Alright, we're here in Genesis chapter 3 and we're going to continue our series on common
versus normal and it's been a few weeks since we've been in this, so let me just kind of
give you a quick recap.
What we've kind of been using as the analogy is that basically this is the standard of
what's right, this is what's normal, and the world though, this is kind of what they're
doing.
This is what's common and this is what is normal.
And we talked about clothing standards and things such as that.
We talked about idolatry and you might be thinking, we talked about fornication and
you might be saying laziness.
Why is this under common versus normal?
It's like I can see a sermon about this, but why is this in this series?
Well, here's the reason why this makes perfect sense because I want you to understand something
and growing up here in the 20th or 21st century, it's hard for us to realize this, but for
almost all of human history, it was impossible to be lazy or you would starve to death.
We have so many modern conveniences, okay?
I want you to realize for 6,300 years of human history, pretty much throughout all time,
in order to just survive, you had to work and work and work.
We have so many modern conveniences.
Look, that microwave has not been around for a thousand years.
That refrigerator has not been around for a thousand years.
They used to put the food in the ground.
That's how they kept it cool.
Look, we have so many modern conveniences and it used to be almost throughout all of
human history, you would wake up at five in the morning, six in the morning or something,
you'd work for several hours before you go to your actual job as a man, just to do the
stuff around the house, and then once you get home, you're working and working, basically
really no free time, and yet those people in those days, they still found their one
free day of Sunday, they just devoted to God.
And literally their lives were work, work, work, work, work all day long just to survive
where you would starve to death, unless you're one of the few privileged, really rich people
which was rare.
Most of human history, it has been very difficult.
And you might think in your life, my life is so hard, it's so much work, this is the
way God made it.
It's supposed to be that way for men and for women, that you scratch and fight for survival.
Life is not easy and it's not meant to be easy, okay?
Now we're going to go back to Genesis 3 in a little bit, but turn to Ruth chapter 2,
Ruth chapter 2, Ruth chapter 2.
And see, I want you to realize something that, you know, you look at just the things that
started in the 20th century that are very common in today's world and everybody thinks
about them.
Think about sports.
There was no NBA before 1900.
There was no World Cup, okay, in the early 1900s.
It started in 1914 was the first year, I believe, of the World Cup.
I could be getting that wrong.
But it wasn't around before the 20, and that's the most famous event in the world for sports.
There was no World Cup.
Even the Olympics has been around for less than 150 years, I believe.
You say, why do you have all these sporting events, the NFL, Major League Baseball, all
of this stuff?
Because people have free time now to just sit around and just watch sports.
Do you realize nobody had free time 200 years ago to sit around and watch every sporting
event?
There was no time because you're just fighting to survive.
Look, that's why all of this music and the movies, man, it's just booming in today's
world.
Why?
We have all the free time in the world.
And when we work eight hours, we're like, oh, my life's so hard.
Eight hours of work, man, it's so difficult.
No, throughout most of human history, it was like 12 hour days.
And we're going to see that in the Bible, not just my opinion.
That is how most of human history has been.
We're both with men and women.
Women would often stay home with the kids and look, they didn't have the modern day
laundry and things such as that.
They would work for everything to make food, to cook food, to just clean up.
It was an all day job where they're busy from morning early in the morning to late at night
and men the same way working.
That is how life was.
But in today's world, we have more money all over the world.
Our lives are so much easier than they were 200 years ago.
And now what's becoming very common is we're lazy.
We're not filling in that extra time with serving God or working hard.
We're filling that time in with Facebook.
We're filling that time in with music and movies and TV and stuff like that.
And let me tell you something.
This is very common in today's world, but it's not normal.
And we're going to see that here.
Okay.
Now, let me just mention one other thing before I get started.
Not only do we have all these new inventions, but I want you to understand technology is
not just becoming more developed.
It is becoming concave up.
If you're into math, you know what I'm talking about.
Basically it is accelerating.
It's not just that we're becoming more advanced.
We are actually accelerating in the technology aspect as well.
Things are rapidly changing and things have become so much easier.
That's just the reality that things are just very easy in today's world.
And if you think your life is difficult, you would have really struggled the last 6,200
years of human history, because life has never been that easy and God didn't intend
it to be.
Now, I'm going to give you a few examples from the Bible just as an introduction about
how life has always been difficult.
It's been difficult for your daily needs.
Notice Ruth 2, verse 6.
And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, it is the Moabites damsel
that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.
This is referring to Ruth.
And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.
So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now that she tarried a little
in the house.
Now, I want you to notice she's basically asking for the approval to basically glean
and gather after the reapers.
So what's taking place, and this is God's system, is that people would basically get
all the plants from a field, but they're supposed to leave some for the poor of the land.
And if you were poor, you had the opportunity for food if you're willing to work very hard
to pick up the leftovers.
You didn't get the best food, but you're able to get something.
Now, in the United States, and you can ask Brother Jerry if you don't believe me, in
the US, they'll pay you if you don't work at all.
They'll just say, well, here you go.
Here's free money.
You can get your own food.
You literally do not have to work a single second in your life, and the government will
pay you to not work.
And guess what the ama...
I remember telling this to my wife when she came to the US, and I was explaining to her
the welfare system of they will pay you, and you don't have to work at all.
My wife was like, what would be their motivation to end up getting a job then?
I was like, exactly.
There will be no motivation.
I mean, if the government says, well, I'm going to give you 50,000 pesos every month,
you don't have to work at all, then you're not going to work.
Okay, that's the reality.
And that's what they do in the US and in a lot of countries, not just in the US, I'm
sure many countries in Europe, I'd have to ask Brother Mateus, I've been serving many
countries in Europe, same way with the welfare type system, and things are handed to you.
But I want you to realize what's happening in the Bible is the poor of the land, they
do have an opportunity to eat food, but they have to work to get that.
That's why God's system is perfect.
It's not handed to them.
They've got to actually work.
And this is what she's doing.
She's gleaning and gathering after the reapers.
She's picking up the leftovers, the grapes that nobody wants, right, the goulai et prutas
that nobody wants.
She's getting the leftovers, the one that's already bruised and old.
But that was God's method.
We see this in Ruth chapter two, okay?
Verse 15, and I don't have time to go into depth on the book of Ruth, but obviously Ruth
was blessed by God, and then Boaz ends up saying, you know what, let some actually fall
for her, make it easier for her.
Verse 15, and when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men saying, let her
glean even among the sheaves in reproach or not.
So basically, let her get whatever she wants, don't stop her.
Verse 16, and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she
may glean them and rebuke her not.
What he's saying in verse 16, let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose, what he's
saying is when you gather up all the potatoes, just let some of them just drop down to the
ground and make it easier for her.
Let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose.
Instead of her having to just look around like where's a vegetable, I'll grab that,
where's a fruit, I'll grab that, what he's saying is make sure you just kind of let it
fall there so she can just kind of pick it up, okay?
