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there okay cool yeah same same over at steadfast all right we welcome pure words Baptist first thank you for coming you'll turn your hymnals to song 187 Jesus loves me 187 187 Jesus loves me on the first Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong they are weak but he is strong yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so song 187 on the second Jesus loves me he who died heaven's gate to open wide he will wash away my sin let his little child come in yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so Jesus loves me he will stay close beside me all the way thou has fled and died for me I will henceforth live for thee yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so all right let's have a word of prayer Lord thank you so much for this evening and the opportunity to be in your house pray for all those that are sick pray that you heal them both hear your words and also steadfast and pray that you bless the service tonight that you fill me the Holy Spirit and it appears to hear your word this evening Jesus let me pray amen all right for the next song 131 Christ is all I need simple song quick song but very great truth Christ is all I need 131 131 Christ is all I need Christ is all I need Christ is all I need all I need Christ is all I need Christ is all I need all I need he was crucified for me he died on Calvary that's why I know he loves me so he's all I need all right this time we're gonna go through our announcements go through our bulletins looks like the verse of the week here is psalm 34 9 will fear the Lord ye his saints for there is no one to them that fear him great verse there you look on the left side of the bulletin we have our service times Sunday morning 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening 5 30 p.m. and every Thursday we'll have our Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m. churchwide sowing times brother James Perry runs to Sunday and Thursday and brother Mo Mahoney runs the Saturday time at 10 o'clock please remember to turn your sowing maps to the back bin on the wall back there and also we have our end-of-year stats so it looks like pure words Baptist Church had 687 salvations for the year which that is excellent great work and last year or 2020 it was 593 so broke the record great job keep up the great work soul winning in the next year be in prayer for our expecting lady of the church Kareem Darnell and of course also steadfast as well that list is always full for our church if you wouldn't mind keeping them in prayer as well our upcoming guest preachers on this Sunday brother Duncan urbanic will be preaching from Fort Worth and also the Sunday looks like two Sundays after that brother Ben Naim from Fort Worth will also be preaching we do have our prayer requests there brother Ed and brother yeah you're asking for prayer for family and health and then just one announcement of upcoming events on January 16th brother Tanner fur from steadfast Oklahoma is going to be being ordained as an evangelist and he's been doing a really great job up there and so if you want to make the trip and support brother Tanner January 16th otherwise it'll be on live stream everything like that you guys can check it out but that's really it for our announcements this evening you'll turn to your third song 155 doxology 155 doxology we'll sing it two times through praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly host praise father son and holy ghost all right this time we'll have reading of Ecclesiastes chapter number 10 Ecclesiastes chapter number 10 all right we're there in a number 10 the Bible reads dead flies cause the ointment of the prophecy the 10th for the inking savor so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor a wise man's heart is his right hand but a fool's heart at his left yay also when he that is a fool walketh by the way his wisdom palest him and he says to everyone that he is a fool if the spirit of the ruler is ruler rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacifiers great offenses there is an evil which I have seen under the Sun as an error with prosthesis from the ruler folly is set in great dignity and the rich that in low place I've seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the earth he that diggeth a pit shall fall into it and who so it breaketh in head a serpent shall bite him who so remove his stones shall be hurt there with he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby if the iron be blunt he do not wet it then must he put to more strength but wisdom profitable correct surely the serpent will bite without enchantment and a babbler is no better the words of a wise man's mouth are precious but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself the beginning of the words of his mouth his foolishness the end of his talk is mischievous madness a fool also is full of words a man cannot tell what shall be what shall be after him who can tell him the labor of the foolish where is every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the city woe to thee O land when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning blessed art thou O land when thy king is the son of nobles and the prince is eaten to season for strength and not for drunkenness by but slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of hands the house droppeth through a feast is made for laughter