Introduction:
We Have Joy in Work Because...
(Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)
- It is a Gift from God. (Eccl 3:13b)
- We are Made for working. (Eccl 3:10-11a)
- It leads us to the "Big Picture".
(Eccl 3:11b,14-15)
(Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)
(Eccl 3:11b,14-15)
3 Ways Eternity Changes Our Work:
- It changes our Mindsets of why we work.
- It keeps work in its Proper Perspective .
- It helps us to Reevaluate our work.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:38-00:39
Happy 4th of July.
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I know a lot of people with it being the 4th of July might be distracted right now, thinking about their cookouts or the parades that are coming up or fireworks, right?
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So I want to open up in a word of prayer so that we can clear our heads of these distractions.
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All right?
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So Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.
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We thank you for our nation and our independence.
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And at this moment God, we ask that you help us to put away distractions.
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You help us to instead focus on your Word right now, as we dig in, as we see what you have for us.
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To glean from it truths that we can apply to our lives, and help us in our walk with you.
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We thank you God. We pray this in your Son, Jesus' name. Amen.
01:28-01:32
So, some of you might see, I brought my posse with me.
01:32-01:44
I have my parents, I have my Jersey parents, I have my older sister and their family here, and I do have an older brother as well, but he is not here.
01:45-01:47
So where does that leave me in the hierarchy of my family?
01:48-01:49
Well, I'm the baby, right?
01:50-02:44
And I don't think I have to sell anybody on the fact that babies have it the best in the families. Despite that, there is one major setback being the baby of the family. One major setback. You get to see your siblings do everything before you get to do it, right? Things like graduating, you know, maybe going to college, doing all the exciting things in life, right? And one of those things for me that I was really jealous about initially was when I saw my brother get a job. My brother got a job at Viola's in Evans City and I just remember being so jealous because he was now making the big bucks. Minimum wage or not, it was far beyond the going rate at home for our allowance. I'm sorry mom and dad.
02:46-02:53
But a few years later I got to live that dream. I got a job at Sherwood retirement community as a server in the dining room.
02:54-03:01
And I worked there for five years of my life before I graduated college and got my first big boy job.
03:02-03:13
And thinking back on that first job, I remember being so excited for my first days there and conversely I was also equally as excited when I put my two weeks notice in.
03:14-03:49
At that point I was saying sayonara, I'm off to bigger and better things and to more important work. Now my excitement there was mainly rooted in the fact that you know I got a job that dealt with my college degree but I was also excited because I left what I felt to be a dead-end job. Right at that time I had no satisfaction in that work and there was no more happiness. Right I stayed there in college more so out of obligation because I had been there for about a quarter of my life. But at the end, I dreaded being put on that schedule.
03:51-04:20
Now the funny thing about my first job though is that it's definitely the most memorable one. I wasn't in charge of any big decisions at work and the work I did there was far easier than anything I've done subsequently. And as much as I was eager to leave Sherwood Oaks, I remember having a lot of fun, being really exciting and how joyful some of those days were. I want everyone here to think about your first job, right? Think about that.
04:21-04:31
All the different characters and just the situations and hijinks that you got yourself into. Isn't it memorable? Isn't it fun to think about those prior days?
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I remember at Sherwood Oaks whenever I got there and I got to see that I was runner, right? And if my boy Ryan was the expedited busser, I knew it was going to and it was going to be a good day.
04:44-04:48
And after the shift, we got to eat all the leftover, unserved food.
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I remember eating my paycheck in scallops one night.
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(Laughter)
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That was amazing.
04:55-05:00
But fast forward to today, I work at a financial institution, and I get to do some cool things, right?
05:00-05:07
I make a good wage, and the work is satisfying, but it doesn't have the spark of that first job.
05:07-05:16
In fact, as I've gotten older and I've chased the career path, moved jobs, and even gotten promotions, there hasn't been that same level of happiness and excitement.