You say why?
Because Boaz was a godly man, and he knew she was godly, and she wanted to serve God,
and this was God actually stepping in to help Ruth out.
And I do believe that if you work hard, God will provide you.
That's what we're seeing here in group two.
That is what we're seeing in this story, okay?
But I want you to realize, this is not very easy for her, though.
Going out there and trying to gather up the leftovers, this is difficult.
Notice verse 18, and she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what
she had gleaned.
So her mother-in-law, Naomi, sees what she has, and she brought forth and gave to her
that she had reserved after she was sufficed, or after she had enough.
Verse 19, and her mother-in-law said unto her, where hast thou gleaned today, and where
wrought hast thou, blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.
Now I want you to see this phrase, blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.
What Naomi's saying is, man, bless the person that took knowledge of your situation and
helped you out.
So when she's saying, where hast thou gleaned today, it's not just like, you know, where
did you glean today?
It's like, you brought back so much, where did you glean today?
That's what she's saying.
She's amazed what she brought back.
Where wrought hast thou?
Like, how in the world did you pick up so much fruits and vegetables?
And see, Ruth and Naomi are in a situation, they are just trying to find daily needs so
they don't starve to death.
That is what's taking place in Ruth, too, and it's not just Ruth and Naomi.
There's plenty of people like that.
We mass produce food so easily now, and it's not the healthiest food.
I understand they add chemicals and things like that, but let me tell you something.
It's really easy to just walk outside to whatever grocery store and just grab back everything.
When I get groceries, because we have a grocery store right by our condo, and I just have
a couple of bags, and basically I'm taking it back, it's like a 10, 15-minute walk, and
sometimes I stop along the way, I'm like, man, my arms are tired, and I'm thinking in
my mind, this is so difficult, but it's like, man, that's not difficult at all.
I mean, she didn't just walk to a grocery store and walk back 10 minutes.
I'm sure she walked an hour and a half or something.
She's out in the sun all day, and then she's bringing it back, and she's exhausted at night.
But life is so easy for us that even just a little bit of work, we're like, oh, man,
it's so difficult.
But when you're looking at Ruth Chapter 2, they're just fighting for survival, okay?
That is what you're seeing.
Exodus Chapter 2, Exodus Chapter 2, second book in your Bible, Genesis then Exodus, Exodus
Chapter 2.
Now, of course, there have always been some people that have been rich, but I want you
to realize it's just really easy to go to a grocery store now and get everything you
need.
It wasn't always that easy in life.
It was actually very difficult, okay?
And so I want you to understand also that when you're looking at Solomon, who was so
rich in the Bible, you realize we're richer than Solomon was?
Because Solomon's going to the ends of the earth to try to find pigeons, peacocks, or
whatever, and salt and stuff like that.
It's like, my goodness, man, let's go to the grocery store.
You get a big thing of salt, it's like 70 pesos or something.
It's so easy for us.
I mean, it's so incredibly easy.
You have food from countries around the world at just general grocery stores.
It is so easy for us.
But since we didn't grow up with the understanding of how hard it was, we take it for granted.
For many of us, our parents, for my dad, life was not easy when he grew up.
Life was actually difficult when he grew up.
For many people, since life was very difficult for them, they wanted to help their kids out
and they wanted to make it easy for their kids.
Absolutely, parents should try to help their kids, but you've got to be careful with that.
You don't want to make it too easy because part of life is just scratching and fighting
for survival and you learn from that experience.
That's something that everybody needs to hit.
It's better to learn that before you're 18 years old.
It's better to learn that in your house growing up.
That is the sort of stuff.
Train up children, train up people in the way of the Lord, and they won't forget that
when they get old.
You need to train people at a young age because look, the reality is I wasn't fully trained
like that about how hard life was when I was a kid.
It was actually pretty easy for me.
We weren't the richest family in the US.
We had very modest money when I grew up, but quite honestly, compared to people around
the world and throughout all ages, it was very easy.
Very easy.
Exodus 2, verse 15.
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses.
He sought to kill Moses.
But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelled in the land of Midian and he sat down
by a well.
So Moses is sitting by a well.
Now in today's world, you don't really think of wells too much because you just have faucets,
but they went to a well to get their water.
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and turned on their faucet and
had water in a bucket.
Is that what it says?
No, they came and they drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
See what they're doing, these women are going out to get water and look, water's heavy.
It's not light.
That's why one of the events in our competition is going to be carrying those five gallon
things of water.
Okay.
You say why?
Because 40 pounds in each arm is tiring.
And what these women are doing, they're basically having buckets full of water and guess what?
They don't just put it in a truck and just drive home.
You know what they're doing?
They're probably taking it home a mile and a half and resting along the way.
Life was difficult just to get water.
Look, all these things are handed to us.
You just turn on a faucet, you have your water.
You just walk out to the grocery store, you have everything.
You need to realize for 99% of human history, this wasn't possible.
Life is just so easy in today's world over the last 100 years with modern technology.
It's so much easier than our forefathers.
The things they had to do.
Okay.
Now turn in your Bible to back to Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three, where
we started out.
Genesis chapter three.
Now, let me just say this upfront that by no means am I saying that if you've got a
job and you make good money and you don't have to work like a crazy amount of hours,
I'm not saying you should just work a crazy amount of hours, but here's what I'm saying.
What you don't want is just dead time where you don't know what to do with it.
Like let's say over the next month.
Let's say for example, your company just said, we're shutting things down over this month
due to the coronavirus.
What you don't want is to just sit around every day and say, well, let me just get on
YouTube and just kind of entertain myself and just every day you're just on YouTube
and then a month goes by and man, you watched a lot of YouTube videos, saw a lot of things
that were funny.
You listen to lots of sermons and you pretty much did nothing over a month.
Okay.
Find out something to do with your time if you have dead time, which means make a list.
This is what I'm going to do tomorrow.
I'm going to read 15 chapters in the Bible.
I'm going to memorize Bible.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to do this at home.
I'm going to fix this around the house.
Don't just say, well, I'm going to do something from eight in the morning to like 10 at night.
Okay.
If you do that, what's going to happen is you're going to stay up until two in the morning
watching YouTube videos and then you're going to sleep in through your alarm at 8 a.m. and
just hit the snooze to like 10 a.m. and you're going to accomplish nothing over the next month.
You're going to use your time wisely.
Genesis chapter three.
So the first point we have is this.
There is a requirement to work in the Bible, a requirement to work in the Bible.
And this is both for men and women.
Okay.
But let me start with the men.
There's a requirement to work.
Genesis three verse 17.
And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of
the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground
for thy sake.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
And so basically the ground is cursed because they eat the forbidden fruit, which probably
wasn't an apple, although people think it's an apple, doesn't tell us.
Verse 18, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field.
So basically thorns and thistles are going to come forth.
What he's telling Adam is, hey, it's not going to be as easy before you ate the fruit.
