Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed, the one shall be taken and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other left.
Two men shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left.
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, the other will the eagles be gathered together.
Brother Adam, would you pray for us?
Heavenly Father, we thank you for today, Lord God. Thank you for the opportunity to be in your house again, Lord God.
And thank you for your goodness and mercy in our lives, Lord.
And we can acknowledge you today, Lord God, and ask you to give us a blessing to preach him.
So by the court of your spirit, Lord God, and put up with your spirit also in order to receive your message and hear whatever it is that you want us to hear today, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen. The title of this morning's sermon is An Appreciable Employee.
An appreciable employee now.
And it's kind of a hard word to announce, but basically what I'm getting at this morning is the type of person we should be if we want to be an employee that is appreciated or is worthy of appreciation.
And if you would, stay keep something in Luke 17. In fact, we're going to we'll read there in a minute.
But, you know, I was kind of inspired to preach this because the fact I don't know if everyone knows it or not, but Friday was employee National Employee Appreciation Day.
Who in here knew that? See, you learn all kinds of things when I come to church here, right?
I didn't know that until I went to look at the calendar about some other date. I said, what is that? Oh, Employee Appreciation Day.
Well, that warrants a sermon, right?
And it does warrant a sermon because the fact today that it seems like we've developed an attitude in this country that, you know, employees are, you know, I mean, to have an employee appreciation day.
My first thought is employees should just appreciate the fact that they have a job.
I mean, I would be shocked if my boss came to me and just said, I'm just so glad you work for me.
And I just want you to know how much now my boss does appreciate how much I work for him and do a good job.
And there are things there's benefits and stuff like that. But you know what?
If my boss never came to me, said that never gave me any kind of a bonus or any kind of a raise or anything like that.
But just we agreed, you know, to for me to labor for so much an hour. And that was all he did for me.
You know, that's all the appreciation. I'm really warranted.
You know, we've gotten to society today where people, everyone wants a participation trophy.
You know, there's no losers. You know, people want to get paid $15 an hour to do jobs that aren't worth $15 an hour.
Thankfully, that didn't pass this last week. They were trying to get that through in that that other that COVID stimulus bill or whatever you want to call it.
They're saying, well, let's get the $15 an hour minimum wage.
You know, that was what Biden wrote on. That was one of his campaigning promises that he's going to get the minimum wage up to $15 an hour.
And, you know, I don't want to get political about it. But, you know, since I broached the subject, you know, maybe you're thinking, well, what's wrong with $15 an hour?
You know, people should be paid $15 an hour. You know, the employer should be made to pay people that much money.
But here's the thing. Employers aren't going to pay that much. You know who's going to pay that much?
We are. Because this is how business works is business owners don't just eat costs and then not pass it on to the consumer.
You know, they're going to say, oh, you want to pay him $15 an hour? OK, well, the price of everything just went up.
You know, and it's really that simple. And I remember I used to scratch my head and think, how can I not understand this?
How do people not grasp how simple this concept is that if you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour,
all the employer is going to do is raise the cost of everything to cover the cost of that wage.
I realized they do understand that. They do get it. It's not that they don't understand. It's that they don't care.
It's because the people in Washington, they're not going to be paying that bill. They're not footing that bill.
They just look like these heroes are going to get voted for next time. You know, they really don't care.
Again, I don't want to go off and all that, but I am saying it's kind of worked out that way.
You know, we have that bill go through. We're trying to go through this week with that clause in it.
And then we had, you know, Employee Appreciation Day came up, which nobody here knew about.
You know, apparently none of your employers knew about it either, right? Otherwise they would have brought you roses and chocolates and wrote you a nice card.
You'd go home early and all that stuff, right? Because they just appreciate you so much just coming to work for them.
You know, employers aren't doing us a favor when they hire us, you know, or actually they are doing us a favor.
They are the ones providing a job. They are the ones that are providing people a means to go out and make a living and to provide for themselves and their family.
You know, we're not doing them a favor by working for them. Okay. Obviously it's a mutual benefit there.
You know, they get to get job done, they get to make money, so on and so forth, but we benefit more so as well.
Now in Luke 17, look at verse 6, it says,
And the Lord said, If he had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto the sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sheen, it should obey you.
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, Go and sit down to meet,
and will not rather say to him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me till I have eaten drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did those things which are commanded him?
He's saying, is this guy going to have an employee appreciation day for his servant?
Is he going to say, I'm so glad you've been laboring out in the field, here, sit down, let me make you something to eat, you poor little bunny,
you know, and feed you and make sure you're taken care of.
No, what he's going to do is say, hey, I've employed you, you're my servant, you've been out working in the field,
now it's time to come in and make me something to eat.
And I'm going to sup, and then afterward, you can go and eat.
That's the proper order of things.
And it goes on here in verse 8, it says,
Doth he thank that servant because he did those things which are commanded him?
I try not.
You know, I think not, basically what he's saying there.
And he's saying, look, he doesn't thank him because he did the things which were commanded him.
You know, people want to get thanked for things that they should just be, it's just assumed they should be doing.
You know, it'd be like a parent who tells their child, hey, go do this, you know, go do this chore, go do this task.
What, you know, it would be ridiculous for the kid to come back and say, well, thank me now.
Well, where's my thanks?
Like, look, you're just doing what you were commanded.
And that's what he's saying here in verse 10.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you.
You know, he's not asking for a favor.
He's not asking you to go above and beyond.
He's asking you to do those things which are commanded.
These are things that you ought to be doing.
These are things that are expected from you.
He said, when you've done those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants.
We have done that which is our duty to do.
You say, look, that guy comes in from the field, from a hard day's work,
and then he makes his master, you know, his supper and feeds him and pours the beverages
and cleans up the table and then sits down.
You know, he should say to himself, I've only done that which is my duty to do.
He shouldn't clear the table and say, hey, where's my thanks?
And you know what the Bible says?
You should say to yourself, I'm an unprofitable servant.
You know, all you've done is the minimum at that point.
You know, we could liken this a lot into the Christian life.
You know, there's all these different things that we have to do in the Christian life,
like, you know, Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, going to church, you know, and so on and so forth.
And we could probably think of other things.
Well, look, just because you do those things, you know, that's no reason to pat yourself on the back
and think that you're all that and a bag of chips.
You know, you've only done that which is, you know, your duty to do.
You know, Bible reading, it's assumed we'll be reading our Bibles.
Praying, it should be assumed that we're going to pray.
Soul winning, church attendance, godly living, so on and so forth,
all these things which have been commanded us, they're simply our duty to do.
And once we've done those things, we shouldn't sit back and say, well, I'm really something.
What we should say is I'm unprofitable.
I've only met the minimum.
I've only broken even in the Christian life by accomplishing these things.
And look, if you're not doing those things, if you're falling short in those areas, you know, all the more so.
You know, you're in the negative. You're in the red.
You need to work on that just to break even.
And then when we start to, then maybe perhaps we could go above beyond that.
You know, then we start to do the missions trips.
Then we actually, let's read an extra hour of Bible.
Let's do another, you know, we could start to do extra on top of that.
But even then, you know, that thanks that we might get for those things will only be given to us in heaven.
We shouldn't expect that here on earth.
And what this is showing us, of course, that's the spiritual application.
I want to be a little bit more practical about it this morning.
It's about being an employee who's worthy of appreciation, somebody who is an appreciable employee.
You know, the first thing you have to understand is this, is that being employed is not an inherent value.
There's no inherent value in just you being employed.
Like if you just show up at the job, you know, you get hired, you show up at the job.
They're just like, wow, you're so great. You show up.
You're an employee. That doesn't mean anything.
You know, there's good employees and there's bad employees.
And there's employees that, you know, kind of fall somewhere in the middle.
And, you know, that kind of going back to this whole minimum wage thing is that what these people need to understand is that some jobs aren't worth $15 an hour.
$15 an hour to flip burgers is not a fair wage. You know, that's excessive, you know.
And, you know, people say, well, you don't know how hard it is.
But here's the thing about that. Jobs like that are not, are intended to be entry level jobs.
You know, if you start out at 15, 16 years old flipping burgers, I think the minimum wage in Arizona is $11.
One, you're making a lot more than I made when I wouldn't work at McDonald's.
I think I made like four something.
Okay, so, you know, minimum wage has already gone up. It's not like it hasn't gone up already.