05:17-05:20
My job is mainly for a paycheck, right?
05:20-05:24
I work to provide, but my joy is lacking.
05:25-05:27
And maybe you're in the same boat as me, right?
05:27-05:31
Nice job, you're comfortable, the work brings home the bacon, but not the joy.
05:33-05:34
So what do we do in that situation?
05:35-05:37
Do we split and search for the next thing?
05:38-05:41
Do we hunker down and reevaluate where God has us right now?
05:42-05:43
How do we stay happy at work?
05:44-05:46
How do we find joy in work?
05:46-05:48
Should we find joy in work?
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Now, before half of you check out, hold up, wait a minute.
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I want to take everyone along for this ride, because work does not equal having a 9 to 5, 40 hours a week, paid bi-weekly with medical and dental benefits job.
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Whether you know it or not, nearly everyone works, and is therefore a worker.
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Work is broadly defined as a physical or mental activity directed towards the production or accomplishment of something, fulfilling duties, laboring, toiling, exerting energy.
06:22-06:25
Because besides my main job, I work at my home.
06:26-06:29
When things break or need repaired, I work to fix them.
06:30-06:32
When the yard needs maintained, I work outside.
06:33-06:38
And at the church, when AV stuff needs done, I work to do that thing.
06:39-06:45
But my view of work and what falls under that domain is just a tiny sliver of what constitutes what work is.
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I think about my wife Jessica and the stuff that she does - maintaining the home, feeding our family, raising our children.
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She's toiling, she's exerting energy to accomplish something, so she's working.
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She is a worker.
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So you might be a mom or dad, at home with your young kids, feeding, nourishing, and pouring all you can into them.
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You're a worker.
07:09-07:12
You might be a missionary, spreading God's word to remote regions of the world.
07:13-07:13
A worker.
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You might be a student, studying for a degree or practicing under an apprenticeship.
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A worker.
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You might be like me, have a part-time or full-time job or self-employed, using whatever skill set you have to earn a paycheck.
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A worker.
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But there are special circumstances, I'll admit, where someone is unable to work due to either disability or other circumstances, but nearly everyone has the ability to work in either a physical or mental capacity.
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So what are some of the word associations that we have with work, with the term "work" and "worker"?
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I already dropped a few earlier.
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Toil, exertion, labor, maybe back-breaking, sweat.
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Are the real Debbie Downers in the room necessary evil?
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But what about the word "joy"?
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Is that word association even in the top 100?
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Probably not, at least not for most of us.
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Unfortunately, work typically has a negative connotation associated with it.
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It's something we do out of necessity, and it often isn't easy.
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And I'm not here to discredit those facts.
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That's often the nature of work, especially living in a fallen world.
08:27-08:31
Right, sin warped and destroyed God's original intentions for work.
08:32-08:41
Despite the current conditions of this world, that does not mean that we can't have good connotations associated with work as God originally intended.
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And that's what we're gonna focus on today, finding joy in our work.
08:48-08:51
So we're gonna be in Ecclesiastes 3, 9 through 15 today.
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So I want you to go ahead and exert some energy, work to turn the page or swipe on your phone, and we'll be in scripture shortly.
09:02-09:04
So joy, work.
09:05-09:08
I'm sure many of us do have work that we find fun or joyful.
09:08-09:12
Could be a hobby or a part-time job we really enjoy.
09:12-09:16
So I'd say there's always work that we can find and label as bringing us joy.
09:18-09:22
But often there's a majority of work that we pile into that necessary evil category.
09:24-09:27
Maybe you don't really like your job, you're just there for the paycheck.
09:27-09:34
Or if you work around the home, I mean, laundry day, can't wait to watch "Clothes" for the billionth time.
09:36-09:37
Or even doing missions work, right?
09:37-09:40
I can't imagine it being joyful doing the fundraising aspect of that.
09:41-09:43
Getting ghosted on calls and ignored.
