The Curse of Work - Jake Poetzl

Work Life (week 2)

1. Work Becomes Difficult (Genesis 3:17-19).

- Our work produces pain (Gen3:17).

- Our work faces opposition (Gen3:18).

- Our work is never finished (Gen3:19).

Before the fall, Adam and Eve experienced a significant connection with their

work, after the fall it felt like dislocation.

2. Work Becomes Selfish (Genesis 11:2-4).

- Selfish-Ambition "That we may make a name for ourselves.."

- Ecclesiastes 4:4 "I saw that all labor and achievement spring from man's envy of

his neighbor."

- Proverbs 6 "God hates haughty eyes." (People who through a sense of

superiority look down on deplorables).

- Self-security: Jesus tells the parable about how work can lend itself

toward selfish impulse to maintain stability and control at the expense of others

(Luke 12:15-16, 18, 20-21).

3. Work Becomes Idolatrous.

- Work was designed to honor God, not replace God.

- "No more let sin and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to

make His blessings flow, Far as the cures is found." - Isaac Watts.

- Jesus is our pain-bearer (Isaiah 53:4).