Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Faith Word Baptist Church. So good to see you all here for our Sunday night service.
If you don't please find your seats now, take us on, but go to hymn number 70. We'll get started tonight, hymn number 70.
Number 70, will Jesus find us watching? hymn number 70
Once you find your place, we'll begin on that first together now.
Number 70, when Jesus comes to reward His servants,
will Jesus find us watching? Him number 70. Let's sing it out
on that first now. Him number 70.
When Jesus comes to reward His servants, whether it be noon or night,
Oh, when we say we are ready, brother, ready for the souls' crying home,
say, we'll be fine, you and me still watching, waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come.
If at the dawn of the early morning, he shall call us one by one,
Let me say, we are ready, brother, ready for the souls' pride home.
Say, will you find you and me still watching, waiting, waiting, when the Lord shall come?
Have we been true to the trust he left us, doing state to state?
We shall share, if he shall come at the dawn or midnight, we'll be fine thus watching there.
Oh, Jimmy, say, we are ready, brother, ready for the souls cry home.
Say, we'll be fine, give with me, still watching, waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come.
Amen, good start to our scene tonight.
We wanna go before Lauren has his blessing on the service
or I'll ask for the next magnetology.
Please, pray, please.
If you gathered here tonight,
we pray that you would just bless the singing
and fill Pastor Anderson with the power of Holy Spirit
as he preaches to us later.
So, Jesus, let me pray, amen.
Amen, up to him number 124, him number 124.
God will take care of you.
Him number 124.
Against me not dismayed, whatever be tied, God will take care of you.
Hit number 124.
Be not dismayed.
together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hands nice and high. We'll get to
you with one. On the inside we have our service time Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching
service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This Wednesday we
will be in Psalm 76. We've got the soul winning times listed there below as well as salvation
and baptisms. Across the page next Sunday morning we will have the donuts and coffee
for those celebrating their birthday it's in honor it's for everybody but in honor of those
celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries in the month of April
And then below that, there's a soul-winning event
coming up on this Friday, April 4th,
organized by Brother Steve Tilson.
So I think this is the third one of these things that he's put on.
So some of you have already been out there and done it.
It's been pretty productive.
And so there's another one coming up.
You meet at that address,
and Steve Tilson's phone number is right there
so that you can talk to him and get connected.
The recent cruise trip to the Bahamas was a huge success.
We had a total of 27 soul winners and 272 salvations.
So thank you for your prayers and support with that.
And then also, well, we have another team of guys
right now that are hitting about like,
I believe six different countries over the next week.
They're gonna be on a cruise
hitting a whole bunch of different stops.
And so be praying for them.
It's brother Daniel Ryder, brother Sean Conlin,
brother Kevin Rowe, and brother Kenton Knowles.
So the four of them, and they're gonna be hitting it hard
for the next week, a lot of great stops.
So pray for success on that trip.
On the back, we've got the ladies tea party,
mother-daughter tea party, I should say,
for all ladies and girls.
So RSVP for that if you haven't already.
And then other upcoming events.
The baby shower for Shannon Betty is one week from today, two o'clock.
All ladies and girls are invited to attend.
Don't be shy if you don't know Shannon because it's a great way to get to know other ladies
by showing up and stuff like this.
And then we got Pastor Bruce Mejia preaching on April 9th.
We got Pastor Dylan Oz from Anchor Baptist in Oklahoma City preaching on May the 25th.
So a lot of good stuff coming up.
Let's go ahead and count up our soul winning numbers
from the past several days.
So going back to Thursday the 27th,
before we do Thursday though,
I need to write down the total from the mission strip.
Somebody can pull up WhatsApp
or knows that off the top of your head.
272.
I know it was 272 for the whole trip,
but I already wrote down what you guys did
on the first two days.
So see how I made things complicated.
So I need to know just only what was done on can you look it up for me? Alex just only what was done on
Thursday
Or or you could just give me a full total for the trip minus the first two days because I already logged the Monday and the Wednesday
So figure that out and we'll come back to you. All right Thursday any other soul winning on Thursday besides the missions trip
Okay
Gotcha
Okay, anything else and then how about Friday? Is that a three? Okay
Okay
Anything else from Friday? What about Saturday?
Okay
Thing else from set. Yep. Gotcha. Okay, and then up there we go
Okay, and then what about today Sunday?
Okay, and then we got one here one here two
Okay, anything else from today, okay
All right, very good
All right, any any luck with that or I'll just I can figure it out myself in a moment
I don't want to hold things up here. So very good. What's that?
How many
Yeah, that sounds right. Okay, 59. Very good. I'll double check that in a moment.
All right, very good. Keep up the great work and let's go ahead and sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the answer from your hymnal with the hymn entitled,
Father Along. If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand and you'll receive one.
We'll sing it on that first verse together.
Tempted and tried, we're all made to wonder.
Sing it out together now.
Tempted and tried, whereof made to wander, Why it should be thus all the day long.
While there are others living about us, Never molested, though in the wrong.
We'll understand why
Cheer up my brother
Live in the sunshine
We'll understand it
All by and by
When death has come
And taken our loved ones
It leaves our home
So lonely and dreary
Living so wicked year after year
Farther along we'll know all about it
Farther along we'll understand why
Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine
Faithful till death, sad, our loving master
A few more days to labor and wage
Stand wide, cheer up!
We shall meet him in the redemption.
We'll understand.
Hey Matt, good singing, everybody.
Take your hymns now and turn to hymn number 371.
Hymn number 371.
Oh, bring your loved ones.
Hymn number 371.
How can I meet him without my loved ones?
Hymn number 371, let's sing it out.
On that first together now, 371.
How can I meet him without my love?
How can I smile and know they are lost?
When I see Jesus up in the glory
Without the soul's heat, God has such cause.
O reign your loved ones, bring them to Jesus
And sister to him, when God the Ripper's home with armist,
May all our dear ones be safe gathered in.
Time now for warning, time now for pleading,
Time now to weep to claim to the throne.
Bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus,
Bring every brother and sister to Him.
When gone the weepers, oh men, are this,
May all our dear ones be sit gathered in
Solid accounting, facing our sin.
suffering loss. Judgment seats facing Jesus in heaven. One day at
stop, all burning as straws. Oh bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus. Bring
They are dear ones, be safe, gathered, and how more invested in land or business.