But look, if you start out doing that as a young person, you know, and you're still doing that when you're 30, 40 years old, you know, the wage is not the problem.
You know, there's another underlying problem there. It's the person.
You know, those are the type of jobs that are jobs, you know, that have a lot of rollover.
Then it's expected.
You know, they're looking for the high school students to come in, fill that position, get some work experience, get some responsibility.
Put a little money in their pocket and then move on with their life and get the next batch in there.
You know, those are what those types of jobs are.
You know, they're not these high paying jobs for a reason.
Because the job that's being done is not worth more than, you know, 15 bucks an hour is excessive.
Go to Proverbs chapter 10, Proverbs chapter 10.
You know, so people have it in their minds today that if they just get a job, you know, if they just show up to go do some work that, you know, that they're going to determine what they're worth.
That they're going to determine, you know, that they're X amount of dollars.
You know, but that's not who determines it. You know, the market determines that, the employer determines that.
And here's the thing. If people don't like the wage, they don't have to work.
And if people don't like the wage, they can better themselves and get a job that's worth more because they're doing more.
They're worth more, you know, because of the work that they're performing.
But people don't want that today. They just want to go get that easy job, you know, which has its difficulties.
I'm sure, you know, I mean, it's dealing with people and McDonald's is probably not always the funnest thing to do or any fast food joint like that.
Customer service has its difficulties, but it's not exactly rocket science.
You know, you know, do you want fries with that? Yes? No. What size?
Well, what push button should I push to get you the drink? This isn't the most complicated task.
Now, look at Proverbs chapter 10, verse four, but a lot of people out there, they have that mentality.
They think, oh, no, you know, I'm worth much more, you know, and this is all I'm going to do.
I'm just going to work this entry level job and then I'm going to demand to be paid more than I'm actually worth.
You know, I saw a meme this week of of the people, it says $15 an hour, meet your replacement.
And it was a literal robot that was there. You know, they already had those lined up.
You think McDonald's has a McDonald's? I mean, a multibillion dollar corporation.
I mean, you're talking about a corporation that like has changed the way we all eat food.
Like all the major meat packers have all changed the way they do things, farms for McDonald's.
You know, that's that's a whole other sermon in itself. But they're the biggest consumers of beef in the world, you know.
But anyway, you don't think a company like that, you know, hasn't already thought of, well, what if they do increase it to $15 an hour?
What are we going to do? Well, we really can't charge more for the, you know, the Big Mac.
We've kind of we've kind of peaked. You know, they're just going to go to our competitors.
Well, what about robots? You know, I mean, it's already and it's already an industrial system.
I mean, that's what made McDonald's so revolutionary was the fact that, you know, they just started they just started the assembly line.
Right. They turn it into like Ford motor plants. But for burgers, one guy's just grilling onions all day.
One guy's just throwing cheese on a burger. One guy's just grilling the meat. One guy's just toasting the buns.
You know, I'm a ketchup guy. I'm a mustard guy. I'm the pickle dude, whatever. You know, everyone had one roll.
That's all they did all day long. Right. It's already industrialized. They've already you already essentially are a robot.
You know, if you work there, you're already just kind of doing that. You know, here's the benefit of a robot.
You know, the robot isn't going to complain. The robot's going to show up on time. The robot's not going to get sick.
You know, the robot's not going to ask for more money or time off or anything like that. I'm surprised they haven't switched to robots.
I mean, they've got kiosks everywhere now for ordering. I went and got those doughnuts this morning.
And I notice I'm like, man, you could just you only have to talk to the teller.
You can just walk up and doot doot doot doot. And next thing you know, your doughnuts are there.
The people today, they have this attitude that, you know, they're just by virtue of them having gotten a job that they're worth more than they actually are.
And because of that attitude, they're not willing to better themselves as an employee, as an employee.
They don't want to become a more appreciable employee. Look at Proverbs chapter 10 verse four.
It says he become with poor that dealeth with the slack hand.
He become it poor that dealeth with a slack hand.
And you think of a slack hand meaning like a lazy hand, like a weak hand.
You know, you ever ask somebody to do something and they just kind of they just kind of do it kind of slack.
And it never turns out right. You know, mom says, go clean the room.
Then there you know, there's there's like kid clean and then there's mom clean.
You know what I mean? Mom, mom has another stand. Mom has the right standard, by the way.
Kid clean is just kind of like, oh, it's just there's the bed. It's clean, mom.
And she goes, oh, really? What's all that? Yeah.
You think you know all the tricks, right? You're the only one that's ever thought of that.
I've tried that. What's this rolled up crusty sock?
You know, it's been sitting here for who knows how long. What's this moldy yogurt container?
You know, or what are these wrappers and things like that. Right.
And that's what. But you know, if kids would go in there, you know, or any job, you could apply it to any situation.
This is just the one that happens to be coming to mind and not deal with the slack hand.
You know, you wouldn't get that, you know, chewing out. You wouldn't have to go do it again.
You would be done and could move on to whatever. Just like this.
If the guy would not have a slack hand, but he would go out and he would work hard, he would not become poor.
So whose fault is it when people become poor?
Look, I understand there's other extenuating circumstances sometimes that because people are oppressed, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
But generally speaking, you know, people become poor or stay poor because they're lazy.
Because they don't want to do the next hardest thing. They don't want to go above and beyond.
They don't want to, you know, they want to deal with the slack hand.
It says that he that cometh poor that deal with the slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
The hand of the diligent, the person who is going to work hard, not have a slack hand, do a good job.
First guy there, last guy to leave, the person who is diligent in their business.
Now, it's interesting to point out to this will this will help you become a more appreciable employee.
You know, next year you want that employee appreciation day to come around and you want to see maybe you can earn, you know, some appreciation from your boss.
You know, listen up, OK, because notice it says there the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
Does it say who it makes rich? No.
It just says it makes rich. Right. Meaning it makes the employer rich.
You know, and that's that's something that will help a lot of people, I think, if they would go into their jobs with that mentality of saying, I'm not here to make me money.
I'm going to make the company money. You know, that's that's always something I learned to do.
And that's the attitude I've tried to have in my jobs to go there.
In fact, before I got hired here, when I was being interviewed, I said, hey, I understand that I'm here to make you money.
And if I make this company money, then I will make money in the long run, too.
He maketh rich, you know, I'm going to go in there and I'm going to work hard to help the company to do well, you know, become wealthy that way.
It says in verse five, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causes shame.
So, again, talking about how a person who is slack or a person who sleeps when they should be working, somebody who is lazy, you know, they're they are a source of shame.
They are a source of you know, they're their own worst enemy. They become poor in themselves.
Now, here's the thing about work. You know, work is not I know it's four letter word, but it's not a dirty word.
OK, it's it's a word that, you know, describes something that is good for us.
You know, working is something that we should embrace. Working is something that we should seek to do in our lives, especially as men, you know.
Now, not to say that that ladies don't work, you know, and I reminds me of this conversation I had when I was, you know, we're going through that home purchase.
And I called the lady and said I was dealing with the lender, somebody.
And I made the comment and she said, because I was trying to get my wife added to the title, but not the loan.
And because and I said, because she doesn't and I almost said it doesn't work.
And I caught myself. I said she doesn't earn an income.
OK. And I phrased it that way. One, because I was talking to a lady.
Right. She probably wouldn't appreciate it. Oh, she's got five kids. But, you know, she doesn't work.
She's a stay at home mom, but she doesn't work. You know, that's not that's a that's a that's a fraudulent statement right there.
That is an inaccurate description of my wife. She works.
She works very hard, you know, and ladies work, you know, you know, the stay at home mothers that are raising families, you know, and ladies that go out of the workplace.
They work, too. OK. We're not we're not downplaying that. Right.
But this is especially important for men. You know, I'm talking more specifically about how men are to go out and earn a secular out of the secular world and earn an income, you know, and work hard.
That's that's something that's very important to us as men.
That is something that we should want to do. That is something that we you know, we gain a lot of self-worth from that.
We get a lot of value from the fact that we as men go out and work. You know, some of the most miserable times in my life have been when I've been in between jobs.
I remember we moved out here. I didn't have a job lined up and it spent like a month or two just trying to find regular, steady work.
You know, it's very sad and depressing and just wasn't very fun to be around.
But when men have work to do, you know, they should that should make them feel good. That should be something that they get a lot of self-worth out of.