and a wine maketh merry but money answer is faulty first if not the king no not in thy thought and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber for a bird of the air shall carry the voice and the witch hath wings shall tell the matter have a quick word of prayer man all right well first I want to thank Pastor Shelley for sending me down here and the opportunity to preach to you guys and I'm glad that you guys were the few that are spared from this illness you know you could just when everyone gets back you just tell them you're more godly okay no I'm just gonna don't tell them that but glad that you guys made it it's the same thing at Fort Worth last night very small crowd but so whatever is going around is definitely very contagious so glad you guys are doing okay we're here in Ecclesiastes chapter number 10 and the verse I want to focus on in Ecclesiastes 10 is verse 18 where the Bible reads by much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through and the title my sermon this evening is laziness laziness and when we look at this verse we see that when someone is lazy or when someone's slothful it causes their building to decay their house to fall through basically it calls it causes things to fall apart in this world everything is falling apart and if you're lazy you're really just going to expedite that process everything in this world is decaying and and what science calls this is the second law of thermodynamics but really the science did not discover this fact that everything is decaying because the Bible actually teaches this in Hebrews chapter 1 if you'll flip there real really quick to Hebrews chapter 1 Hebrews chapter 1 and basically the second law of thermodynamics states that everything is decaying and losing energy the Bible backs it up in Hebrews 1 10 it says and thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thine hands but then it says this they shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail so Bible teaches that this world the creation it's waxing old it's getting old it's losing its strength and basically that's the same thing that the second law of thermodynamics is teaching that everything's falling apart but when we saw that verse in Ecclesiastes it says by slothfulness it causes the building to decay by idleness of hand it causes the house to drop through basically everything's always decaying and getting worse and if we're not working hard at maintaining that it's just going to deteriorate on its own if we don't act upon it now obviously it's a very obvious statement to say that God does not want us to be lazy go to Romans chapter number 12 but just to lay a foundation before I get into the sermon that God obviously does not want us to be lazy Romans 12 one says I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service so the Bible describes it as reasonable to literally sacrifice your body so God expects you to give him your all all of your life force even up to the point of literally sacrificing your body the Bible says that that is completely reasonable that doesn't sound like laziness to me if you're if you're sacrificing your body to serve God that's like the opposite of laziness that's just like laying it all on the line but later on in the chapter it says this in verse 10 says be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord so obviously God does not want us to be lazy God does not want us as a church to be slothful but rather fervent in spirit that we want to work hard for the Lord and at the beginning of a new year it's a great time to examine ourselves and see if we have any laziness in our lives because every single person myself included has and will struggle with the sin of laziness for the rest of their life why because we have the flesh and our flesh enjoys sitting around our flesh enjoys being lazy that's why we have to have sermons like this to remind us to work hard and tonight basically what I want to do is I want to give six practical statements to be able to test yourself to see if there's any laziness in your life because when we sometimes it sometimes it's very easy for us to identify sin and other people and not in ourselves and so the sermon tonight is gonna be very practical I'm gonna make a statement and basically just try to think if that applies to you if one of or more of these statements apply to you then obviously you have a weak spot in your life and hopefully in the next year you can tune that up and be a hard-working Christian if you're not already so number one how can we tell if a person is lazy how can I tell how can I examine my life and say okay is there something in my life that is tending towards laziness how can I figure that out well number one if you go to Proverbs chapter 19 Proverbs 19 if you make a habit of oversleeping you're lazy if you make a habit of oversleeping you are lazy look at Proverbs 19 15 it says slothfulness cast it into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger so the state of being slothful what does it do it casts into a deep sleep and so laziness begets more laziness sleep begets more sleep someone who is being slothful what's it gonna do it's gonna cause them to be really tired and you see one thing very common with lazy people is they sleep all the time you know we go soul winning at 10 10 30 11 o'clock in the afternoon and people are upset at us sometimes for waking them up at those times and it's like okay