On there is beginning in verse number six where the Bible reads,
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise,
which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,
so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man.
What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of laziness.
Now, throughout the Bible, a term comes up over and over again.
It's really two terms, but they mean the exact same thing and they're used interchangeably.
And that is the sluggard and the slothful man.
And both of those are referring to someone who is lazy.
You think about how a slug moves. It moves very slowly.
You think about how sloths move. And who knows what a sloth is?
It's kind of a rare creature, but sloths move very slowly.
And so, I want to take you through the book of Proverbs.
I'm going to take you through a lot of New Testament scriptures as well,
so we can get a picture of what God means when he talks about the slothful man, the sluggard,
people that are lazy. Because let me tell you something, laziness is a terrible attribute.
Now, whether you are man, woman, boy, or girl, it's something that you must overcome in your life
if you're going to be a good Christian, if you're going to be successful.
I know this is something that, when I was younger, I really struggled with.
And I prayed that God would help me not to be lazy
because I recognized it for the sin that it is.
Now, look down, if you would, at that passage in Proverbs 6 that we just looked at.
It says, go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise,
which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer,
and gathereth her food in the harvest.
So, right away, we can see a few things about what a lazy person is like.
First of all, just from the word sluggard and the word slothful,
we understand that it's someone who moves very slowly.
You know, you go to work and somebody just drags around and moves very slowly.
That is a lazy person, that is a slothful or sluggardly person
because if they had any kind of a work ethic or drive, you'd see them moving a little faster.
You know, you might say, come on, come on.
Now, it says here also that the sluggard would do well to learn from the ant
and the thing that the sluggard needs to learn from the ant
is that the ant does not have an overseer, guide, or ruler forcing it to work all the time.
So, we see right away that someone who is a slothful or sluggard person,
they always have to have someone cracking the whip.
They always have to have someone lighting a fire under them to get them going.
They're not a self-starter, they don't work on their own.
You know, you'd line them out to do a certain task
and you have to keep coming back and checking on them
because as soon as you turn your back, as soon as you walk away,
they're going to be fooling around, they're going to be dilly-dallying,
they're going to be looking around, not getting their work done,
and they constantly have to have somebody over them saying,
hey, get back to work, keep working, what are you doing, why are you stopping?
And that is a lazy person.
And if you're going to decide to be a hard-working person,
a diligent person and not be lazy,
you need to become a person who can get themselves moving.
They don't always need someone motivating them,
they can motivate themselves and they can work hard on their own.
It says that she provideth her meat in the summer, verse 8,
and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
A little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as an armed man.
So here the Bible is talking about the lazy person,
that they do a lot of sleeping and a lot of slumbering
and a lot of folding of the hands to sleep.
Now, if you think about this, obviously sleep is good for you,
sleep is a good thing.
But what this makes me think of is people that are tired all the time.
Now, we all get tired from time to time, right?
Now, tiredness should be a result of having exerted yourself.
You know, you go out and work really hard, then you're tired, okay?
Or you go out and just do something that's very strenuous,
as a result you're tired.
Maybe you skip a little sleep a few nights, as a result you're tired.
But then have you noticed that there are people who are just tired before they've done a thing?
And they're just tired all the time?
And that means that they're probably just lazy.
And people that are lazy will often just mask it as,
oh, I'm tired, I'm just really tired, I'm so tired, I just don't have any energy.
Now, part of that could have to do with your diet.
You know, if you're eating complete junk all the time.
And we as God's people sometimes, you know, we need to study the Bible
and learn what the Bible teaches about food and nutrition.
And that's another sermon, I don't want to go into that.
But honestly, it's true that eating a lot of junk food, eating a lot of processed foods,
eating a lot of unhealthy foods, can diminish your energy level.
But often I think that this thing of I'm tired is just a lazy person who wants to slumber,
they want to sleep, they want to fold their hands to sleep, they want to sit around,
they want to do, and they drag and move slowly and they just do that under the guise of I'm tired.
But part of the reason why you're tired is because you're not doing anything.
You see, ironically, people who use more energy, they end up having more energy.
I mean, think about it.
Anybody who knows anything about exercise, you know, the more you run,
the more energy you're going to have to run more.
People who don't run at all aren't going to have any energy to run.
So what I'm saying is, if you go to work and you work hard and you get up and you get moving and you do stuff,
you'll end up with more energy.
If you sit around on the couch all day, if you just relax all the time, if you sleep in all the time,
you think, oh yeah, I'm just really charging my batteries.
I'm going to sleep for like 12 hours, I'm going to have so much energy.
I'm just going to spend a whole day just laying down.
The next day, man, I'm just going to have so much energy.
My batteries are going to be charged.
But it isn't true.
It isn't true because idleness casts you into a deep sleep.
You know, idleness sitting around makes you tired, it makes you sluggish, and it gives you less energy.
So yes, eat the right food, but also sometimes even when you're tired, even when you don't feel like it,
you work anyway.
You force yourself to get going.
Even when you're tired and you don't feel like it, you push yourself and then you're telling your body what to do.
And then your body says, okay, even when I'm tired, I'm going to be forced to do what I need to do anyway.
I'm just going to quit this tired game.
It's true.
But if you reward your body for being tired all the time, it's just going to be tired more.
And so we see some attributes.
Alright, just from this first passage, just from this one scripture we see that the lazy person is slow moving.
They always need a supervisor or somebody to crack the whip over them.
And they are lazy, they sleep, they're tired all the time, they just can't get enough rest.
And it says the result in verse 11 is poverty.
It says thy poverty shall come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man.
What does it mean as an armed man?
It's talking about like armed robbery.
Poverty and want are going to come rob you of what you have and what you possess.
You're being robbed of your money, you're being robbed of success due to laziness, the Bible says.
Due to too much sleep and sluggardly slovenly slumber or whatever.
I don't know, something else that starts with an S.
But anyway, go to chapter 10 of Proverbs if you would.
Chapter 10 of Proverbs.
And this is a sermon that could really apply to anybody.
Because you know, we obviously, when we talk about working and supervising, we automatically think of men.
But obviously this applies to man, woman, boy, and girl because women have different types of work that they do,
but they still have work that they do.
Like my wife for example, it's funny, she was summoned for jury duty and the choice is she had to click her employment status.
Whether she was employed or self-employed or unemployed.
And what was the other choice?
Retired.
Or retired.
And she's looking at this like, well I'm not really unemployed.
I mean, I'm not trying to find a job.
You know, I'm not, you know, so I just told her, you know, I don't know, you're retired.