09:44-09:49
Or for the students out there, I mean, what joy it is to study for the next exam, right?
09:51-09:58
So while we are familiar with joyful work, what can we do to extend that into the rest of what we do?
10:00-10:03
Let's go to God's word and see what he has to say about that.
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Again, we're in Ecclesiastes 3 and starting in verse 9.
10:07-10:09
What gain has the worker from his toil?
10:10-10:13
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
10:14-10:16
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
10:16-10:23
Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
10:24-10:32
I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.
10:33-10:35
This is God's gift to man.
10:35-10:38
I perceive that whatever God does endures forever.
10:38-10:41
Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it.
10:41-10:50
God has done it so that people fear before him, that which is to be already has been, And God seeks what has been driven away.
10:53-10:55
So what a way to start off this scripture, right?
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With an existential crisis.
10:58-11:00
What gain has a worker from his toil?
11:01-11:02
But this is a valid question.
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I'm sure many of us have asked ourselves in regards to our work or working.
11:08-11:09
Why am I doing this?
11:09-11:10
What purpose does it have?
11:10-11:11
What is the point?
11:11-11:13
Why am I breaking my neck for this?
11:14-11:16
Why am I fighting this battle?
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And just being completely transparent, I was asking myself these questions earlier in the year and was primarily the reason why I selected this passage.
11:27-11:29
Work was pounding me and I was feeling lost.
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You ever have those days?
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One thing after another, a mistake here, a setback there, or maybe there's something else going on in your life that's giving you stress.
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Kids acting up, car issues, bad weather ruining an outdoor event.
11:51-11:56
See, there's a lot of things beyond our control that cause us to lose joy in our work.
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It can be overwhelming, right?
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And there are things that are unexpected that instantly suck any prior joy from your life, things outside of our direct work.
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Right? This might be kind of an extreme example, But in March of this year, right, that pounding
12:16-12:17
[Pounding]
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became the heartbeat of our unborn daughter, Francesca.
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[Pounding]
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And at 22 weeks,
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[Pounding]
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it stopped.
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[Pounding]
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We had no say in that.
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No control.
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[Pounding]
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That situation and that event only exacerbated the question, "What is the point of my toil?" Well the answer to this question is addressed in verse 12 and 13 and encompasses all types of work and workers.
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Again verse 12 reads, "I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.
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Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil." So what gain is there from our work?
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answer comes to being joyful, doing good and taking pleasure in our work, right?
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End a sermon. You have joy because darn it, thus says the Lord.
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But we're human, right? We seek a deeper answer than that, right? I mean, I remember growing up and asking my parents questions like, you know, the "why" questions. Why is this? Why is that? And initially you get like valid responses to begin with, but then once you keep digging further, it always devolves into to "because I said so," right?
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Doesn't this seem like a "because I said so" type of response?
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So what is the practical answer to be joyful and finding joy in all our work?
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How do we stay motivated and keep wanting to work?
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Luckily for us, the rest of this passage offers verses that can give us insight and address our concerns.
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So on your outline, we have joy in work because, number one, It is a gift from God.
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This is the part that was tagged onto the end of verse 13.
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Taking pleasure in our toil, being joyful, that is a gift from God.
14:13-14:14
So what does that mean?
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How does knowing that this is a gift from God cause us to have joy in work?
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Well, God has blessed humanity with many gifts.
14:24-14:56
And his gifts serve a purpose and should provide us earthly pleasure, satisfaction and joy, right? Work being a gift from God should provide us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy. And to help us understand this concept a little better, I want to take a look at some of God's other gifts and see if this holds true, right? Marriage. Marriage is a gift from God. It is something that He instructs us to do. It serves a purpose to unify a man and a woman, to We create a family unit where both sides complement each other.
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And when done according to God's plan, it brings us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.
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Sex.
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Sex is a gift from God.
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It's something he instructs married folks to do.
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It serves a purpose, obviously, to create children, but also to draw a married couple together as one.
