Number three, quit making excuses.
Excuses why you can't work, excuses for everything.
So number one, work without being told.
Number two, don't goof up the job opportunities that you're given, prize those opportunities,
do your best, make the best of those opportunities.
And number three, quit making excuses why you can't work or why you can't get a job
done.
This is a big one right here about making excuses.
Look at verse 19 of chapter 15 there.
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is
made plain.
Now the word way in the Bible is often referring to like a path or a road, okay?
So when the Bible says here the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, it's picture
like a sidewalk and right next to that sidewalk is a hedge and that hedge is filled with thorns
and this should be pretty easy to imagine because here in Arizona, everything has thorns.
Every plant has thorns.
No matter what the plant, it has some sharp object on it in the desert here.
So when you think of the hedge of thorns, when I hear this verse, I remember growing
up in Northern California.
I used to go to my grandparents' house in the woods and there were these patches of
blackberry bushes.
Who's ever gone through blackberry bushes?
And I remember there was this really cool part of the forest that we always wanted to
go to, but between my grandparents' house and that part of the forest, there was a blackberry
patch and you can either go around and take like an extra hour or two hours just to make
some huge circuitous route or you could just cross straight through the blackberries.
And so as children, we're often impatient and we would just cut through those blackberries
and I use the word cut in the most literal sense because you'd go through those blackberries
and we'd get through it, but we'd be all cut up and slash and bleeding from all of the
thorns in that thing.
Now you can get through it, but it's just a slow process and it's painful and you're
dragging and it's not efficient at all.
So when the Bible says the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, but the way of the
righteous is made plain, first of all, I want you to see that the opposite of slothful in
this verse is righteous because what did Jesus say?
Wicked and slothful.
So slothfulness is being wicked and you can't be righteous without being a hard worker because
if you're slothful, that's an unrighteous thing.
So he's saying here the slothful man, it seems like whatever job you give him, point A to
point B is always very difficult, isn't it?
Why?
All these obstacles and a lot of the obstacles are in his own mind or he's exaggerating the
obstacles or building up the, the slothful man just always has all the reasons why it
can't be done.
Everything's hard.
Whereas the righteous man, it's like the path just opens up and it's just clear and plain.
Why?
Because he finds a way to get things done.
He has a can do attitude where there's a will, there's a way and he finds solutions, not
just continually finding problems.
It's not just bad luck that lazy people constantly have all these obstacles and problems, why
they can't get their work done.
They just, everything goes wrong for the lazy.
Isn't there a saying about that?
Who knows?
Isn't there some saying about how being lucky is actually because you're actually working
hard or something?
I don't know.
If somebody thinks of it, raise your hand and let me know.
There's some, yes.
There you go.
That's exactly what I was looking for.
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
That's the saying.
A lot of people chalk it up to luck or oh, you're so lucky, you're so fortunate or you're
so talented or wow, it must be nice, but actually you work hard and the way is plain when you're
doing right.
But when you're lazy, all of a sudden they're just obstacles upon obstacles and the Bible
talks a lot about this actually.
Move over to verse 22 or chapter 22.
I'm sorry.
Proverbs 22, 13 while you're turning there, chapter 20 verse four says, the sluggard will
not plow by reason of cold.
Therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing.
So the sluggard, he doesn't want to start in the springtime.
It's time to start plowing the field.
You've got to plant the crops early in order to have that harvest.
He says it's too cold and he doesn't want to physically go out there and experience
that cold sensation, but not only that, the ground is harder because the ground's really
cold, but the wise man, the righteous man, the hard worker, he goes out there in spite
of the cold.
He gets an early start and he starts plowing up that ground.
You know what?
In the harvest, he's going to rejoice.
He's going to have the goods, whereas the sluggard, the Bible says, will not plow by
reason of the cold.
That's his excuse.
And therefore in the harvest, he's going to beg and have nothing.
Look at chapter 22 verse 13, the slothful man saith, there's a lion without, I shall
be slain in the streets.
This is pretty unrealistic, okay?
That a lion is going to be roaming the streets of the city.
Now true, there are lions out there and occasionally a lion will roam the streets of a city.
But what are the chances that you are going to be that lion's victim, right?
You're not that high and you can find a work around here.
You can get some kind of a weapon or be prepared for that lion somehow.
But the sloth, the sluggard is just like, oh, cancel the job.
The slothful man says, well, there's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Look at chapter 26.
So number one, we said work without being told.
Number two, we said, don't mess up the job opportunities when you get them.
Don't mess up the opportunities you have.
If you've got a good job right now, if you've got a sweet gig right now, man, don't mess
that up, right?
And here's the way I like to think of it.
This is the phrase that always comes to my mind, run scared.
Run scared, all right?
Who knows what I mean by that?
You know, when I go to work and I'm running scared.
And what I mean by that is I don't just take my job for granted.
I don't just take it for granted and just kick back, relax, and be complacent.
Man, I'm running scared, meaning that I am afraid of messing up.
I'm afraid of ruining this opportunity.
I want to make sure that I don't do things up.
That's what I mean by running scared.
Maybe that phrase resonates with you.
Maybe it doesn't.
But for me, that's something that I think about, hey, I'm going to be running scared
today, meaning like I don't want to mess up.
I'm going to be careful.
I'm going to be sober.
I'm going to be vigilant.
I'm running scared, all right?
So number one, work without being told.
Number two, don't mess up the job opportunities that you have, right?
It's a privilege.
It's a blessing.
Give it your best.
Don't ruin it.
Number three, quit making excuses about anything, but especially quit making excuses why you
can't work or why you can't get the job done.
We've all had those employees or known those employees who are just constantly calling
the boss with a reason why the job can't be done.
I remember we used to wire houses for alarm systems when I first got married, and we'd
go to these houses and like literally 99% of the house would be ready to be wired, and
there would just be like one door frame that wasn't in or something, or one window hadn't
been installed.
And a lot of guys would just want to just pull off the job and be like, oh, this one's
not ready.
Check it.
They want to just cross it out and just shave like two hours off their workday or three
hours by just not doing it.
And then there were other guys who would wire the whole rest of the house.
And then just that one thing that wasn't ready, they'd get the wire like right there close,
and then they would just swing by another day and just finish that one thing.
It would take them like five minutes or something.
But they're being more productive, staying ahead of things, and stuff like that.
And there were just two very distinct mentalities.
There were certain guys where you knew they walked into that house, and they were literally
chanting this in their mind like, please don't be ready.
Please don't be ready.
You know what I mean?
Have you ever been out soul winning and knocked on a door, and you're like, please don't be
home.
Please don't be home.
I remember when I first started soul winning, I was really nervous.
And I used to kind of hope that people weren't home for those first few doors until you got
warmed up, right?
But a lot of people, they go into the job, and it's just like, please don't be ready.
Please be a problem.
Please help me have an excuse.
And then other guys, they want to find a way, hey, I think we can have a work around here.
I think we can get this done anyway.
We don't even need to call the boss necessarily because we've got a solution, all right?
That's what the boss wants.
He wants you to find ways to get things done.
And if you do call him, and sometimes some bosses really want you to call a lot and let
them know every twist and turn.
Some bosses just don't want to hear from you.
They just want the work to get done.
And you got to get to know your boss, right?
What does he want?
Does he want to get every little twist and turn and update, or does he want you to just
figure out a way to get it done?
And if he wants the updates, then you call him up and say, hey, boss, here's the problem,
but we've got a solution.
Here's the solution.
Just running it by you.
Okay, great.
That way you're not calling him with a problem, you're calling him with a solution.
And then you're not going to mess up the opportunities that you have.