What she returns will have more place, but how the wise will shine in their home.
Bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus, Bring every brother and sister to Him.
When God reveres them with armaments, They all our dear ones be sent gathered in.
I'll let the greens sing, praises and sing.
Seem but a trifle, and all our tears and oiling be done.
O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus.
Bring every brother and sister to Him.
When done the weepers, though when the harvest,
All our dear ones, be safe, gathered in.
Matt, good singing tonight.
All right, at this time we'll pass
to offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles
to Proverbs chapter six.
Proverbs chapter number six, as we always do,
we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse number one.
Follow along silently with Brother Dan,
as he reads Proverbs six, beginning in verse number one.
Proverbs 6, the Bible reads,
which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided her meat in the summer, and gathered her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard, when wilt thou rise 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 traveleth, and thy want as an armed man.
A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.
he devised with mischief continually, he soweth discord.
Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly,
suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
These six things thought the Lord hate,
yea, seven are an abomination unto him,
a proud look, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devised wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief,
a false witness that speaketh lies,
and he that soweth discord among brethren.
my son keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother bind them continually upon
thine heart and tie them about thy neck when thou goest it shall lead thee when thou sleepest it
shall keep thee when thou wakeest it shall talk with thee for the commandment is a lamp and the
law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life to keep thee from the evil woman
lest not after her beauty in nine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
For by means of a horish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread,
and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife,
whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry.
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold.
He shall give all the substance of his house.
But whoso commit adultery with a woman, lacketh understanding.
He that doeth it, destroyeth his own soul.
A wounded and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
For jealousy is the rage of a man.
Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou give us many gifts.
Definitely Father Lord. Thank you for this church. Thank you for all the so-owners doing the work for you
Please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit. So they me preach boldly from the King James Bible
So we can be edified by the sermon in Jesus name I pray amen
Man, the title of my sermon this evening is Sleeping in the Daytime, Sleeping in the Daytime.
The Bible says in Proverbs 6 verse 6, go to the anthill, sluggard, consider her ways
and be wise, which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideeth her meat in the summer
and gathereth her food in the harvest.
And of course, when the Bible talks about a sluggard, it's what we would today refer
a lazy person. They're called slothful or a sluggered.
And the Bible is saying that the sluggered would do well to look at the example of the
ant, who doesn't need someone constantly breathing down its neck
to get it to do its work. The ant just does its work.
It doesn't need to be supervised constantly or told what to do constantly.
And so the Bible is telling us that we should also be
self-motivated,
working hard and staying busy in our lives
instead of being lazy and just kind of sitting around
and accomplishing nothing.
And it says in verse number nine,
how long with thou sleep, O sluggard,
when with 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 traveleth
and thy want as an armed man.
And the idea here is that the one who is sleeping on the job
or being lazy or just sleeping whole days away,
this person is going to be poor
because they're not gonna make money.
They're not gonna succeed at their job.
They're not putting the effort in taken,
it's needed to make money and get something done.
Now, some people, I think, misunderstand verses in proverbs that speak negatively about sleep,
and somehow they think that, oh, we should sleep as little as possible, or, you know,
we only need to sleep four or five hours a night, or something like that.
I've heard people say that, I've even heard preachers act like, oh, you should sleep at
night as little as possible, and I don't believe that for one second.
I don't think that's what this is talking about at all.
because there are a lot of other scriptures that talk about sleep in a positive way.
Like, for example, in Psalm 127, it says,
And so, you know, there's no reason to deprive yourself of sleep and stress yourself out by overdoing it either.
But here, we're not talking about somebody who's overdoing it and working too hard and burning the candle at both ends.
We're talking about somebody who's lazy and needs to get moving.
We're talking about a sluggered, a slothful man
who's sleeping in the daytime when he should be working.
Now, the reason I know that this is talking about
sleeping in the daytime is because it talks about
the folding of the hands to sleep.
And here's the thing, people who sleep at night,
they don't fold their hands, right?
You get into bed at night and you lay down in your bed
and I really doubt that anybody's folding their hands
when they sleep.
But think about this, when you're in the daytime
and you're sitting in your chair,
And you do something like this
Right, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about napping in the daytime
Now, obviously, if you're someone who works at night because you have like a second shift
job or a third shift job, then of course you're going to sleep in the daytime.
Then it's totally appropriate and right for you to sleep in the daytime.
But here's what we're talking about.
We're talking about people who are supposed to be working in the daytime and they are
dozing, drowsy, sleeping, not working, and wasting their life away.
Now, one of the reasons why people would be drowsy in the daytime, napping, sleeping,
not being productive is because they stayed up too late at night.
And again, I'm not talking about staying up too late working.
That's totally legitimate. That's totally appropriate. If you work a schedule like that
I'm talking about you just stayed up late watching TV on the phone
Playing a video game
Goofing off right and you're just sort of just staying up late
Wasting time doom scrolling or whatever it is that you're doing to just waste time
And then you stay up super late at night. You go to sleep too late
Then you wake up too late, or you wake up all drowsy and groggy,
you're not productive at your job, you're sleeping in the daytime.
And look, I know that there are people out there who are literally waking up at 11 a.m.
And I'm not talking about people who work the night shift.
I'm talking about people who just are living a normal life, quote unquote,
and just, they just wake up at 11 a.m. Waking up at noon.
That is not normal.
But why are they waking up at noon?
Because they're staying up till four in the morning.
What are they doing?
playing, fooling around, not being busy, and the Bible is saying,
look, you know, you've got to get out there in life and get things done.
If you want to have money in the bank, if you want to pay the bills,
if you want to succeed, if you want to achieve something,
you've got to work hard, and that involves not sleeping in the daytime,
but being up in the morning and out there doing something,
Okay, that's what the Bible's saying here when he says,
hey, how long are you going to sleep, oh sluggard?
Hey, it's 10 a.m.
Why are you still in bed at 10.30 a.m.?
It's 11 a.m. Get out of bed.
He says,
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep,
so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth,
and thy want as an armed man.
Now, you know, it's kind of an obscure reference here in verse 11,
maybe tough to understand.
Here's how I understand it.
When it says,
So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth,
you know, you could think of that as a traveling stranger
who just sort of shows up and just
Starts taking your goods right just shows up and you know that that family member that comes and visits and stays with you
And they're sort of just eating all the food in the fridge and eating you out of house and home
Thy want as an armed man kind of a similar idea except instead of the traveler
Who kind of shows up and maybe takes a little too much advantage of your hospitality and eats you out of house and home?