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Sex provides us earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.
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Food.
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Food is a gift from God.
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It's something we kind of have to partake unless we die, but it serves a purpose to provide our bodies with energy, but also has good things like taste, and is a way for us to fellowship and commune with others.
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So food as a gift provides earthly pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.
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So coming back to work, right?
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There is purpose to our work.
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And depending on what you do for work, it can be pretty easy to see the direct implications for it.
15:55-16:02
Like the nine-to-fiver or part-time worker does it for a paycheck, the stay-at-home parent does it to raise children, the missionary does it to spread God's word.
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Those are the purposes that we see.
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But often there are purposes beyond our privy, purposes that God in his infinite wisdom has for us, but we don't see immediately.
16:17-16:24
Perhaps the work that he has us doing is developing our skills and our character to make us more useful for his purposes.
16:26-16:33
Or maybe our work is a way for us to get around others, others outside our sphere of influence so that we can minister to them.
16:34-16:41
Work also can be a welcome distraction from stressful situations or other things going on in our lives.
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But ultimately, work is to fulfill his will.
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And in that knowledge, we can have joy in knowing that we served his purposes.
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Now I can only speak from my experiences, but I know I've had plenty of times when that joy is always in hindsight, right?
17:00-17:04
When I'm in the thick of work, it's difficult to see that purpose and joy.
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And I don't want this to be a cop-out, but this is where a bit of faith comes in.
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God told us that work is a gift so we can know our striving is not in vain.
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You kind of have to go into your work with that attitude, and knowing that God has a purpose for it.
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See, to me, that's the best way to set yourself up to be joyful, even when your work doesn't immediately seem that way.
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And one other thing I want to mention about God's gifts is that man is pretty good at corrupting.
17:37-17:47
When we try to find purpose beyond his, we override the meaning of our work to begin to believe the idea that work isn't a gift from God.
17:48-17:56
Just like marriage, just like sex and food, we do a good job at warping and destroying God's original intentions for his gifts.
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Marriage turns into a nagging burden and a trap we can't wait to escape.
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Sex becomes a perverted, warped fetish that entraps men and women in habitual sin.
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Food becomes gluttony and temporary pleasure to escape bigger problems.
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Work too is easily corrupted.
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It can turn into an idol and a trap that enslaves us.
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A constant drive to earn money, to look out for our own interests, and become self-centered in our accomplishments and recognition.
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Even parents or folks that think they have good intentions get sucked into false purposes.
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Their work takes over their lives and they no longer have fellowship with their family, with their spouses, and especially God.
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But just because we see this around us every day and many fall into that trap, it doesn't mean God's purposes are still not fulfilled.
18:50-19:02
Right? That's one of the beauties in serving and submitting under an all-knowing sovereign God. He can take that mistake and use it as a learning opportunity, a way to bring our perspective back into his view.
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And if you're seeing somebody go through that, it's a stark reminder that When you fall into that trap, when you let work become your idol, it is a way to just suck the joy from our work.
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So we need to have a proper perspective on work being a gift from God.
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We have joy in our work because it is a gift, and the second reason why we have joy in our work is because number two, we are made for working.
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Picking up again in verse 10. "I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
19:42-19:50
He has made everything beautiful in its time." So this point goes a bit hand-in-hand with the first one.
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Because work being a gift from God, he follows that up by equipping us to carry out the purposes of his work and the actions of working.
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Right, think about this. If we go back to Genesis, You know the first thing we see God doing is creating the universe the earth and everything in it right six days where the Lord is working And on that last day God creates man, and he creates us in his image So you know what do we just see God do work, and he created us in his image, so You know why wouldn't we not be made to do the same thing?
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And work isn't a bad thing either, right?
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It's not like work was a form of punishment that came as a result of the fall.
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You know, Adam actually had the first job.
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God created the creatures and he brought them to Adam to name.