You retired at age 21, you know, when you married me.
That's when you retired.
But she's been retired ever since she's 21.
You know, you get her a sticker that says retired and loving it or whatever.
But anyway, the bottom line is, you know, basically she does not have a job.
But do you think that she's been just kicking back for the last 13 years slumbering and sleeping as we've been married?
No.
She works very hard.
She gets up early and stays up late.
She does a different type of work but she's still working hard.
She's still expending a lot of energy.
So just as men can be lazy on the job and be caught sleeping on the job or caught dilly-dallying on the job,
you know, women can sometimes become lazy in their job even as a homemaker or housewife.
They can become lazy with that job.
And I'll get to that a little more later in the sermon.
But children as well.
You know, the Bible says even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
Even a child needs to listen to this sermon and understand that you shouldn't have to be supervised all the time.
When mom and dad give you a job, you should be able to execute that job without constantly being supervised.
But you can stay working where we don't have to just get on you.
And it could be schoolwork.
You know, doing your homework or your schoolwork or, you know, filling out your worksheets of learning,
you know, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
You know, you don't want to have your parents just constantly on you.
Just, you know, what are you doing?
You know, because you're looking around and fooling around.
You know, you're not getting the chores done right.
Look, start now as a child developing the habits of hard work and diligence
and then when you're an adult you're going to succeed on the job.
But you're not just going to flip a switch when you turn 16 or flip a switch when you turn 18
and you've been lazy and indigent and sitting around and doing nothing
and fooling around and daydreaming and not being obedient when you're given a job to do.
And then all of a sudden at 16, 18 just flip a switch and you're just going to, man, you're just going to take the world by the tail.
You know, you're just going to go out and you're going to make so much more money than your parents made
and you're going to do this and I'm going to do that.
You're going to do nothing if you don't learn how to work.
You're going to be living in a cardboard box.
You're going to be on government assistance.
You're not going to be doing all the things that you talk about doing unless you learn how to work hard.
Because you must learn to work to succeed.
And let me tell you something, America is the land of opportunity. Get to work.
It is an opportunity. We don't live in a place where there's no opportunity.
And you know what, people who want to find a job, they find one.
People who, and look, if you don't have a job, your job is to look for a job.
And that job should take you at least eight hours a day.
And people literally, they don't have a job, they spend two hours a day looking.
Okay, if you don't have a job, pretend that looking for a job is your job.
And clock in and spend the whole day looking for a job.
And the people who do that find a job.
But we see that laziness is something that afflicts everyone, man, woman, boy, and girl.
It's part of our sinful flesh. It's part of our nature.
I'm not above this. You're not above.
All of us could have the tendency to become idle and slothful if we do not take heed unto it
and force ourselves to go to work, force ourselves to get out of bed in the morning,
force ourselves to keep moving, force ourselves to read the Bible.
Because the Bible says, and I kind of tied this in with the children and their studies,
because when you're a child you need to do a lot of reading and studying and learning
before you can really be an effective worker sometimes.
But the Bible says, much study is a weariness of the flesh.
And let me tell you something, that is very true.
I mean, on days that I spent hours and hours memorizing the Bible,
I mean, you feel like you went out and dug a ditch that day.
Because much study is a weariness of the flesh. It can be hard work.
Whether you're doing a physical job, you might have a job that's more of a mental job,
but it still is a strenuous job and a lazy person is going to shirk from much study.
They're going to shirk from a lot of Bible reading.
They're going to shirk from a lot of Bible memory because it is a strain.
Even physically on your body you're even burning more calories.
I mean, it's been physically shown that when you're reading and studying and memorizing,
you're burning more calories when you do that type of mental labor.
You know, soul winning is hard work.
You might look at it as an outsider if you haven't been soul winning and thought,
you know, it looks pretty easy to me, just walk around.
Oh wow, you're walking around the neighborhood.
Oh wow, you're talking to people.
But let me tell you something, soul winning is strenuous.
We had a guy come out and visit from West Virginia and he grew up on a farm his whole life
and he was doing a lot of physical farm type labor, a lot of manual labor.
And he said, I grew up on a farm, he said, I know what hard work is
and soul winning is the hardest work I've ever done.
Because we took him out soul winning for several hours a few days in a row
and he said, soul winning is very hard work because it's a strain mentally and spiritually.
It's just, it's hard to explain.
I mean, you go out, it's work.
And you know what, the lazy person's not going to go soul winning
because they're going to not want to do the work involved to do the soul winning.
They're too tired to go soul winning.
You know, they don't have the energy to go soul winning.
They don't have the drive to get out there and do some soul winning.
And here's the thing, nobody's going to make you go soul winning.
So like the ant, you know, you have to get out there and do it
because you know that it's the right thing to do.
You know that it's needed.
And so soul winning is another example of this.
But look at chapter 10 verse 26.
I've got to hurry up because I've got so many pages of scriptures.
That was just the first scripture.
But look at Proverbs chapter 10 verse 26.
It says, as vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes,
so is the sluggard to them that send him.
So when I think of them that send him, I think of basically the employer.
The one who hires the sluggard, it's like smoke in his eyes.
Now, getting smoke in your eyes is very irritating, isn't it?
It's annoying.
It just drives you nuts.
And that's how you are to your boss when you're lazy.
You drive him nuts.
And he's like, oh man.
And he just wants you gone because you're just a pain in his neck.
You're like smoke in his eyes.
So is the sluggard to them that send him.
Look at Proverbs 12.
And you know, I was taught a long time ago, you know,
when it comes to dealing with employees,
and I've also definitely applied this to dealing with my children.
I was taught this saying, you don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.
Because so many people, if you're not constantly inspecting their work, will do terrible work.
You know, you can't, you know, you just expect everything to go as you've commanded.
But no, you must inspect and make sure that it's really going that way.
But it says in Proverbs 12.24, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule,
but the slothful shall be under the tribute.
The first thing I want to point out there is that, again,
you don't need an overseer all the time and a guide.
Pretty soon you'll be the supervisor.
You'll be the manager.
You'll be the boss.
You will bear rule in that situation.
But then look at the second part there.
It says, but the slothful shall be under tribute.
Now, what is tribute in our modern vernacular?
What would we call tribute today?
Taxes, right?
So the Bible is saying here that, you know, the slothful are going to be under tribute.
They're going to be taxed.
And I think this applies to our nation as a whole.
Because we've become a slothful nation, we're heavily taxed.
Why?
Because people are not willing to go out and work and pay for themselves and care for themselves.
