WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Okay, now we're going to look at our series this morning, which is on... 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:10.000 It's a theme, so we're taking it from lots of different verses as we do. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 That's what Proverbs is like. It's a thematic book. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.000 And we're going to be looking at quite a lot of different verses this morning. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.000 But I'm going to read a chunk of them. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.000 I'll come back to some of them later on in the service. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 So, if we can have the first of these. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000 And it's probably the best known. It's Proverbs chapter 6, 6 to 11. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.000 Go to the ant, O sluggard. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:38.000 Consider her ways and be wise without having a chief officer or ruler. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.000 She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.000 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.000 When will you arise from your sleep? 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:51.000 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:57.000 and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want or need like an armed man. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.000 Okay, Proverbs chapter 10, 26. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 Like, and some of these are great. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 Well, they're all great, but some of them are quite funny as well. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.000 Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Proverbs 12, 11. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.000 Proverbs 21, 17. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.000 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Proverbs 24, 30 to 34. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.000 I passed the field of a sluggard by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:38.000 and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.000 The ground was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Then I saw and considered it. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.000 I looked and received instruction. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 Again, a little slumber, a little sleep, a little slumber, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 a little folding of the hands to rest, 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000 poverty will come upon you like a robber and want or lack like an armed man. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.000 Okay, these are some of the verses we're going to be looking at today. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.000 Oh, I've got one more. Sorry, yeah. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.000 So Proverbs 26, 13 to 16. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.000 The sluggard says, there's a lion on the road. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 There's a lion in the streets as a door turns on its hinges. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.000 So a sluggard on his, so does a sluggard on his bed. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:23.000 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Sluggard is wising in his own eyes on seven men who can answer sensibly. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:34.000 These, this is the word of God, and we're grateful to be able to read it. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.000 And I can immediately see some of your minds working saying, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:41.000 I better not look like I fall asleep today in church. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000 It's okay. I know it's hot and you're tired. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:48.000 And it's not really about that. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:51.000 So we're going to look eventually at this theme today, 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.000 but I'm going to take quite a long introduction to get there. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.000 So please stay with me as we do so. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:02.000 Because I can think, I'm kind of going to begin with the opposite of being lazy, 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:03.000 and that's been hard working. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:08.000 I can think of at least four ways, I think, there are probably many more, 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.000 but at least four ways which we misunderstand the Bible's teaching on hard work, 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 both practically and spiritually. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 And I'm going to intertwine the two today, practical truth and our spiritual life. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.000 They should all come together anyway. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 And one is when we think of salvation as a gift, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 and we know that's true, don't we? Salvation, I've been praying about that. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.000 We believe that it's a gift of God. We can't earn salvation. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:34.000 It's a free gift from the living God. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 But when we think like that, sometimes we get to the place where we think, 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.000 therefore, serving is just a big slog. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000 It's hard work. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.000 And really our salvation is such a gift, it's all about love and desire. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.000 We lose sight of the place for dogged obedience, for duty and effort. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.000 We just want to let go and let God. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:58.000 We love that kind of philosophy. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:03.000 And it plays itself out in thinking it doesn't really matter how we live. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:06.000 It's not that important how we live. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 Because we're saved, and we're saved by grace. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.000 That might be one misunderstanding in terms of hard work. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.000 The other is the opposite end of that where we say, 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 I've got to earn my salvation with God. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 I've got to work hard to be made right with God. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Now, you know, really well, theologically taught and trained, 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.000 you know, since Cori's come. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000 And you know these things. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 You know the truth. You know in your head. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 You know theologically that that's not the case, 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.000 that you don't earn your salvation with God. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.000 But sometimes practically that's how we live. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Our faith is a really heavy weight. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.000 Because we're driven by guilt, by fear, 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.000 by our image before other people, 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:59.000 by our poor understanding of grace and of our identity in Christ. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:02.000 And a deep-seated belief within us, 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:07.000 within us all that God only helps those who help themselves. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 And sometimes that's what we really think. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 And we think we need to live a certain way in order to please God 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000 so that He will accept us, earning our way, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:22.000 hard work to make God happy with us. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.000 That may be a second misunderstanding. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 A third is maybe related to hard work. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:30.000 Generally, we maybe think of hard work, 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:35.000 or work generally as just a natural attribute that people are born with. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.000 You're either born hard working, or you're born lazy. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:42.000 And maybe that's all you think of. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 People either are lazy or hard work, 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.000 it doesn't matter if they're Christians or not Christians, 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.000 they're going to be hard working Christians, 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.000 or they're going to be lazy Christians, 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 because that's their natural inclination. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.000 But the reality is in Jesus Christ, 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:57.000 if you're a hard worker naturally, 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.000 you have to change your motive for hard working. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.000 Because being in Christ is all about our motives for what we do, 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.000 not the fact that we do it itself. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.000 So if you're a hard worker naturally, 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 then you need to channel your hard work to God's glory, 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.000 and not just be hard working because it's natural for you. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.000 And if you're naturally lazy, you need to repent of that, 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:26.000 and recognize that God's called you to be a worker for Him and His kingdom. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.000 So sometimes we just shrug off these characteristics 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 as if we can't do anything about them. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:37.000 And the last potential misunderstanding 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:41.000 is that we just believe our time is absolutely our own. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.000 That God has no right to tell us how we work, 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.000 or our attitude towards work, 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.000 or what we do, for example, in our employment. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.000 That's our secular space. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.000 And how we live there as Christians 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:58.000 is really just a no entry sign for God. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:03.000 So we maybe have, and maybe you associate with some of these misunderstandings about work. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.000 But I'm making a thesis today from, I hope from Proverbs, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:11.000 as we eventually get to it, related to work and sloth, 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.000 which is such a great word. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 My thesis from God's word, I think, 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.000 is that when your heart is right with God through Christ, 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.000 when your heart is right with God through Christ, 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.000 you will be a hard worker. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000 When your heart is right with God through Jesus Christ, 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.000 through trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior, 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.000 you will be ordinarily in your life a hard worker. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.000 And under work I'm subsuming everything, 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 how we spend our time, our employment, 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.000 our spiritual lives, our leisure, everything. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Because we are called as Christians, 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 we're called to love the Lord, aren't we? 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.000 That's our calling, we're called to love the Lord. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.000 Love the Lord your God, Jesus says in Matthew 22, 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 twice, with all your heart, with all your soul, 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:02.000 with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Because that's the second commandment. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.000 So we are called as believers to love the Lord. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:12.000 And we love the living God because of His character, 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.000 because of His nature, because of His work. 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.000 And we love Him, part of it, because the essence of His character 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:22.000 is that He is a creative God. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:24.000 He is a sustaining God. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 He's a hardworking God. He's a loving God. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 He's a judging God. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.000 John 5.17, when Jesus did miracles on the Sabbath 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.000 and the Jews complained and persecuted Him, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:36.000 in His defense John 5 says, 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 My Father is always at work to this very day, 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 and I too am working. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:44.000 So we see in the essence of God, 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.000 and at the very core of our salvation, 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.000 is a Savior who worked on our behalf. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 Jesus, as I prayed about, was a Savior 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:57.000 who served His Father every day, who worked physically, 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:00.000 who worked in obedience, who worked from the heart, 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.000 who worked from His soul, who worked to serve others, 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.000 who put others before Himself, who put the Father before everyone, 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:11.000 and who went all the way to the cross, the cross itself, 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.000 being His greatest work on our behalf. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:20.000 His greatest energy and effort poured out on our behalf 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.000 so that we might know salvation, 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.000 His great work, so that we can rest in Him. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:32.000 He defeated death to God's wrath, 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.000 went to hell, was resurrected in the third day, 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:38.000 and ascended to the Father. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.000 His great was to offer us free and full salvation 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.000 without having to work for it. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 That's the essence of His character. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.000 And when He created us, we know from the very beginning 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.000 that He called us to work, to steward, 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:55.000 to take care of the garden. 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.000 And we know that the consequence of sin entering the world 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000 was that work became a struggle, 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:06.000 the motives for working, the actual ability to work, 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:10.000 the challenge of work generally became a struggle. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:16.000 But we know in Christ that whole mandate is renewed and refreshed, 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.000 and we are redeemed. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:22.000 And our work and our lives, therefore, are redeemed. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.000 We've got these great words in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.000 which we've looked at before, the kind of the linchpin of Proverbs, 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:32.000 trust in the Lord with all your heart. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Lean not on your own understanding. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:38.000 In all your ways, your ways, your work, your effort, 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.000 submit to Him, He will make your path straight. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.000 We have that great truth that in the Holy Spirit, 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 as we are renewed by faith and as Christians, 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:54.000 we are empowered to see our hearts changed 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.000 and our attitudes to work changed 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:02.000 and our attitudes to life changed because of grace. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:08.000 And we can live the life and live the lives that Jesus wants us to live. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 So we're called in our work, in everything we do, 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:19.000 to be God-honoring, in everything we do to redeem the time 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:23.000 and to honour God with everything that we are, everything we do. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:27.000 Even the rubbish tasks that we have in life, 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.000 even when our job seems dead-end, 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:35.000 even when we're asked to do things that we have no desire or interest in doing, 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:40.000 we're called to recognise and do them to God's glory. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:46.000 And that's very much the focus of our walk of faith. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.000 We know, we recognise that salvation and our work of... 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.000 our gift of salvation is something we can't earn. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:57.000 It's a free gift of God, but we live it 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:00.000 and we work out ourselves. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:02.000 Philippians 2, 12 and 13 says that, 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.000 reminds us of that, doesn't it? 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.000 It doesn't say work in order to be saved. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.000 It reminds us that we are saved, 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:14.000 but we continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:19.000 And that is a reminder to us that faith costs. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:24.000 There's a cost to living this freedom in Christ, 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.000 this gift of salvation. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 Sometimes I'm going to do a little sidebar here. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000 Sometimes I think that faith is the last area that as Christians, 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 we put work into. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.000 We're content with it just being a feeling, 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.000 just being a reality in our lives. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.000 I can stop saying someone in our lives, 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:51.000 but it doesn't involve us in effort and hard work or salvation. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.000 I'm going to give you an example. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 But hopefully it will maybe make us think a little bit. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.000 Do you imagine a young guy here in the church? 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.000 He sees us, we'll take it, he's a student. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:06.000 And we'll just say that he's in a flat with two other guys in the church. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.000 And he comes to church every Sunday morning. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.000 And one of the Sundays at church, 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:14.000 when he should be listening to this sermon, 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.000 of course, he clocks a really good-looking girl. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.000 And he says, she's the one for me. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.000 And so he eventually starts talking to her. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.000 And they get to know one another. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:30.000 And they go out together, 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 eventually gets engaged to her. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.000 And they say, I date for the wedding. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.000 The wedding's here. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:39.000 I'm doing the wedding. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:40.000 And the wedding day arrives, 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.000 and all this stuff that comes up for it arrives. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.000 And she comes down the front, she's beautiful, 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.000 and everyone's there, family and friends. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:50.000 And he's waiting there at the front, smiling. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.000 They're vows together, they sing. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.000 Everything goes swimming, it's great. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.000 And then they go back to the hotel. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.000 They have a big feast together with all their friends and family. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000 And after that, there's a Kaley and they all dance, 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.000 and they're happy, and it's a really good time. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.000 And at the end of the night, the groom says, that's it. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:13.000 I'll just head back to the flat with the boys then. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:16.000 I'll see you next Sunday in church. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.000 Now that's bizarre, isn't it? 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:23.000 That would be a strange way to start a marriage, 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.000 especially if that's how he intended to go on. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Just go back to the same life that he had before. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.000 He's married. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:33.000 There's no relationship there, 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.000 but he'll see her every Sunday when he comes back to church. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 Now, that's a stupid example, is it? 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:43.000 No one would ever do that. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.000 But sometimes I think we think that in a relationship with Jesus. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.000 All it needs is just a turn up once on a Sunday. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.000 That's all we did. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.000 We don't need to think about him the rest of the week. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:57.000 We made a commitment, we were saved 20 years ago, 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.000 but from Monday to Saturday, just got about my life. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000 And I meet him on a Sunday in church for the hour. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.000 If he goes on to an hour and five minutes, 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:07.000 start getting unhappy and restless. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:13.000 And then we go back to live our lives as it were without him. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.000 And yet that's not what the gospel teaches. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.000 If you read the epistles of grace, the epistles of love, 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:22.000 all the epistles in the New Testament, 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.000 in fact, the gospels as well, they are full of that word, work. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.000 Full of how we have to work out our salvation, 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.000 about putting off the on, about perseverance, 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:35.000 about keeping going, about running, about walking, about all these things, 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.000 because there's this recognition, 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:41.000 and we could say so much more about the importance of a hard-working, 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.000 daily relationship with Jesus Christ, 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:51.000 about prayer, about learning, about growing, about serving. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:54.000 We spoke the Lord's prayer together, 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.000 and it speaks about that, doesn't it? 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.000 About daily being in His presence. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:03.000 Daily requireings need daily worshiping and serving and following Him. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Hugely important. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:11.000 And our work, therefore, is so significant in our Christian lives, 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 and it's motivated by our love for God. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 It's a mark of our wisdom. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.000 We spoke about wisdom right through. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.000 This is a wisdom book, Proverbs, and we've looked at wisdom. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:27.000 And we're reminded in Proverbs 6 verses 8, the passage we read about the ant, 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:32.000 that go to the ant, you slugger, consider its ways and be wise. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.000 Great, great little animal, the ant. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:45.000 Superhuman strength, forward thinking, providing for itself and for others. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Great evidence of wisdom in this little created being. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:56.000 And it's a great thing, the ant. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:04.000 It's got two stomachs, one for itself and one for other people, other ants. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:06.000 Probably not other people. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:13.000 But if we apply that, then our spiritual two stomachs are those that we need to nourish ourselves and be fed. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:18.000 But we need to learn and receive food in order to give and nourish others as we serve them. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:25.000 So we too, if we're wise like the ant, have this great amazing strength from the Holy Spirit. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:31.000 We have to be forward thinking, we have to work and serve for the glory of God. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.000 So we are called as believers to love the Lord. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.000 That's our calling. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.000 Now that's the longest introduction you've ever had. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Because our temptation is to love nothing worthwhile. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.000 That's our temptation and that's where sloth comes in, or laziness. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.000 We're tempted to love nothing worthwhile. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:18:01.000 In other words, a lazy love in Proverbs 21 and verse 25, it speaks about our desires. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:08.000 The Proverbs says, the desire or the cravings of the sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to work. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:16.000 There's a laziness and his heart therefore, his right desires crumble. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:22.000 And there's this great theme throughout Proverbs about sloth, which, you know, 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:26.000 go to the ant is probably the best example of it for us. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:34.000 And it's a reminder how practical Proverbs is about how we spend our lives, how we live our lives. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.000 And it will all look different for all of us. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:37.000 It'll look different for me. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:43.000 And can I just say at this point, in case you think I'm preaching at you, I'm absolutely not. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:51.000 I was hugely convicted doing this sermon and preparing it for myself from God's word about 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:55.000 the ease with which you fall into idleness and sloth and laziness. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:05.000 There's two particular ways, I think, that Proverbs makes clear about how we can be slothful and lazy in our lives. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:11.000 And the first is by making excuses for not working. 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:21.000 Making excuses is a brilliant and it's repeated twice in Proverbs 22 and verse 13 and then 26 and verse 13. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000 The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.000 I shall be killed in the streets. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:30.000 And then again, Proverbs 23, the sluggard says, there's a lion on the road. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.000 There's a lion on the streets. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:36.000 I'm not a lion on the streets. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.000 He's just making excuses for not going out to work. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:42.000 He's procrastinating. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.000 He's imagining things that are there that would stop him working. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.000 I can't do it. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:53.000 He's making excuses and it's easy for us to make excuses not to serve and not to work, isn't it? 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:54.000 It's too hard. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.000 I don't have the ability. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.000 I need my time. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:01.000 Others don't deserve my efforts. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.000 They don't appreciate them. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:11.000 And it's easy for us to make excuses not to do what we're called to do and what we're gifted to do and what we have time to do. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.000 And spiritually we do it all the time. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.000 Too busy for the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:18.000 It's too hard to follow Him. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:19.000 I can't do it. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:20.000 It's impossible. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:22.000 Family time comes first. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.000 My hobbies comes first. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.000 They are very important for me to rest. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:31.000 And God can be relegated to a nodding acquaintance on a Sunday morning. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:33.000 I'll go to church on Sunday. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.000 That will be the one thing that sets me apart from the world. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.000 But we have no time for building the relationship. 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:44.000 A student in the church gets married and goes back to the flat with his mates. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:51.000 Making excuses is one of the great temptations to laziness. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.000 I think the other in Proverbs is choosing leisure. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.000 Now leisure in and of itself. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:01.000 There's nothing wrong with leisure in and of itself and pleasure. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:12.000 But when we choose that to relegate the significance of serving the Lord and serving others, 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 or as an end in itself, or as the be all an end of life, then it becomes sinful. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.000 Choosing the Proverbs 12, 11, 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:27.000 whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.000 It's foolish as opposed to wise. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Or Proverbs 21, 17, whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man who, 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.000 he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:48.000 Worthless pursuits, the loving of pleasure is a form of slothfulness and laziness. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.000 And we can work very hard at that. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:58.000 We're probably the most hardworking generation of pleasure lovers that there's ever been. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:02.000 Pleasure is hugely important to us, hugely significant. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:09.000 Worthless pursuits are there at just the tap of a button for all of us any time of the night and day. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.000 We can prioritise it. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.000 So easy for us today to prioritise 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.000 making sure we watch hours and hours of sport, 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:26.000 that we can scroll Instagram for any moment that isn't filled in our lives. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:34.000 For entertainment, we just need the button to be pressed. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:39.000 Our use of time, our use of time which we never get back, 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:44.000 is what we are challenged to consider when we think of our leisure and pleasure time. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.000 Again, I'm not saying these things are wrong. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.000 I'm not saying that God doesn't give them. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.000 But we're to enjoy pleasure, we're to work at pleasure to the glory of God. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:00.000 And we're to thank Him for it and we're to put it in its context as a part of life which we need, 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:07.000 but which isn't an end in itself and which shouldn't be the driving force behind our lives. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:12.000 How much time do we abandon for growing with God, 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.000 for serving Him or for serving other people? 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:23.000 Because we want to pursue leisure and pleasure and worthless activities as it's spoken of here 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:25.000 in the light of eternity. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:33.000 It lacks sense, it lacks understanding and above all, it lacks love. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:40.000 And when that is our slothful desire and laziness is at the core of who we are, 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:48.000 it provides a fertile mind for gossip, scandal and temptation. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:55.000 So I'm sure Proverbs says a lot more about motives of sloth and laziness, 00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:02.000 but I just want to finish by looking at some of the results of slothfulness or laziness 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:05.000 as it's expressed biblically. 