Before the plants just kind of grew on their own.
I mean, it was perfectly fine.
It was really easy.
Now you're going to have to fight against thorns and thistles.
And in our lives, when we work, there's going to be a lot of obstacles we have to overcome
to provide our daily needs.
Verse 19, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.
What God is telling Adam is you are going to work very hard and get sweat just to provide
your daily food.
That is what he's saying.
Look, there's a requirement to work.
And what God says is I expect you to work hard just for your daily needs in the sweat
of thy face, okay?
Turn to Exodus 20, Exodus 20.
Now I understand in today's world with the modern technology, a lot of our jobs, you're
not really sweating when you work.
Okay?
You're on the computer all day.
That's the jobs I had out of college as well.
I understand that, but whether or not you're working a job where you're going to sweat
or whether or not you're working a job that's mental, you're expected to work very hard.
Okay?
And if your life is just a little bit difficult, you're like, man, I'm so tired.
That is the way God designed it.
That is the way God designed it in the sweat of thy face, implying labor, hard work in
the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread.
Exodus 20 verse 8, Exodus 20 verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.
Now labor does not just mean work.
It means hard work.
And what the Bible is saying is over six days you're going to labor.
And what you see in the Bible in the pattern of what's being understood, that's from sun
up till sundown, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Basically you work as God provides you light outside the work.
And once the light's gone, then you're done because you can't work.
Okay?
Very well.
So basically 12 hour days.
So what are you seeing?
What's six times seven?
72 hours.
Look, maybe some people in this room do work 72 hours, but the reality is for most of us
we don't work 72 hour weeks.
Now if you work more than that, maybe you can complain a little bit, man, I work so
many hours.
And if you don't work 72 hours, you know what, quite honestly, it's pretty easy compared
to people in the Bible.
And look, I understand, I've had jobs where I work more or less hours, but let me tell
you something, God actually wants you to be busy.
Because for all of us, when we have free time, we do nothing with it.
That is the way it works.
God wants you to be busy from morning to evening, you're busy.
That is what you see in the Bible.
Six times 12, 72 hour weeks.
Turn to Proverbs 31.
Proverbs 31.
Now let me say this when it comes to men and women.
What I believe and what we teach here is the best situation for people is the man provides
the money and the wife stays home and raises the kids.
But it's not like that for everybody at this church, and that's fine.
Okay, that's not the point of this sermon.
And people are in different situations, they make different choices.
But whether or not a woman is working a secular job or staying home, she should be busy, just
like the husband is, working very hard.
Not just, well, I'm just kind of sitting at home, eating brownies and stuff like that.
No, actually working hard, whether it's a secular job or raising the kids, work hard.
Notice what it says in Proverbs 31, verse 13.
This is the passage on the virtuous woman, Proverbs 31, verse 13.
She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands.
She works willingly.
You don't have to force her to work.
The husband doesn't have to beg her, oh, please work.
No, she just works willingly.
Why?
She's virtuous.
She's godly.
Verse 15, she rises also while it is yet night.
What does that mean?
It means she's rising while it's still dark outside before six in the morning when the
sun comes up.
I understand the sun comes up at different times.
The general pattern, though, is 6 a.m., 6 p.m. is what you're talking about.
So basically the sun comes up roughly 6 a.m.
Before the sun comes up, she rises also while it is yet or still night.
Why?
And giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maidens.
What is she doing?
She's rising up to cook the food.
But she doesn't have a microwave.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Yeah, it's very easy.
Just put it in the microwave.
Boom, it's good to go.
Look, that's not what she had in Proverbs 31.
But she's rising up before six in the morning to do what?
Just to cook the food.
Now you say, man, that's tiring.
Yeah, you know what?
It is tiring.
This is God's pattern, that both men and women are going to be busy.
They're going to work hard and life is going to be difficult.
Not easy.
Okay?
Verse 18, she perceiveth that her merchandise is good.
Her candle goeth not out by night.
What does that mean?
That means once it is dark outside, she doesn't just say, man, I'm done turning off the candle.
I'm done.
No.
She's still working.
There's still work to be done.
And look, if you're raising kids, there will always be work to be done.
Okay?
There's work to be done to clean the house, to raise the kids.
There will be work to be done.
So it's not just like, okay, the husband came home from work.
I'm done for the day.
The husband just does all the work at home now.
Now, wait a minute.
There's different roles between men and women.
And the man has been out there working the whole day as well.
It is not the man's job to just do everything at home now because he got home.
No.
He might want to rest as well.
Now, I do believe that obviously both husband and wife, they want to help each other.
They should both want to be busy and should be willing to take time to help each other
out if possible.
But I want you to realize, in general, for most of the ladies in this room, you probably
are not helping your husband out with their sex with the job.
Don't expect all the responsibilities at home while your husband's just going to do them
That's not his job.
Now, if they're able to help, praise the Lord.
But I want you to understand, when we lived in the US, we had a house.
We had a backyard, and there's mowing the grass and things to be done outside.
And I want you to realize, in Problems 31, you see verses, and I don't have time to go
into this, where the woman's willing to help out with stuff like that.
But when it came down to it, it was my job to make sure that I cut off the branches of
the tree.
I'm not going to have my wife going up in a tree.
And we didn't have all the supplies, so I would climb up in the tree with a machete
and cut off the branches, okay?
I consider that my job, kind of the general thing, the outdoor works of the husband, the
indoor works of the wife.
I understand those aren't necessarily two plus two equals four.
It depends on the situation.
But I want you to understand, there was certain work that I just said, you know what?
This is my job.
It's my job to mow.
It's my job to do those things, okay?
There's also certain jobs and certain responsibilities for the wife as well.
It wouldn't be fair for me to just sit at home and not work and not provide money and
say, my wife's got to do that and raise the kids.
It wouldn't be right also for the wife to say, well, my husband just got home.
He's been working 10 hours.
But now he gets to do everything at home so I can rest.
Now, ideally, both husband and wife are hard workers, so you're getting stuff done faster.
And then you might actually have some free time together for an hour or two at night.
You can put everything else aside and just spend some time together.
But that doesn't come unless both people are willing to work hard, okay?
So absolutely, if the husband can help the wife or the wife can help the husband,
praise the Lord for that.
Because here in this passage, the wife is helping to make some financial decisions
and to bring money for the family.
But the ultimate thing is that's going to come down mainly to the guy.
Same way with the stuff done at home, that's mainly the wife's job, okay?
These are different roles.
And I didn't come up with these roles.
When I grew up, because I was homeschooled starting in middle school,
when homeschooling was not common, okay?
My wife, my mom, my wife, my mom, she stayed home and raised me and my sister.
She homeschooled us.
And she cleaned the house and took care of the stuff at home.
And my dad worked the second job.
Now, when my dad came home, he wasn't just sitting down in front of the TV,
just like, all right, I'm done for the day.