The armed man is the guy who just points a gun at you and says give me all your money
And he robs you of your money, and the Bible is saying, you know, poverty is going to come upon you,
maybe suddenly, could be the idea here with one that traveleth or an armed man,
it's going to come upon you suddenly.
And why? Because you were lazy, you slacked off, and you didn't get it done, you're sleeping.
And stop and think about it.
If you're staying up until four in the morning, I don't think you worked very hard.
At the end of the day, man, you're ready for bed.
If you put in a hard day's work,
it's not like, all right, let's party
till three in the morning, you know?
After a hard day's work, typically,
you're just kind of looking at that clock
ready to hit the sack, nine, 10, 11,
you're ready for bed, okay?
And so obviously there are exceptions to this,
like I said, people who work odd hours
or whatever the case may be.
And obviously there are gonna be occasions
where you take a day off, like even in the Old Testament
they have weekly Sabbath where they have the whole day off.
It's probably pretty normal to take a nap
on those kind of days, taking a nap on Sunday afternoon
between church services or just, you know,
you have friends over that you haven't seen in a long time
and you stay up till three, four in the morning.
Hey, I'm not talking about, you know, doing that.
on occasion. I'm talking about just a lifestyle of being a slacker.
Right? Just a lifestyle of just fooling around, sitting around,
dozing and napping through days and then staying up till all hours of the night,
fooling around, being idle and getting nothing done.
That's what we see here in Proverbs chapter 6.
Let's go to Proverbs chapter 10 now.
So that's Proverbs chapter 6 verses 6 through 11.
He's telling us, don't be lazy, be like the ant.
Push yourself, get out there, work hard, make money, achieve something and don't be a guy who's just slumped over,
taking a nap in the middle of the daytime when you should be working and hustling and getting something done.
Look at Proverbs chapter 10 verse 4.
It says, He becomeeth poor that dealeth with a slack hand.
Right? If you are a slacker, if you're not working hard, don't be surprised when you don't have any money.
When you don't get a raise, when you're getting paid low wages and you're getting cut and your hours are cut
and you're getting laid off and fired all the time, you know, and then you're not going to have the money that you need.
He's become a poor that deal with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
Not only does he himself do well financially, but he also makes other people rich.
He's also helping the company, he's helping his family, he's helping the people around him.
Verse 5, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son.
but he that sleepeth and harvest is a son that causeth shame, right?
So going out there and gathering in summer, just at the very beginnings of the harvest,
he's already out there, he's Johnny on the spot, gathering as soon as he can possibly gather,
he's not complaining about how hot it is outside. He gets out there when it's hot,
he gets it done early, he's not procrastinating and doing things later, he's getting them done
But he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.
And again, this is talking about somebody sleeping in the daytime.
Obviously, everybody needs to sleep at night.
Look, the son that sleeps in the harvest,
we're not talking about him going to bed at 10 o'clock at night
and sleeping for eight hours and being up at six working.
We're not talking about him going to bed at nine
and getting up at five or something.
We're talking about a son that's goofing off
and then he rolls out about at 10 a.m.
and it's a time when dad is really relying on him
to bring in that harvest and it's supposed to be
all hands on deck, right?
And I'm not a farmer, I've never been a farmer,
I'm never gonna be a farmer, sorry honey.
Every woman has these organic farming dreams or whatever,
but we all have that part of us somewhere inside.
But the point is that I don't know much about farming,
but from what I understand, the harvest is like a window.
You know and it's like you got to get it done in a certain amount of time because of the fact that there's a fine line
Between being underripe and overripe and so you know when things are ready
You want to bring them in before they just kind of rot on the vine?
And so you got to get out there you got to get all your illegal aliens out there and you got to get it done
Okay, and you got to do those jobs that Americans won't do and bring in it
So so it's saying you know the son who sleeps and harvest is a son that causes shame
It's an embarrassment, you know because think about it the householder the father
He's hiring all these people
To do the work and you know assuming that his son's gonna be out there pitching in and imagine how it feels for the dad
How embarrassed he is when his employees are out there working? It's like where's your son?
Where's Junior? Everybody else is out here working.
Oh, he's sleeping. He's constantly AWOL,
constantly finding excuses to use the bathroom every 20 minutes and just be gone.
And he's constantly getting a drink of water and taking a nap.
And just, he's just always finding a way not to work and not to be productive. It's embarrassing.
Flip over, if you would, to chapter 19.
Verse 15, the Bible says, slothfulness, Proverbs 19-15,
slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep,
and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.
The Bible is saying, if you don't work,
you're not going to have food to eat.
You're not going to be able to pay your bills.
Now, look, charity and almsgiving should be
for people who are genuinely down on their luck.
Meaning that, through no fault of their own,
they find themselves falling upon hard times.
It should not be for people who refuse to work.
People who refuse to work should not be given charity.
And here's the thing, when you give charity to someone who refuses to work,
you are not helping that person.
It's not just, hey, how dare you help this bad person?
Don't help them. They don't deserve it. No, no, no.
You're harming them.
You're literally harming them. It's sort of like when you go to the park and they tell you don't feed the wildlife
don't feed the bears because if you feed them then they become a reliant upon humans and they forget how to get their
Own food and then they die
Right, and so what happens is if you have a person who's refusing to work and then you give that person money
Or you say well, I don't ever give them money. I just give them food
You're still harming them
because by giving food to people who are refusing to work,
you are helping them to continue in a lifestyle that is not good for them.
It's not just that it's not good for the city,
it's not just that they're stinking up the joint,
it's that you're doing them a disservice
because I guarantee you that that is a sad, unhappy life.
And if these people would actually be forced to actually go to work,
they would actually find that their life is happier working.
Because obviously all of us have this sort of innate laziness as humans
where we all kind of have this part of us that doesn't want to go to work.
Right? There's a part of us every single morning that just maybe wants to stay in bed or not go to work or whatever
But here's the thing once you get up and go to work. You're always glad that you did
Even if you're thinking like oh, I just want to stay in bed. Oh, I don't feel like doing anything
Oh, I don't feel like but then once you get out there and do it you don't have any regrets about it
You're not thinking like oh man, you know, I wish I would have just stayed in bed all day
No, because getting out and working actually makes you feel good, accomplishing something
makes you feel good.
even just from a biological standpoint,
your body is releasing endorphins
and the reward center of your brain is lighting up
when you're going to work and working hard and doing stuff.