I didn't have you go there, but go to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
I'll read to us from a very familiar passage of Genesis 3, right? Genesis chapter 3, where God, you know, is cursing the ground.
He says to Adam, Because thou hast hearkened the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
So this is part of the curse that God has put upon man that he's going to eat and sorrow all the day of his life.
That thorns and thistles shall bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
Now, it's important to understand that work, you know, working became more of a curse because it became more difficult.
You know, God was going to keep man busy with work.
But remember, when God made man, what did he have man do? What did he do with Adam?
He put him into the garden to dress and to keep him.
So even before the fall, man, God had already decided that man was going to be a worker, that labor was going to be part of what he did.
And then, of course, because of the fall, you know, he made it even harder.
You know, and there's a whole sermon right there about staying busy, keeping out of sin, you know, so on and so forth.
It says in verse 19, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. In the sweat of thy face.
You know, and today, again, we're living in a society where people want to eat bread, but they want to do it by somebody else's sweat.
You know, they want to sit back and just let the checks roll in and just collect, you know, the disability,
just collect the unemployment and just, you know, loaf and take it easy and just let the government provide for them.
But that's not what God commanded. God said, And look, I understand.
And again, I don't want to have to put all these caveats every time I say something.
But we understand also that God has made provision for people who honestly cannot take care of themselves or have some kind of infirmity or whatever,
where they really do need help. We understand all that, OK?
But generally speaking, by and large, the vast majority of people today, men, need to earn their living by the sweat of their own face and eat their own bread.
And he said, Until thou return unto the ground, say, What's God's retirement plan? There isn't one.
You know, that's it. You're going to work in the sweat of your face until you die.
That's God's plan. You know, and look, people make, you know, and we live in a very privileged society where people plan these things out.
You can get the 401K and the profit sharing or whatever.
You know what, if it works out to where you can retire, great, you know.
But if not, don't, you know, don't get this attitude of, well, boy, God's just being really hard on me.
No, that's just God's will. You know, and I don't want to go on about that.
But here's what I'm getting at is that we were made to work as men, as women.
We were made to work. Work is not something that should be avoided.
It's something that should be embraced. You know, when we should find hard work, we should,
when we find a career or something we could sink our teeth into, you know, we should go after it.
You know, that's something we should really endeavor to do in our lives is to work and to work hard and to succeed.
You know, people sometimes they get this idea that, you know, Christianity or being a good God,
the Christian is just deciding to just remain some poor person who doesn't, you know, I just I'm just content with my minimum wage job.
No, that's not right. You know, now look, if that's all you can get, that's all the brains God has given you,
that's all the capability that God has given you, then so be it.
You know, be content with such things as you have.
You know, we should not desire to become wealthy and rich.
You know, we should desire to succeed and to do well and to provide for our own and to provide for others and to be a blessing.
And if we're going to do something, you know, be diligent in it. Don't deal with the slack hand.
Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much.
You know, so, you know, it's the work in and of itself that is rewarding often.
People say, well, I'd work harder if they pay me more. I've literally heard people say this.
I'll start working harder when they start paying me more. You got it completely backwards.
Be prepared to never get paid any more than you're making, if that's your attitude.
You walk into work, well, you know, I would work harder if they would just give me a raise.
That's not how it works. At least everywhere I've worked, you know, the raise came after you, you know, you went above and beyond.
The raise came after you proved that you could show up in time.
And by the way, showing up on and I've talked to other employers about this.
And if you ever get a chance to talk to a business owner about some of the things employees say, take them up on it because it's hilarious.
Some of these things that people say to him. He said, I had this guy who came in and he demanded a raise.
So why should I give you a raise? I show up every day.
That's why he wanted a raise because he came to work and was on time every day.
Look, you've only done that, which is your duty to do at that point.
That's how you keep a job. That's not how you get a raise.
That's how you keep your job. Right. That's the agreement that we have.
Anyway, I don't want to go on about it, but look, having an opportunity to labor and to work, whether we make little or much, you know, it's something that we derive a lot of self-worth out of.
And he's saying that the sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
You know, the guy that just everything came easy, you know, didn't have to work for any of it.
You know, maybe he got some kind of big inheritance or he's just, you know, some trust fund or whatever.
Look, if that's somebody in the room, it would come as a shock to me.
But, you know, if that's you, you know, you can have all those things and still work.
You know, you can have all those things. It's when people take all that and then they just go on easy street, you know, and they have a hard time sleeping sometimes.
You know, and I remember I had a friend who, you know, I mean, I guess this is kind of the way I've earned it.
When he was a little boy, when he was like in elementary school, they were at a field trip and he was on a hay wagon for this field trip for the school.
And he fell off as a public school trip. He fell off and the wagon rolled over his head and like one of his eyeballs popped out.
I remember they had to put it all back together and they ended up suing the school and the school system.
And they said, and the judge determined, yeah, you're going to get a payout. I don't remember how much it was, but I was around.
He said, but you're not going to get it until you turn 18, which is like one of the worst times in life to ever come into money.
When you haven't, you know, you really haven't learned what hard work is. You really haven't.
You're just beginning to learn what it takes to be an adult. And then all of a sudden someone's just like, here's $35,000.
Here's a year's, here's a year's wages. And there's nothing wrong with the guy.
I mean, mostly, mostly he wasn't, he wasn't, you know, he didn't, he's not like he, he was, he was smart enough to go out and work.
In fact, he did have a job, but once that money started rolling in, man, he just, he was up partying all night.
Just, you know, doing all kinds of things he shouldn't have been doing.
People are, you know, you get, you get a lot of friends real fast too when that kind of thing takes place, you know, friends.
But look, we should work and we should labor and whatever we're going to make, whatever we get,
we should at least take value and take from the fact that we are working, you know, and it's going to help us.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse 24. He said, there is nothing better for a man, Ecclesiastes two, verse 24.
There's nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink. Amen. Right.
And that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labor. This I also saw that it was from the hand of God.
So you know what the best things it is for a man is to, is to eat and drink and to enjoy the fruit of his labor.
You know, there's nothing wrong with enjoying the eating and the drinking. Those are gifts from God.
There's no, nothing wrong with enjoying the wife of thy youth, the Bible says, as long as you've earned it.
You know, as long as it is labor of your hand.
You know, but if we're going to be these people that just want everything to just come to us,
not have to put any forth any effort, get paid more than we're actually worth or just be on the take,
you know, be on the dole, you know, you know, the laboring or excuse me,
the eating and the drinking is not something you should enjoy, the Bible says.
But we should enjoy it if we're going to work for it. Go to Proverbs chapter 15, Proverbs chapter 15.
Look, we were made to work. People say, I want to be appreciated as employee.
Well, you know, you're just just showing up to work and doing your duty.
That's not going to get you there. You know, one, we were made to work.
You're just doing that because your duty to do. God has commanded that we should work.
But look at Proverbs 15 verse 19 that says the way of the slothful man is in a hedge of thorns.
But the way of the righteous is made plain. The way of the slothful man is that as an hedge of thorns.
Does that mean that the slothful guy is just, life's just stacked against them.
The deck's just stacked against them. It's a hedge of thorns. I can't, you know, the righteous guy, it's made plain.
He's just, everything's just cleared out of the way for him. Is that what it's saying?
No, I don't believe that's what it's saying. What it's saying is that this is a matter of perspective.
You know, the way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns. It doesn't say it is at the hedge of thorns.
It's like one to him. To him, he looks at life.
He looks at the responsibilities that have been laid upon him.
He looks at the jobs and everything else and everything that's kind of expected and says, well, that's a hedge of thorns.
I can't do it. And then the excuses start to come. Right. The other proverb, he says, you know, there is a lion in the streets.
I shall surely be slain. You know, I can't go out and work. There's a lion in the streets.
I mean, that's a ridiculous excuse. I mean, it'd be one thing to say, I can't go to work.
I've got a fever. You know, that might actually be true. You know, but to go there is to say there's a lion in the streets.
Meaningless, slothful, lazy people, they will find any excuse they can to get out of work.
There's a lion in the streets. Yet everybody else made it to work that day, you know, and didn't end up getting slain.
That's what he's saying here is the way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns.
I just can't find a way. I can't find a way to get the job done. It says, but the way of the righteous is made plain.
So again, notice here, but I want to point out is the fact that there's two people being contrasted here, right?
It's the slothful man and the what? The righteous man. It's not the slothful man and just the diligent man.