00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:11.000 And what I want as always to remember is the heart behind it and where we are in our heart. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:18.000 I think the first thing we can say is that Proverbs reminds us that laziness becomes habitually worse. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:27.000 The passage we read in chapter 26 is great because it's progressive. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:30.000 If you noticed, it's progressive. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.000 The Slogger says there's a line in the road, there's a line in the streets. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:37.000 So he's got an excuse not to go outside the door. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Then we're told that as a door turns on its hinges, so does a slugger turn on his bed. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:45.000 Not only can he not go out the door, he can't even go out of the house. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.000 He can't get out of the bed, I mean. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.000 It's just turning his bed like it's just a hinge. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.000 And then it says, the slugger buries the sand in the dish. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:55.000 It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.000 He can't even eat, get up to eat. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:09.000 It tires him so much to even eat that he can't even bring his hand back to his mouth. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:16.000 The pictures just of the slugger just going into a plate of food because he can't even be bothered eating. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:22.000 So there's this laziness, the picture here is of it becoming habitually worse. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:27.000 And that's a really important principle in life in terms of how we spend our lives spiritually. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Our choices in life as Christians will determine our joy, our usefulness and the quality of our Christian lives. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:40.000 If you live your Christian life and if I live my Christian life consistently ignoring God, 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.000 being prayerless, abandoning service and going our own way, 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:50.000 that will have a downward spiral for our spiritual life. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:58.000 It will always be that case if we choose not to pray and choose not to follow any spiritual discipline, 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:04.000 to work off out our own salvation, to fight the good fight, to shrug our shoulders, 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:09.000 then we will struggle with our relationship with Christ. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:16.000 Or if we choose to work simply for work's sake, to make money, to be popular, to be successful, 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:20.000 to be accepted by God, that's what will be important to us. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.000 And that will become increasingly important. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:27.000 And God and grace and service will become increasingly less important. 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Or if we're half-hearted at work and consistently and habitually ignore Him in our place, 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.000 it will take us further down the road of sloth. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.000 And what I can say is just so hard, it's so hard to change our routines. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.000 I think it's an incredibly difficult thing to do in our lives. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:01.000 I find it an astonishingly hard thing at the age of 58 to change habits, to change the things that I do. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:05.000 We need grace, we need to work at it. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:12.000 We need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit so that we will change and not... 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:18.000 because we're not unchanging, we're actually doing a spiral downwards if we don't respond to grace. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:22.000 So we recognise that laziness becomes habitually worse. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.000 We recognise that it leads to a broken life before God. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:34.000 In Proverbs 24, 30, 34, we've got that great picture of the field of the slugger by the vineyard of a man lacking sense. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:39.000 It was overgrown with thorns, the ground was covered with nettles, stone wall was broken down. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:42.000 Then I saw it as considered and looked and received instruction. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:47.000 There's this broken down life. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:54.000 The Bible speaks a lot about... has that picture, a lot of a broken vineyard as a picture of a broken life spiritually. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.000 Loveless and selfless. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.000 That's what laziness and sloth will do for us. 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:07.000 If we keep letting people down, if we keep resisting God 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:11.000 and can't be bothered, if a friend who needs just a pain in the neck, 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:19.000 if sacrifice and responsibility and commitment and leadership are things that you recoil from, 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:23.000 they will continually be lacking in our lives before God. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.000 And we just become a dead weight in our life. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:31.000 Self-serving without a servant heart for God or for others. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:33.000 It's kind of an ugly picture. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:38.000 And I see it so clearly, sometimes in my own heart. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.000 So a broken life with God. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.000 But it also leads, I think, thirdly to tension with others. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:52.000 Proverbs 10, 26, as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so as sluggers to those who send them. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:56.000 So someone sends out someone to do something on their behalf 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:00.000 and they make a complete botch of it because they can't be bothered. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:05.000 They're not really that concerned and it's like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:10.000 Leads to tension in relationships. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:19.000 It's a hard reality that laziness, sloth, doesn't just affect us. 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:22.000 It affects those that we love, affects those that depend on us. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:27.000 It affects those who rely on us because we let them down. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:33.000 Because our own significant is most important. 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:39.000 Leads to tension with others and that kind of individual poverty is the fourth thing. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:44.000 The ant passage again speaks a little, folding of ant litter. 00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:47.000 And poverty comes on you like an armed man. 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:50.000 It's that poverty of spirit. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:56.000 It's the dissatisfaction and poverty that comes from not knowing 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:58.000 and enjoying and serving God. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:07.000 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:14.000 So there's a general principle about poverty that comes from slothfulness. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:19.000 As it's the case in broad verbs all the time, we're talking about general principles 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:26.000 and every individual case does hard work being blessing and contentment or riches and wealth, 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.000 as it's sometimes explained in proverbs. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:34.000 But the general principle proverbs is that hard work brings rewards in our lives. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.000 It might not necessarily be financial, very often won't be, 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:43.000 but it will bring fulfillment and it will bring satisfaction 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:45.000 and it will bring a deepening of our character before God 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:50.000 and meaning, our life will have meaning and significance and above all love 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:57.000 because it's the outworking of love as we live for God and live for others. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:06.000 Whereas idleness and slothfulness is dissatisfying, it's unfulfilling, it's unrewarding, 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:13.000 it hollows you out as a person because it's the opposite of doing what God created you to do. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:20.000 And spiritually, and we know that often poverty in the Bible is linked not to financial poverty, 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.000 material poverty, but to spiritual poverty. 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:33.000 It's often why we are so poor spiritually, so blind, so far from God 00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:42.000 because we don't heed His call to transform our hearts by His grace and by His Holy Spirit, 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:49.000 to work out our salvation, to deal with our sinful desires which drain our love for God 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:57.000 and our love for other people so that we are on this drift away from Him in poverty. 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:03.000 And if we ask ourselves why we find the Christian walk so tough, 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:10.000 it's often because we have lost sight of this element of effort that is required in our relationship with Him. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:18.000 Building of that love and spending time in His company and learning from Him and praying to Him 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:22.000 and being in His shadow. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:30.000 But we can be content with a poor life, and if we do, we miss out on the blessings of peace and joy 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:36.000 and the paradox of rest through hard work. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:44.000 The great biblical paradox that as we serve the one that we have received the gift of salvation from, 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:55.000 we serve Him with every sinew of our being wholeheartedly and therein is rest, therein is peace, 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:58.000 therein is contentment and fulfillment. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:04.000 I'm going to finish by reading some words, the Bible says things much better than I do. 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:14.000 Colossians chapter 1 and verses 9 to 14 which encourages us to trust in the Lord. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:21.000 And I encourage you today as I encourage myself anew and fresh to trust in the Lord with all your heart 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:26.000 as Proverbs tells us at the beginning, to grow in Him. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:29.000 To remember that thesis that I made at the beginning, 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:36.000 that if you are in, your heart is right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, you'll be a hard worker. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:42.000 And remember these words from Colossians chapter 1. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:46.000 So from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you, 00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:53.000 asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:59.000 So as to walk in a work and walk, really mean the same thing. 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:03.000 So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:08.000 bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:13.000 May you be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.000 for all endurance and patience with joy, 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:23.000 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:29.000 He's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:32.000 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:36.000 That's why we work. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:37.000 Let's pray. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:44.000 Father God, we ask and pray that you would help us to just get the balance right in our lives, 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:53.000 to receive the gift of salvation as a glorious, completed, finished gift from a loving Father 00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:04.000 who has done everything that we couldn't do and paid the price for everything that we stand guilty before God for, 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.000 in order that we might be righteous. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:15.000 And as righteous people, Lord, give us just a heart and a desire and a longing to not be lazy with you, 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:24.000 not take you for granted, not ignore you, not abuse you, not make you someone that you're not, 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:30.000 and not be lazy or slothful spiritually or indeed practically in our lives. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:39.000 Help us if we are hardworking naturally to look into our hearts for the motives for our hard work, 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:43.000 to make sure that we are glorifying you and we're doing it for you, 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:48.000 and not just for our own, or not just because we're annoyed that everyone else who's not working. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:57.000 And if we're lazy by nature, slothful Lord, help us to look at that and seek by God's grace to be transformed 00:35:57.000 --> 00:36:02.000 and changed so hard. It's so almost impossible. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:10.000 But we ask for your grace to enable us to change, to work our relationship with you, 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.000 and to work at serving you and others which sometimes is so hard. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:28.000 Help us to do it with the right motives we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.