WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.839 So this morning I want to turn back to Proverbs chapter 20. We're going to take a look as I said 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:16.160 at this chapter, taking a break from Romans. I think sometimes we maybe get tired at this time 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:25.600 of year, so I want to keep the sermons the next few weeks simple, but I hope profound and challenging. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:32.240 Okay, and you don't get much simpler than Proverbs because it's God's book of common sense. That's 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:43.840 what it is, and it's just a fun of beautiful, wise sayings for us to live. I want to just introduce 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:50.560 it by speaking a little bit in a more broad sense about wisdom, because wisdom is all about love 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:59.520 in the first place. In Proverbs chapter 9 and verse 10, we have the fear of the Lord is the 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:06.719 beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And we should all memorize that 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:15.520 verse. It's a great verse to memorize. And the foundation in of wisdom is worshiping, reverencing, 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:21.840 fearing the Lord, and knowing Him. That is not knowing a... It's not a fact count about God. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:27.439 It's not how many things you know for a trivial pursuit question. It's knowing Him in a personal 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:32.959 and real way, and we know that's the core of the gospel. So the key to wisdom then for us is not 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:38.560 raw intelligence or even education, although these things can be significant and important. 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:45.760 It's foundation. The foundation of wisdom, biblical wisdom is having been touched by grace. Okay? 00:01:46.719 --> 00:01:53.439 That's the most important thing. That introduces humility into our lives because we recognize 00:01:53.439 --> 00:02:00.640 we need a redeemer. And it also introduces reverence into our lives because we understand who God is 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:09.039 and their relationship with Him, and we see Him as glorious and prodigal, and we understand His 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:18.000 rescue and the wonder of the atonement. So wisdom is... The beginning of wisdom is this 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:23.360 recognition of a loving relationship with Him. And it's also not just about love, but it's about 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:32.960 learning, because as true love wants to know more, doesn't it? If you love something, you want to know 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:40.880 more about that thing or about that person. And therefore true wisdom is a pursuit of seeking 00:02:40.880 --> 00:02:49.520 to know God better through His Word, through prayer, and through acts of obedience, which is wisdom 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:57.920 and practice. And that therefore is both mystical. There's a mystical element to knowing God, a 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:04.160 spiritual element that is difficult to define, knowing an unseen person, that is difficult to 00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:10.879 define. It is an act of faith. But it's also very practical. So wisdom is not only mystical at some 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:22.479 levels, but it's also very practical. In other words, it can be described. It's tangible. It's not 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:31.039 just mystical. It's something that's very easy to understand. So we can... In other words, to just 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:37.359 distill that a little bit, we can know lots about God and still be foolish, still be fools. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:49.440 We can be Christians for a long time and still lack wisdom. We can be young and very wise. 00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:59.760 We can be uneducated and of low intelligence and also be very wise, biblically. And you can be highly 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:10.079 intelligent and educated, but be a fool. You see? It's not necessarily what we ordinarily expect 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:17.920 of wisdom and foolishness in conventional terms. It's recognizing, therefore, God's 00:04:19.039 --> 00:04:25.039 relationship with God, but also that wisdom is a gift from God in James 1.5. That's the other 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:30.720 way, wisdom verse that you know. You all know this. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:36.319 who gives generously to all without reproaching, that will be given to him. So wisdom is given as 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:43.520 a gift in a revelatory relationship. We're in a relationship with God and He reveals things to 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:49.360 us more and more. And we can ask for wisdom. And He can show us, therefore, what wisdom is. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:05:01.360 And wisdom, as given as a gift from God, is also given in the context of dependence. So it's a gift 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:06.480 that we can ask for and is given to us in the context of being dependent on Him for that gift. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:13.280 A great example of that is Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 4, where Nehemiah goes, he has asked to do 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:19.040 something very quickly, and he has to go into the presence of the King, and the King says to him, 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:23.280 what are you requesting? And he says, so I pray to the God of heaven. It's this kind of 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:32.240 quick dynamic on the move, dependent prayer for wisdom to know what to say to the King as 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:40.560 he is asking him. So it's about love and it's about learning, but it's also about living. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:48.639 In other words, wisdom is something very, very tangible and very real. It's faith in action 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:55.439 for us in the way we relate to God and in the way we relate to one another. In other words, 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:03.360 there's vertical and there's horizontal aspects to God's wisdom. You know, when God says, the whole 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:12.480 of the command, my whole command for you is to love me and to love your neighbor, then He shows us 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:18.240 how to do that. He doesn't just leave us with that and it's not just a warm fuzzy feeling inside, 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:24.240 it's how we do that. He shows us how to do that, but it's not moralism. Please don't think that 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:30.960 proverbs is moralistic teaching and saying, if this is what we do, if we tick all these boxes 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:38.079 and do all the proverbs, we'll be really pleasing to God. It's not like that. Rather, it is when we 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:45.439 come to Christ and when we follow Christ and His Spirit lives in us, this is the kind of people 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:52.399 the Spirit moves us and is moving us to become. So there is a commonality about who we are in 00:06:52.399 --> 00:07:00.240 Christ, also great obviously, individuality as well. So therefore wisdom is, his wisdom in our 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:04.800 lives is the greatest apologetic for the gospel. Are you afraid of sharing your faith? That's fine. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:10.000 I have no problem with that. We all are afraid to share our faith, but as we live out our faith 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:18.000 in wisdom, it will begin to be so obvious that people will ask us about our faith, and that 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:26.879 makes things a lot easier. So wisdom is not some kind of esoteric, obscure council of some fat bloke 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:35.920 that's sitting on a kind of pedestal with his legs crossed, some mystic sage, some secret formula. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:44.959 Nor is it the conventional wisdom of the age in which we live. So it's not that you can just take 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:51.439 the wisdom of the world in which we live. And that is a great danger, isn't it, for us in our 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:57.439 Christian lives that we, it's too easy just to accept the conventional wisdom of the day 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:05.680 and be thoughtless, accept all the standards, just fall in line, be indistinguishable. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:11.920 Somehow reckon that that must be God's wisdom, just because it's conventional wisdom in the world. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:21.040 So we're going to look at Proverbs 20, and we're going to look at 14 characteristics of 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:34.399 wisdom that's given in this chapter. Grace at work, being like Jesus, God's wisdom. And we'll do three 00:08:35.920 --> 00:08:44.560 kind of things to be avoided as wise people, then we'll do three things to run after, to seek, 00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:49.759 then we're going to do four things to avoid, and then we're going to do four things to seek after, 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:54.000 that'll take us four weeks. Okay, so it's three, four, three, four, so we're doing three today. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:02.720 And the challenge is not to compare ourselves with other people or to divert our gaze, but to 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:08.639 allow God's Spirit and God's Word to apply to our own hearts and to our own situation. So here we're 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:14.480 looking at what some of the things that wisdom avoids, just a glimpse, just a glimpse at some of 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:20.720 the things wisdom, that is God's grace, the character of God, the kind of things Jesus, in other 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:29.920 words, who was the perfectly wise expression of God and God's will and God's person, the three things 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:35.279 that he would have avoided. And so it's three things we would avoid. In other words, potholes, 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:41.039 I am getting there, I promise, this is kind of introductory, but potholes on the path. You can 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:44.639 call it different things. That would actually probably be a better title for this sermon, 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:53.839 potholes on the path, rather than folly, which is a bit kind of Barton really, as a title, 00:09:54.959 --> 00:10:00.399 potholes on the path. So the first one is drunkenness. Okay, that's Styson Practill, 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:07.839 isn't it? Drunkenness. The first verse, wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:14.879 is led astray by it or by them, these things is not wise. Now that's very practical, it doesn't 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:22.160 really get more practical than that in terms of who Jesus was and who God is and who we are to be 00:10:22.160 --> 00:10:27.120 as Christians. Now alcohol is everywhere, is absolutely everywhere in the world that we live in. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:35.280 They used to say that religion was the opiate of the masses, not the case now, alcohol is clearly 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:40.639 the opiate of the masses. And in Scotland particularly, we have an unhealthy relationship 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:48.639 with alcohol. We're not good at dealing with alcohol in a right way. We tend to imbibe it 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:59.039 to excess a great deal of the time. Its abuse is rampant. It costs our society millions and 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:05.039 millions of pounds to deal with the effects of alcohol abuse. It's seen as an essential part 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:13.199 of life. Many of the people that you live among, and maybe even you or me, see it as an essential 00:11:13.199 --> 00:11:22.319 ingredient in life. We live in a culture where drinking to excess is common. It used to be a 00:11:22.319 --> 00:11:30.959 lads problem where men particularly drink to excess, still is. But I think as the genders have fused 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:38.240 together, it's become a lads problem as well, and a culture where young women as well as young 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:46.480 men are drinking far too much in their lives. But the challenge for us is that all of us seek to be 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:53.280 in the world, but not of the world, and we recognize that it is the hub for the majority 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:58.400 of social interaction of the world in which we live. It revolves around alcohol. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:09.519 So what does wisdom say about alcohol? Well, Sam 104 verse 15 says, wine gladdens the heart of man. 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:16.240 We know that. We recognize that every good gift comes from God. Jesus himself turned water into 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:25.120 wine. A time of great celebration. He didn't quash that time of celebration. Wine was part of the 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:32.720 Passover, it became part of the Lord's Supper. It is seen biblically so much in alcohol, particularly 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:40.240 wine, it is seen as a gift of God, something connected with celebration, a gift to be acknowledged. 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:50.399 But the reality is also it is not to be something that leads us astray. So wine is a mock or strong 00:12:50.399 --> 00:13:00.559 drink, brother, whoever is led astray by it is not wise. There are addictive qualities to alcohol 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:08.480 which can bring health and relationship damage, particularly of the deepest sort. If you've ever 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:16.399 tried to counsel an alcoholic, it is extremely difficult for that habit to that addiction to be 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:22.639 broken in their life. It becomes much more important than any other relationship, closest 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:30.000 relationship with husband and wife, family, friendship. It can become an escape from reality. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.399 That's what it is for many people, many people living for a Friday night because Friday night is 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:38.639 the night when they can drink as much as they want and it is escape from the boredom and the 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:45.360 drudgery of the life that they live. And therefore if we have the same mentality, we are escaping from 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:53.519 what is God's reality for us and which is God's life for us. And we are not to despise that or 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:58.960 escape from it in our lives. It is something which if we take too much of it, distorts our thinking 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:04.560 and lowers our guard so that many, many will be conscious of doing stupid things when they have 00:14:04.560 --> 00:14:12.399 drunk too much alcohol. Act foolishly, wine is a mocker, beer is a brawler. It can lead us to violence 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:23.679 and incite loose or regrettable behaviour. It can make us incapacitated. We can loosen our tongues 00:14:23.679 --> 00:14:34.159 in unhelpful ways. It's a depressant. It's a quick-fix pleasure. We can misuse the resources God 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:44.079 gives us and not recognise the need for wisdom in our lives. So wisdom speaks to us in these things 00:14:44.079 --> 00:14:48.000 and reminds us that it's not Christlike, and this could be much broader of course than just 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:56.399 drunkenness, it's not Christlike to be led astray, you know, whoever's led astray, right, it's not 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:04.559 wise. We're to be under the influence of a different spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. And 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:12.000 one of the aspects of that spirit is self-control of the spirit of God. And God provides 00:15:13.199 --> 00:15:18.480 that self-control for all of us who ask, as we're conscious and aware of the dangers, 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:24.319 and of the... We are living in the world, we will be faced with alcohol. We will probably be 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:30.080 drinking alcohol quite a lot, a greater or lesser degree, but we must be conscious of taking that 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:35.840 to the living God and saying, tell me where it's wise, tell me where it's foolish, help me to guard 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:42.879 my steps. If I'm weakened by it in such a degree, let me stay away from it altogether. It's a wisdom 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:50.800 issue for us. And we misunderstand true joy and deep-seated thankfulness and Christ governing 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:59.679 our lives if we don't recognize that we take this issue as well as many other issues before him 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:05.279 and pray to him. Wisdom is something in this area that we are to ask for and to pray for, 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:11.839 to be thoughtful about, to be moderate, to be prepared to say no. You may have to consider your 00:16:11.839 --> 00:16:18.879 habits and your lifestyle. Beware, can I say, just as an aside of drinking alone, drinking alcohol alone, 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:29.360 there's great danger in that, great isolation, great loneliness, and it's a dangerous thing to do. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:36.159 And beware of making it the norm for your life and maybe particularly the norm for our lives as 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:43.200 Christians in Christian company. So drunkenness, that's the first of three. The second is quarreling. 