So we have this entitlement system where we have so many people who are on welfare
and so many people who are on unemployment
and so many people who are just getting paid that could be out working,
but instead they just get paid to do nothing.
And because our society is slothful, government expands.
Because, you see, if everybody in America worked hard,
if every man would go out and work hard and provide for his own house
and make the money to pay the bills, here's the thing.
We wouldn't be clamoring for all this help from the government.
But we have all these people clamoring for the handout today
and voting for the people that are going to give it to them.
Why?
Because they're slothful and sluggardly.
Because our society has become slothful and we don't have this ethic that says,
you know what, let's work hard, let's do it ourselves, let's pay our own way.
It's just no, no, my name's Jimmy, I'll take all you give me, is what it becomes.
Okay?
Instead of going out and doing it yourself.
So that's why the slothful shall be under tribute.
Now, unfortunately, we all have to pay tribute.
And the ones who work the hardest pay the most.
But we're all under tribute because just as a society we've just become slothful.
And everybody wants something for free.
And you know, when you give people something for free,
you've removed the incentive to work for it.
You know, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
Okay?
And you take away people's incentive to work when you just give them everything.
And the bottom line is today that when people are given a handout,
for example, unemployment.
Let's say it's given to them for 16 weeks.
They start looking for a job at week 15.
If it's given to them for 50 weeks, they're going to start looking for a job at week 49.
Okay?
It's just human nature.
I mean, if it's free, you know what I mean?
Now look, I'm not criticizing you if you've taken unemployment
because you paid into the crazy thing your whole life.
I've never taken it.
But I'm not going to judge people because that's between them and God
and whatever they want to do.
And I can understand the philosophy that says,
well, I paid into this my whole life.
Give me some of it back.
But you know what?
If you're just going to take that time and just sit around and do nothing,
you're going to become a sluggard and a slothful person that's going to ruin your life.
You'd be better off to just go to work.
Just do something.
Do some kind of work.
Stay busy every day of your life.
Because listen, men were born to work.
We were created to work.
Adam was told, you know, you're going to work by the sweat of your face all the days of your life.
And we are created to work.
And let me tell you something.
When you don't work as a man, you're depressed.
Show me a man who's unemployed.
Show me a man who doesn't work.
And I'll show you a man who's depressed.
They're down.
I mean, many people, even when they retire, they get depressed and down.
Unless they find something else to do, some other productive work to do with their life.
People will sometimes live and be healthy and as soon as they retire, they die.
Just because they just fall apart.
Because we're designed to work.
We want to be busy.
And when you see a man who is not working, and he's down, and then you see him get a job,
it's like you just see a spring in his step.
He's happy.
He's doing something.
Even if it's not the best job in the world, it's just, it makes people happy to go to work.
And to do something.
And people get depressed when they don't work.
And they get tired.
And they get depressed.
And then they go to the doctor to figure out what's wrong with them.
Because they're so tired and they're so depressed and they're down.
And then they're prescribed the anti-depressant.
Right?
And then it's like, oh man, I just hurt all over.
I'm just pain all over my body.
It's just from sitting around.
Sometimes if you get up and get moving, the pain will go away.
You know, you just need to use, I mean your body is not designed for the sedentary life
of 2013 America.
That's not what God created your body to do.
And so when you live this really sedentary life where you drive to the mailbox to get
your mail and then drive back.
You know, even though it's like, you know, a hundred feet away.
You know, when you just live this completely sedentary life, you drive everywhere you go.
Then you take the elevator.
Then you sit in a padded chair.
You know, you don't do any hard work physically.
Yeah, it's great.
It's comfortable.
But you know what?
Your body's paying the price.
And then all of a sudden you wonder why you have all this pain throughout your body.
It's because you've abused your body with a sedentary lifestyle and eating junk food.
Go if you would to chapter 12.
Or we're already in chapter 12.
Go to verse 27.
We looked at verse 24.
Look at verse 27.
It says, the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance
of a diligent man is precious.
You see, when people work hard for their money, they appreciate it more than when it's just
handed to them.
And this is talking about a guy who wastes a lot.
And the Bible says, he also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great
waster.
Now, someone who doesn't roast what they took in hunting, wouldn't you say that person's
a waster?
Yeah.
And you know what?
Sometimes the laziest people who do the least amount of work, you'll see them spending their
money on stupid things the most.
I mean, if we were to go to the parts of town today where the people are the most unemployed,
the most on welfare, we'd find some of the fanciest cars and we'd find other things added
to the car that are not really necessary to the function of the car.
The spinners, the system, and it's like, I mean, you go to just people who are just
living in dirt and filth and poverty, but man, that system is nice and it's thousands
of dollars and the subwoofer and it's all, you know, the whole interior of their car
is like glowing blue and purple and, and you know, they've got the spinners and they've
got the, you know, two gigantic exhaust pipes and they've got, I mean, look, have you ever
been soul winning?
You know what I'm talking about?
Because you find people that are lazy and people that are getting everything for free
and they spend money on stupid things and every meal is, is out to eat.
Overspending for junk, wasting their money, wasting it on, on their car, their clothes,
and as long as they wear the most expensive clothes.
But they're not even providing for their family.
They're not even able to buy the right food.
They're buying liquor, they're buying cigarettes because people who are lazy also waste what
they have.
People that work hard, they know, you know, I have to work hard for this money.
I'm not just going to throw it away, but easy come, easy go.
Look what it says in chapter 13.
It says in verse 4, the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of
the diligent shall be made fat.
Now notice it doesn't say his body's going to be made fat.
It says that, you know, his soul's going to be made fat.
In fact, this sermon is called How to Have a Fat Soul.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, it says here that the soul of the diligent shall be made fat, but the soul
of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing.
You know, and again, there's a tie-in and we're going to see this more as we go down
through these scriptures that covetousness is also associated with the slothful man or
the sluggard, the lazy man.
He always wants stuff that he's not entitled to, that does not belong to him.
And so it says here, the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of
the diligent shall be made fat.
Look at chapter 15 verse 19.
See how much this is coming up in Proverbs?
And Proverbs is a book about wisdom and it talks a lot about being slothful or lazy.
Look at chapter 15 verse 19, it says, the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns,
but the way of the righteous is made plain.
You know, that tells me that if you're slothful, you're unrighteous, first of all, because
he contrasts two people, the slothful man and the righteous man.
And you know what it's saying about the slothful man?
Everything is hard for him.
The way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, like everywhere he goes, it's difficult.
Everything's just too hard for him.
Whereas the righteous man, it's a piece of cake.