It's not the slothful man and just, you know, the hard worker. It's the slothful man and the righteous man.
Meaning this, that if, you know, working and working hard is something that righteous people do.
Meaning this, that being lazy and being slothful is unholy. It's unrighteous.
It's not something that should describe God's children. We should be hard workers.
That's the opposite of slothfulness right there in scripture is being the opposite of slothfulness is righteousness.
When what they're showing us here is that godly people, God's people should work to get things done.
Their way should be made plain. They should not be people who make excuses, who can't find a way.
They should say, hey, this job is tough. It's difficult. We're going to get it done, you know,
and that you can apply that in your own personal life, you know, with your job or whatever duties are placed upon you.
But, you know, we need to have this attitude as a church. You know, a lot of churches today,
they look at the job of the Great Commission, you know, in Matthew Matthew 16,
and he says, going into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature.
That's a big job, but that's the job that Jesus gave us.
That is the Great Commission to go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature.
That's a huge task. Is it getting done? No.
Christianity has fallen far short of accomplishing that task, especially these days, you know,
and here's the thing. We can't do it. This one church, we can't just do that ourselves.
We can't reach the whole world, but we can reach Tucson. We can reach Pima County.
You know, we can reach the greater metropolitan area. We can reach the state of Arizona.
But look, if we're going to do that, we have to understand something. It's going to be a lot of hard work.
There's going to be days when we don't feel like doing it. I mean, I'm sure if we went around the room,
there's people, you know, that have jobs and duties and things like that.
They probably wake up some days and say, I don't feel like doing this today.
You know, I don't feel like going to work today. They probably feel that.
In fact, they might feel that more often than not. I mean, I imagine a lot of people that have some rough jobs.
That's probably how they feel every day. You know, the garbage man. I don't know.
I'm not disparaging garbage men. You know, I've known some good garbage men in my day.
You know, it's a it's a I'm glad somebody's doing it. You know what I mean?
But do you think the garbage guy is just just just raring to go first thing in the morning to go pick up trash
and drive around a smelly truck and later gets to go to a dump?
You know, it's not I've worked around dumps and things like that.
It's not exactly something you wake up in the morning eager to do, but he does it right.
And then, you know, and I always I don't want to go off too many rabbit trails,
but that's why I hate this stupid philosophy that some people have.
Just do what you love. You know, just whatever whatever you love is what you need to do in life.
If you don't enjoy doing something, then don't do it. Just go find your passion.
And look, if you can find a job that keeps you interested, it keeps you motivated and, you know, keeps your attention.
You know, that's kind of why I went into locksmithing. I tried a lot of different things and I was going to work in trades.
I went to locksmithing because it's the least there's an aspect of, you know, having to figure things out.
It's a puzzle kind of so on and so forth. You know, it kept my interest.
It was different. It wasn't just the same thing over and over. I get it. But look, it wasn't my passion in life.
You know, it wasn't like my dream. Boy, good dream. Every boy wants to be an astronaut or a firefighter or whatever.
And now you can do those things. Right. But this whole philosophy just, oh, do whatever you love.
You know, well, if that if ever think about if everybody adopted that philosophy.
Think about how many jobs would go undone. Dishes would be piling up in restaurants.
Garbage, garbage would be piling up on the streets. You know, sewers would be getting backed up.
Lights would be getting turned off. Power lines would be falling. Everyone just said, well, I don't love this.
I'm going to go do something I love. You know, I'm going to go be a full time, you know, video game streamer.
Because that's my love. You know, that's my passion. Let's think about that.
I mean, if everyone had that attitude, it's like, you know, I think it was like some professional jiu jitsu player that I heard say that.
Some guys like, you should just do what you love. It's easy for you to say.
You know, you've been you've been physically gifted and developed a skill where you can just go wrestle for a living, you know, or like a professional athlete.
You're getting paid to go play a game, you know, that children play.
That's your big problem. That's easy for you to say when that's what you're doing.
You know, but you don't hear the garbage man saying that. You don't see that.
You don't see the plumber or the electrician saying, follow your dreams.
You know what they're saying? Get to work and work hard because the real value in work is not the work itself.
It's what it provides. It's the self-worth that we get from it of knowing that we're hardworking people,
people who are doing what is our duty to do, that we're fulfilling God's commandment to work by the sweat of our face and to eat bread.
Godly people should get things done. Now, look, that's not to say that employees shouldn't appreciate their employees.
Employers should not appreciate their employees. And you know what? And a good employer will.
You know, look, I've worked at other companies where I've gone into that attitude, like I'm here to make money.
And they're like, we don't care. You're not going to make any more than twelve dollars an hour the entire time you work here.
OK, you know, and oh, I'm working overtime and I'm doing this and I've you know, I've gotten this and that.
And it's like, well, that's great, but we're just going to keep you where we are.
Not every employer is going to reciprocate that. I understand that some employers are better than others.
But, you know, and I'm saying it to say, look, a good employer will appreciate a good employee, you know, because good help is hard to find.
Good help is hard to find. It's a very true saying, especially today.
You know, I was recently talking to somebody and they were like, well, I don't know what I should do.
It's like, well, you know, if you can pass a drug test and show up on time, you've got a leg up on a lot of people.
You know, I remember I was talking about I was actually thinking about becoming a garbage man.
I had the Class A CDL. I was talking to a guy. I said, I just don't know.
I don't have a lot of experience behind the wheel and I've got the license.
And I said, well, you know, if you could pass a drug test, you're going to get a job.
You know, because he's living in one of these states where, you know, pot was legal and like it is now in Arizona, apparently.
You know, and it's it's like here's the thing about that.
It might be the state might say, go ahead and smoke all the pot you want.
But that doesn't mean your employer is going to say you could smoke pot and work here.
Well, I got a card. So what? We don't employ potheads. Hit the road, you know.
So here's the thing. A lot of people are going to find themselves, you know, look for work when they find out they can't, you know, when they're when they're just getting high.
And if we can live soberly and we can show up on time and we work hard, look, we're going to have a leg up on the competition.
And again, I'm trying to make a point here about the fact that, you know, there are good employers out there who are going to appreciate us.
Maybe they're not going to come to us on National Employee Appreciation Day and hold our hand to say, I'm so glad you're here.
This wouldn't be the same without you. But they will. They do appreciate it.
Right. And, you know, I was talking to a guy recently and I've heard this from several business owners.
They say they say, you know, I've got all these guys that work for me. And he said, you know, one of these, you know, this guy here, he was named a specific individual.
His name was Tom. And this is when I was working excavation. He said, you know why Tom works for me?
I said, you know how I keep Tom? I said, no. He said, don't tell me something about Tom. Tom could go out tomorrow and buy a backhoe and a dump truck and could be my competitor tomorrow.
He's been doing it long enough. He's forming. He's been he's he's seen more dirt or he's forgot about more dirt than you've seen.
That's what they always said. Right. And he said he could go do that tomorrow. How do you think I keep him here?
I said, I don't know. You know, because I was this naive young man who didn't understand how the world work. Apparently he's doing it. He just went like that.
This is how I keep him right here. I would I pay him enough to where he doesn't go out and become my competition.
What is that? That's an employer who appreciates his employee. He appreciates the fact that he's not going to compete against them.
Right. He appreciates that he's a he's a good enough employee to it's worth.
Hey, let me pay you more company, truck benefits, time off, you know, whatever I need to do to keep you here.
Right. And look, that doesn't just come to anybody. Don't don't go to McDonald's and walk in like, hey, I could end up working at Burger King tomorrow.
Go ahead. Because there's a line out the door. We replace you with a robot. Right.
But when you get into like a skilled trained, when you get into something that not everybody, not just anybody can do, you know, that's when you start to have a little bit more leverage is the right word.
But in a sense, you have a little more leverage with that employer.
They appreciate you a little bit more because they know they can't just fill that spot tomorrow.
That it's you know, if you if you leave, it's going to be it might be difficult to replace you.
Which what I'm getting at is this is that there are good employers out there and they do show appreciation.
You know, often it comes in the form of promotions. Right.
Often, you know, people get promoted within a company and they get raises and so on and so forth.
Go to Genesis 37. Keep something in Proverbs. Go to Genesis 37.
The Bible says in Proverbs 12, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute.
So who's the one that's going to bear rule is the diligent. Right.
The one who is diligent, the one who works hard is the one that's going to bear rule.