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:53.759 Verse 3 says, it's an honour for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:59.200 When it talks about men in Proverbs here, because as we saw before Proverbs probably written to a 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:06.720 young prince, it doesn't just mean men, it means everyone when it's speaking in this way, but 00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:14.640 it's written in that context. So quarreling, every fool will be quarreling. There's lots of references 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:22.799 to quarreling in Proverbs. Great, it's just so practical. So Jesus avoided quarreling when He 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:33.120 could. He avoided quarreling. And it's wise for us to avoid unnecessary friction in our lives. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:37.039 There will be times when we need to stand up, there will be times when we need to be strong, 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:42.719 there will be times when we need to state our case. But this is being quarrelsome, which we all 00:17:42.719 --> 00:17:49.279 know is something different. And we are not to be like that as Christians. It's an honour for a man 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:57.199 to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. We take time to stand aloof from 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:04.240 quarreling. We think about the situations within, again it points us towards self-control and to 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:09.759 thinking. In the company that we keep, in the relationships we have, you need to, and I need 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:18.160 to resist the temptation to argue the toss, just to argue for the sake of it, to argue to win an 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:24.240 argument, to argue to show that you're clever, to argue someone maybe who's not a Christian 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:33.120 into humiliation by your wise and significant Christian arguments. If it's done in a way that 00:18:33.120 --> 00:18:38.960 humiliates or in a way that makes someone look very small and insignificant, then that is not a 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:47.759 right motive for us with which to state our case as Christians. We are to avoid quarreling and being 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:55.920 quarrelsome in our lives because it is not honouring to God. We are to rise above strife 00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:03.119 and not love quarreling. Proverbs 7, sometimes I'll just dip into one or two other Proverbs 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:08.480 because it's a thematic book and so we'll find there's, themes are repeated in different places. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:15.119 Proverbs 17 verse 14 says, the beginning, these are great pictures about quarreling. The beginning 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:22.239 of strife is like letting out water so quit before the quarrel breaks out. It's like taking your foot, 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:28.079 your finger out of the dam. When you take your finger out of the dam, the whole thing explodes. 00:19:28.639 --> 00:19:41.759 And so from very small beginnings, you can find great flood of division and hatred and 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:51.680 difficulties in life. So it's about being, learning like Christ, like to be like Christ and to 00:19:52.559 --> 00:20:00.879 know when not to speak and when not to quarrel. This next Proverb, I love this Proverb. Has anyone 00:20:00.879 --> 00:20:07.440 ever said that God doesn't have a sense of humour? Then look and know this Proverb. Proverbs 26 verse 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:14.720 17, whoever meddles in a quarrel, not his own, is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. 00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:22.640 So that's a great picture. Have you ever walked past a rottweiler and decided to just wiggle its 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:27.920 ears for the sake of it? Well, you'll know that you enter a quarrel that's not your own, as you may 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:37.200 get a hefty chunk out of your thigh from an irritated animal. And we simply, we don't meddle 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:43.519 in business that's not our own. We're not to be people who stick our noses into other people's 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:50.640 business and quarrel with them and pick a fight. Christians in the past sometimes and even in 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:57.039 the present are good at picking fights. We're not to look to pick fights in our Christian lives. 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:03.119 There's enough battles. There's enough struggles. And we're not to be quick to quarrel. It is 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:07.839 something that takes time and also something that's honourable in our lives. Does someone 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:14.079 like to get that door? I think there's someone buzzing a door there. Thanks, Ross. It's honourable 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:23.440 as well as something that is a sign of maturity. It's an honour for a man to keep a loop from 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:34.720 strife. See, we don't, as Christians, you know, was that the door? We don't always need to be 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:40.320 right as Christians. You know, we've learned to be humble. But we wake up every morning and we 00:21:40.320 --> 00:21:48.320 recognise what Jesus Christ has done for us. We know our own hearts. We know the pride that's in 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:56.079 our own hearts. And we know we don't need always to win the argument. We don't always need to quarrel. 00:21:56.079 --> 00:22:02.399 We don't always need to be first. How hard must it have been for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 00:22:02.399 --> 00:22:09.519 not always to want to put people right when he had every right to do that and he knew what was 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:16.879 right and wrong. But he often chose not to answer, not to argue, but to show grace and to show 00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:22.720 patience. And I think through wisdom and prayer for concern, we should seek to do the same. 