Look if you would at verse, at chapter 18, chapter 18 verse 9, let me tell you something.
If you're a lazy person, your life is going to be very hard.
You're going to live a hard life.
Because every time you try to go to work for eight hours, it's just going to be so painful
for you.
It's going to be so hard for you to make it through those eight hours.
It's just so difficult.
It's so strenuous.
But it's because of your mentality, because of your laziness, and because of the bad habits
you've developed.
If you get in a habit of going to work long hours, and you get in a habit of forcing yourself
to keep working, eventually you'll get used to it, eventually you'll start to like it.
You'll enjoy work.
And people that are not lazy actually enjoy a job.
They enjoy the challenge.
They enjoy having some work to do, you know, something to get done.
And they like to work hard.
They like to work up a sweat.
They like to get dirty and get tired and get something done.
It says in chapter 18, well we already read that one, go to chapter 19.
Chapter 19 verse 15, the Bible reads, Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, and an idle soul
shall suffer hunger.
And again, I understand that sometimes people are legitimately down on their luck.
I understand that people go through hard times.
But you know, we can't escape from it or hide from it.
Throughout the book of Proverbs, he tells us that a lot of people are poor and lacking
because they're lazy.
I'm not saying everybody who's poor is lazy.
I'm not saying everybody who lacks is lazy.
But am I making this up, or is Proverbs associating poverty and hunger and lack with those who
are not working hard?
And this is the third time it's come up.
So everybody who's poor is not just a victim.
Everybody who lacks is not just lacking because things didn't go their way.
No, a lot of it is because they didn't make the sacrifices that other people made.
And you know, when you're lazy, you don't always see it.
You don't always understand what people that work hard go through to work hard.
You think it's just easy for them.
You know, how many times have you worked all night?
How many times have you worked for 30 hours straight?
How many times have you skipped meals to work?
How many times have you skipped a night of sleep to work?
How many times have you worked and you're hyperventilating and you're sweating and you're
struggling and you're toiling and you work a double shift and you work a triple shift
and you went down there and you got the job done.
Look, that's what people do that succeed and people who don't succeed, they just basically
do the minimum.
You know, they want to clock in at, you know, 859 and 59 seconds.
They want to clock out at 5 o'clock and 1 second.
They want to take every break and they want to savor it and then they want to take extra
breaks to go smoke.
You know, they want to take their 215s and their 30 minute break, but then they're taking
a bunch of additional smoke breaks.
That just have nothing, you know, just total, just time wasted from getting your job done
and you know, people who are chain smokers and have to smoke every hour, I mean that's
just, every hour you got to go out, you got to smoke, you got to take it easy, you got
to take a break.
And then while they're working, they're going slow.
They're chit-chatting, they're slow, they're tired, and then they're doing this a lot too.
Sighing, or how about this, yawning, sighing, tired.
You're not working very intensely if you're making those kind of gestures.
You know, get serious about working and you'll bear rule.
You'll have the bread that you need.
It says in verse number 24, a slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom and will not
so much as bring it to his mouth again.
I mean, this is talking about a person that's so lazy, they're too lazy to lift the fork
up to their mouth and put the food in their mouth.
This is where laziness is going to take you, my friend.
It says in chapter 20, flip over to chapter 20, I mean it's almost every chapter, isn't
it amazing?
Look at Proverbs chapter 20 verse 4.
It says the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg and harvest
and have nothing.
This tells me that slothful, lazy people will always find an excuse not to work.
And look, if you're looking for an excuse not to work, you're going to find one.
There's always going to be some pain or some sickness or some problem with the weather
or some problem with transportation.
I mean, people who don't want to work are going to find a reason to not work.
And a lot of people, they literally will claim to be disabled just because they're fat.
And then they call that a disability.
Being fat is not a disability, okay?
And they literally just, you know, they just, it's cold, it's too cold to go to work.
But somebody else is working in the cold.
Somebody else bought a pair of thermal underwear, you know?
Somebody else put on a ski mask and put on gloves and threw in a hand warmer and put
on two pairs of socks and went to work.
And if you're looking for an excuse not to work, you're going to find it.
It says here the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold.
You say, well that's a legitimate excuse.
I mean, when it's cold, it's hard to plow because the ground might be frozen.
You know, if it's really cold, the ground is harder.
When it's warmer, the ground is softer, so it's going to be too hard to plow.
You know, he waits.
He sits around and waits until the job gets easier.
You know, he wants to wait until it softens up a little, but then it just keeps being
cold.
And then he just doesn't get it done.
And then he begs in harvest and has nothing.
Look if you would at verse 13, it says, Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.
Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Look at chapter 21, it says in verse 25, The desire of the slothful killeth him, for his
hands refuse to labor.
He coveteth greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not.
Again, the slothful is the opposite of the righteous, meaning if you're slothful, you're
unrighteous.
That's what the Bible is saying.
And the righteous man, he goes out and works hard and then he's generous with what he has
because he has extra.
He has abundance, so he's generous with it, okay.
The slothful man, he just greedily desires what belongs to somebody else who did the
work to actually earn it.
He wants their goods.
That's the country we're living in today.
Everybody wants a handout.
Everybody wants something for free and they share the wealth, spread the wealth around.
You know, and it's just basically people want to get something for free without working
for it.
Chapter 22, here's another verse about lazy people making excuses.
Look at verse 13, The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain
in the streets.
I mean, he's just saying, look, I'm not going to go to work today because I'm afraid that
a lion is going to get me.
You know, oh I can't, I can't, I can't drive a taxi cab because that's too dangerous because
look how many people die in car accidents.
I can't be a truck driver because that's the most dangerous job there is.
I can't be an electrician because I might get electrocuted.
You know, I can't be a, I can't be a plumber because I don't know what's the dangers of
plumbing.
Help me out.
Can you think of any?
I might fall down the sewer, you know, or whatever.
No, the alligator's going to come out of the sewer and get me.
You know, I shall be slain by the alligator.
You know, or, you know, oh I can't be a, I can't be a roofer.
I might fall off the roof.
You know, these jobs, I'm not going to be an airline pilot because, you know, it might
crash, right?
People die in plane crashes all the time, constantly, every day, right?
You know, it's just, you know, it's just, everything's too dangerous, it's too cold,
there's a lion, just always looking for excuses not to work.
And by the way, you know, some people will say it's too hot to go to work.
I mean, you know, you might not be connecting with the cold message in Phoenix, Arizona,
but what about, oh it's too hot.
I can't go soloing, it's too hot.
You know, I can't go to work, it's too hot.
It's just too hot to work in this weather.