But when you're just sitting around
and you're a drunk and a drug addict and a derelict
and you're living that homeless life,
that is an unhappy life.
And when you give them money and give them food
and give them anything,
you're basically helping them
persist in that lifestyle, you're encouraging their
delinquency. And when you do that, you're actually
just making them more miserable, you know?
Bottom line is, slothfulness cast into a deep sleep and an
idle soul shall suffer
hunger. If you're idle, if you don't work, if you're lazy,
you're gonna suffer hunger. And what does the Bible say in the New Testament?
It says, if any man will not work, neither should he eat.
When the Bible talks about helping the poor, it's talking about helping people who need money, who need food, who need help,
even though they're willing to work, they don't have what they need.
So maybe they're going to work and getting a really small amount of money.
Or maybe they went to work and they made money but they ended up having some unexpected expense
or something went wrong or whatever the problems that they have.
And obviously we should want to help people that are in need and help the poor.
But there's a difference between the poor and the guy who's slothful.
This slugger look let me just tell you right now these people standing out there at the street corner holding up a sign
Asking for money that person is not called the poor in the Bible
Don't come at me with some verse about the poor about that guy
No, I'll come at you with a verse about the sluggered
The slothful, that is what that guy is that is standing at the corner holding that sign and they hold these deceptive
Lying signs like there was a guy because I passed by the same ones every day
You know in my part of town and there's this guy
He's got a sign like oh my you know my house burned down and he's holding the sign for years
And I'm thinking I said okay, so your house burned down what a year and a half ago
Because you've been here for a year and a half
holding that sign about your house burning down.
And then the same guy is out there holding the sign,
again, for years, holding a sign saying,
oh, I got fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.
Just years of this.
It's like, okay, time to move on, buddy.
And which one is it?
Did your house burn down and you got fired
for refusing the vaccine?
And you're just reeling from these two blows
for years on end?
Get a job, brother!
And they have all of this, you know, just stupid, lying, sob story.
You know what? Why don't they just tell you like it is, it's drugs.
It's booze.
Show me which of these people is a teetotaler.
I wonder what are the chances of you ending up as a panhandler on the street if you're a teetotaler.
I'm pretty sure it rounds down to a 0% chance that you will be out there, if you never...
Let me just tell you the secret.
How to never be a homeless panhandler.
I'm going to give you homelessness insurance right now.
Never touch alcohol and never touch drugs and you will never end up out there.
How about that?
Because I've never seen one yet.
That's just 1,000% sober out there.
It just doesn't work.
Now, look.
Anybody who's watching online,
I'm preaching from an American point of view.
I'm sure that there are many places in this world
where you can be a hard-working person
and end up out on the street,
but America's not one of them, okay?
America has a lot of opportunities, a lot of programs,
a lot of ways for you to succeed and get by.
So I'm sure that there are people out there
really struggling in, you know,
India or something like that.
Okay, that's not what I'm talking about.
Let's go to chapter 20.
Chapter 20, and it says in verse 13, love not sleep.
I didn't say Leviticus 2013, Proverbs 2013.
Proverbs 2013, Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty,
open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Now, I don't know about you, but it seems like when I'm reading the book of Proverbs,
it seems like poverty and riches aren't necessarily just magical things that just pop.
Some people just have money and some people don't, and there's no rhyme or reason to it.
Is that what the Bible says?
It seems like the Bible is over and over again saying,
hey, here's how you get poor by being lazy.
Here's how you get rich by working hard.
Now look, obviously there are exceptions to this.
The exception proves, well, I'm not saying that this is without exception,
but in general principle, if you work hard, you're going to be rewarded,
you're going to have what you need, you're going to be able to pay the bills,
and if you slack off, you're not going to have what you need.
This is a general principle.
You know, everybody obsesses over exceptions,
but it's better to live your life by the rule than by the exception.
You know you should approach life with this mentality children young people approach life with this mentality
If I work hard, I'm gonna have the money. I need to get by and if I don't have the money
I need I need to work harder
No, that's not true. You know, it's not people's fault. Okay, but here's the thing. What good would it do to go through life saying?
I'm the exception and it's not my fault and I don't have any money and it's through no fault
Wouldn't it be more helpful to say well, you know what? I don't have enough money time to work harder
What do you think's gonna get you further in life?
Think about it
So instead of going through life being a victim blaming everybody else and claiming that you didn't do anything wrong
It's better to realize in general work hard equals paycheck
Know you know work hard. You know money in bank. Okay, that's that should be the general
Rule that you live by okay, and obviously there are exceptions, but you know, let's not fixate on the the the exceptions
He says,
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.
And again, this isn't saying not to get your healthy eight hours at night.
Loving sleep would be overindulging, going beyond the normal eight hours that someone
would sleep, or indulging in sleep at the wrong times, or things like that.
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty, open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied
with bread.
Look at chapter 24 of Proverbs.
And, of course, the book of Proverbs has such great practical advice for how to live our
lives.
And so it's good to constantly be just living in the book of Proverbs as a Christian so
that you can be making wise decisions about your life.
Look at Proverbs chapter 24, verse 30, 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
had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Now the idea here is that the field of the slothful, the vineyard of the man void of understanding
represents potential for making money.
Right the field is potential because it could be tilled and planted and reaped
He owns this field he can do something with it to make money right the vineyard represents the potential
for growing grapes and selling them and making a profit so the potential is
There and it's being wasted right it's just in ruin
It's all grown over with thorns and nettles covered the face of it
The stone wall thereof is broken down.
It's not being maintained.
It's not being kept up.
Then I saw, verse 32, 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.
Again, that's kind of slumping over in a chair
in the daytime kind of sleep.
So shall thy poverty come as one that travels,
and thy want is an armed man.
comes by the field, and he looks at it.
What does he say? He says, you know what?
This guy's lazy. Now you say, I don't know man, that sounds super judgmental.
But when you see the fact that there's all this potential
to do something and produce something and make something and it's not getting
done, then you can see why the author of Proverbs here is coming to this conclusion.