You know, and we can apply this in an employee in a job setting.
Look, the guy who shows up and works hard, doesn't cut corners and is diligent is the guy that's going to get the promotion.
That's going to be the guy who is going to be the manager one day.
You know, he might come in, he might be the he might be the new guy and he might not have the seniority that you know,
but not every shops a union shop. You know, you might not have been around and have the tenure that some of these other guys have.
Well, look, if he outworks them, if he has a better attitude than them, he's going to be one that's going to be in charge one day.
And the slothful, the sluggard is going to be the one that's under tribute.
The soul, the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
Look, if you work hard, it is going to be appreciated. And if not by if not by man, God sees it.
You know, that's why we're told to labor as unto the Lord, because he will see it.
Now, I think a great example of this is Joseph.
Joseph in Genesis, you know, was somebody who was promoted. Right.
But did he start out second in Egypt? Did he just start out?
Did he go down to Egypt, got sold into slavery by his brethren and went down to Egypt and just said,
Hey, I'm here to run things. I'm here to be I'm here to be the pharaoh's right hand man.
That's not how it worked for him. You know, we probably all are familiar with the story.
You know, he was sold into slavery. Right. And then he was bought by Potiphar.
Right. And but wasn't very long in the story.
And you see that he went from being just Potiphar's slave to actually being his second his second in command.
He said that there's nothing that is not under my hand, you know, with the exception of his wife.
Right. We know how that story went. And of course, she lied about him and falsely accused him.
And then he ends up in jail. Right. He gets thrown in the prison for being falsely accused.
But then he got to prison. He just gave up. Just said, well, you know, this is my life.
I'm just going to sit in prison. You know, at least, hey, at least at least it's a free meal.
A couple of squares a day. Cable TV. Make it a little yard time.
Was that his attitude? You know, walk out with maybe get a tattoo or something.
I don't know. No, that was not his attitude. Even in that dire circumstance where he's at the lowest.
You know, he starts working hard and the jailer ends up just the guy who's running the jail just leave everything in Joseph's hand.
Because you take care of it, you oversee things, you handle it. He goes into a management position.
And why is it? It's because Joseph was just this this lazy.
You know, it's just always just he just stumbled into it. You know, he was just gifted. Everything just came easy to Joseph.
Because Joseph was a was a diligent young man. He was somebody who worked hard and who would go above and beyond.
That was just what was expected of him. You know, I think a great example of this is when he was in Genesis 37.
This is a characteristic that Joseph had before any of those other things happened to him.
He was taught as a young man, I believe, you know, growing up in his father's house.
It says in verse 13 of Genesis 37,
And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brother feed the flock and shechem? Come and I will send thee unto them.
And he said to him later, I'm busy right now. I don't want to go. I was going to hang out with my friends. Whatever.
No, he said, here am I. You know, first of all, I see that he's obedient right to his superiors.
When he's given a job to do says, I'll go do it. There's no back and forth. There's no excuses. There's no complaint.
Here am I. So this is this is an attitude that he had before he ever became second in command in Egypt.
Second command in the prison. Second command in Potiphar's house.
Again, he was diligent and that's what allowed him to be promoted.
That's what allowed him to bear rule is the fact that he was obedient.
He said, and here he said, Here am I. Verse 14. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee,
see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with thy flocks and bring me word again.
So he's saying, you need to go find out what's going on and come tell me.
So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron and he came to shechem and a certain man found him.
And behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
And he said, I seek my brother and tell me, I pray thee, where they feed thy flocks.
So he gets to shechem. Right. And he can't find them.
And the guy comes to him, a local there, and says, What are you looking for?
Well, I'm looking for my brother. Have you seen him?
And the man said, They are departed thence. And I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.
So Joseph then went back to his brother and said, They weren't there. I heard they went to Dothan.
I mean, could you have done that and said, Yeah, I found out.
He told me to go to shechem and find out what was going on with our brother.
And so I went to shechem and they weren't there. And I was told they went to Dothan. So there you go.
Now, would that have been him disobeying?
He probably could have said, Well, he did. He got me on a technicality, Joseph.
That's exactly what I told you to do. Right.
But this isn't the next characteristic that we should have as God's people, as employees, as servants, so on and so forth.
And it says, And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan.
You know, he was like, Oh, well, he didn't say, Well, my dad only told me to go to shechem.
He didn't say to go to Dothan. So he went, but he went to Dothan.
What is he doing here? He's being diligent, right? He's going above and beyond.
He's following through. He's getting the job done.
He's not just looking for an excuse and then quitting halfway through.
He's going all the way with it. We see that there. So, again, this is why Joseph became ruler.
This is why Joseph, I believe, you know, was promoted over time because he was obedient and also because of the fact that he was diligent.
He didn't just look for an excuse to quit or just do things halfway.
He went all the way with it. And the other thing is that, you know, Joseph didn't just get that overnight.
The promotions that he got, they came over time.
You know, it takes time to develop certain skills and time to become worth more than you are.
You know, people walk into a job and they think, Well, I've been here six months.
Been here a year. Why aren't I running things? Why aren't I the boss yet?
It's like, well, because you haven't been doing it, you know, longer.
You need to do it longer and put in more time and learn more and gain more skills.
That's why it says in Proverbs 22, go to Nehemiah chapter one.
It says in Proverbs 22, Seeest thou a man diligent in his business?
He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men.
That's like the perfect picture of Joseph. He was the man who was diligent in his business.
And what did he end up doing? Standing before a king. He did not stand before mean men.
I don't believe it means mean like angry men. It's talking about men that are not as highly exalted.
They're more in the middle, the mean, the median. They're mean men, mid-level.
Maybe I'm wrong about that. I don't know. But that's how I always read it.
That's what I believe he's saying. Look, they're going to be promoted above their peers.
They're going to be promoted. They're going to bear rule if they're diligent. They're diligent.
So how are you going to how are you going to come around to next year and get that employee appreciation day?
Right. Well, you know, one, you have to understand that work is something that we're just supposed to do.
And don't don't just expect it just because you showed up that you deserve a pat on the back.
You have to go above beyond what is your duty to do if you want to get promoted,
if you want to have, you know, that that extra appreciation to be appreciated by employer.
And, you know, that means you're gonna have to be diligent and you're going to have to be obedient.
You're going to have to work hard. And so that sounds hard about that.
Well, you know, that's life. And that's the way it is. And there's nothing you can do to change it.
So you might as well just have a good attitude about it. That's my next point.
Have a good attitude when you go to work. Have a good attitude when you do what you're told to do.
Don't just, you know, it's one thing to do it. It's one thing to do it, you know, with a bad attitude.
You know, if I came down to two guys, if I were running a business and said, boy, they both work really hard.
They both do everything I told them. But this one just always has an attitude about it.
Every time he shows up, it's just I guess I have to get the job done.
But he doesn't. There's a lot of grumbling and complaining. You know, who do you think I'm going to want around me?
If I'm interviewing a couple of guys and it seems like, you know, I'm calling the references and one guy saying, yeah, they both show up on time.
They both work really hard. You know, but this guy over here, you know, sometimes has bad attitude.
Doesn't get a lot doesn't play well with others. You know, it wasn't a lot of fun to be around.
You know, wasn't wasn't very pleasant. And I had to choose between other guys.
Yeah, he's always had a great attitude, can do attitude. Was always happy to be there.
Smile on space. And look, even when he doesn't have anything to smile about,
because some people, they all have a good attitude when everything's going great for me. That's that's not how it works.
You know, your boss is not interested in how you're what kind of a week you're having.
They don't care. I know. I'm sure if they had any control over it, they would love for you to have a great week.
But you know what? They're having a hard time, too. You know, they get sick, too.
You know, employers are not interested in your feelings. This is just reality. They're there to get a job done.
That's all they care about. And if it comes down to a guy who has a good attitude and has a guy who has a bad attitude,
they're going to go with the guy with a good attitude. I mean, why wouldn't you?
So it's not enough to just be working hard and be diligent, you know, and just I'm diligent. Pay me more.
You know, it's it's you know, you have to have a good attitude. Nehemiah chapter one.
Verse one, it says that came to pass in the month of Nisan and the 20th years of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him.
And I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. So here's Nehemiah.
Obviously, we can assume a few things from just from this passage. I mean, if you're the one who was the king's cupbearer,
if you're pouring wine and beverage under the king, you've been promoted. That wasn't one.