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And he also had work in maintaining the Garden of Eden.
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It wasn't until the fall and when the curse came into the world when work became a burden.
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See, God always had in his mind that his creation would be doing stuff.
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We would be working, even in eternity, right?
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We're gonna be working there.
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Some of us are gonna need to find new jobs.
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No more pastors, no more lawyers, no more doctors, but we will be serving in eternity and serving for God's purposes.
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And what exactly that looks like is definitely gonna be different.
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And if you have any questions about this, you just missed our Q&A day last week, but it sounds like a great opportunity for the next time.
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But why have joy in this fact that we were made to work?
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Well, it shows that God equips us, right?
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We aren't helpless or left to be overrun.
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He engineered us with capable bodies and minds to fulfill the assignments He's given us.
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Just look at the human body and how amazing it is, right?
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We have opposable thumbs, we balance on two feet, we have voices to communicate, and minds that can think of all sorts of clever solutions and ways to go about working.
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I think about the technology advancements we've seen over the recent years, and just how we as people can live to be 70, 80, 90 years old and spend that entire time working and being productive for His purposes. That is joyful.
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And that's why you should find joy in your work.
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The assignments God has given for you are because they are made for you.
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You might be stretched or pushed beyond your comfort level, but isn't it joyful in knowing God has personally given each and every one of us assignments?
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If we take a look at our church family here, there's many people here with a myriad of talents.
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People with different levels of dexterity, patience, comprehension, and strength.
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And each of those allow us to flourish in different work environments, different assignments, and in different ministry callings.
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See, I work in the AV booth, right?
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And I do that because I like to nerd out and do tech stuff.
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Do not put me back in children's.
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(audience laughing)
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I say that both for my sake and for your child's.
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Do I wish I was equipped to handle children's?
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Sure, but that's not how God engineered me.
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And I'm thankful that we have people like Mandy, Ryan, Kristen, and others that are equipped in that way.
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You know, it can be easy instead to get desensitized on how wonderfully and fearfully we are individually made.
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Instead, we focus on how weak and incapable we might be, and how someone else is better equipped, right?
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Stronger, faster, smarter, whatever.
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No, stop comparing, stop sabotaging your joy.
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You are made specifically, You are equipped purposefully.
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One last thing I want to mention about this topic is that just because you are equipped, it does not make you obligated.
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I want to repeat that and I'll explain what I mean.
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Just because you're equipped, it does not make you obligated.
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See, this is another joy-robbing trap that I see people falling into.
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People at our church, I myself have done it, right?
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I think almost everyone has done it at least once in their life, right?
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Saying yes to every request under the sun or feeling like you must do something because you can.
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Now, there are circumstances where you have to step up, where you are called to that, and I'm not discrediting that.
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But the people that take on work over and over and over again, maybe initially you can weather that storm, you can weather an increased workload.
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But if you keep grinding on and on, often this will lead to bitterness, resentment, and a calloused heart towards the work you're doing.
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If you remember verse 13, there's that eat and drink and take pleasure part.
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We can't do that if you're always working.
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So just be aware of this pitfall.
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We don't wanna get burned out on the work gift.
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There are plenty of other of God's gifts to partake in.
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So we have joy because God has equipped us, right?
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We are made for working.
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But the third and most important reason why we have joy in our work is because, number three, it leads us to the big picture.
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Second half of verse 11, then I'll read 14 and 15 again.
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"Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, "yet so that he cannot find out what God has done "from the beginning to the end." And in 14, "I perceive that whatever God does "endures forever.
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"Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it.
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"God has done it so that people fear before him.
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"That which is already has been, "that which is to be already has been, "and God seeks what has been driven away." See, up until now, I've been talking mainly about earthly things, right?
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Working at a job, at home, on the mission field, at school, wherever.
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I've been trying to make a case of why we can be joyful in our earthly work.
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Well, while we can find pleasure and satisfaction and joy here, we must understand that eternity is the end state of everyone's soul.