But neither was my mom either.
They both still had stuff to do.
The candle didn't go out at night for either one of them.
Why? There's stuff to be done, okay?
And if you want to accomplish something in life, it's called don't be lazy.
Stuff doesn't just fix itself.
The floor doesn't get cleaned on its own.
The kids' diapers don't get changed on its own.
You don't just have 50,000 patients coming to your bank account overnight
unless you did something to work for it, okay?
That is the secret.
Notice what it says in verse 27.
She looketh well to the ways of her household,
and eateth not the bread of idleness.
What does idleness mean?
It means sitting around on YouTube all day.
It means sitting around on Facebook all day.
It means sending out 5,000 text messages every day.
That's called being idle, having nothing to do, okay?
Notice what it says in verse 31.
Verse 31.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her own works praise her in the gates.
Why is this woman being praised?
Your wife is so beautiful.
Is that what it says in verse 31?
It says, let her own works praise her.
And see, people are going to be able to tell
if they see your house or whatever based on,
they're going to tell basically the work you do.
Let her own works praise her.
That's what it's saying, okay?
Now, absolutely, there's many facets to being a good Christian,
but let me tell you something.
Something that is undervalued is hard work.
And the reason why it's undervalued is
life is just too easy.
And look, I'm putting myself into this picture.
When I was in college, you know what?
I was playing Super Mario Kart and just skipping classes
and just said, I'll get my degree and whatever.
No big deal.
I'm playing Super Mario Kart and these video games,
sitting around.
Man, I went to the gym like six, sometimes seven times a week,
and I worked out for two hours
and played basketball for a couple of hours.
Look, I had all the free time in the world.
Why did I have that attitude?
Well, I'm just kind of in college.
It's just what you do, right?
You know, I worked some.
And that is a problem
because we need to learn to work hard
and teach our kids to work hard
at a very young age, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Genesis 3.
Genesis 3.
Genesis chapter 3.
And so, look, this is something
that, you know what, we need to do a good job
of teaching our kids at a young age.
And so, obviously, you know what,
there is a time for kids to play and have fun.
My son is only two years old,
and absolutely growing up, I want him to have
an opportunity to have some fun and get to relax.
But here's what I don't want to do.
I do not want his life
when he's two, three, four, five, six, seven years old
where you're just going to sit around for 12 hours a day
watching TV or whatever.
He's going to need to learn as he gets old enough
to do things. Hey, now it's your job
to wash the dishes when he's old enough.
You say, why?
Because if he doesn't learn responsibilities.
And look, I do talk about how
life should have been more difficult for me,
but obviously, our parents, for my sister and I,
we had a list of chores we had to do.
And you had to check it off if you didn't.
It's like, oh, man, it's my day to do the dishes.
It's like, but that is good
for kids at a young age.
They learn discipline.
And look, I understand probably for a lot of us,
we weren't raised that way.
But that is how we need to raise our kids,
that you need to accomplish something,
and that is going to make it much easier
for men that are 17, 18, 19, 20 years old
to transition to the workforce.
They figure things out for themselves.
It's going to make it very easy for ladies
to transition if they get married and have kids
to stay at home and raising those kids
because that is intimidating.
When you first have kids,
it's kind of a scary thing.
I mean, you don't really realize it will be,
but then all of a sudden, once your child's about to be born,
it's like, man, what are we doing now?
It's like, I don't know how to raise a kid.
It seems so easy, but then once you get to the moment,
it's like, man, it's going to be difficult.
Learning to work at a young age,
it's going to be easier for you.
Now, notice what we see in Genesis 3.
The first thing we saw was there was a requirement to work,
and that is for men and women.
The curse is on the man in terms of the fact
he needs to provide the food
because he financially is the one who provides that.
That doesn't mean, well, the wife just,
no big deal, it's just very easy.
No, because she's going to stay home and raise the kids
and that's going to be difficult.
But not only is there a requirement to work,
I want to show you the reason for trouble
or problems in our life.
Because of the fact we are lazy,
that leads to a lot of trouble and a lot of problems.
Genesis 3, verse 17.
And unto Adam he said,
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife
and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.
So here's the punishment.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
What it says is cursed is the ground.
It's going to be difficult for your sake, for your benefit.
It's actually a good thing
that is hard to provide your food.
It's for thy sake, for your benefit.
Why would he say something like that?
Well, before they ate of the fruit,
was life easy or difficult?
Easy.
A little bit too easy, right?
What happens?
They get into trouble.
He's saying, you know what?
The ground's going to be cursed for your sake.
Now, there's a few benefits in this.
One, because you get exercise because of the sweat of thy face,
but also just the fact being busy keeps you out of trouble.
It's cursed for your sake.
That is what he's saying, Genesis chapter 3.
Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11.
2 Samuel chapter 11.
And it's your turn to 2 Samuel 11.
Let me read the end of that verse where it said,
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days that I like.
In sorrow.
Say, man, I come home every day from work.
I hate my job.
Yeah, you're in sorrow all the days of your life.
It's like, yeah, you know, it's supposed to be difficult.
It's supposed to be frustrating from time to time.
Look, the secret to making money in life is hard work.
Right.
My own boss in Maryland,
I had two main bosses when I worked.
One retired.
And when my boss retired, I don't know his exact salary.
I would guess it was probably about a quarter million dollars a year,
$250,000 a year,
which is, what, like over 10 million pesos per year.
It was probably what his salary was.
Maybe more, because he was very high up in the company.
He's a very respected person.
He didn't make that money, though, just because of the fact,
oh, we're just going to hand this to you.
Now, I'm not saying we should just devote our lives to work
and sacrifice church and family.
That's not the point of the sermon.
But here's what I'm saying.
The reason why he made that much money is because of the fact
he was working 70, 80 hours a week.
My new boss who took over is a very well-respected person
within the pension field.
I'm choosing not to name the names of these people,
but he's very well-respected in the pension field.
And his job before, because he retired in his late 30s,
and he came out of retirement to work at the company.
Before that, in his 30s, his main job was he was the overseer
of all of the pensions for the National Football League in the U.S.
The biggest sports league in the U.S. is the National Football League,
not the NBA.
He oversaw that.
So for him, at the end of the year, his bonus was like a $200,000 cop.
It's like he made crazy money, and let me tell you something,
he worked a lot of hours.
When he went to our company, he worked seven days a week,
because from time to time, I had to come in on the weekends
to work on stuff.
He was just always there.
Now, I'm not saying we should go down that road
because of the fact he had been divorced several times, okay?
There's prices to pay if all your life is about work
and you don't take time for church and God, okay?
I'm not telling you just to devote all of your time
to just work, work, work, because you'll destroy your life, okay?
What I'm saying, though, is the reason why he made so much money
is because he was willing to work lots of hours.
And the way you're successful in your career and your personal life
is you work hard.
That's how you're successful, okay?
