Matthew Stuckey here and I want to make a quick video talking to you about the dangers of trying
to live an effortless life or an easy life. And so I preached on Taoism on Sunday and I want to
kind of just almost give a quick recap of what I talked about. And Taoism is this philosophy that
their guiding principle is how to live an effortless life. You know, why try to swim
upstream when you can swim downstream? You know these various sayings that they say that sound
really cute and nice and everything but it's not reality. And I want you to realize that this
idea of trying to have an easy life or an effortless life is something the Bible does not
speak about. And the Bible actually says it's a bad thing. It's not something that you should
strive for. And so the first thing you need to understand is that in the Garden of Eden Adam and
Eve actually had an easy life. They actually didn't really need to work that hard. The plants
basically just grew themselves. I mean everything was just great vegetation. It was pretty easy and
everything was nice. And then what you see is that when people have too much free time they get into
trouble. And Eve ends up getting into trouble. She's tempted by Satan. She gets her husband to
eat of the forbidden fruit as well. And then the Bible says that cursed is the ground for thy sake
and that is the punishment. So they have too much free time and then all of a sudden the ground is
cursed and God says, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until you return on to the
dust of the ground. So basically you're gonna work very hard now to produce your food and to be able
to provide. And here's the thing, it's actually a good thing for us. So you could look at this both
with men and with women. With men one of the great examples is David. The Bible talks about David who
was a man after God's own heart. He did all these great battles and conquered all these things and
did great things. And the Bible talks about at the time kings go forth to battle. Because in the past
there used to be a time that the kings, the political leaders, actually led the charge in
battles. And at the time kings go forth to battle he actually tarried at home. He didn't go. What
was the result of that? Well we see that David is walking on a roof in the middle of the night,
right? We don't know the exact time but he's walking on a roof when it's dark outside. You
say why would somebody be walking on a roof at night? Well he cannot sleep. And the Bible says
a sleep of a laboring man is sweet but David didn't go forth to battle. He's being lazy which
was not normally part of his routine but he was at that moment. So he can't sleep because he's
being lazy and then all of a sudden he looks upon Bathsheba. He ends up committing adultery. And look
you know an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And when you have too much free time like David
you end up getting into trouble. We would all like to have an easier life but the reality is
that when we have too easy of a life we end up screwing it up. Not only with David though the
Bible also speaks about that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And what it says is that there were
those that were not working. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 11, for we hear that there
are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busybodies. And the Bible says
in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 11 that if people are not working they have a tendency to be busybodies
and to be gossips and to get into trouble and cause problems. Why? They have too much free time.
The reality is any of us even if we're a man after God's own heart if we have too much free
time it's not a good thing. And then Paul commands them to actually work and it says with quietness
they work and eat their own bread. And with quietness the indication is well they're just
kind of you know loudmouths always causing problems being busybodies being gossips. And
look it's actually good for them to actually work. Now I've been a part of many different churches
and I saw this at churches in the U.S. that when people had too much free time and they
weren't working or they were working very little they ended up causing problems. You know it's just
reality that us when we have too much free time we're just not going to be the best person. You
know it's not going to be good for us. So I would just encourage you if you're a guy to try to work
hard. And if you have a lot of free time maybe you don't do so much at your job then you know
what I would encourage you to find something to do and stay busy. It would be better for us to
work 50 hours a week than five hours a week for the same amount of pay. You would be a better
person. You'd be happier. You just be much better for you. You know it's good for us to work. God
said in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. But it's not just true for men. It's also
true for women. See the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 15 that women are saved in childbearing.
And you say, why does it say saved in childbearing? Well the reason why it says saved in childbearing
is not a spiritual salvation. It's not a physical salvation. But what it means is having children
will save women from destroying their lives. Because women with too much free time can be a
busybody. They can be a gossip. They can cause problems. And the Bible speaks about that in
the same book in 1 Timothy 5 verse 13 where it says, and with all they learn to be idle wandering
about from house to house and not only idle but toddlers also in busybodies speaking things which
they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house. And
see the Bible says if they have too much free time they can end up going door-to-door, be toddlers,
busybodies, they're gossips, they can cause problems. This is a bigger problem in our world
today because now we have the cell phones and you can be a busybody just with a couple you know
buttons that you press on your phone. You don't even have to go door-to-door. You can get in
everybody's house in five minutes by posting on Facebook or by sending a group text message. So
this is something we need to be careful about especially in a social media generation both as
men and women. We don't want to strive to have an easy life. Life is difficult. That's the way
it's meant to be. And the reality is that Taoism is a joke. It's garbage. It's lying to you. And
although it sounds good to have an effortless life that would actually destroy our lives. Thank
you and God bless.