That's a position of trust. You know, how do you know you're not going to he's not going to get paid off by the enemy to just slip some poison in there or something like that?
You know, you're being you're in the king's court. You're around him.
You know, the king doesn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of, you know, sad faces.
He doesn't want a bunch of, you know, people moping around. OK, so you can assume a few things about about him,
about Nehemiah, that he's diligent, that he's hardworking, he's obedient. And then he has a good attitude.
In fact, that's what he says here. He says he gave unto the king.
Now, I had not before time I had not been before time sad in his presence.
Did he say I've never been sad? Up until this point, I had never had a bad day in my life.
The entire time I've worked for the king, everything has just been perfect.
I've never had a bad day. No, he said I had never been sad in his presence.
Meaning when he went to work that day to pour, to be the cupbearer, that no matter what was going on, he went, hmm?
I'm here to do my job. You know, I stepped on a tack on the way here.
I got a flat tire. You know, I had an argument with my wife before I left.
I don't know, I'm going to pay the bills. My kids are running amok, you know, but I'm here.
You know, whatever excuse, whatever bad things were going on in his life, he left them at the door.
And he went into work and he had it and put a smile on his face like that.
Like, what was the saying? I don't know if it's a military thing, but they'll they'll correct you on it.
Fix your face, they'll say. Fix your face.
I don't know if that's a phrase I've heard before, you know, because you can't you can't have that kind of bad attitude.
You know, especially if you're dealing with customers, you know, and I mean,
I know people that have had customers call their boss and say, hey, your guy did a good job, but he kind of did with an attitude.
Like, I don't know what's going on with him, but you might want to check him on that, you know.
But he had a good attitude. And you could tell because this is the first time that he was sad in his presence.
And you could tell it's bothering him. He's like, man, I was worried. Wherefore, the king said unto me, you know, the king notices.
You know, people notice your attitude all the time. Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?
What's your excuse? You know, did you eat some bad pizza last night? What's the matter?
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. And he says, then I was very sore, afraid.
Because he knew that you don't come into the king's present with a bad attitude.
And if you don't have a good excuse, you know, it could be trouble for you because the king doesn't want people with bad attitudes around him.
That's not what he's going to work for, work for him. He's going to say, next, get that other guy who will appreciate the job more,
who will come in and learn how to just at least appreciate the fact that he has somewhere to go to work and appreciate the position that he's been given.
He said, then I was very sore, afraid, and said unto the king, let the king live forever.
Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres lieth waste, the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
So I guess if that's the case with you, maybe you've got an excuse to be sad one day. Maybe you've got an excuse to go on with a bad attitude.
You know, when, you know, the city, the place of your father's, their sepulchres have just been desecrated.
All right. But I don't think that's ever been the case with any of us.
Right. So this is kind of an exceptional set of circumstances here for Nehemiah.
You know, this is what it took to bring Nehemiah down. I mean, it had to, you know, the entire city had to be destroyed.
Jerusalem had to be, you know, brought to rubble and his father's graves had to just be desecrated before he was going to get a sad face in the presence of his employer.
You know, not just had a fight with my girlfriend or a lot.
I didn't get the high score in the video game or I stayed up too late, you know, or whatever.
I got a hangover. That should never be said of God's children. Right.
But look, people come up with all kinds of stupid excuses why they don't have a good attitude at work and none of them are good.
And here's the next thing, you know, have a good attitude. But here's here's the other thing.
If you want to succeed as an employer, you want to be an appreciable employee, be a company man, be a company man.
Now, people don't like to hear that, you know, and guys who are not company men, they don't like to hear that.
And I'm going to tell you right now, if you go into a job and you determine that you're going to be a company man, there's a good chance some of the other guys around you,
the other employers, employees around you are not going to like you because you're going to make them look bad.
But that's a that's something you need to do. Keep something in the mind.
We'll just stay there. I'll read to you from Proverbs 21. It says the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness.
The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness. You know, the diligent guys is only thinking about what's best for the company.
How can how can I make this more plenteous? How can I make this company more profitable?
What can I do to make my boss more money? You know, one of the things that and I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything like that,
but these are things that I've learned along the way. You know, my last job as a locksmith,
my boss kept me on the road because when I went to a job, he knew I was going to try to upsell the job, that I wasn't going to go,
oh, your lock's broken, but I can fix that lock. You know, and a lot of times that is what we do.
You know, we go there and some sweet little old lady who has, you know, you could, you know,
and other guys would have shown up and just taken her for everything she had if they could have.
You know, and the only thing wrong with it is just need to be sprayed with some lubricant and that's it.
You know, a lot of times we would do that and we wouldn't even charge for it. Right.
But when we went to other jobs where I would always say, hey, if you've considered replacing your locks,
have you ever considered upgrading to a better hardware? There's no need for them to do it.
Other than the fact that we want their money. But that's hey, that's business.
That's business. Some people think that's like a bad way to do do things.
There's nothing wrong with that to say, look, I want every dollar they're willing to spend.
My thoughts tend only to plenteousness. That's true.
Why? Hey, I've got this much money to spend. How much of it do you want?
I'll take half. Why? That's stupid. Right.
Well, you're so you're so generous. Oh, you're such a nice guy.
I'm not taking all their money. Look, if they're willing to spend it all, I want it all.
You know, why? Because that's going to make the company more money because companies have things like overhead and cost.
I mean, it's crazy. Right.
So I would go to these jobs and say, hey, if you consider upgrading and then, you know,
a job that was going to cost one hundred fifteen dollars just made the company a thousand dollars.
Just because I asked, just because I went in thinking, what would my boss want me to do?
That's why the other guys had to sit in the shop and just, you know, duplicate keys, you know,
and make less money per hour because they were they did not have thoughts that tended only to plenteousness.
You've got to be a company man. And here's another reason why.
It's because and again, I'm kind of this is the warnings that if you're going to have that attitude,
which you should, is that it's going to rub off on others.
OK, it's going to rub off on others, you know, and that's for better or worse, for better or worse.
Other people are going to notice that if you go in there and you're the company man, you might get labeled.
Oh, he's the company man. You know, he's the boss's pet or whatever.
Right. But that's why that guy gets the raise and the other guy doesn't.
That's why that guy gets the promotion and the other guy doesn't, because they understand it's about business.
You know, one of the first times I've experienced this is when I was working for a poured wall company.
I was like 19 or 20 years old and I got a job pouring walls, concrete walls.
Because in Michigan, they have these things called basements and they're about eight foot walls and they're made of concrete.
So they dig a hole. Then you had to set up the big platforms,
these forms, you know, aluminum forms that, you know, three feet by eight feet tall, whatever,
and set them all up, line them up and pour concrete and then tear them off and smack them with a hammer and beat all the concrete off them and put them away.
It was really hard work. But I remember when I first got that, I was just I got that job and I was just, man, I'm so glad to have this job.
And it was it was a grunt job and it was probably paying like 12 bucks an hour or something like that.
And I was but I worked hard and I mean, I would run. My former would say, hey, go give me that.
I would literally run. And then one day I had to say to him, he said, look, I appreciate it, but you need to stop running.
And I've had to tell other people this. When I was in this supervisor position, I'd say, hey, I really appreciate you're doing it, but you need to stop running.
Why? Because you're going to fall and fall on a piece of rebar. I never got to call it, you know, an emergency room or whatever.
It could be dangerous. Right. I appreciate the pace. You know, keep a good pace.
I'm glad you're not a slug. But you don't need to run full speed to go get a hammer from the truck or whatever.
Right. But you know what did happen because of that? I quit running. You know, I didn't I didn't.
I mean, he asked me to quit running. I quit running. But you know what? I got a 50 cent raise and I hadn't even been there, but more in a couple of months.
And the owner heard of that. He said, hey, come here. One day I was and I came by the shop and said, come here.
Hey, your foreman tells me you're doing a good job. He said he had to tell you to quit running.
Said, yeah. He says, I like that. 50 cents more an hour. I was like, man. Then I started doing jumping jacks.
But what was I doing? I had thoughts that tended only to plenteousness. I was trying to be diligent.
I was trying to work hard. And it rubs off on others. Right. It rubs off on the boss. He appreciates it.
Now, it rubbed off on the other guys in the job, too, and they didn't like it. You know, they didn't.
They were like, quit running and you're making us look bad. But notice in Nehemiah, it rubbed off on him.