2 Samuel 11, verse 1.
And so, look, there's a reason why we have problems in our life
and it's called too much free time.
2 Samuel 11, verse 1.
And it came to pass after the year was expired
at the time when kings go forth to battle.
The time when kings go forth to battle,
what that's saying is once the war came,
the king was there leading the church.
There's a time you go to battle, as we talked about last week.
As the king, as the leader, you go out to battle also.
This is hard for us to understand
because no president ever goes to battle when they declare war.
I mean, the U.S. declares a war every other year or whatever,
but you never see Donald Trump or Barack Obama just say,
okay, I'm here leading the charge.
You don't see that.
But in the Bible, the kings go forth to battle,
and the result is they're not so quick to go to battle
because they don't want to die, right?
And so there's a time kings go forth to battle,
but notice this in verse 1,
that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel,
and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Reba,
but David tarried still at Jerusalem.
David didn't go to battle when he was supposed to.
Now, most of David's life, he went forth to battle,
not in 2 Samuel 11.
Now, 2 Samuel 11 is not famous for David not going to battle.
What's it famous for?
David committing adultery.
The reason why he committed adultery
is the fact that he didn't go to battle, though,
and I'll prove that to you in verse 2.
And it came to pass in an evening time, this is nighttime,
that David arose from off his bed
and walked upon the roof of the king's house.
Now, why is it that David is not sleeping?
Why is it that he cannot sleep?
Because you don't walk on the roof of your house at nighttime.
Nobody when it's like 11 o'clock at night or 12 o'clock at night
and there's nothing to do, you don't want to just be awake.
But David can't sleep.
He arises from off his bed, the Bible says.
Why can he not sleep?
Look, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
What about the sleep of a lazy man?
This is the sleep of a lazy man.
You can't sleep.
You're waking up, you're like, man, I can't fall asleep.
Why is it that David can't sleep?
Well, here's the secret, David.
He didn't go to battle.
Sitting around with nothing to do.
I'm sure he, I mean, he's not on his iPhone.
I don't know what he's doing, but he's sitting around with nothing to do,
just sitting around, not working hard.
And guess what?
The result is he can't sleep.
He can't sleep.
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, not the sleep of a lazy man.
He cannot sleep at night, so he's walking upon the roof of the king's house.
When he walks upon the roof of the king's house, what do we see?
And from the roof, he saw a woman washing herself.
And the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And David sent and inquired after the woman and once said,
Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
Look, when David went to sleep at night, or tried to,
he was not planning to commit adultery.
He was not planning to take a man's wife,
but he's sitting around with nothing to do and all of a sudden he looks upon her.
And what ends up happening, he ends up committing adultery.
Now look, I think it's doubtful that you're going to walk on the roof of your house
at midnight tonight or whatever.
But I will say this.
This is the reason why young people are watching pornography all the time.
Because they're up late at night with free access to their cell phones
because their parents just say, Hey, you turned 13.
You're a teenager now. We trust you.
Here's free access to anything you want on your iPhone
or we're buying for you or your smartphone or whatever.
Just do whatever you want.
What are those kids going to do at like 10 o'clock at night,
11 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock at night?
Probably the same thing David did.
That is why people are getting addicted to these things
because look, people commit most sins at nighttime when it's dark.
Not during the day.
Because during the day you're working, you're busy.
Usually people commit adultery.
They get drunk at nighttime.
Now people are supposed to sleep at night.
But look, if you can't sleep because you're lazy,
you're going to be like David.
That is what we see in this story.
Turn to 1 Timothy 2.
What I believe that you see is that when men have too much free time,
the particular sin that they could fall into is like a sexual sin.
That's something that guys are probably more likely to do.
I think the Bible teaches that.
But there's also sins that women are more likely to do.
And that is gossip.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
When women have too much time, they can go house to house
as toddlers and busybodies.
That's the sin they can fall into if they have too much free time.
Now look, as we always say, men and women are different.
This doesn't make men, women, men better or women better.
It just means that they're different.
And there's different sins they might be more likely to do.
Women are going to be more likely to gossip.
And what you see in 1 Timothy 2 is verse 14.
1 Timothy 2, verse 14.
And Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing
if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Now what does it mean to be saved in childbearing?
That doesn't mean that nothing wrong can happen during a pregnancy
because sometimes, you know, moms die during pregnancy.
It's not common, but there are dangers in pregnancy.
You know, for men in this room that are newly married
or are going to be married, like when your wife's pregnant,
especially towards the beginning, the first trimester,
and especially towards the end, you know what?
You need to be willing to work a little bit harder to help out
so she doesn't have to work so hard
because there can be dangers involved, okay?
The beginning stage or towards the end of the stage
is more likely to have a miscarriage.
If you want things to work out fine, it might mean husbands.
Those last couple of months, you're being patient with emotions
and you're just not sleeping at all and just doing lots of work, okay?
That's the time to step in and just double your efforts, okay?
But I want you to see here, the Bible says she shall be saved in childbearing.
What that means is by having kids, it will save her from destroying her life, okay?
Because what you see in 1 Timothy is having too much free time
can lead to problems, okay? That's what we see in the Bible.
Now, let me say this because obviously I understand
because my wife and I, it took us time to have kids.
We didn't have kids overnight and we wanted to have kids overnight.
It took us a few years and so look, I want you to understand,
this is all in God's time.
I'm not saying from day one, boom, you need to have kids.
Look, that's really up to God, okay?
As much as you pray and let me also say this,
that when it comes to people giving advice,
be careful of the advice you give to husbands and wives
about what they should be doing in their personal lives.
Because I know when my wife and I were trying to have kids and praying about it,
it's like people gave advice. It's like, well, we didn't ask for advice.
And it's like, you know what?
It's not, I mean, God's the one who opens the wound.
So it's like, what are you trying to give me advice like?
It's like, eat this specific vegetable.
It's like, you know, at the end of the day, you know,
and I'm not saying there's not any wisdom in any of that,
but I'm just saying don't give advice if it's not asked for, okay?
I don't do it and no one in this room should, okay?
Don't give advice unless it's asked for.
But let me say this, when it comes to having kids,
this does help women prevent themselves from getting into the sins that they would get into.
Why? Because when you raise kids, you're going to be busy.
It's going to take effort to raise kids. It's not going to be easy.
Now, let me say this, that before people have kids, when they get married,
people have different opinions about this and it's your personal opinion, that's fine.
You know, whether or not, you know, the wife works before you have kids or not.
Here's what I'll say, though, whether or not she's working or not,
you don't want just dead time. You must find something to do with that time.
That might mean just helping your husband out at work
or that might mean basically just coming up with a list of things to do,
but you don't want to just have dead time all day because look,
whether it's men or women, free dead time, we will all get into trouble, including myself.
I'm lumping myself in, my wife in, anybody in this room.
We're not designed that way. Have a bunch of free time.
It's not good for us, okay? When you're raising kids, guess what?
