. It will also produce very different decisions. The true value of committing your professional life to the Lord is that He rewards you with everlasting rewards when you serve Him in your work instead of your desire for self-gratification.
IV. The Operating Plan must be wisdom.
Read Proverbs 9:10-11; Eccles. 2:24.
Solomon repeats these lessons again in Eccles. 3:9-14.
Wisdom teaches us to realize that our work was designed to cause us to worship God. Obedience to our duty produces rewards which cause us to worship.
Godly wisdom at work involves several aspects. First, make it a matter of prayer. Second, ask this question over every decision: Does this honor God? Third, work with Christian integrity and always towards strengthening your testimony. Fourth, evaluate each major decision through this criteria: Will this draw me closer to God or will it tempt me to fall away from Him?
Asking these types of questions on a consistent basis will train your mind to approach work decisions and work situations with Godly wisdom. This wisdom will lead to spiritual decisions and produce rewards from God, which include His blessings of joy and fulfillment.
