What's the Point?

INTRO:

Disney Hercules:

Plot - “Phil, what’s the point??”

What is the point of all that we do?

your education

your job one day

Why will you look to earn a paycheck one day?

Ecclesiastes 4:4 ESV

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Work is done from envy

Keeping up with the Jones’

Why should I work or toil if it is vanity?

Hands at Rest

Ecclesiastes 4:5 ESV

The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

Folded hands:

symbol of done, no more work

Solomon calls them fools

Proverbs 19:15 ESV

Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

Not doing work is not the answer

Do I through myself into work? Do I let myself be consumed with doing?

Busy as a Bee

Honey bees:

3 different roles in a hive

queen, worker, drone

Most common

worker bee

Different jobs

starts off cleaning (own comb)

feeding (young and queen)

honey production

foraging - work themselves to death

Is this the model we should follow? Is this the point of it all, to toil till death?

Ecclesiastes 4:6 ESV

Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes

life wrapped up in toil is just as bad as a life of laziness

bee is always going from one flower to the next and back again

misses out on the things around it

doesn’t know anything besides flowers and the hive

So consumed with you and your way that you miss the opportunities going right by you

Open Hand vs. Folded or Clenched

Are we to do nothing? Are we to be so consumed with tasks we forget our purpose?

Colossians

Colossians 3:23–24 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Work is good

Not for our own satisfaction but God’s glorification

Storing our treasure in Heaven

so we in turn ask

Psalm 90:17 ESV

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

What is our work?

As a believer we follow Jesus with open hands

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Obedience is work - Jesus led by example

We make disciples as commanded in the Great Commission

We obey God

So what is the point to all of our toil?

to glorify God!

Challenge next week

Don’t just be consumed with getting your school work or extracurricular’s done

look for opportunities to share the Gospel

Ask God for eyes to see the broken and the hurting

Ask God to soften your heart

Don’t be slothful

God has called you to do work

at home, in school, at your job

why? to glorify Him

To show others Him

To give yourself the opportunity to share the Gospel