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:33.920 You think how much of the world's and your own life experiences or the wisdom of the world which 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:40.320 will have revolves around divide and conquer. Just think of that. How much time is spent in 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:46.960 divide and conquering? President Trump does come to mind. But many leaders do. It's divide and 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:54.240 conquer. It's the same kind of thing. It's cause division, cause mistrust, cause separation, 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.679 whereas the way of Christ is always different. And it's very easy for us in a Christian context 00:22:59.679 --> 00:23:06.079 to argue the same way, divide and conquer. Get people on your side. Get people thinking the 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:11.119 same way as you. And so there's others who don't think the same. And it leads to quarreling and 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:17.839 division and separation. We are as much as is possible with us, we are to be peacemakers 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:23.119 in our Christian lives. And that will often involve us being willing to be wronged. It all, 00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:28.000 I think, comes under this umbrella of quarreling. So that's the second thing. There's drunkenness 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.399 and there's quarreling. And the third thing that I'm going to look at that wisdom avoids, 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:39.120 that Jesus avoided in his perfect wisdom. The third thing is laziness. Proverbs also has a 00:23:39.120 --> 00:23:44.640 great deal to say about the sluggard. It's a great word, isn't it? The sluggard does not plow verse 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:52.880 four. In the autumn, he will seek at harvest and have nothing. Or verse 13, where it says, 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:59.600 Love not sleep lest you come to poverty, open your eyes and you will have plenty of bread. 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:06.399 So it's a big theme in Proverbs is laziness. Laziness matters to God. Isn't that good? 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:16.799 That laziness matters to God. Now, I can see you and me applying many of these negatives 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:24.559 to our own situations and maybe some of the positives. We can think of alcohol and alcohol abuse. 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:29.119 We can think of quarreling and we can think of times when we're quarreling. But actually, 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:37.279 I very rarely heard anyone confess to being lazy. It's one of these kind of 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:44.799 untouchable subjects, isn't it? You can confess to have drunk too much or quarreled too much, 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:49.519 but being lazy, do you know anyone that actually, that would look at them and say, 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:55.200 oh, yep, yep, that's me. I'm really lazy. I don't really know. I don't think many people look at 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:02.799 laziness and would apply it to themselves and certainly would not confess it. But it's a classic 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:09.759 sin that we see in others, isn't it? It's a classic sin that we would see in other people. We might 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:15.119 not apply it to ourselves, but we often, oh man, they're really lazy. We would apply it to other 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:20.159 people rather than ourselves. And there's two things, just as we close, there's two things about 00:25:20.159 --> 00:25:26.319 laziness that may make you and I apply it more likely to ourselves, because when we think of 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:32.559 laziness, we think of the slugger, don't we? The picture here, the kind of slothful person. You'll 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.959 have your own image of what a slugger looks like, and you think that's the kind of, I'm not like that. 00:25:36.959 --> 00:25:42.079 I'm not that kind of person. But there's two things here that Prover speaks about what God 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:49.199 regards as lazy. The first is a sense of entitlement in verse 4, the verse we looked at. The slugger 00:25:49.199 --> 00:25:54.240 doesn't plow in the autumn, but he seeks a harvest when the harvest comes. So there's a sense of 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:59.439 entitlement in this lazy person. I'm not going to do any work for my harvest, but when harvest comes, 00:25:59.439 --> 00:26:06.399 that's, God gives me that. A sense of entitlement is laziness. You know, God owes that person, 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:13.519 that slugger, a harvest. No sense of duty, no sense of work ethic. A twisted understanding of grace. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:18.800 God loves me. God cares for me. I don't need to work. That's kind of justification by words. 00:26:18.800 --> 00:26:25.040 Don't want to do any of that stuff. And we're blinded to our purpose. We're blinded to redemption. 00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:33.360 We're blinded to privilege and to our calling to be workers, to be servants, to love God and love 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:41.439 one another by serving. We're created to work six days. We're stewards of God's creation and of all 00:26:41.439 --> 00:26:48.879 God's giving us. We're in a battle. We have responsibility. We don't have a sense of entitlement. 