I'm just going to go into like a thermal hibernation, you know, for the summer and then I'm going
to get a job in the fall.
And you know, I will say this, when it comes to soloing, you know, you do need to, some
people I've seen where they go soloing in this heat and they're not used to it and they
can become ill.
You know, so I, you know, obviously, look, I'm glad this is coming up because I wanted
to say this anyway.
You know, you've got to make sure that you drink lots of water.
And look, when I say lots of water, I'm not talking about your little 12 ounce bottle.
This is good for the next four hours, right?
No, it's not, okay.
You need to drink a lot of water and you need to eat food.
You need to eat enough food and you need to eat enough salt, you know.
Salt your lunch, drink water, drink, you know, some kind of an electrolyte drink or something
like that, you know, and be safe with it.
Wear a hat, wear sunblock, eat, drink and take care of yourself and if you feel faint
or you know, go to the shade, you know, take a break.
It's okay to take a break when it's hot.
But let me tell you something though.
We're not just going to shut down soloing for the summer just because it's hot.
Oil is even hotter and so we need to be out soloing, you know.
And look, is it harder to go soloing in the summer?
Absolutely.
Is there much more of a tendency to skip it?
Oh yeah, because it's so hot out there but you know what?
That's laziness.
That's slothfulness.
That's the sluggard.
You know, I'm not going to plow because it's too cold.
It's too hot.
Listen Goldilocks, it's just right.
You know, you need to just eat the salt, drink the water, eat the food and get out there
and don't tell me salt's bad for you because the Bible says salt is good.
And God believed it and God said it and that settles it, alright?
Salt is good.
I'm going to salt my food with sea salt.
I'm going to drink water.
I'm going to eat food, you know, I'm going to put a granola bar in my pocket, whatever.
But I'm going to be out soloing, you know.
We need to go out there into the highways and hedges and preach the gospel to every
creature and not be too lazy to do it.
It's hard work.
Remember the farm boy said it was really hard work but we need to do it anyway.
Look at chapter 24 verse 30.
Proverbs 24, 30, it says, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the
man void of understanding and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles that covered
the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it well, I looked upon it and received instruction.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.
So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as an armed man.
What I see here is someone who's not making use of the resources that they have in their
life to work and do something.
I mean here's a guy who's got a field.
Not everybody owns property, do they?
I mean this guy owns property.
He owns property that's arable land, that's suitable for farming.
He's got a vineyard.
He's got the ability to produce something and to make something grow and to make some
money but yet his vineyard and his field is just all overgrown with thorns and he's not
using it.
He's not getting anything done with it and it's all broken down.
He's not taking care of it and he's instead just sleeping, lounging, sitting around but
you know he's in a lot of pain.
He's on anti-depressants.
He's really tired all the time and you know he's been looking for a job.
He spends you know 20 minutes once a week and he goes out and looks for a job online.
You know he does it online, does it all online and he still doesn't have a job.
But look if you would at chapter 26 verse 12.
Chapter 26 verse 12 and you know what's funny?
Everybody acts like everybody's all unemployed today and there's no jobs.
Where are the jobs?
We need jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs but you know it's funny whenever I try to hire people in
my business I always have a hard time getting anybody to want to work for me and I pay well.
Anybody who's ever worked for me knows that I pay a decent wage.
You know I'm not trying to expect people to do slave wage.
I mean I've hired people and had them working for me that had zero experience.
You know they're totally unskilled and yet I paid them a decent wage for being an unskilled
worker and for teaching them and training them and everything.
I've paid people and it's like you can't get people to even want to work.
And then you'll get people working for you and you're like hey you want to work Saturday?
You know you can make some extra money.
It's like they want to work like 30 hours.
You're like what in the world?
You know what I mean?
It's hard to get people who desire to work and yet everybody's talking about unemployment.
But so many people who are unemployed it's like they only want these little dream jobs.
They want some kind of a, you know, I don't know what they want to do.
They want some kind of a white collar, you know, they want to test, yeah exactly.
They're looking for that dream job testing video games.
And it's just not out there.
And you know when Scott speaks out in the sermon, you know he's telling the truth, okay?
He's a man of few words, but when he speaks out it's right.
Anyway, if you would go to chapter 26 verse 12, Proverbs 26, 12, it says this,
Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
There is more hope of a fool than of him.
So a person who thinks that they're wise and is not, he says that's worse than a fool.
There's more hope of a fool than him, one that's wise in his own conceit.
You say well why does that have to do with laziness?
Well let's keep reading.
It says, The slothful man saith, There's a lion in the way, a lion is in the street.
Then do like David did, grab it by the beard and sock it in the face and go to work.
You know, but it's just an excuse.
We have guns, shoot the lion and go to work.
But it says in verse 14, As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon
his bed.
You know, you picture a door that's not shut all the way.
And the wind is kind of just like, you know, just kind of like whining, rolling over again.
That's the picture here.
The door turning on its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.
The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.
And then look at this in verse 16, The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men
that can render a reason.
Now tie that in with verse 12, Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
There's more hope of a fool than of him.
And then in verse 16 it says, The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men
that can render a reason.
Telling me that the sluggard, not only is the sluggard a fool, he's worse than a fool.
He's also a know-it-all.
He's also very wise in his own conceit.
He thinks he knows everything, you know, he's, you know, and boy, have I run into people
like this.
You talk to people that they have solved the mysteries of the universe, but they've been
unemployed for a decade, you know, it's like, what?
It says, look at Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes is similar to the book of Proverbs in a lot
of ways.
It says in Ecclesiastes 10 18, By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness
of the hands the house droppeth through.
So here, being lazy or slothful is equated with your hands being idle.
You're not doing anything, you're not getting anything done, you're just sitting there and
doing nothing.
And in chapter 11 verse 4 it says, He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that
regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
Again, if it's not the heat, if it's not the cold, it's the clouds, it's too windy, it's
too rainy, just looking for any excuse not to work.
And look, there are those type of circumstances sometimes that will slow you down and cause
you to get less work done.
But you know what, it's better to get less work done than no work done.
Get something done.
Instead of just waiting for that ideal circumstance when you can get the most work done.
The Bible says in all labor there is profit.
But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.
You know, I've even done jobs sometimes where I lost money.
You know, because when you're a contractor, that's just the way life is.
You know, sometimes you underbid a job or you bid a job and it turns into something
that you didn't expect.
And I've even lost, and it's depressing to work all day or for a couple of days and to
break even or to lose a little money.
I mean, that's depressing.
But I've been there.
And probably a lot of you have been there.