You don't really have a whole lot of free time. It just is what it is.
You know what? Things are busy. You don't know.
And it's like you hope you'll have a night where you get to sleep through,
but you just don't know. You know, your kid's a little bit sick or they're a little bit,
you know, peel you or peel you, then guess what?
You're not sleeping that night. That's just the way it works, okay?
And so look, the Bible says women, they'll be saved in childbearing. Why?
Because all of us will be saved when we're busy in life. That's what we see.
Okay, now turn in your Bible to 2 Thessalonians 3.
2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3.
And so let me say this, that first off, there's a requirement to work, okay?
Life is not supposed to be easy. There's a requirement to work.
There's a reason for trouble or problems in our life.
But let me show you this. Let me show you the reputation of the lazy.
We saw the requirement, the reason. Let's look at the reputation of the lazy.
2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6.
This is the Church of Thessalonica, and the Bible says to withdraw yourself
from those that are walking disorderly. They're causing problems, okay?
Verse 7.
Paul says, I wasn't disorderly among you.
Verse 8.
Paul says he wrought with labor night and day. You say, why does it say that?
Because Paul worked a job, okay?
Now look, I never preached that, you know, people that are in the ministry,
they must work a secular job. I've never said that.
I said it's fine because the Bible says it's fine if they work a secular job.
What I preached is it's a wrong attitude to say,
well, I'm in the ministry. I will not work a secular job at all
because I'm more godly if I'm just in the ministry.
The Bible doesn't teach that.
And look, I still work for Verity Baptist Church.
Every single week I have assignments I have to get done.
And I'll be honest with you, I hope to always work at least some of a secular job.
Now, I'm not saying that I should or shouldn't.
It's just kind of a choice that I would like to always at least work some, okay?
And part of it's this because of the fact, you know what?
If it was just running this church, I would have free time, okay?
It's good to just be busy and not just have a bunch of free time.
Why? We're going to get into trouble, okay?
That's what the Bible teaches.
Notice what it says in verse 9.
And Paul says,
That's why I expect you to work hard.
See, what the Bible says is the government doesn't provide your food.
You provide your own food, okay?
You work, you provide your food for yourself and for your family.
That is the way God has designed it.
See, there's a link between not working and being disorderly.
That's what you see in verse 11.
If you have a lot of free time, whether you're a man or a woman, you know what?
You're going to get into trouble.
That's why I've said that, you know what?
During this month, some of you, your work might be closed down.
Some of you have businesses, you might just not have a lot of work this next month.
Don't just sit around and say, man, I'll just take a month to relax.
No, find something to do.
Don't just sit around with nothing to do.
And look, it's going to be a tough time.
For a lot of us, you might be out of work, you might not be making money.
That could be very difficult.
Don't just sit around with nothing to do.
Find something to do, even if it's whatever, whether it's reading the Bible, soul winning,
whether it's looking for another job or whatever.
Do something, okay?
Or do something, work on the side to make a little bit of money if you can.
Don't just sit around with nothing to do, though.
Because what you're going to find at the end of this month is you're less spiritual than you were at the beginning.
That's the way it is, okay?
Notice what it says in verse 12.
Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ,
that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
And see, the Bible says that basically you work for your own bread, your own food.
Now for most of us, we did not inherit a million dollars from our parents, okay?
Neither did I, okay?
If I chose just to not work at all, I would just starve to death, okay?
Or I'd be on the street begging for money, right?
If I chose not to work.
That's the way it is for all of us.
We didn't grow up like Donald Trump.
He grew up as a rich millionaire, okay?
He didn't make that money, like he likes to say.
He actually grew up with that money, okay?
His dad was rich, okay?
Most of us didn't grow up in that situation, though.
We have to actually work for survival.
It's not just all handed to us, okay?
This is the way God designed it.
Verse 13.
Look, if somebody ends up like just refusing to make work
and just basically just have stuff handed to them by their family or relatives.
Let me say this, like you know what?
If you make money and you've got money saved up
and you're providing your own means, there's nothing wrong with that, okay?
If you've saved up money and you're working off your own savings, that's fine.
But you know, one thing that happens in the Philippines
is people basically don't do their job
and they expect their family to give them money.
That's not right.
Everyone needs to work hard.
Now here's the thing about it.
I'm not saying it's wrong to give your family money if you want to help them out.
It's more in different situations.
And look, life is tough here.
It is hard to find work sometimes, depending on what.
It's a different perspective because when I was in the US, there's a million jobs, okay?
It's really not that difficult.
Yeah, it is more difficult here.
But everybody should be willing to work as hard as they can to provide their needs, okay?
And so that's what we see in this story.
And look, if someone doesn't want to work, they can't ask their brother
to say, well, just give me like money if they're not willing to work.
Because what I've seen just, you know, my wife being married,
it's just like there's certain family members that just, they expect, you know,
my wife's family that lives in the US will just send them money.
But they're not working.
It's like it would be one thing if you were working or willing to work,
but you're just expecting money to be sent from you.
Well, that's not right, okay?
Like I said, it's not wrong to help family out.
And I'm sure people in this room, you do help family out.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But here's what I'm saying.
Everybody should be willing to work hard, okay?
And that is when family's there to help out if someone falls in a rough time, okay?
But not just, well, it's automatic no matter what, okay?
No, everybody should be willing to work hard.
Why?
Because in 2 Thessalonians 3, what you see is if you don't work, you don't need it.
You provide your own food.
That's what the Bible says.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5.
And so I understand we go through various seasons where sometimes you're low on money
or work's going good or bad or whatever.
But here's what I'm saying.
We should be willing to work very hard.
And one thing that's been preached before and I've heard it and I think it's good that
if you're not working, your job is to find a job.
So you're basically spending your time working.
But here's what you do not want to do.
Over this next month, during this season where everything's closed off, just say, well,
I'm just going to sit around and not do anything, okay?
I have a friend of mine and I didn't ask him if I could tell the story.
He was a good friend of mine.
And he basically had a situation with his work where he wasn't working, but the company
was still sending him money, okay?
And so basically he could have, because there's like a situation or whatever, just because
of his Bible beliefs.
But anyways, he wasn't working and they were just like sending him money.
And you know what he did is, you know, with the dead time, he got a different job, so
he's making more money.
You say, why?
Because it's better to work rather than just sit around and say, well, I've got, still
got money coming in, so I can just sit around and do nothing.
It's like, that's not healthy for anybody.
I remember like in the US, you know, I, and I believe God's going to bless you when you
do something like this.
I got hired as a job in the US as a math teacher, okay?
And I got hired at this job and I was excited for it and everything like that.
And then all of a sudden after I got hired, they told me, actually, you have to pass your
fingerprint clearance card first.
So we got to wait eight weeks till later on in the year till you can start.
It's like, I just quit my job.
It's like I was going to start this job and then all of a sudden it's like, I just quit
my job.
