Toil and Joy

Ecclesiastes: The Search For Meaning  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  33:21
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Toil and Joy

This morning we are going to talk about something that everyone just loves to talk about.
Work.
It’s a natural thing in our world.
We have to work.
And sometimes we love our work.
Sometimes we hate our work.
Often we can’t wait for our work week to end so that we can take a break from work.
Maybe you know someone or are someone who simply works for the weekend.
That on the day you go to your job you can’t wait for the end of the week to come.
Most of you know that for some 15+ years I worked in the Restaurant industry.
Waiting tables, bar tending, some managerial work as well.
And during that work, I would envy my friends who had what we referred to as “grown up jobs.”
They would get the normal M-F work week.
Meanwhile our week wouldn’t really start until the weekend.
But I could also see in my friends and co-workers the dread with their job.
It wasn’t very often that someone was excited to go to work.
That they were thankful they had a job.
That they were grateful for the opportunity to use their minds, hearts, and brains to help further their company’s mission.
Not only that, many people look forward to retirement.
The time in which they spend the last part of their life not working.
I’m not saying that weekends and retirement are bad.
But if you see working as simply an obstacle to get over so that you can enjoy the weekend or retirement.
Then maybe it’s time for a shift in perspective.
Instead of thankfulness and gratitude often times we see work as a burden.
As troublesome and tiresome.
And endless toil without any meaning.
Work can be tiresome.
It can be troublesome.
It can seem pointless, meaningless, and like Solomon says futile or vain.
The old preacher, Charles Spurgeon put it this way
We have worked, we have even worked hard; but the question comes to us—“What have we worked for? Who has been our master? With what object have we toiled?”
Charles Spurgeon
When Solomon looks at work, he feels this same way.
I have worked. I have labored. I have toiled.
But what does it all mean.
Is there any meaning, any point, any thing to gain through the work of ones hands.
Or did God make a mistake when he created man to work and labor?
Why is it that work feels so meaningless?
Why does it feel like it’s pointless drudgery?
Do we only work in order to provide for our family?
Or so that we can be “productive members of society?”
B/c if those are the only reasons we work, then we can rest assure that our work is vanity.
Meaningless. Toilsome.
And that’s exactly what Solomon found.
Work in and of itself is void of meaning.
It is a vain pursuit.
Let’s look at how bad Solomon thought it was.
Ecclesiastes 2:18 CSB
18 I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the one who comes after me.

Toilsome Labor

In just these few verses, Solomon looks at his work.
He looks at all the homes, the gardens, the parks, the conquests and realizes that all his work is toilsome and despairing.
Remember, Solomon had accomplished a lot in his life.
If we remember back to a few weeks ago, he boasted about the things he had acquired.
Servants, Slaves, land, gardens, buildings, homes, parks, livestock, singers.
And he found them to all be empty.
But surely the pursuit of these things.
The energy expended to get these possessions had to be worth it.
As the saying goes, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.
But here, Solomon doesn’t agree.
He uses very negative language to convey his point.
In fact, the language he uses passes negative judgement on the journey and work involved in what he gained.
Let’s look together real quick at some of the language.
in v. 18 he hates the work.
v.20 it causes him despair
v. grief, also translated pain, sorrowful, and no rest.
Solomon is really pointing out the fact that it seems that we work and we die.
Remember he has just finished lamenting the reality of death for everyone in v. 12-17.
And here he notices that the other thing that people have in common is the toil of this life.
The work of our hands.
And that it is meaningless and has no enduring value for us.
Many people try to find meaning in their work.
Or they try to make meaningful work.
They expect that the things they produce and work on here are going to have meaning in someone’s life.
And we should, at times think about work for the benefit of more than ourselves.
But at the same time, we should recognize that there are many problems with work.
Scholar and Theologian, Leland Ryken gives a list of problems with work:
some have poor work ethic combined with undervaluing work
others, overvalue work and become workaholics
Many workers feel separated from corporate goals and corporations themselves
Or they find that the corporate goals ethically oppose their own
anxiety in job security, a feeling of no long term loyalty to employees
A view from employers that workers and work are purely economic terms of a means of production.
So b/c of the fallen nature of the world, many times the work that we do, or the work we are called to feel empty and meaningless.
And to be honest this isn’t just true for corporate america.
Even for those of us in careers that are viewed from the outside as inherently meaningful, pastors, teachers, non-profit organizers, stay-at-home moms, and the like, struggle at times with the seemingly meaninglessness of our work.
So as long as a person works, there is most likely going to be a struggle to find meaning.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to hate work, but that there is going to be dissatisfaction with work.
And you may end up hating work if working is what you live for.
If working is where you find your identity.
I think this is an interesting point to dwell on for just a moment.
As far as work is concerned most of the time this is how we identify ourselves and how people identify us.
If you meet someone new, what is the most common question that is asked of that new person?
So, what do you do?
Almost as if what you do defines who you are.
And that’s not necessarily how the question is asked or even perceived, but we give so much credence to a persons career that we think it should be one of the first things we ask about to get to know them.
I’m not saying don’t ask that question.
But take a minute and think.
Is this person’s job the most important thing about them.
What does it matter what job they have?
Who are they? They are not what they do.
I’ll be honest with you, personally, I cringe when someone asks me what I do.
I try to avoid the question.
And it’s not b/c I don’t like what I do.
It’s usually b/c people can have very weird reactions to me when they find out what I do.
Though I am a pastor and I love what God has called me to do and who he has called me to be, my identity isn’t as a pastor.
My identity is as a child of God who has been called and chosen to teach, preach, and train people to do the work of the ministry.
Our Identity as children of God is more important than the job we do while we work in this life, but if we look for work to identify us we will find ourselves empty and lacking.
B/c when our work defines us what happens when that work is done?
What happens when we lose our job?
What happens when we retire, move, or get laid off?
We then will really see that putting our hope and meaning in a job, in our work, is meaningless.
That doesn’t mean the work itself is meaningless, but we will come back to that in a little while.
Our work is always only temporary.
This is something Solomon is going to rant on next.
Ecclesiastes 2:18–21 CSB
18 I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile. 20 So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun. 21 When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong.