But let me tell you this though, in all labor there's profit.
Because I look at that and I say, you know what though, at least I probably learned something
on that job.
You know, about how to bid things in the future.
So I'll make more money on the next one.
You know, I learned about some pitfalls.
You know, the hardest jobs sometimes teach us the most.
Because we run into difficulties and we have to learn how to overcome them.
And we might lose money, but there's still profit in all labor.
Plus, God just looks down from heaven and just sees you working hard and He's going
to bless you.
He sees you flipping over on your bed over and over again.
He's not going to bless you, okay?
It says on, it says in, it says in verse 6, in the morning sow thy seed and in the evening
withhold not thine hand.
For thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall
be alike good.
He's saying, look, you know, you look at the cold, you look at the wind, you look at the
clouds.
Sometimes you think this is a bad day to work, but He said just go to work and you don't
know some days you make more than you thought you would.
Things go better than you thought that they would.
And God blesses.
Now let's go to the New Testament quickly.
I'm almost out of time, but let's go into the New Testament.
We saw a lot from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, but let's look at some scriptures from the
New Testament.
Look at Matthew 25.
The Bible says in Matthew 25 verse 26, and while you're turning there I'll read for you
from Romans.
In Romans it says, be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring
one another, not slothful in business.
So the Apostle Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome and he tells them not to be slothful
in business.
He's saying, look, he's not even talking about spiritual work here, he's just saying, look,
when you go to work in business, don't be lazy.
He says not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
Now the word fervent comes from the word fire.
You see that?
Fervent, fire, and the Bible talks about a fervent heat, the sun rising with fervent
heat.
He's saying, look, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
So when we go to work in business, we should work as unto the Lord and not unto men.
We should see it as serving the Lord.
And we should be fervent in spirit, meaning we are on fire.
You know, we're burning, we're moving, we're doing something.
And he says, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.
This is all the same sentence, by the way.
Distributing to the necessity of saints given to hospitality.
Now let me ask you this, how are you going to distribute to the necessity of the saints
and be given to hospitality if you can't even take care of yourself?
If you can't pay your bills, if you can't provide for yourself, if you can't work and
earn what you need, how are you going to distribute to anybody else?
And how are you going to use hospitality?
When you're struggling to even take care of yourself.
How are you going to be a pastor if you're not given to hospitality, right?
Isn't that part of the qualification?
Well in order to be a pastor, you have to desire a good work.
You have to be fervent in spirit, you better not be slothful in business because you want
to be able to have people over and be given to hospitality and to be able to give to people
that are in need.
Matthew 25, 26, where you are, it says, his Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked
and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gathered where
I have not strawed.
Right there we see that to be slothful is to be wicked.
Here's a guy who was idle, he didn't do his work, God called him wicked.
Flip over if you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
And while you're turning there, Ephesians 4, 28 says, let him that stole steal no more,
but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may
have to give to him that needeth.
So again he says, look if you work hard, you'll have something to give to people that
need it.
You'll be able to be generous and help others.
And it's the same thing we saw in Romans 12, that you've got to be a hard worker to have
the abundance to be able to give to someone and to help someone out.
But look at 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 11, it says, and that ye study to be quiet and do
your own business and to work with your own hands as we suggested to you.
Is that what it says?
No it says, study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands
as we commanded you.
And look, this is the same thing where the Bible said in all labor there is profit, but
the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.
You know, sometimes people just talk too much instead of working.
Now you know, a lot of my work is talking, alright?
But you know, if your job's not a talking job, sometimes you need to do less talking
and more working.
And you might be going at the speed of a slug because your mouth is going like a jackrabbit,
you know, and that's why you're not getting things done.
So he says, look, study to be quiet, do your own business, work with your own hands as
we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and here it
is a third time, you know, that you may have lack of nothing.
Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3.
It says in verse 6, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
ye would draw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the
tradition which he received of us.
For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly
among you.
Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and
day.
Is he clocking in just 9 to 5 and that's all he ever does?
Is that all?
Monday through Friday 9 to 5, 3 weeks of vacation a year, holidays, sick days, never working
on the weekend, you know, just 2 Sabbaths a week, right?
It says here that this guy is working night and day.
His name is the Apostle Paul, okay, these guys worked hard.
And he says, But wrought with labor and travel night and day, that we might not be chargeable
to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you
to follow us.
You say, well that's just Paul, Paul worked hard.
No he said, I worked hard to be an example to you so that you could work hard.
And he says, For even when we were with you, verse 10, this we commanded you, that if any
would not work, neither should he eat.
I wish everybody in the world would memorize that verse.
If any would not work, neither should he eat.
Now you say, that's really harsh.
Well that's what God said though, whatever you think about it, that's what he said.
He said that a person who refuses to labor, who refuses to work, should not eat.
He said, look, you have to earn your own bread in this world.
You got to get something done, you got to do some kind of work.
Everybody doesn't do the same kind of work, but you better do some kind of work, if you
want to eat.
He says, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at
all.
And look, if you study this passage, when he talks about the people who are disorderly,
it's the people who aren't working.
It's real clear if you study this passage.
And go back to the first verse we read, verse 6, Now we command you, brethren, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh
disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
That's telling us, don't even hang around with lazy people.
I mean these people need to get to work.
And he says here, there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all,
but are busybodies.
What is a busybody?
Well the Bible talks about people who are busybodies about other men's matters.
Tattlers is another word that's tied in with being a busybody.
People who don't mind their own business, okay?
And it says they're busybodies.
Now them that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness,
this is like study to be quiet, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.
He's saying, Shut up and go to work.
Quit running your mouth, quit being a busybody.
You got so much to say, you want to run your mouth, you want to get involved in everything,
go to work, get something done.
And he says they need to go to work, shut up, eat their own bread, verse 13, but gee
brethren be not weary in well doing.
He's saying, look, don't let these people frustrate you, because sometimes to somebody
who works hard it can be annoying.
When they realize, man, everybody's getting a free ride, everybody's lazy and I'm working
my fingers to the bone.
He says, no brethren, be not weary in well doing.
You just keep working, you keep doing what you're supposed to be doing, God's going to
bless you for it.
And he says, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no
company with him that he may be ashamed.
Again, another admonition to not hang around with people like this.
And he says that he may be ashamed.
He ought to be ashamed of himself, he says, for not working.
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
You say, Pastor Ira said, I'm offended by this sermon, this sermon hurts my feelings.
But wait a minute, I'm not your enemy.
I'm admonishing you as a brother.
You say, oh, you're just all over my case.