So I picked up a job at a car wash for eight weeks.
It was a terrible job.
It was like the worst job I ever had.
But you know, it's better.
I mean, honestly, it would be better to just have something to do, even if you're not making
any money.
Look, honestly, it would be better for you in life to work 10 hours in a day and make
1,000 pesos than one hour in a day and make 1,000 pesos.
You say, why?
If you have all of that free time, it's going to destroy your life, okay?
That is what we see, whether it's 2 Thessalonians 3.
We see this both with men and women.
It's just not good to have lots of free time on your hands.
2 Corinthians 5, verse 9.
Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
And you see this throughout the Bible.
It talks about us laboring, us working hard.
And look, the reason why it's so important to teach kids this at a young age is because
to be successful in the Christian life, you have to labor.
Reading the Bible, going soul winning, that takes work.
It takes effort.
It takes labor.
And if kids don't learn the value of hard work at a young age, they're not going to
learn that value when they're 25 years old.
It's a lot easier to teach kids when they're 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old.
Look, when my son makes a mess at home, I make him pick it all up.
I make him put everything back.
I show him.
He drops like a bunch of cookies on the ground or whatever, this little bread cracker things
that we give him.
And you know what?
I show him.
I say, Zef.
And I put one back in the container.
And I hold the container.
And I wait for him to put every single one of those back in.
You say, why?
Now, do I enjoy doing that?
Not really.
Because it's like, man, I got to spend my time.
But I'm teaching my son.
And I was teaching him this before he was 2 years old.
And quite honestly, raising kids, that takes so much effort.
Because those sorts of things, you have to be willing to say, I'm going to take some
time aside to help train and teach my kids.
But if we do not do that, you know what's going to happen?
They're going to grow up and probably be disorderly.
That's what we see in the Bible.
Now, turn in your Bible to Proverbs 6.
Proverbs 6.
And so what do we see here today so far?
Well, we saw the requirement to work.
We saw the reason for trouble or problems or sins in our life.
We saw the reputation of the lazy.
But let us look at the reality in this world.
What's actually going to take place if we just choose to be lazy?
Well, notice what it says in Proverbs 6, verse 6.
Go to the ant, thou slugger.
Consider her ways and be wise.
And so in verse 6 it says, look at the ant, consider her and be wise.
Now, it said consider her ways because worker ants are female.
They're not male.
The Bible's proven to be right even before science has figured it out.
Because now they know, wow, the worker ants are female ants.
The male ants are the soldier ants.
So it's like, wow, the Bible is proven right.
That's why it says consider her ways and be wise.
The worker ants are females.
And so it says consider her ways and be wise,
which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
provideeth her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
And so basically with the ants, they work very hard to provide their food.
And when they have food, what do they do?
They prepare for when they won't have food.
They prepare ahead of time.
One of the most famous children's short stories, videos, or whatever,
is the grasshopper and the ants.
And basically with the story, the ants are working very hard.
They've got all the food in the world.
The weather's great outside.
It's not cold.
And then the grasshopper's just being lazy,
just goofing off, playing songs or whatever.
Then all of a sudden the winner comes around.
It's like, oh, man, I don't have any food.
What am I going to do?
Because the grasshopper didn't prepare.
And they use the ants as the example of preparing ahead of time.
Why?
Ants are known to be extremely hardworking.
I've watched some documentaries on ants
just because I'm curious when it mentions animals in the Bible
and why they're so significant.
It's beyond comprehension the things that ants build in their lifetime.
I mean, it's amazing.
If you were to build it to the scale of us as humans,
just the most amazing things underground that they build.
They build all these tunnels.
And they're doing it just because of the fact they're working.
They work very, very hard.
This is who we're supposed to consider.
Look at the ants.
Whenever you look at an ant on the ground, it is always scurrying around.
Do you ever see ants just kind of hanging out, just, oh, nothing to do?
No, they're always moving.
Now, other animals, they're just kind of sitting around, not ants.
I mean, ants are always moving, okay?
They're always moving to get like a little crumb
or to run to find a crumb, run back,
or they're trying to avoid you killing it or whatever, okay?
Ants are always doing something.
They don't just sit around and say, man, life's good, I'm all right.
All the other ants are providing the food.
No, they're actually all working, okay?
Verse 9, how long wilt thou sleep, oh, sluggard?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
And see, the Bible's method is basically when the sun is up, it's time to wake up.
When the sun is up, it's time to wake up.
People wake up at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and the day's just gone.
The reality is with few exceptions, you're more productive
during the day than at nighttime.
Now, there might be exceptions to that,
but I want you to understand throughout the Bible,
pay attention to what your Bible reads.
All these godly people like Moses, they'll make it a point to say
they rose up early in the morning.
They didn't just rise up in the morning before lunch.
No, no, no, they rose up early in the morning.
You say, why?
Because godly people end up waking up early.
You could do a study on millionaires or billionaires that are out there
about the time they usually wake up and how much they sleep,
and guess what?
They usually wake up very early,
and they sleep a lot less than the average person.
Now, like I said, I'm not telling you to try to become rich.
I'm not saying your goal.
I had a friend of mine in college, and his goal in life
by his own admission 10 years ago, he's like,
I want to be like Donald Trump.
Now, I'm not saying that should be your goal in life, okay?
But here's what I am saying.
If you want to succeed in life, wake up early and work hard.
That's what you see.
That's what the ants do, okay?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
11 a.m., 12 p.m., lunch?
No, wake up early.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep,
so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth.
Thy poverty is one that travelth.
Do you know what that reminds me of?
It reminds me kind of of Cain in the Bible,
who was a vagabond.
He's basically told you're basically going to travel around
with no place to stay,
and you're not really going to be able to provide your own means.
It's like a vagabond.
Someone just traveling around, they can't find a job
that's going to work for them and things such as that.
That's what the Bible's talking about.
And thy want as an armed man.
Thy want as an armed man.
What does that mean?
Throughout the Bible,
when it talks about somebody being armed,
it's talking about being armed for battle usually,
like a war.
You're armed for battle.
That's the phrase in the Bible, like an armed man.
Thy want as an armed man.
What is it basically speaking of?
Like a robber.
You're like a robber that wants something.
You're like an armed man.
You've got a knife.
You've got a weapon.
Like an armed man because you want something.
Thy want.
You don't have food.
What happens?
You end up robbing a liquor store.
Why?
Because you're not working.
You don't have any food,
so you've got to basically steal money.
Steal food.
Thy want as an armed man.
Look, people that rob,
they don't rob it if they're rich.
No one's going to rob a liquor store if they're rich.
They rob because they have no money.
Being a secret, work hard at a young age.
Learn that.
Otherwise, you could end up being like someone as an armed man.
Quite honestly, a lot of people that end up having trouble with the law,
it's because of the fact they're just lazy with nothing to do.
Because when you're busy,
you're just not going to get into this kind of trouble
and you're not going to be basically wanting like an armed man
who has to steal money from people.