We know that Nehemiah was a diligent guy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been the king's cup bearer. Right.
And he made a point of trying not to be sad in his presence. You know, he'd never done it before the time.
But when he goes to do the work, you know, and here's the thing.
What was it making that was making Nehemiah so upset was that the walls were broken down. Right.
That they were left in ruins. He's thinking, I would love to go back and rebuild the walls.
I mean, who thinks that? Only a diligent person would think that. Only someone who wants to work hard would think,
you know, I would love to go build a wall. Is that what most people think? No, especially not today.
Most people would think, like, I would love to go just, you know, browse the Internet.
You know, I'd love to just go watch surf YouTube or something or whatever. I would love to go fishing.
Not too many people are agreeing to the point. They're like, man, I got to go do this work because I don't know.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but building a wall. It's a pretty big project, especially back then.
They didn't have bulldozers and cranes and back loaders and dump trucks.
I mean, they're going there with animals and the sweat of their own. I mean, they're going to break down the rubble.
Get out the plans. I mean, this is what he wants to do. This guy is a diligent person.
Nehemiah is somebody who wants to go do a lot of work. I mean, we're we got this.
We're buying this home and the backyard is nothing but it's kind of steep and it's all rock and dirt.
And I'm already thinking about, man, I'd like to build a nice retaining wall there and put a garden.
And I thought, I don't have to hand dig all that. And I'm thinking, you know, it looks it looks fine the way it is.
Kids love dirt. You know, kids love to go out and play in the dirt. Right. And they love to go out there and get dirty.
This would be good for the kids. You know, maybe down the road I'll fix that or something like that.
Nobody sits around thinking about how great it would be to go out and labor and work hard and build a wall.
But that was Nehemiah. Right. And look, his diligence rubbed off on other people.
Look at Nehemiah chapter four. Nehemiah chapter four, verse six.
So we built the wall. And we know the story. The king gave him leave, gave him provision to go do it.
And the wall was joined together unto the half thereof, for the people had a mind to work.
The people had a mind to work. Where did they get that mind?
They got it from Nehemiah. They got it from their leader, from somebody motivating them, setting the example,
inspiring them to go out and to do the work that he wanted to do as well.
It says in verse 17, they which build on the wall and they that bear burdens and those that with those that laid it,
every one of them, everyone with his hands of his rot in the work and with the other hand held a weapon.
So, I mean, these guys are, you know, they're going through adversity, you know, the enemies are coming and trying to bring them down off the wall.
So they're laboring. They got a trowel in one hand. They had a sword in the other hand and they build it.
Right. And these people had a mind to work because they had rubbed off on them because of the fact that they had somebody who was a company man.
They had somebody who was diligent, somebody who had a can do attitude.
That's the kind of attitude we need to have. I'm going to wrap up here in a second.
If you would, if you kept something in Proverbs, go back to Proverbs chapter 12.
You need to have a can do attitude. So boy, I missed out. I had no idea Friday was employee appreciation day.
Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you're just not appreciable. I'm just kidding.
Hey, no one came to me and brought me a box of chocolates either. All right.
And probably probably most of your employers, like I said, didn't even know it either.
Right. Well, look, if you do want that promotion, if you do want that raise, if you do want to be somebody where if, let's say, you have to part company with that job someday.
They instead of them saying good riddance, you know, and I've heard that.
I've heard, I've heard employers say, boy, I'm glad he's gone. Guy quit, put in his two weeks and left. He said, glad that's over with.
But then I, you know, but if you don't want to hear that, have that said about you, you know, rather have it said that when you leave the boss says to you, hey, if it doesn't work out, you come on back.
That's a good thing to hear when you, when you put in your resignation somewhere. Hey, wherever you're going, if it doesn't work out there, you're always welcome back.
We'd love to have you back. That's what you want to hear. Look, if that's what you want, then you have to be diligent.
You have to have a good attitude. You have to have a can do attitude, somebody who can get things done. We're talking about Joseph earlier, right?
In Genesis 49, you know, where Jacob is kind of giving, you know, telling him how it will be in the last days.
And he's kind of giving his blessings out. He says of Joseph, this is how he describes him.
He says, Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well, right?
So this is a guy who's very profitable, someone who's very fruitful, right? Whose branches run over the wall, whose branches run over the wall.
And you kind of scratch your head and say, what does he mean by that? And you know, you could probably get several different meanings out of it.
But one thing to think about is the fact that, yeah, he's a fruitful bow, but he's a bow by a well that has a wall around it, right?
Whenever I read that, I always imagine that bow growing up. Who's ever seen like the classic well painting, you know, the Thomas Kincaid puzzle or whatever?
It's this nice little scenic well, this block well. It's got the little thing over it and the bucket you let down.
And there's usually some vines or plants growing around it, right? You know what I'm talking about?
Well, that was Joseph. He was that little plant that grew up over the well and went down to where the water was.
You know, he wasn't just sitting there waiting for some water to spill on him when somebody else was getting water.
He wasn't just waiting for somebody to come along and pour water on him. He went above and beyond.
He was that bow that went over the wall and found the water. You see what he's saying there?
He is a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall.
That's what I believe is going on here, that he's going to where the water is, what's going to make him profitable,
what's going to make him a better, you know, bow in this case or better, make him fruitful, right?
Look, if you want to get to that next level, if you want to be a profitable servant,
whether it's in the church or whether it's in your job or whether, you know, as a child,
whatever role you're in where you are, you know, in a servant's position and you want to be rewarded more
or to be appreciated more, look, you have to learn how to grow over the wall.
You can't be like the slothful man that says it's a way of thorns.
You can't have the excuse of, well, this is too hard. You got to grow over that.
You got to get over it because that's where the nutrition, the sustenance you need is, you know,
sometimes you have to go through hard things to get to it. I think that's what's going on here.
And here's, you know, more practically speaking is that to have that kind of an attitude,
to be like that bow that grows over the wall, you know, you have to have solutions, not just problems.
You can't just come up against the wall and be like, it's too hard or hey, boss, I don't know what to do.
You know, and then there's nothing wrong with not knowing what to do just because you're inexperienced.
Like, I mean, when I, when I was first started lock spinning, I did nothing.
And there was one foreman, you know, we, a lot of times what I heard was call Frank, call Frank, call Frank.
And what you did was, and Frank would say, just call me, just call me, just call me.
Is you right into something because Frank's been around a long time and Frank would know what the solution is.
Right. But, you know, that's, there's a time and place for that.
But if that's all you ever are, you never grow past that point where they start telling you the same thing.
Like, yeah, well, that's the same thing I told you last time, which remember that where you can't get the solution memorized or whatever.
That's when it becomes a problem.
But look, if you want, you have a can do attitude.
One of the things you need to do is this is you need to have solutions, not just problems.
You know, some of the best advice I ever heard was that if you're an employer or employee and you come into a problem and you have to go to the boss,
don't just come with the problem. Just say, hey, here's the problem.
And I was thinking about doing this and this is the solution I was thinking of.
You know, they might say, hey, that's a good idea, but don't do that.
And here's why. You know what I mean?
But if you're just like, here's the problem. I can't figure it out.
Well, have you even tried? Have you even tried to figure out what a possible solution might be?
No. Well, you know, that's not a can do attitude and that's not going to take you very far.
You know, the other guy comes, hey, here's the problem.
I don't know what to do, but I was thinking about doing this and doing this and trying this.
At least they'll say, well, even if the answers are right, they'll say, but at least he's trying.
At least the guy has, you know, has a mind to work.
At least the guy wants to figure out and is trying to come up with a solution.
Or better yet, yeah, that is exactly what you should do.
You should just trust in your gut and go on with it.
The Bible says in Proverbs 12, verse one, who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish.
You know, part of having a can do attitude is taking correction is taking correction.
Look, no one's going to succeed in a job and become good at what they do without being told that they're wrong or making mistakes.
And this is a huge problem today. Huge problem is we're growing up.
These these generations that are coming up now, you can't tell them anything.
You just can't. And I feel like my generation was kind of like the like kind of on the cusp of that.
Like after us, it kind of just went downhill really quick. Like it just seems like you can't say, hey, here's what you did wrong.
You know, I remember I had a boss once and he's made that point about this guy.
He said, I would I know that he's doing this and that. But whenever I tell him, he just looks at me like he's a like a like a kicked puppy.
You know, like someone ran his dog over. It's like, I'm just telling you what you did wrong.