Changing Hands

No matter how many years.
How much blood, how much sweat, and how many tears you put into your career or your work, the reality is you can’t do it forever.
And someone else is going to take over.
If you built your own business, it will either be taken over by someone else or passed down to family.
If you are employed by someone you are replaceable and will need to be replaced eventually.
That was a hard reality I learned when after my first job.
I spent 3 years working in a Fast Food restaurant.
I felt like I was the one holding that place together.
I thought they wouldn’t survive when I quit.
Or at least they would struggle.
But I regret to inform you that even 20+ years after I left that job it’s still standing.
I was, in fact, replaceable.
Someone came in after me, took my place, and performed their duties well.
Why are we talking about this?
Well, Solomon knows that eventually he’s going to have to hand over the reigns.
He’s not going to be able to rule and reign over Jerusalem.
That all his conquests.
All his building projects.
All his magnificent feats are going to no longer belong to him when he dies.
And one of the problems he sees with this is that someone else has to take over.
Someone else is going to profit from his hard work.
Someone else is going to come in and take over.
So, Solomon knows that he can’t take all his work and possessions with him when he dies.
The fruit of all his labor will be over taken by someone else.
And the reality is, he doesn’t know how the one who takes over is going to handle this.
He’s not sure if the one that is going to rule and reign after him is going to be wise or a fool.
He did all this work.
Put in all this time.
Exerted all this effort and someone else is going to reap the benefits.
And the worry is that all the effort, energy, and time is going to be in vain if the one taking over is a fool.
Solomon is proud of his work.
He looks at the homes, gardens, vineyards, and parks.
He looks over them and feels a sense of pride.
In v. 19, he says “I labored skillfully”
He was a skillful businessman.
He was a great administrator.
He was a masterful organizer and visionary.
He was good at what he did, and yet he has to pass it along.
At one point in time, whatever he did will no longer be his.
That can be pretty disheartening.
Especially, if you’re Solomon and you look at your children knowing that they don’t have the same work ethic, they don’t have the same foundations and beliefs that you do.
Why should they profit off of what He did?
Why should they reap the benefits of what he did?
And when they get what he gained, what happens is they squander it all away?
And here’s what we learn happens to King Solomon’s labor and skill after his death.
Solomon left his earnings and kingship to his son Rehoboam.
In 1 Kings 12, we learn that King Rehoboam loses 10/12s of Solomon’s kingdom.
B/c of his foolishness, King Rehoboam causes a split in Jerusalem and in the 12 tribes of Israel.
Solomon was right to be afraid of the person he was going to pass his kingdom on to.
One of the problems we face is that we are hardwired and born with a longing for permanence.
We want to leave a lasting legacy.
We want to be remembered.
We want what we worked hard for to make a difference.
To last for a long time after we are gone.
But if what we built, what we put our effort into has to be passed on to someone else how can we know that it will last.
Well the truth is we won’t know.
We can’t know.
B/c more likely than not, if it isn’t the person we hand our life’s work over to, then within the next few hands, it’ll probably be gone.
Our work will most likely not make a lasting impression on the world.
Or maybe for generations to come.
Someone is probably going to mess it up.
That’s why Solomon is faced with such despair.
He’s worked and worked and worked hard only to have to pass it along to someone who is most likely not going to care about it as much as he did.
The next one in line isn’t going to be as invested as he was in the furtherance of his goals and achievements.
In fact, Solomon sees this truth as “a great wrong” at the end of v.21.
Ecc 2:21 “21 When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong.”
He used his wisdom, knowledge, and skill, only to pass it on to someone who didn’t work at all for it.
I read a statistic this past week that said “in 60% of cases, inherited wealth is completely gone by the end of the 2nd generation.”
For Solomon, it was one generation.
Knowing that he is going to have to bestow his wealth to someone is what frustrates and angers Solomon.
He wants to take it with him.
He wants the wealth, work, and riches to mean something.
But he comes to the conclusion that it is all chasing after the wind.
It is all futile.
It is all wrong.
Here we can learn from Solomon that all the work in the world will not bring you meaning.
All the chasing after possessions through wealth will not fulfill you.
Work is good, but will never bring meaning.
Will never satisfy.
Will never last.
Solomon concludes his despair with work in the next two verses.
Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 CSB
22 For what does a person get with all his work and all his efforts that he labors at under the sun? 23 For all his days are filled with grief, and his occupation is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