00:26:48.879 --> 00:26:55.199 We can't just sit down at God's feet and say, give me, give me, give me, because God recognizes 00:26:55.199 --> 00:27:00.799 that we have both privileges and responsibilities, and the Holy Spirit enables us to work, 00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:07.440 to serve, to love other people, to return thanks with grateful service, and not to have a sense of 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:15.119 entitlement. We love God and we love others. So often we're grumpy with God because He doesn't give 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:23.839 us what we want. And that can be an aspect of laziness that we haven't looked at who God is, 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:30.399 and we expect Him to throw gifts. He does throw gifts to us all the time, but we can come to 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:37.920 expect that sense of entitlement, and it is laziness. But the other thing about laziness which 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:46.720 we might not think of as being lazy, but is spoken of here and might therefore apply to us more 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:54.080 than we think is in verse 13, where he says, love not sleep, lest you come to poverty, open your 00:27:54.079 --> 00:28:02.319 eyes and you'll have plenty of bread. So a sense of entitlement, but also disordered love, a disordered 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:10.879 love, that you love sleep, you love rest, you love relaxation, you love that more than anything else. 00:28:10.879 --> 00:28:16.720 It's what comes first in your life. And God's saying that it's foolishness to love the pursuit of 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:26.000 pleasure and idleness and mindless activity as if it's God honoring. So that might not be traditional, 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:33.200 conventional laziness as we think of someone getting out in their boxers and their vests, 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:38.319 sort of, and slobbing about in their bed all day and just eating pot noodles and stuff, 00:28:39.120 --> 00:28:44.720 and never doing anything. That's the kind of the image we have of laziness that's kind of sluggard, 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:51.120 isn't it? But this is something, this is having disordered loves. It's loving a responsibility 00:28:51.120 --> 00:28:56.880 more than we love God. It's loving mindless activity, not thinking how we use our time, 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:04.400 being lazy with how we use our gifts and how we use the time that God's given us, spending hours 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:11.120 and hours and hours watching Netflix, spending time and time and time just on activities that are 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:18.239 not really helping anyone, are not indicative of our love for God or are serving of one another. 00:29:19.199 --> 00:29:25.759 So it's more about use of time than traditional laziness, it's self-centeredness. So there's 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:32.639 how much of my life revolves around me and about my pleasure and about others serving me rather than 00:29:33.679 --> 00:29:39.599 grace at work. So you saw, you know, I'm saying it's not moralistic, it's about understanding 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:50.079 His grace and His love. So laziness is, you know, being willing, not being lazy is recognizing 00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:56.719 that sometimes in Christ service we're going to be inconvenienced, that we'll maybe not fulfill our 00:29:56.719 --> 00:30:04.719 dreams that we think are so significant, but we'll submit to God's dreams for me, that we'll live in 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:11.519 the light of eternity and recognize that time is short and every moment is precious and that there 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:16.960 is a future for living the dream in His new heavens and His new earth, which are going to be way 00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:23.839 above and beyond anything that we can ask of, even imagine and will be glorious and we just simply 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:30.720 will not be lazy there, they'll not be able to be lazy there. So disordered love is a form of 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:36.319 laziness that's been spoken of here. And so the question as we take God's common sense for us is 00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:44.160 how are we living now in the light of His grace? Are we living for His glory and recognizing these 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:54.319 very tangible, everyday, practical outworkings of the Holy Spirit moving in us to be self-controlled 00:30:54.319 --> 00:31:02.960 with alcohol, not to be quarreling unnecessarily and to not be lazy with a sense of entitlement 00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:09.039 or with disordered loves? And it's when we struggle with that, we recognize, well, 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:17.039 God gifts these things to us as we ask Him, as we look to Him, but it does involve change. 00:31:18.879 --> 00:31:23.839 And we resent that sometimes, isn't it? That's the problem is that we resent the change that 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:32.639 He's asking us to invoke in our lives and moving from our own Lordship to His Lordship over our 00:31:32.639 --> 00:31:39.599 lives. That's why we repent all the time. We repent all the time because we're moving away, 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:45.039 we're moving towards His Lordship, and He's exposing in His day to day the kind of things 00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:51.199 that separate us from Him because He loves us and because He wants us to live like Jesus lived 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:59.600 with the wisdom of God and the beauty of that wisdom. I mean, let's pray briefly. 00:31:59.600 --> 00:32:07.440 Lord God, we ask and pray that You would help us to be wise, and we know that wisdom also involves 00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:14.640 avoiding certain things. So help us if we are convicted today, as we all are and as I am, 00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:24.720 about Your wisdom and about our lack of thankfulness for Your grace and our lack of 00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:31.200 thoughtfulness of putting Your grace and wisdom into action in these very practical ways. You 00:32:31.200 --> 00:32:37.920 thank You for the book of Proverbs, just this explosion, this fountain, this waterfall, this 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:47.600 dynamo of Your common sense, which just throws out so much wisdom for us. Help us to know it 00:32:47.600 --> 00:32:57.200 and love it, and help us to know the Christ who is behind this great wisdom of life and of love. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:08.160 For Jesus' sake, amen.