You know, and that's something you need to we all need to learn if we're going to succeed.
That's part of having a can-do attitude is being able to be told when you're wrong and you've made a mistake and accept correction.
And, you know, this is something that I remember when I when I got a job working for my pastor in Michigan.
You know, he probably should have fired me like six times.
You know, that was terrible. I just made some stupid mistakes and had a bad attitude.
But he you know what he kept me around for? He said, because he took the correction.
You know, finally, I would say, Corbin, get off my job site, go home. And I'd say, OK, Corbin, come back here.
Did you see what you did wrong? Yeah. You see how that made me upset? Yes.
Are you going to stop doing that? OK, let's go back to work. Right.
Not just I didn't do anything wrong. How dare you? Don't you know?
You know what I mean? People get this attitude where they cannot take correction and they're not going to go far at all.
And you can't be this touchy feely snowflake if you're going to succeed in the man's world.
You know, that's and that's that's the truth. If you're going to go out there and work hard and and and succeed on the job.
Employers are going to come to you and say you did this wrong. You need to make it right.
And if we if we if we have a poor attitude, you know, it could be the door for us.
Or at least we're just never going to go above where we're at. Who so loveth instruction?
Loveth knowledge. But he that hateth for proof is brutish. See how those two go together?
Loving instruction means you love knowledge. When someone comes to say, hey, you did something wrong.
You messed up. You made a mistake. Well, really? Tell me what I did wrong so I can learn. Instruct me.
That's all correction is, is instruction. It's not just, oh, here's my chance to just make them feel terrible.
You know, here's my chance to just, you know, put them down. No, it's here. Here's my chance to instruct.
Here's my chance to teach. And if we love instruction, we will love knowledge.
But he that hateth reproof. You see how reproof is the opposite there? How reproof and instruction are correlated?
It says he's brutish. He's stupid, right? He's not going to learn anything. Proverbs 15. Go to Proverbs 17. I'll wrap up.
Proverbs 15. A fool despiseth his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.
Again, instruction and reproof are the same thing. They're the same thing.
And look, one of the one of the things you have to understand if you're going to succeed at anything, whether it's a job,
whatever, is that I was just ahead of my tongue.
You have to be able to take correction. Well, and you have to be you have to you have to be teachable.
That's what I'm trying to say. You have to be one who can receive instruction. You have to be teachable.
Right. Why am I going to invest as an employer in a guy and try to get them to succeed and get to the next level if they can't learn anything?
If it's just like talking to a wall. That guy is going to be OK.
That's fine. But you know what? He has a pulse. You know, he knows how to operate a shovel.
Leave him there. You know, because I tried and I tried to teach him how to do this and that, how to run the grade stick or drive a stake or run a piece of machinery.
But it just he just doesn't he doesn't get through to him. You know, so he's just always going to be this guy.
Right. But if you're teachable, if you can receive instruction, that's the guy that they're oh, this guy gets it.
When we tell him something, you know, he gets it. He uses it. He puts it into practice.
Let's tell him more. Makes him more valuable, more valuable, more valuable.
And then the next thing you know, he's very rule. He's been promoted.
But notice again, it's a fool despised at his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is wise.
Often that instruction comes in the form of what? Reproof. Here's what you did wrong. Fix it. Right.
Here in Proverbs 17, look at verse 10. It says, a reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool.
Look, wise people who love instruct, want to succeed, they will, reproof will enter into them.
Instruction, what was he talking about being here? They will be teachable.
They're people that can be instructed because again, instruction comes in the form of reproof so often.
That's why people who can't learn either just stay where they're at or they get let go.
You know, and one thing I was told when I started working, you know, early on was you need you know,
you need to be the guy that when times get tough is not going to get let go.
You know, because there's a lot of people where it's just like, hey, economy's good.
If you got a pulse, we'll hire you. You know, and you can come in and we'll put you to work.
But when times get tough, when economy gets lean and the companies have to start tightening up the belt,
they sit down and they go, who are we going to keep and who are we going to let go?
Well, we got one guy here, man, he's got a can-do attitude. You know, he learns, he loves instruction.
He can accept correction. He's teachable. Well, let's keep him rather than the guy that's just like,
well, he shows up and he's got kind of a bad attitude and he'll do it.
But, you know, we're always after about the same thing. It seems like, well, that's the guy that's going to get let go when times get tough.
And we should learn to say, you know, being lazy or unemployable has severe consequences.
And I really don't have time to develop that point. But we don't want to be that guy.
We don't want to be the guy that gets let go, that can't be employed, that can't be taught,
because there are severe consequences that come with that.
You know, the Bible talks about if, you know, and I'll just read it to us, you know, you know, if we don't work, we shouldn't eat.
And that we should be, we should have fellowship with those that don't work, that if they're just lazy and can't, you know, whatever.
And now I understand there's, you know, if you can't hold down a job, you're trying, whatever. I get that.
But you know what? Some people might just say, you know what? I just give up. I'm not going to work. Blah, blah, blah.
You know, there are severe, what I'm getting at is this, is that there are severe consequences for being lazy.
There are severe consequences for being unemployable.
You know, well, maybe you can hold down a job, but it's always just going to be that minimum wage job.
It's always just going to be that job that's not going to pay enough to support a family.
You know, that's important. You have to think about that.
You know, and I run into single guys all the time who are like, well, you know, I just don't, I don't know why I can't find a wife.
It's like, oh, are you living in a car? Well, that might be a big red flag right there to any decent woman worth marrying.
You know, a woman worth marrying isn't going to want to live in a car.
I'm not saying you have to have to Taj Mahal, but I'm saying it can't be a car.
You know, maybe you can start out in the one bedroom or the two bedroom.
You know, because here's, here's what, you know, people that are worth, the woman that is worth marrying is looking for, security.
You know, security. So again, you know, that all goes back to learning to be a good employee.
Learning how to be somebody who as an employee is appreciable, somebody who's going to be invested in, somebody who's going to be promoted.
If we want to do that, if we want to be that person, what do we got to do?
We got to learn how to work hard, to be diligent and to be, you know, teachable and to be, and so on and so forth.
All the things that I just talked about. Let's go ahead.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for, Lord, the opportunity that we have to labor for you.
Lord, I pray you help us to be diligent, not only in our, in our business as men and women and as husbands, fathers, wives and mothers.
Lord, I pray you help us also to always be diligent in your business, to do the work that you've given us that,
that our meat would be to do the work that you've given us to do, to accomplish your will in this world, Lord,
that we would never allow it to, to become, allow ourselves to become slack in the area.
Lord, that you help us to be diligent and to do it with the right attitude in all these areas of our life.
And Lord, just thank you for all that you have done for us. We ask that you bless us now in Christ's name. Amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
We're going to sing song number 40, No Disappointment in Heaven.
Song number 40.
My Lord, I pray for His love.
May the Lord await Him now, though He dares,
Singing loudly around the white wall,
Sound the spectacle of sweet morning air.
And the glory's our pleasure behold,
For the joy that will be with my Savior I see,
In that beautiful city of glory.
We'll never be rent for our country,
The taxes we'll bet on the road,
For those we'll never doubt and fear,
Could always be faithless and new.
We'll never be hungry, God, we're still,
We'll languish in poverty here,
For for the rich bounties of heaven,
We'll sing to thy children we'll share.
And that is an beautiful city,
My Lord has prepaid for His love,
Where all the rich and the lowly dares,
Sing loudly around the white wall,
Sound the spectacle of sweet morning air.
And the glory's our pleasure behold,
For the joy that will be with my Savior I see,
In that beautiful city of glory.
We'll never be grateful, Lord, Lord,
For the beautiful tree in the sky,
No reason not His hands are cold here,
For the earth shall never die,
He loved the day on that glory there,
Transformed in our love and our time,
Immortal stand in His great hands,
The stars and the stars turn out to shine,
For the Lord connected to the city,
My Lord has prepaid for His love,
Where all the beautiful ages,
Sing loudly around the white wall,
Sound the spectacle of sweet morning air.
And the glory's our pleasure behold,
For the joy that will be with my Savior I see,
In that beautiful city of glory.
Thank you.
Awesome. Some of them have a lot of things to do.
They look down and it's like, can I sit up?
Can I look at this?
You asked me to play here, and you asked me to sing.
I thought you were gonna.
It sounded like you wanted to.
I want to stand here for five more years.