You know what?
I'm your friend.
I'm not your enemy.
But the Bible says here that it's not treating someone like an enemy to say you need to get
your butt to work and get away, you know, quit talking my ear off and go to work.
You need to go get a job.
That is not the words of an enemy.
That's your friend that's telling you that, that loves you.
Your brother is trying to give you a swift kick in the pants and get you to go to work
and make some money and do something.
He says, and you know, we have people today that say that I'm in the ministry full time,
but they're not a bishop or a deacon.
What are they?
What are you doing?
You know, oh, it's my YouTube ministry, no, wrong.
You know, or, oh, I'm just, I'm a full time pastor.
I'm a full time pastor.
There's 10 people coming to the church.
Okay.
Well then you know what?
You need to go out and do some work.
You either need to go out and go soul winning all day long and get more than 10 people in
that church or you need to go out and get a job and work a job.
You know, just, you're not just going to magically just pray it down, pray down the money.
You know, it's not that, God's not going to rain manna from heaven on your house because
you know, God did.
You say, well, God rained manna from heaven for the old Testament.
He'll do it for me, but you know what?
God stopped raining the manna.
He rained the manna when they were in a desert where they had no ability to produce food
and as soon as they crossed the Jordan river into the promised land, the manna ceased and
they had to go do it themselves.
They had to gather the fruit, they had to fight the enemies and they had to plant the
crops and it was no longer handed to them anymore.
God will only do for us what we can't do for ourselves.
He's not going to hand us everything that we can do ourselves.
He expects us to work for it.
And so it says, count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.
So look, when people admonish you and people preach to you and people exhort you and people
rebuke you, they're doing it as a brother.
They're not trying to be your enemy.
But look if you would at 1 Timothy 5.
But you know what?
People will get offended.
You know, when you tell them, hey, you need to work, man, you need to work hard or you're
not working enough.
That's why you're not, you know, that's why you're not making enough money.
But look at 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 13 and you say, oh, you're just all about making
money.
You know, I'm not about making money, I'm not about being rich, but I'm about paying
for your own food.
Imagine that, you know, having a place to live, I mean, I'm for that.
I didn't say it has to be the Taj Mahal.
I'm not saying that you have to live in a mansion.
I'm not saying you have to drive a Lexus.
I'm not saying that you need to dress in fancy clothes, but you know what?
God does tell us to work and make money so that we can feed ourselves and our families
and to have shelter and clothing, okay?
But look if you would at 1 Timothy 5.
Here we have something directed toward the women.
Most of what I've preached has been directed toward men.
It could be applied to women and children, but look at 1 Timothy 5.
This is about women.
It says, with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle,
but toddlers also and busybodies speaking things which they are not.
So the exact same thing he said about the men in 2 Thessalonians 3, he says the same
thing about the women in 1 Timothy 5.
He says in verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide
the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully for some are already
turned aside after Satan.
You know, how's that going to fix the problem?
Because you know what?
When you marry, bear children, and guide the house, you're not being lazy anymore.
Now you're working hard.
Now you have something to do.
And you're not going to be idle and a toddler and a busybody.
You know, this whole movement in our nation of birth control, you know, started by Margaret
Sanger and Planned Parenthood.
Did you know that Planned Parenthood used to be called the Birth Control Federation
of America?
Who knew that?
Planned Parenthood, when it was started, was called the Birth Control Federation of America.
And this eugenicist, Satanist Margaret Sanger started this movement of birth control.
Did you know that birth control used to be illegal in the United States?
Less than 100 years ago it was completely illegal.
So you know, you say, oh you're nuts, you're crazy.
Well I guess the whole world was nuts 100 years ago.
We were all crazy and now everybody just sobered up all of a sudden.
Do you think we live in a sober society?
You think that we live in a society that makes sense?
We have men marrying men and you're going to tell me that we live in a society that
makes any sense?
Okay, so you know, this whole birth control movement, what it's created to is a lot of
idleness amongst wives and mothers.
Now look, if you only have one child, no problem.
If you have no children, no problem.
If you have two children, fine, but it's whatever God gave you.
If God gave you one grade, if God gave you two grades, if God gave you ten grades.
But because we have people who are just purposely not having children, okay, a lot of that's
due to laziness.
Because let's face it, having children is a lot of hard work.
And when people look at my wife out and about, she's driving around, and they say, are these
all your kids?
You know, you've got your hands full.
They always say, they always are shocked by the seven children, which I don't think is
really that many.
I mean He-Man had fourteen sons and three daughters in the Bible.
But you know, they look at my seven children and they look at it and they're just like,
how do you do it?
So what are they always emphasizing?
Like how much work it is.
That's kind of what stands out in their mind.
They're not shocked.
I can't believe you have a big enough house to fit them.
I can't believe you can afford the food.
Because you see other people who have all kinds of abundance of money.
But do you see them having a multiplicity of children just because they have an abundance
of money?
No.
Because they say it's so much work, oh it's so much work having all those kids.
Well we wouldn't want you to have to work now, would we?
Because that might cut into your soap opera time.
That might cut into Bejeweled and Dazzled and Farmtown and you know, what is it called?
Farmville and Angry Birds and whatever else.
And it will cut into their, and look.
My wife, and my wife works very hard, you know.
Ignore that part about not loving sleep, because she doesn't sleep enough.
She needs to sleep more, okay.
But she works very hard, okay.
And look, she could have a much easier life if we would just go down to Walgreens and
buy all the voodoo ways to stop having children, okay.
She could have a much easier life if we had less children.
She would not have to work as hard.
But you know what, I guarantee you that she's much happier.
And if you ask her, she's happier.
Because you know what, here's a newsflash, sitting around and doing nothing isn't the
key to happiness.
And these fools, these sluggards and sloths, just their dream is to win the lottery.
And they go to the gas station and they buy lottery tickets every day wasting money, like
all lazy people do.
And they waste the money and literally they want to win the lottery, not so they can do
anything good.
Oh no, it's so that they never have to work again.
What kind of a stupidity is that?
Oh man, it'd be so great if I could just win the lottery.
I'd never have to work again.
Why would you not want to work again?
Because you're lazy, that's why.
Because you know what, if I had a tree in my backyard that just grew money leaves, okay,
if I had a genie, if I had a lamp where I'd just rub the genie lamp and just have all
the money I want, I'd still work every day.
Or at least six days a week, why?
Because what else are you going to do?
Build something, do something, preach something, work something.
But these people, it just shows where their mind's at when it's just like, oh, I just
want to win the lottery so I can never work again.