you're lazy slothfulness cast it into a deep sleep and notice I didn't say you're lazy if you ever sleep in I said if you make a habit of oversleeping because obviously there's seasons of life where you're burning the midnight oil and you're working really hard and you should allow yourself to sleep in every once in a while for your health but I'm saying if it's a habit where every day you're sleeping in and all the time you're oversleeping the Bible says that that's slothfulness now look at Proverbs 26 flip over to Proverbs 26 verse 14 but there's kind of this paradox with the previous verse that we just read because we just read that slothfulness cast it into a deep sleep so lazy people they sleep a lot right but then look at this in Proverbs 26 14 it says as the door turneth upon his hinges so doth a slothful upon his bed so this is kind of saying the opposite that the lazy person can't sleep and why is that well think about it if you're sleeping all day and you're waking up super late you're sleeping in then when it's time to actually go to bed at normal person hours of going to bed you're gonna be tossing and turning or you're just gonna be up on your phone or up playing video games I mean I remember when I was in high school some of my fellow teammates on my baseball team once it was summer break I mean they're staying up till three four five and they're waking up at three four five in the afternoon and it's like that's insane what are they doing they're being lazy they're just playing video games all day they're not working hard they're not engaging their mind and so when it's evening when it's the time that normal people go to bed they're just turning upon their hit like like a door on hinges laziness put a Proverbs chapter 6 verse 9 Proverbs chapter 6 verse 9 the Bible says how long wilt thou sleep Oh sluggard when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep and that's a question that you'd be asking someone that's lazy because they're always sleeping look at verse 10 it says get a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep so shall thy poverty come as one that travel it and I want as an armed man notice a person who just indulges in a little too much sleep a little too much slumber is not saying that they're even going overboard it's saying that even just a little bit of this will cause poverty to come upon them and this is true physically and spiritually people that oversleep they're late to work they miss their job and they come to poverty well there's a lot of Christians even that are asleep on the job and it's time to go soul winning and they're not there they're not going soul winning on a regular basis they're not reading their Bible like God commanded they're not praying they're sleeping as a Christian and poverty will come upon them on the on the day when the judgment seat of Christ happens and you stand before God and your works are nothing because you're poor spiritually why because you love sleep and so you don't want to be lazy in either sense right whether physically or spiritually look at Proverbs chapter number 10 flip flip over to Proverbs chapter 10 and look at verse 6 it says as vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes so is the sluggard to them that send him so being lazy and we're specifically talking about oversleeping is going to affect you even on your job because the person that sends them is talking about someone's boss somebody's Lord and think about we've already we've already learned that lazy people they sleep a lot they sleep in a lot they stay up all night well you know what that's going to cause to happen is it's going to cause you to always be late to your job and have you noticed in the jobs that you've worked in the past that the people who are always late are always lazy there's no it's not a coincidence but look it's like smoke to the eyes of your boss when you're lazy why well probably because you're coming in late all the time and then you're lazy once you're there on the job I'll read for you Proverbs 2013 it says love not sleep lest thou come to poverty open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread so this is not something that comes naturally the Bible's having to exhort us saying don't love sleep open your eyes why because you want to love sleep you want to just keep your eyes closed you want to stay in bed all morning but you know the Bible records consistently that men of God woke up early in the morning you just search the term arose early in the morning or rise early in the morning you know that phrase happens a lot in the Bible and you'll see it's men of God rising up early that's a really common thing and even secular people understand this I want to read for you a list of successful people that wake up early and I'm not saying these guys are good or godly or anything like that but I'm just saying they understand this principle of not loving sleep of not oversleeping and that's partly why they're really successful people Apple CEO Tim Cook wakes up every day at 3 45 3 45 a.m. he it's not like oh well it's Saturday so sleep until 10 no he's just every day 3 45 a.m. this guy wakes up Elon Musk he goes to bed every day at 1 a.m. you're thinking oh Elon Musk lazy staying up till but he wakes up at 7 a.m. he's like going to bed at 1 a.m. and waking up at 7 a.m. it's like barely sleeps he says that he operates best on six to six and a half hours of sleep it's like