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The work we do on Earth is just like our lives here, fleeting, and just brief wisps compared to our eternal state.
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See, God never meant for us to achieve total satisfaction in our earthly work.
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Right, I mean, I compare this similarly to how the law leads us to a need of a savior in Jesus Christ.
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The work we do on earth leads us to a craving of more, right, the big picture.
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We started with that question earlier, what gain has a worker from his toil?
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And there was that earthly answer, pleasure, satisfaction, joy, but there's still the hardship, there's still toil, there's still thistles and thorns to contend with.
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So I think the better answer is coming to the realization about God's sovereignty and eternity.
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The ideas that work is a gift and that we're equipped for it means that we have an eternal creator who's given purpose in everything.
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I mean, we aren't always privy to his knowledge and his reasons, right?
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If we look at verse 11, it says, "In our hearts, we know about eternity, "but we don't have God's view." We don't know the beginning from the end.
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I'm sure there's many great assumptions you can come up with as to why God wants us to work here or there or wherever, but in the end, it's out of our control.
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And in verses 14 and 15, this further solidifies that our work here, in a way, is just a reflection of what God has already done or what he will do.
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There isn't anything we're going to do that's gonna catch God off guard.
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That being said, this concept might make some of you anxious.
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But to me, this brings joy because no matter what we do, God is in complete control.
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And knowing that the work that we do here isn't everything, that's a comfort.
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we aren't all equally gifted with the same type of work, or equally equipped in our bodies and minds.
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But eternity, that is the great equalizer.
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So you might be struggling day in and day out with the work you do, or maybe you're one of those rare few that really love everything that you do about all the work that you do.
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Props there.
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The point is, there is an end state of eternity.
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where all burdensome, tiring, hard work is gonna be gone and replaced with serving the Lord.
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So we're kind of in this odd tension.
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Do I need to go to work?
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Mike just said that God's gonna take care of everything.
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So, well, yes, you do need to work here, right?
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We still need to work.
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We're not robots, we're not programmatically going around feeding ourselves.
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And God still uses us on this earth to achieve his purposes, here and now.
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So what can we do instead with this knowledge, right?
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What can we take away from this?
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Well, what we can do is instead take away some changes we can make to our work now that we have a focus on eternity.
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So I'm going to go through three new points, semi-quickly, on how eternity changes our work.
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So letter A, the first way eternity changes our work we work. Having an eternal focus means that we're more concerned with God's intentions for our work versus the earthly things. And not, again, not putting those things completely aside, but it helps us to find joy in our work and purpose that isn't just skin-deep, things that we think about. When you have an eternal mindset, you can ask those deeper questions about your work and how God can help you figure out if you're doing what he wants you to do.
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It can also help soften your heart to bitterness you have at work, or to help you focus on areas where you struggle to find joy in your work.
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See, as Christians, Jesus gave us the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations.
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This is the work God is most concerned about, his eternal work.
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Right, if we're able to see the relationship that our work has with His work, and how what we're doing is supporting that, that is where we'll find the most joy.
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Not everything we do is gonna have a clear implication of how this relates to Kingdom work, making another meal or taking the kids to school, but if you can piece together all those little bits of your life and see if the culmination of what you do is to fulfill His purpose, that's where you'll find joy.
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Letter B, another way that eternity changes our work, is it keeps work in its proper perspective.
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See, I mentioned earlier that work can become an idol, but if we have an eternal mindset, that really shouldn't be the case for us.
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Work is a gift and should be treated as such.
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We don't overindulge in it, seeking to use work to replace our relationships with God and family with it. And knowing that our work isn't going to completely satisfy us here, why don't we reach for the stuff that will? Prayer, God's Word, and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now there are reasons when work might become a priority in your life, but it should only be temporary. Deadlines approaching are critical timeliness factors, I get that.
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But we shouldn't get into the habit of making work, or making excuses, rather, on why work is more important than everything else.