You know he looked at it. I saw and considered it well
You know he stops he looks at this guy's field. He looks at the broken down wall all the thorns and the nettles
He looks at it. He considers he thinks about it and look what it says. He received instruction
You know, he doesn't need somebody
Constantly lecturing him about the need to work hard. He just takes one look at that field and he gets a lesson for himself
And realizes you know what that's not gonna be me
I'm not going to be that guy.
And you know what, that's what we should think.
When we go through life and we're seeing people
that are refusing to work, people that are lazy,
you know, and there's this thing,
when I drive down the road and I see somebody
that's standing out there holding up that sign,
you know what I'm thinking to myself is,
you know what, I need to work hard and not be that person.
I'm not going to go down that road.
And you say, oh, I don't know if you should think that.
Well, I mean, that's what the Bible says.
The Bible literally says, hey, I looked at this guy's situation, and I took a lesson
from it.
I'm not going to go there.
And that's a good way to go through life.
You know what?
There's two ways to learn from mistakes.
You can learn from your own mistakes, and you can learn from other people's mistakes.
Right?
Experience is the best teacher, but you know what's even a better teacher sometimes is
You shouldn't have to make all these mistakes yourself.
You shouldn't have to go out and drink and do something stupid.
It's funny, I just heard a story from somebody the other day who said, and this is someone
that I know, and they said, oh yeah, I drank an inordinate amount of alcohol.
of how fast or how much I could drink
with these friends of mine.
Now think about how stupid that is
to be engaging in that kind of activity.
It can literally kill you.
That kind of binge drinking,
especially if you're not used to it,
if you don't have tolerance for it,
and if you do have tolerance for it,
you're an alcoholic and need to get help right away.
But if you are doing that kind of binge drinking,
it can literally just kill you on the spot.
your alcohol rate hits a certain level in your bloodstream, you just die.
Am I right, Dr. Sharma? Yeah, I mean, it'll kill you.
Okay, so this guy, he's just
drinking, and this is very recently. This is, you know,
like the last few months or a year or whatever. This guy
is just pounding alcohol to impress his friends.
So, he ends up laying down at this party, he lays down in a bed at the party, you know,
just in order to, because he's just smashed, he's just wasted from binge drinking.
He wakes up to being molested.
Now look, that's not the blessing of God.
That's not anything that anybody wants to wake up to.
But what does the Bible say?
One went to him to give it this neighbor drink
that put his thigh bottle to him and make his stem drunk.
And also that thou mayest look on their nakedness.
So you've got a man and a woman, you know, basically, you know, molesting, bro.
You know what? But you know what?
This idiot should have listened to the preaching of God's word
that already told him that that was going to happen.
Am I right because anybody who's ever been under the sound of my voice
Preaching the word of God about alcohol and about sodomites and everything else, right?
Anybody who's been in faithful word Baptist church or any of our friends churches or other like-minded churches
that actually preach what the Bible says and preach hard against liquor and preach hard against the sodomites
and preach Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 15, right?
Anybody who has heard that should have known, don't get drunk.
Don't go to a party and black out from alcohol or something perverse is going to happen to you.
But then an idiot has to go out and experience it for himself.
Fool!
You're a fool!
What does the Bible say?
Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging,
and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Okay?
And so you got just the stupidity of young people
growing up in the house of God,
listening to Bible preaching,
and then having to go out and just learn it all for themselves the hard way.
They have to go out and learn what laziness gets you. What does drunkenness get you?
What does fornication get you? What does drug use get you? What does adultery get you?
And I'm wondering what's next. It's like, I guess Christian young people are gonna have to go out and
commit adultery with another man's wife and get beaten half to death.
And they're like, wow
What do you know if I commit adultery with someone's wife? I got beaten within an inch of my life. Who to thunk it?
But isn't that what the Bible said would happen?
The Bible said that jealousy is the rage of a man.
You commit adultery with a man's wife, he's probably going to kill you, or at least harm
you severely.
I had a buddy that I worked with in the alarm company.
And he came home one day and found his wife committing adultery with another man, just
And this guy that I worked with was a big guy.
He was probably like, I don't know,
at least four inches taller than me or something.
Six, two, or maybe he was even taller than that
because he was a pretty tall guy.
He's a big guy.
Well, he got enraged, he got mad.
He grabbed this guy and hurled him through the window
at the front of his house naked.
And, you know, when you get hurled naked through a glass window, you get all kinds of lacerations
all over your body.
And this guy got lacerations all over his body, had to be rushed to the hospital, the
intensive care unit.
And thankfully he survived because otherwise my buddy would have gotten, you know,
charged with manslaughter or, you know, second-degree murder or something,
whatever he would have gotten charged with for killing this guy.
But he was this close to having killed this guy.
And what the, you know, the Bible explains that that exact thing is going to happen in Proverbs?
Where he says that jealousy is the rage of a man and and you know
You're not going to be able to calm this guy down. You're not going to be able to talk him down
Do not commit adultery with another man's wife
It's a stupidest thing that you could do and you're an idiot and you must just love death, right?
And and here's what wisdom says in Proverbs chapter 8 all day that hate me love death, right?
If you don't listen to the wisdom of the book of Proverbs, you must just love death
Oh, you go and black out drunk, well you know what, you just love, you must love death,
you must love being molested, you just must love getting the crap beaten out of you, you
just must love getting in a car accident and killing yourself or others.
Folks, learn from what the Bible says, learn from what the preacher is telling you, learn
from other people's bad example, don't have to go out there and experience it for yourself.
And you know, when you see other people getting punished by God for their wickedness, you
know what you should say?
Whoa, I better get right with God right away.
Whoa, I better not go down that road.
I don't want it up like that guy, instead of saying, oh, that'll never happen to me.
It's crazy, man.
Learn from...
what the Bible says, learn from other people's experience.
And that's what we see in this passage.
We see this guy, he doesn't have to let his own life fall apart
and let his own bank balance go into the negative.
No, all he has to do is drive his car,
and I know it's anachronistic since they didn't have cars back then,
but he just has to drive his car up, look out the window,
and see that field overgrown with thorns and nettles,
and just take a lesson right there, and he's instructed,
he doesn't need mom to lecture him,
He doesn't need the preacher to lecture him, he just looks out the window, takes a look
at someone else's failed life and says, I'm not going to do that, right?
He just reads Habakkuk 215 and says, I'm not going to let people get me drunk and then
abuse me sexually, I'm just not going to.