Work’s Reward

What does a man get from all his work?
Grief, Sorrow, and restlessness.
So as much as Solomon hated the idea of giving his work to another, he truly hated the work itself.
It’s nothing but a toil and a struggle.
Grief and sorrow.
Work is demanding.
and all work is demanding in different ways.
For the blue collar worker, it’s the long hot days, sweating and using the muscle to twist and turn, plow and sow.
For the white collar guys, its the mental anguish. The worry about the day in day out toil of making sure the money is where it needs to be.
all work takes a toll on all people.
The toll may be physical, it may be mental, but regardless the toll and toil are real.
As far as grief and sorrow.
Sometimes we have to worry if there is enough work.
Other times there is so much to do there aren’t enough hours in the day to do them.
Not only does the work we do wear on us while we are at work, but for many of us it wears on us when we are at home.
When we are trying to rest from our work.
We are worried if there’s going to be an emergency and we have to go clean up a mess.
We worry about the work that’s going to be left for us when we get back to work.
It’s interesting, b/c every time my mom comes down for a visit, especially an extended visit, she always complains about the idea of going back to work.
Simply b/c she knows how much work will be there for her when she gets back.
So the work, even when she’s away from it in some ways brings struggle, sorrow, grief, and unrest.
And how long will this problem last?
Solomon says at the beginning of v. 23.
All his days are filled with grief.
From the beginning to the end, life is a weary labor, with little or nothing to show for it.
Therefore, work is as vain as every other aspect of our life.
If we try to find significance in work, it will only end in disappointment.
If you make your work your life, it will leave you empty.
So what are we supposed to do.
How are we supposed to live, work, and find meaning in this life.
If everything is meaningless,
If everything is vanity,
If everything is futile
How do we combat it?
How do we move forward without losing our sanity?
Surprisingly, after all this complaining about the emptiness of work.
About the real problem of passing it on to someone else.
And acknowledging that under the sun it is pointless, Solomon brings us a little hope.
In fact, in the next few verses, He radically shifts gears.
He takes a left turn and helps us to see the whole picture.
Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 CSB
24 There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, 25 because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him?
Joyful Celebration
Let’s read those verses again for some impact.
These are the first positive verses in Ecc.
One commentator said that these verses are “an oasis of optimism in a wilderness of despair.”
What has happened here?
He goes from grief, sorrow, and hatred of work to here Eat, drink, and enjoy your work.
Well if you look carefully, his perspective shifts.
And in a big way.
For most of Chapter 2, the focus has been on what he has done.
What he has accomplished.
How he wanted to seek and find pleasure.
And that is where the sorrowful pursuit of life and the hatred of life came from.
If it was all about him, then there is not pleasure.
There is no joy.
There is no meaning.
All that exists is sorrow, grief, and no rest.
Solomon seems to, in these few short verses find the meaning of life.
Love God and enjoy him.
Martin Luther said about these verses that it is “a remarkable passage, one that explains everything preceding and following it.”
I agree with Luther that it is a remarkable passage.
It’s the beauty of the meaning of life amongst the dreary that we often face, but I’m still convinced that the verse that explains all of Ecc. is 12:13
Ecc 12:13 “13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.”
But either way if we truly look at these scriptures side by side, i believe they are saying something very similar.
The point to all this pointlessness.
The hope in all this despair.
The joy found in the grief of life.
Is loving God in all that you do.
Solomon has pointed out in this singular chapter the difference between living life without God and living life in light of God’s goodness.
God makes a difference in our lives when we recognize that everything he has given us is a good thing.
That he has never and will never mess up when it comes to our design and calling.
Eating, drinking, and working are all good things.
When we enjoy them in light of who he his and who he has called us to be.
All of the activities that Solomon took part in during his hedonistic experiment are all good things.
Homes, gardens, wisdom, sex, food, drink, music, and work are all good gifts that God has given to us his creation.
The problem was that he took those good things and made them God things.
He tried to find fulfillment and purpose in them instead of in God.
Listen to what one theologian said, “Isn’t it strange that the more you run after life, panting after every pleasure, the less you find, but the more you take life as a gift from God’s hand, responding in thankful gratitude for the delight of the moment, the more that seems to come to you.”
