“I Owe, I Owe, So Off to Work I Go”A Life of Work

Ecclesiastes 2:18-26

A Life of Work...

I Love My Job!

Overworked???

The Fate of Work (2:18-19)

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must

leave them to the one who comes after me. And 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 and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

The Frustration of Work (2:21-22)For 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. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?

The Stress of Work (2:23)

All his days his work is pain and grief;

even at night his mind does not rest.

This too is meaningless.

The Hope of Work (2:24-26)A 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,

for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To 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.

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

John 6:27 “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

God’s Thoughts about Work...

“I Owe, I Owe, So Off to Work I Go”A Life of Work

Ecclesiastes 2:18-26