And they're just going to sit around and they're just going to, you know what, and that stuff's
going to get boring.
I mean, okay, you know why it's fun to go to the lake?
You know why it's fun to go dirt bike riding?
You know why it's fun to, what are the things people do for recreation?
I work so much I don't even know.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, fishing, you know why fishing's fun?
You know, I don't think it's fun, but whatever.
You know why fishing's fun?
You know why?
Because you don't do it every day.
That's why it's fun.
People who live in the country, they go to the city to take a vacation.
And people who live in the city go to the country for vacation, okay?
And you know why it's fun?
If you did it every day, if that was your job, if you were a fisherman, you'd be looking
for days off from fishing.
And what I'm saying is that the reason that stuff is fun is because it's a treat.
You know why ice cream is so good?
Because you eat it every once in a while.
But if you ate ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that wouldn't last for but a couple
of days.
You'd never want ice cream again.
You'd be sick of it.
And this idea where we just think, oh, the perfect life is sitting around, you know,
being fed grapes and having someone fan me with a palm branch.
That's the perfect life.
That would be cool for like the first day.
And then the second day, I'd be bored out of my mind.
I want to go to work.
You know, and look, haven't you tried to take vacations before and you just kind of just
want to work?
Nobody knows what I'm talking about.
You're like, you're a workaholic.
You know what workaholic is?
Something that lazy people call people who actually work.
It's true.
You know, I mean, a workaholic is just a label you put on somebody who's a hard worker because
you're lazy.
You know, I mean, that's the way.
And look, I understand the dangers of living a life that's all about making money.
But see, I'm not talking about making money, I'm talking about working.
And you know, some work that you do isn't necessarily a money maker.
Like how about soul winning?
How about reading and studying your Bible?
How about helping the poor?
You know, how about volunteering for something that's a good cause?
How about raising your children?
How about training them and teaching them and guiding them?
What I'm saying is that we need to get to work, man, woman, boy, girl.
Don't be a busybody, a tattler.
You know, you're so offended by what you've seen on Facebook.
You know, so and so didn't click like.
Maybe so and so's just at work.
That's why they didn't like your status.
You know what I mean?
And you're just liking everything.
You like everything because you're not doing any work.
You know?
Look, I'm not saying, you know, don't blow off a little steam, have a little recreation.
That's great.
Okay, but you know what?
If you're a housewife, don't just live on Facebook.
Don't just live online.
You need to shut that thing off and cook some nutritious meals for your family.
And don't be too lazy to do it and just everything is just a hungry man in the microwave.
You know, and today we've got men that are too lazy to go out and work and pay the bills.
We've got women who are too lazy to cook a nutritious meal.
Everything's ready made.
Everything's top ramen.
You know, nobody, they don't want to cook anything.
They don't want to make anything.
They don't rise early while it's yet night to give meat to their household and a portion
to their maidens, Proverbs 31.
You know, we've got children who don't want to work.
They don't want to get anything, parents who are too lazy to teach their children, too
lazy to read the Bible to their children, too lazy to teach them how to read, too lazy
to take them to church.
You know, we've got Christians too lazy to go to church, too lazy to come back Sunday
night, too lazy to come back Wednesday night, and too lazy to do any soul winning.
You know, we've got pastors today who are too lazy to go soul winning, won't do any
soul winning.
And then we also have pastors who are even too lazy to write their own sermons.
And so everything is just a prepackaged sermon that someone else wrote.
And look, I'll tell you right now, I'm not ashamed or afraid to preach someone else's
sermon.
And occasionally I'll hear a sermon that I like, occasionally, and think, you know what,
I'm going to preach that sermon.
Everything doesn't have to be original with me.
I mean, if it's a great sermon, if I can preach it to our church and it's going to be helpful,
I'll preach that sermon.
But you know what, there are pastors who literally, everything they preach is recycled.
Everything they preach is warmed over from someone else.
And let me tell you something, as a pastor, you ought to be studying the Bible, and I'm
preaching this because there are men in the room that are going to be pastors soon.
And some that will be pastors after a long while.
And let me tell you something, as a pastor, you've got to do the work to read and study
and you know what, you've got to find the truths in the Bible and preach them.
But you know what's way easier than that?
Just go to Paul Chapel or whatever, because he'll just sell you the next year worth of
sermons.
He wrote the sermons.
But look, there are people out there who literally just get their sermons straight from Paul
Chapel.
I mean, he just sells the series.
And you know, they basically just preach through that series on grace or whatever, that 13
week series on grace, growing grace, the gift of grace, grace, grace, and more grace,
amazing grace, you know, and it's like they do that 13 week series on grace and it's way
less work than actually writing a sermon, 100 bucks, 13 sermons, let's do it.
Or you know, just download the sermons from these big popular preachers, download the
sermons and then basically just, you know, listen to it, write it out and re-preach it,
you know.
And look, like I said, if you hear a great sermon every once in a while, great, re-preach
it, use that.
But you know what, if that's all you're doing, you're not even a preacher.
If you're just going to regurgitate what someone else preached, why don't we just go to the
source?
Why don't we just listen to them?
You know, you need to be filled with the Spirit on your own, study the Bible on your own,
do the work to write a sermon.
And those of you who write 10 minute sermons know for this preaching night, it's work.
Is it work?
Okay, and here's the thing, don't be lazy, do that work.
Show up on Tuesday night with a sermon that you wrote, not necessarily just regurgitating
something, but find something in the Bible for yourself, it's going to take more work.
But that's what we're supposed to do.
And so everybody has a tendency to be lazy, you know, I as a pastor have to make sure
I don't get lazy.
You as a church member need to make sure you don't get lazy.
Wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children, all of us need to get a culture and an attitude
that says working hard is good, we want to do it.
We like it.
And it makes us who we are.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word and we thank you so much for all the great
Scriptures on laziness because it's something that I know I've definitely struggled with
in the past and something that I always need to hear again and that we all need to hear
because it's just something that's part of our sin nature, just to want to be idle, just
to want to take it easy and relax and to take that path of least resistance.
But Father, please help us to push ourselves and work hard, souls are at stake, heaven
and hell are real places and we need to get out there and roll up our sleeves and win
people to Christ, our families are relying on us to provide their needs, help us to go
out and work as hard as we can, as unto you and not unto men.
Help ladies to decide to be a hard working wife, mother, homemaker, help them to go above
and beyond and work hard, cook the meals, clean the house, do what they're supposed
to, whatever the work there is, children, help them to study, help all of us to apply
this sermon.
In Jesus' name we pray.