You know, he doesn't have to go out and experience it.
He just looks at the field, he just looks at the Word of God,
he listens to the preaching, and he takes instruction.
Okay, that's what the Bible is.
There's a little bit of a rabbit trail there.
I have no regrets.
Flip over, if you would, to Ecclesiastes, chapter 5.
Gotta get back on topic here, sleeping in the daytime.
Sleeping in the daytime, right?
Obviously, if you work at night, great,
If you don't work second shift, if you don't work third shift, you know what you need to do?
You need to be awake in the daytime, productive in the daytime, and sleeping at night.
Okay, now look, here's the thing, usually jobs where you work at night, they pay you a little more sometimes
because people don't want to work at night.
You want to know why?
Because working at night is unnatural.
working nights unnatural. Now look, hey, I've done it.
There were times when I had to, for weeks or months on end,
work that graveyard shift. I've done it.
I didn't like it.
It's not healthy, it's not natural, but here's the thing, if that's what it took for me to pay my bills and make money, I would do it, of course.
There's nothing wrong with that lifestyle.
So if you are someone who's a day sleeper because you work at night, hey, God bless you, I'm not against you at all.
Somebody's got to work at those hours, right? Somebody's got to keep things going.
We all like those 24-hour services. Somebody's got to be the first responder in the middle of the night and stuff.
I get it, but here's the thing. I'm talking about people who don't have those jobs, though.
Because if you're getting paid good money to go out and work at night, well, then that justifies it.
But if you're just staying up all night because you just have a weird lifestyle where you just stay up till 4 in the morning
and just fool around and goof off till 4 in the morning and then sleep till noon,
that is not a healthy way to live your life.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
That's not in the Bible, but it's still pretty good.
I think it was Ben Franklin or something.
Go to, are you there in Ecclesiastes 5 verse 12?
It says, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
whether you eat little or much,
but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
So what the Bible is saying is that if you work hard,
Then you sleep well and your sleep is sweet, right?
You work hard, then it's easy to go to bed early.
Say, I just, I can't go to bed at 10 o'clock.
I'm not tired.
Did you do anything?
Did you work hard?
Cause if you did, you'd probably be getting tired
by 10 o'clock.
No, no, no, I just, I can't go to sleep
till three in the morning.
Well, try working harder.
Cause the sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
Whether you eat little or much.
But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Why will the abundance of the rich not allow him to sleep?
Let me give you a couple of reasons.
Reason number one, because people who are rich are worried about their money.
See, when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
People who have a lot of money, they're stressed out about it.
They're worried about it.
You know, I was kind of thinking about and I'm not really an economics guy. I'm not a finance guy
I'm not really into money. I don't really think about these things that much and I don't really know that much about them
So I'm not an expert on finance at all. So if I get this wrong
Forgive me because this is not my
Forte, but I was thinking about, you know, I saw a news article or something about like, oh, Elon Musk's
xai company is buying x and it's 45 billion dollar
And they have 11 billion dollars of debt and everything and it just it just kind of got me thinking for a second
And I was kind of thinking, and then again,
if I get this wrong, forgive me, I'm not into finance.
But I got to thinking about it, and I was thinking to myself,
you know, according to this article,
it says that Elon Musk is worth $330 billion.
And I think when most people hear,
Elon Musk is worth $330 billion,
they kind of just, they kind of picture his bank balance
just kind of having $330 billion in it.
You know what I mean?
Like, he uses ATM card and checks the balance,
and it's like, all right,
you still got another $330 billion to go.
And people will say things like,
oh man, Elon Musk could just spend a million dollars
every day for the next whatever
and he's never gonna run out of money, blah, blah.
But you know, and again, forgive me if I'm wrong
because I'm just surmising here.
I'm just kind of guessing just based on common sense
that I'm pretty sure when it says he's worth $330 billion,
I'm pretty sure most of that is all like tied up
in businesses.
It's like stuff that he owns.
It's not like money.
It's like stuff that he owns a business and the reason that this thought came into my mind
is because I was noticing how it's saying that the company X, which is formerly Twitter,
that it's worth 45 billion dollars, but it has 11 billion dollars of debt.
So, you know, here's Elon owning a company that has 11 billion dollars of debt.
So you're thinking to yourself like, well, why would a guy who's got 330 billion dollars
have 11 billion dollars that wants to just pay it off?
Because all his money is just tied up.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
It's not like he can just reach into his pocket,
pull out 11 billion, and just pay off that debt.
Because why wouldn't he?
Here's why, because all his money is out there,
tied up, doing stuff, working.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
What the heck does that have to do with the sermon?
Oh, I know what it has to do with the sermon.
Here's what it has to do with the sermon.
Is that, here's the thing, if you're a wealthy guy like that,
worth $330 billion, and I'm not saying he's not worth $330 billion,
but I'm saying there's probably a lot of stress associated with that
because all of it's tied up and all these enterprise,
you got to make sure that it's all going right
because you hear about sometimes these millionaires and billionaires
literally like going into the red.
And you're like how could you go into the red when you had all these millions of dollars, but it's because it's all complicated
It's all in business and tied up in these different things and whatever and so the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep
You know, it's not like a rich guy who has millions of billions of dollars
Just lays on the beach all day because he's so wealthy and he just never works
No, he's he's thinking about making more money and keeping his money and turning it into more money and this company and this business and that
You know, and there's like, yeah, he could if he wanted to,
probably just kind of cash out of a lot of this stuff
and lay by the beach all day,
but that's typically not what rich people want to do.
They want to keep going.
They want to keep making money.
And so the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep
because he's just got his mind on his money and his money on his mind
and he's just thinking about it and he's just laying in bed at night,
you know, thinking about it and stressed.
So that's one reason, but reason number two,
why the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep
is because possibly a secondary interpretation could be,
well, you know, the fact that he doesn't have to do any physical work,
he doesn't have to.
Then maybe that's not going to help with sleep because the sleep of a laboring man is sweet because he's physically working
Physically tiring out his body because sometimes working with your mind is not the same as working with your body
Sometimes you can work really hard with your brain and then not be able to sleep at night
because you didn't really exert your body.
And this is why now gyms are ubiquitous now.
I mean, I remember when I was a kid gyms were pretty rare, if you can believe that.
When I was growing up in the 1980s, you didn't see just a gym on every corner and barely
anybody lifted weights.