well okay he's obviously not a lazy person you know the AOL CEO Tim Armstrong wakes up every day at 5 a.m. the square CEO and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wakes up every day at 5 30 a.m. to meditate and go for a six mile jog that's intense you know and you wouldn't expect that from the guy that looks like a white terrorist you know this little neck beard coming out the Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is in his office every day by 6 a.m. so that means he's probably waking up around 5 a.m. or something like that and so I didn't read you that list to tell you you got to wake up at 3 45 or you're not right with God you got to wake up at 5 a.m. or you're not right with God what I'm showing you is that successful people they don't oversleep and they debt they definitely don't make a habit of oversleeping if they do occasionally and you know you got to think every person's schedule is different every person's job is different you know if you're up with a newborn five times a night like my wife is it's like yeah you're not waking up at 4 a.m. every day this is not how it works okay but you got to look at your own life and say you know am I making a habit of oversleeping am I late to work if you're late to work the answer is yes you do have a habit of oversleeping so are you a lazy person well do you make a habit of oversleeping number two go to Proverbs 20 here's a way to tell if you're a lazy person if you have a habit of making excuses for why you can't do something lazy people not only do they have a habit of sleeping in too much loving sleep but they also have a habit of constantly making excuses for why they can't achieve something or why something can't be done why there's always an obstacle look at verse number four of Proverbs 20 it says the sluggard the lazy person will not plow by reason of the cold therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing so the sluggard you know he lives in Houston Texas and he's like it's 70 degrees this is too cold I can't I can't plow today you know he's makes that excuse right and then the guy that lives in northern Alaska he comes out at 70 degrees he's like oh it's too hot I can't work today right you know there's always people that are gonna give an excuse of why something can't be done even if it's something as simple as the weather people will literally just use the weather to say why they can't work even though God commanded us to work six days men should be working six days a week you know people just make excuses for everything and you know this if you've gone soul-winning any length of time it's like oh you know sorry I'd love to come to your church I just I don't have a car and it's like okay well I can give you a ride it's like I got a new cat he's back there I got to go and it's just like hey what is that person they're lazy they don't really want to come to church they're telling you that they do but really they're just making an excuse of why they can't do it it's really because they don't want to it's really because they're lazy and honestly us as Christians we have the same flesh that they do and Christians do the same exact thing it's like how often do you hear people you know explain why they don't have time to read their Bible you know it's like oh I'm a mom therefore I don't have time to read my Bible it's like I'm pretty sure God's will was for you to be a mom I'm pretty sure it's God's will for ladies to take care of kids and I'm pretty sure he also wants you to read your Bible so I don't understand how that excuse works right or you know I'm just working too many hours and it's like well you have your priorities mixed up because reading God's Word is way more important than working all the overtime you know but people will give all sorts of excuses I saw a funny picture I posted on my Instagram and it was like the why I can't read my Bible starter pack and it showed like a guy on Netflix a guy playing video games like a girl taking pictures of her food and all these things it's like those are excuses there is no reason why Christians should not be reading their Bible it's something God commanded you know and he wouldn't command us something that's just not possible for us to do especially something so rudimental as reading the Bible but this is the key truth that I want you to understand about people that make excuses is that lazy people they make excuses successful people they have all the same excuses that they could give but they choose rather to overcome those obstacles the person that says I can't go soul-winning because I'm too tired well the person that goes soul-winning guess what he's tired too the person that says I don't have enough time to read my Bible okay the person that actually reads their Bible they have a busy schedule too the person that just makes an excuse for anything you know it's too cold outside there's the guy that won't go out and plow because it's too cold outside and then there's the guy that throws on the car heart throws on the beanie throws on the work boots and is out there plowing in the cold now they both could give the same excuse but what's the difference well a mindset is the difference and so excuses God does not accept excuses you know your boss is not going to accept excuses the Lord does not accept excuses giving an excuse all it does is it just shows that you have a weak spot in your life of laziness you're always giving