Proverbs 6 verse 3.
Do this now, my son.
See, I want you to understand something in Proverbs 6.
Before he talks about the ant,
do this now, my son.
He's teaching his son.
See, that's what I'm talking about at a young age.
At a young age, we need to train our children and teach them.
Look, I understand.
We need to teach them to read the Bible and to memorize the Bible and so on.
Life is more than just sowing and reading the Bible.
Now, obviously, that's the main thing.
I want my son to learn to read the Bible
and by your actions speak louder than your words.
He sees me reading the Bible and I tell him to read the Bible.
He's going to want to do it.
But my son just yesterday, he tore a couple of pages out of here
because he was trying to read the Bible.
And so in Revelation, I got these pages that, you know,
my son's reading the Bible.
I said, well, I can't spank him when he's reading the Bible.
It's like he's trying, okay?
Good job, Seth, okay?
I'll have to fix that.
It's not the first Bible he screwed up, but anyways.
But here's what I want you to understand.
Life is not just read the Bible and go sowing.
Just devote your whole life to God.
Just devote your life to the church.
Forget about your secular job.
I've never preached that way
because life is difficult out there.
What I preach is don't forsake church.
Don't forsake sowing.
Read the Bible daily.
But you know what?
If you work really hard
and you don't have time to go sowing more than once a week,
that does not make you ungodly
because we're all in different situations
and how much you're able to or want to devote to God
as long as you're still not forsaking God
but you're still basically
because part of your job as a guy
is to provide your needs for your family.
That is in the Bible.
What's not in the Bible is you must go sowing twice a week.
You must go sowing twice a week.
Now praise the Lord if you're able to go sowing more than once.
And praise the Lord if you came sowing yesterday
and went all day.
That's great.
But here's the thing.
You don't forsake your family.
You don't forsake providing for your family
because God does tell you to do that.
Both for men and women, there are certain responsibilities.
And as a wife, you don't forsake your responsibilities at home
to just serve God.
No, because those are things commanded to you by God.
Basically, the proper balance in life.
There is a balance.
The Bible says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
We need a proper balance on things.
And that's why I try not to preach
and just drive yourself into the ground
because look, the Bible speaks about
basically having a good balance on these things.
Turn to Ezekiel 16.
We'll close up here.
Ezekiel chapter 16.
I remember the verse I was thinking of.
Be not righteous over much, the Bible says.
Be not righteous over much.
Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
I might have misquoted that, but that's what it says.
Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Look, be not righteous over much.
Don't put too much on your plate that you can't do.
Or you might just destroy your life.
There's a proper balance.
Absolutely.
Serve God.
Read the Bible as much as you can.
Go so many as much as you can.
But do not forsake things God required you
to go above and beyond in your Christian life.
Have the right balance on things.
Ezekiel 16 verse 48.
Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 48.
As I live, saith the Lord God,
Sodom and thy sister hath not done
she nor her daughters as thou hast done
thou and thy daughters.
Now, let me say this, that when we talk about
Sodom and Gomorrah, it is accurate to say
Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed due to sodomy,
due to perverse sin.
Now, I will say this, that some people
try to basically change the story
and they'll use this verse in Ezekiel 16 verse 49.
They'll say it wasn't sodomy that made
Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed.
It was pride and fullness of bread
and abundance of idleness.
No, no, verse 49 is the root cause
and why they got into sodomy
and why they got into wicked sin.
They eventually get destroyed due to the wicked sin
but it would be accurate to say they were destroyed
due to their pride because that's the root cause
that led to the sin where God destroyed them.
They were destroyed, don't make no mistake about it
because of the sin in Genesis 19.
It's very obvious there.
But what's the root cause?
Well, in verse 19, this was the iniquity
of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread
and abundance of idleness.
Notice pride is one of the things
and pride is always part of what destroys you in life
but notice fullness of bread.
They had too much food, too much money.
It was actually a bad thing.
I mean, think of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Why did Lot go to Sodom to begin with?
Because they had too much money.
Abraham and Lot had too many possessions
that they might dwell together
because they had to separate.
What happens?
Why did they get those possessions?
Well, Abraham is scared due to money
and he flees into Egypt
and he gets filthy stinking rich
and God really blessed him, right?
No, because he brought back Hagar
which destroys his life
and Lot has to go to Sodom.
The money was a curse.
It wasn't a blessing, okay?
So they end up getting this money
and it's too much, they have too,
because the money was not just pesos, okay?
The money was cows.
The money was animals.
They had too much to dwell together.
They had to separate and Lot goes to Sodom.
It started because of the fact
Abraham was chasing after money
but I want you to understand something.
Having too much food is not necessarily a blessing.
Having too much money is not necessarily a blessing
and here's the thing.
When people are lazy, it's because of the fact
they don't need anything.
Abundance of idleness.
They had all kinds of food and all kinds of money
and they were just idle.
So basically they worked a couple of hours a day
and they were rich.
It's like, man, that seems great, right?
Well, no, because your whole society
ended up being a bunch of sodomites then.
It doesn't seem like it worked too well for you.
See, it's better for you to work a full day's work
to make this amount of money
than just work for five minutes.
Amen.
Yeah.
We shouldn't strive to have life too easy for us.
If life is too easy, it's going to destroy our life.
Life is meant to be difficult.
This is why this sermon's in this series
because we just need to understand
the way we live our lives is not like most people did
in the last 6,000 years.
With the internet and the cell phones
and the refrigerators, microwaves,
all of these modern conveniences, washers, dryers,
do you realize how much stay-at-home moms
would have loved to have some of those things?
500 years ago, they didn't have those things.
What did they do?
They started at 5 in the morning
and they got done at like 10 at night
and they were exhausted every single day.
That is reality.
And let me tell you something.
You know, if God has blessed you
and you do make good money, you do have a good job
and you have a bunch of free time,
you must find something to do with that time.
And the way I recommend that is I recommend,
and I do it on my cell phone, but I give myself a to-do list.
This is what I'm going to do tomorrow,
especially on days when I have extra free time.
For many of you, these next 30 days,
you're going to have extra free time.
No work and you don't know what to do.
Find something to do.
The night before, write down,
this is what I will accomplish tomorrow.
Because otherwise, you're going to find yourself less spiritual.
And you're going to be like, man, how is it
over the last month I read so little Bible
when I had so much free time?
Because usually when we have abundance of idleness,
we don't fill it with godliness.
Find something productive to do over these next 30 days.
This doesn't work well.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
and just getting to see what you have to say
about this topic of laziness.
Everybody in this room, including myself,
there are things we can get from this sermon.
There are things we need to apply.
God, help us all to work harder in life,
in all areas of life, not just in terms of serving God,
but also in our secular jobs,
whether it's also being husbands, wives, moms, dads.
Help us work harder in all of these things, God.
Help us not to be lazy and continue to bless our church.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.