And the closest thing that I ever saw to a gym in the 80s was like there were these country clubs.
Rich people would be a part of a country club that had a little gym or something
and you'd go with your friends to the country club and lift some weights or something.
But it just wasn't like it is now. We're just everybody's lifting weights.
Everybody goes to the gym. The gym is everywhere.
Here's why the gym is everywhere because a lot of people don't have physical jobs.
They're hitting the gym so that they can get that sleep of a laboring man
without actually having a job that's physical.
Alright, let's go to Romans chapter 13 in the New Testament.
Romans chapter 13.
Romans chapter 13. So, in the Old Testament
in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we talked about sleep in its literal sense.
We're talking about getting a good night's sleep at night when you're supposed to go into bed at a reasonable hour,
getting out of bed at a reasonable hour, getting a good night's sleep,
and then working hard and being productive all day, not being drowsy and tired because you goofed off till 3 a.m.
That's what we talked about in the Old Testament.
Now in the New Testament,
God will talk about sleep in a metaphorical sense, right?
Instead of literal sleep, he talks about it in a metaphorical sense,
and it represents a few different things in the Bible.
Here's one of them.
Romans 13, verse 11 says in that,
knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep,
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armor of light.
Verse number 13, let us walk honestly as in the day.
Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying,
but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lust thereof.
So in this passage, he's saying, look, the night is far spent, the day is at hand, and
a godly Christian life in the light of God's word.
And this is similar to what it says in 1 Corinthians 15.
Awake to righteousness and sin not.
For some have not the knowledge of God, I speak this to your shame.
And the idea here is that, you know, being awake in this sense in the daytime, living in the light, walking in the light,
the idea here is walking in the light as in keeping God's commandments, not verse 13,
not in rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wantoness, strife and envy, right?
Those are like the works of darkness.
So he's saying, you know, come out of that and walk in the light, in the daytime, you're awake.
Awake to righteousness, coming out of the night of sinfulness and ungodliness and into the bright,
shining day of godliness, honesty, walking according to God's word, etc.
Okay, but also, go through Ephesians chapter 5, also being awake, so the first thing we saw in
represents living a godly Christian life, okay?
So you're in the light, you're out in the daytime,
you're out in the sunshine, walking in the light,
living for God, you awake to righteousness.
So the first thing that being awake represents
is right living, right?
That's the first thing that we see
in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 13.
But then also look at verse 14 of Ephesians 5 there, it says,
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
And arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that you walk circumspectly,
Not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
And the idea here with walking circumspectly is being awake
in the sense that you're aware of what's going on around you.
is talking about a circle around.
Circum is around,
spect means looking,
like specter, spectacles,
yes, you know, those type of things.
It's circumspectly.
You're aware of what's going on,
you're cautious, you're careful,
you're awake to the dangers that are out there.
And then it says redeeming the time
because the days are evil.
And again, going back to what we learned from Proverbs,
why get up early?
So you can redeem the time.
You're not going to get much done, are you?
You know, those days that you roll out of bed at 10, 11 a.m.,
it's just like, whoa, it's 3 o'clock, and you've accomplished nothing, right?
But those days when you start at 5, 6, get up early, get going,
then you're blown away like, whoa, I've already done so much and it's only 10, 30 a.m.
It's 11 a.m. I've already done so much.
So when the Bible talks about being awake,
Number one, it's talking about
awake into righteousness, right living.
Number two, it's talking about being awake
in the sense that you're aware of what's going on.
You're in the light, you're not asleep
and not noticing the dangers and so forth.
And then thirdly, being awake is redeeming the time.
It's taken advantage of the time that God's given you.
So, if you're starting your day early, you're taking advantage of that day and the opportunities where it's just letting the day go by while you just keep rolling around in bed until 11 a.m.
Redeem the time, because the days are evil, the Bible says.
Redeem the time.
What does redeem the time mean?
Ephesians 5-16, it means getting the most out of it, right?
Using it to its potential.
Because think about it, if I redeem a, let's say I have a bottle or a can and it has a redemption value, right?
Like, you know, Michigan 10 cents, everywhere else 5 cents or whatever, and you turn in the bottle and you redeem it,
you know, you're cashing it in for its value, so if you're redeeming the time, it's like you're exchanging your time for value.
Instead of exchanging your time for nothing, you're exchanging your time for work that
you're getting done, value, right?
Doing something worthwhile.
Last place we're going to turn, first Thessalonians chapter five.
First Thessalonians chapter number five.
So when we talk about not sleeping in the daytime, first of all, let's get the literal
lesson.
Go to bed at night.
Get a good night's sleep so you can wake up tomorrow morning
and be productive and accomplish something
and not be just a lazy slugger that just lays around until 11
or noon or whatever, rolls out of bed, stumbles downstairs,
no plan, nothing productive to do.
So literally, sleep at night and be awake and working hard
in the daytime.
But then, figuratively, what does it mean to be awake?
It means that you are not in darkness.
You're coming out of the darkness into the light
of living a good Christian life.
You're coming out of the darkness into the light
of being aware of what's going on around you
and you're aware of the dangers.
You know what's true. You know what's false.
We're not ignorant of the devil's devices.
We're sober. We're vigilant.
What does vigilant mean?
We're sober, we're vigilant, because we know that our adversary, the devil,
walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,
so we're circumspect about the pitfalls, the dangers, the devils,
machinations against us.
And then thirdly, we're redeeming the time.
Being awake in the daytime means getting the most out of your day.
It's sort of like when you're on even vacation.
And when you're on vacation, sometimes you even get up early on vacation.
Why because you're thinking to yourself hey, I want to be the first one out there hiking snorkeling
You know what sightseeing whatever. I remember my wife and I went to Hawaii like about 10 years ago
for our
Wedding anniversary was a big trip and everything and so went to Hawaii one time
And we went there.
I remember the very first day that we were there,
we got up at like three or four in the morning,
and yeah, there was a time change,
but we got up at like three or four in the morning
and we drove to the top of this Haleakala crater
and went up to the Haleakala gandala,
you know, went up on the Haleakala crater
and like watched the sunrise.