So Corrie and I have been doing this reading through the bible thing together that we started at the beginning of the year.
and when the bible reading is finished we listen to a podcast that correlates with what we just read.
The lady that does the podcast has a sign off that she uses at the close of every podcast.
And At first I kinda mocked it, but it’s been growing on me recently.
In fact, its being ingrained in me, so much so, that sometimes I say it and don’t even recognize I’m saying it till it has already been said.
The phrase is, “He’s where the Joy is”
That simple but profound phrase is what Solomon is trying to get us to see in these few verses.
It’s what Jesus tried to get us to see in his ministry.
That God is the source of everything good and the source of Joy.
When we seek for good and joy outside of Jesus all we find is misery and meaninglessness.
But when we seek Jesus we find fullness of joy.
Fullness of meaning. Fullness of good.
John 17:13 “13 Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them.”
Romans 15:13 “13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
So here’s the thing, whatever we do, if we do it for Jesus there is joy to be found there.
In everything.
Including your work.
Solomon in this section of Ecc was lamenting the realities of Work.
The fact that it is fruitless and meaningless, b/c all that you work for is handed off to someone else and has no real lasting meaning under the sun.
And we talked about earlier that many of us are working for retirement.
And many of the Christians now days think that work is God’s curse on humanity.
That when God makes all things new, there will be no work to be done.
If that’s how you feel, I’m gonna burst your bubble a little bit.
We were created and designed to work.
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden were gardeners, cultivators of the land.
Even before they sinned and the fall happened, they were working.
The curse of Work after the fall was that work would be harder that there would be some unfruitfulness and toil in the work.
When God recreates the world, there is still going to be work to do.
We are still going to work in the presence of God.
Why? B/c work is good.
How do I know this?
B/c our God is a working God.
And he has created us in his image.
To reflect him on earth.
So if God is a working God, then his creation made in his image is going to be a working creation.
“Work is the natural exercise and function of man-the creature who is made in the image of his Creator.” When we work, therefore, we feel his pleasure.
The job you currently have whether it is an accountant, factory worker, stay at home mom, or entrepreneur is good work that God has gifted you.
And he has placed you in that work so that you can glorify him.
Your love for God and his grace in your life gives your work meaning.
I want you to think about it this way, when you work, you aren’t working for your bosses.
You aren’t working for your coworkers.
You aren’t even working for a paycheck.
You are working b/c work is good and God has blessed you with the Job/career you have.
You are working to Glorify God and make much of him in your work environment.
That doesn’t mean that work is easy or less frustrating.
That doesn’t mean that every day at work is going to be sunshine and rainbows.
But it does mean, that when we work we are working before the face God and our work has meaning b/c he has given it for us to do.
Whatever our job happens to be we are working for Jesus and his Kingdom.
That means that in our jobs we should be the hardest workers.
We should be the most devoted workers.
We should be the most reliable workers.
B/c we labor not for man but For God.
Colo 3:23-24 “23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.”
Solomon closes this section with a contrast between those who love God and those that don’t
Ecclesiastes 2:26 CSB
26 For to the person who is pleasing in his sight, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Pleasing God

Here Solomon really helps us to see that God gives meaning to life.
That outside of him everything really is futile, meaningless, and a pursuit of the wind.
Those who are pleasing in his sight.
Those who believe and walk with Jesus God grants wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
But those in open rebellion against God their work is in vain and they will see no profit or gain.
The wealth of all the nations will eventually be brought into the kingdom of Heaven
Rev 21:24 “24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.”
The truth is, everyone is working and laboring at the behest of God.
And we either recognize it and live for his glory or we ignore it and receive the reward of separation from him.
Where will you be counted?
Among the wise and joyful?
Or among the sinners?
Jesus wants you to repent, or turn away, from your sin and embrace him as Lord and Savior.
He wants you to know his goodness.
He wants you to know his joy.
He wants you to know his love.
He wants you.
Turn to him.
Submit to him and find meaning.
Find purpose.
Find life.
Let’s pray.
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