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Just a small example in my own life, and something I've been having to catch myself doing, is ensuring that I spend enough time with my wife and kids when they ask, even if it's in the middle of work, or when I have those work things on my mind, projects around the house or other work-related things that I need to do.
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And I think this is a discipline we all need to be conscious of.
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Putting work aside at times and ensuring it hierarchically doesn't take over our lives.
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And the final way that eternity changes our work, letter C, it helps us, rather, to re-evaluate our work.
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Now this point might apply more to work that we would consider a job, but it can also apply to the favors that we might do for one another.
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See, there's a lot of jobs out there that aren't specifically kingdom-focused.
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What I do, for example, I wouldn't say that's a kingdom-focused job, but at the same time, it's not anti-kingdom.
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But there are jobs that do fall into that gray area, that fall into this, "Am I doing this for God's glorification?" There's even jobs that are clearly anti-kingdom.
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Working a call center scam, drug dealing, crime, that's not really God's work there.
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But what about working at a liquor store or a casino?
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The question that we should be asking ourselves is, Is the work we're doing glorifying to God?
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Are we hurting the world or are we able to use our work to bring about His mission to be a shining light in darkness and help folks understand the truth about eternity?
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You know, for those prior two examples I just mentioned, the liquor store and casino, I'd have to say no.
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It's not God-glorifying work. Those businesses cater to sin tendencies. I mean, that's just kind of part of the job in the industry. If you're serious about God-glorifying work, you need to move on. "That's great, Mike. I'm just going to quit my job tomorrow." Right? On to where?
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Well, hear me out. A great resource we have is our church family. I specifically know three people, close friends that have gotten jobs or different jobs through others in the church, jobs with businesses or people that love God, glorify Him, and those jobs provide them joy. Right? Our family here, our church family, is a passionate group of people that can help in all aspects of our lives, work included.
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See, coming to Jesus and embracing His will, you know, it's not always going to be easy. You know, you might have to make very drastic changes in your lives. But these are changes that we have to make as we strive towards our own sanctification and our desire to become salt and light. But as we turn over all aspects of our lives to God. To His will, work included, joy will abound.
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We talked about work, talked about joy. It's not always an easy relationship for us to see. And I realize that with work being such a broad topic, I might not have answered the specific questions that you have or concerns or address individual situations that might be robbing you of joy from your work. But God has given us his word, right? There are many, many other verses, other stories and scenarios and things that God uses in his scripture to speak to you, to help you through those specific situations. Things that you are going through that are robbing you of your joy. And I would encourage you to read and also discuss and your small groups. What's robbing you of your joy? But I do hope though that these verses in Ecclesiastes help encourage you in seeing that work is a good thing. It's something that we can find joy in. It is a gift from God and we're made and equipped for it. But ultimately it should lead us to the big picture of eternity. We're in the arms of Christ. We find never-ending joy. Let's Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time.
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I thank you for this church and all the work that you've given us in the church, outside of the church, in our homes.
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It's how we have purpose in everything that we do.
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And it's not always easy, God, but we can find joy in every aspect of our work.
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You are there.
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It's just a matter of seeing your presence, God, and realizing that you've equipped us, you've gifted this to us, and that we can take pleasure and satisfaction.
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God, I thank you also for your plan of eternity, that one day we will be with you in heaven, serving you in unending joy. Thank you, God, for this truth. Thank you for this word.
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God, we pray this all in your Son, Jesus Christ's name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Ecclesiastes 3:9-15
What is one thing that God revealed to you personally during the sermon?
How does God’s view of work allow you to be joyful in your toil?
Why do we not have total satisfaction in our earthy work? What about people who are seemingly closest to God’s work (pastors, missionaries, evangelists, etc.)?
Why should eternity have such a strong influence over our work?
What changes can you make, in your mindset or circumstances, to bring joy in all your work?
Breakout
Pray for one another.