On our first morning, you know, and it's because we're excited. It's like hey, we're here. We're excited
It's like hey once in a lifetime to life. Sorry, honey. It was once in a lifetime. All right. We're never going back now
I'm just kidding
Keep dreaming but but the thing is, you know, it's like a once in a lifetime trip and
Here's the thing. There was not a single day on that vacation where we just kind of like sat around
We were just like doing stuff. Just go go go. We're trying to redeem the time
It's like okay. We're on Maui for once in our lives
We got to hit everything and we we literally I'm pretty sure did everything that you can even do on Maui
Like we went we drove down every road and went to every site and everything because we're trying to redeem the time
Even on vacation. We're trying to redeem time, but obviously in our work day, right?
We got a work day want to accomplish something get work done
You know make the boss happy make the company money get things done accomplish something right want to redeem the time
Spiritually we want to redeem the time
because souls need to be saved before it's eternally too late.
People are going to hell. We want to get them saved.
We want to preach the gospel to every creature, right?
You know, you're on a missions trip and it's like you got
a couple days to go soul-winning, right?
You want to get out there and work hard and redeem that time and get it done, you know?
And you want to just always make your life count.
Of course, there are times when we need rest and relaxation,
but rest and relaxation should be planned.
Like, hey, now, this is a rest day, and a rest today.
And then that's accomplishing something, a rest,
because we're going to work hard the other six days.
You know, or, hey, I'm going to sleep these eight hours
because I'm going to be awake for 16 hours.
You know, and it should be planned like that.
Redeeming the time because the days are evil.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says in verse 4,
but ye brethren are not in darkness,
that that day should overtake you as a thief.
year all, the children of light and the children of the day.
We are not of the night nor of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep, sleep in the night,
and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober."
And again, the idea here is that sleep represents, in this case,
not being aware of what's going on.
You know, being in darkness and then the day of the Lord overtakes you as a thief in the night
because you don't even know what's going on
because you never listen to those end times prophecy sermons or whatever.
So, you know, you didn't read your Bible, you didn't read Revelation, you don't know what's going on.
You know, we are the children of light, we know what's up.
He doesn't have to write to us of the times of the seasons because we ourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord
So cometh as a thief in the night
But we're not in darkness that the day should overtake us as a thief verse 4 where the children of light where the children of the day
We're not of the night nor of darkness
Therefore, let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober the day that sleep sleep in the night
So we don't want to be unaware of what's going on sleeping
When we should be awake and aware and they that be drunken are drunken in the night again the night time
representing sinfulness
Again, right the sinful activities of this world take place more at night
More people are getting drunk committing adultery committing fornication gambling you name it
Most of those sins are happening more at night than in the daytime. Okay
So then the night kind of represents that sinful life
But let us who are of the day, we are the day people, we're the children of the light.
Let us who are of the day be sober, right?
Sober, and don't let somebody tell you, oh, sober doesn't mean sober.
Yeah, it actually does.
And obviously in the Bible, it also has to do with like being serious and things like that,
but it also has to do with the absence of alcohol.
Absence of drugs, absence of alcohol, the Bible when it says sober, it also includes that.
There's no way God's going to be like, well, you're serious even though you're drinking.
I know you're smoking pot, but you're still a serious person.
No, sober means sober and the other kind of sober, both kinds of sober, buddy,
because there's a reason why not drinking is called being sober.
Because when you drink, you're not sober.
And when you take drugs, you're not sober by any definition of sober.
You're not any of those definitions when you're drinking or taking drugs.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
So be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
So all of that to say this, we as Christians, we need to be awake,
Christians. Literally, we need to be awake at a reasonable hour, living our
lives for Christ, making Monday count, making Tuesday count, making Wednesday
count, not just sleeping in till super late and just binge watching TV and play
video games till 4 in the morning.
Okay, use your life for something that matters, redeem the time and you know you children you might think well
I'm just a kid. I don't have anything to do, but you know what there's a lot of things that you can do as a kid though
that are going to make your life better later on,
like doing your schoolwork,
studying, reading, learning,
doing housework, helping out with chores,
and why? Just to build good habits,
to help your family,
help your parents, right?
Sometimes you can find ways to make money as a kid
and do extra work or chores
or get hired at a job or something like that.
There's all kinds of things that you can do
when you're a kid to be productive.
Because the Bible says, even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
So even a kid should want to be productive with their time.
You know what? Take advantage of that time that you have as a kid to be physically active, to read books, to learn skills, to learn the Bible, read the Bible.
Learn things, be productive, work around the house, get a hobby, get a skill, do something with your life.
Those of us that are older, obviously we need to go to our jobs, our day jobs, and work those jobs, work hard, be productive, go to bed at a reasonable hour,
get up at a good time, get up early, and use our day. Read your Bible, pray, and then get out there and work your tail off and make something happen.
don't be a slacker. So that's physically but then also spiritually we need to be
awake and walking in the daytime meaning that we're falling in the Bible, we're
sober, we're not living that sinful life, okay? We're also awake in the sense that
we are circumspect, aware, sober, vigilant,
paying attention, knowing what the Bible says, knowing end-times prophecy,
knowing Bible doctrine, going through life aware of things, having the wisdom of proverbs always in the back of our brain,
guiding our decisions, and then thirdly, being awake to
redeem the time.
Taking advantage of the opportunities God has given us. We're living in America. We got technology.
We've got wealth, we've got infrastructure, we've got freedom, we've got the First Amendment.
I mean, there is so much we can do for God as a church.
I mean, we could turn this place upside down with the gospel.
We can do all kinds of foreign missions, we can do all kinds of evangelism right here in Phoenix,
and we can make our lives count and our church count if we just wake up and get out there and hustle.
with our lives.
Let's bards and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you for the good advice,
just for our health that we should sleep at night
and be awake in the daytime.
And Lord God, help us to be spiritually awake as well
and be children of the light walking in the daytime.
And Lord God, please bless us as we go our separate ways.
Help us all to live for you this week
and bring us back safely to church on Wednesday
and on next Sunday.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals please if you need the words for 48. I'll be so glad when day is done hymn number 48
We'll sing this twice and be dismissed tonight number 48
I'll be so glad one day
There'll be no sorrow when God's tomorrow
I'll be so glad when Jesus comes
I'll be so glad when day is done
I'll be so glad when victory's won
There'll be no sorrow when God's tomorrow
When Jesus comes.
Man, good thing this evening we are dismissed.
Hey, Joe. Hey, man. Hey, Joe.
Hey, how are you?