excuses look at Proverbs 22 verse 13 here's a funny excuse Proverbs 22 13 it says the slothful man saith there is a lion without I shall be slain in the streets now this is just a funny excuse to me because I'm picturing this I'm picturing a person saying this you know hey where why aren't you at work right now and he tells his boss you know there's a lion outside well my first question would be like okay is the lion like right outside your door or is the lion just kind of like at large in the city you know what I mean like because these are two very different things and if he's out your door you know why don't you have a 44 Magnum this is America here this is Texas why don't you take care of the lion what's going on here right and when I lived in Boise Idaho I remember it would always make really big news if there was ever like a black bear that wandered down the mountain and came at a city limits it happened from time to time where I live or a wolf was in city limits or a mountain lion or something like that it always make big news right but here's what's funny whenever there was a bear in Boise Idaho you know what I never saw I never saw bear no I never saw I never saw wolf because okay somewhere out there there's a lion somewhere out there there's a bear but it's like I'm just gonna strap my 44 mag on and just go to work and if I meet the bear if I meet the lion then I'll take care of it then but look unless that lions literally right outside your door you know that's not a valid excuse at the moment and like I said if it's at your door take care of business okay it's just such a funny thing to think about but what does it mean what's the the lesson from that when there's a will there's a way you want to get to work you want to accomplish something in your life if you want to do something for God there's going to be excuses but are you gonna just give up once an excuse comes because that's what lazy people do let's see are you a lazy person number one do you make a habit of oversleeping number two you have a habit of making excuses number three here's how you could tell if someone's lazy if you waste what you've been given if you waste what you've been given look at Proverbs chapter 18 verse 9 says he also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster so these are similar type of people the lazy person he's brother to the person that wastes a lot and like I said if you think back in your own life of people that you've worked with that you thought were really lazy they probably wasted a lot of time they probably wasted a lot of material they probably lazy that wasted a lot of tools and ran through a lot of the company's supplies and things like that why because a lazy person's trying not to work and so they're gonna waste time and material and all these things so that they don't have to work and you know you want to really make your boss mad waste all the company's stuff you know the boss isn't lazy the boss works really hard to start a business to put all of his time and energy and capital into a business you know putting all his money into his tools and then he hires you know the slothful man and sees him just wasting his goods you know that's gonna make him really mad that's gonna make you know husband's really mad when the husband goes and works really hard tries to provide for the family you know he brings home the bacon and the wife makes dinner and like can't even be bothered to put it in the fridge or the kids can't even be bothered to eat it it's like this is called wasting and this is gonna make your authority mad it's the same thing with God God is also gonna be mad I'll read for you Proverbs 12 you can turn to Proverbs 13 Proverbs 12 27 says that the slothful man rosteth not that which he took in hunting but the substance of a diligent man is precious so think about this if a slothful man goes hunting and he successfully kills an animal he's gonna let that animal just sit there and rot and not eat it not use it for any any sort of a productive purpose but rather he's just gonna let it sit there it says the substance of a diligent man is precious so someone who's a hard worker they care about the things that they have they value the things that they have much more highly than the lazy person now admittedly admittedly you know processing an animal is a lot of work if any of you guys ever process an animal yeah I'm sure you have exactly it takes a lot of work right you know after you get the kill hunting it's like yeah I got a kill and then it's like oh man this is like here comes the next several hours right you got to carry the thing out and everything takes a lot of work but look if you want that nice fillet if you want that nice backstrap after the end of the hunt you know what you got to do you have to process it you have to roast it you have to work hard to get that but the lazy person he just lets it go to waste Proverbs 13 4 says the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat again both the lazy person and the production productive person they both have desires they both have things that they want but notice the sluggard they have that desired but they end up having nothing why because they're lazy and so if we think about this spiritually there's a lot of great things that God has given us God's given us a family God's given us a church and he doesn't want us to waste the things that God has given us that God is entrusted with our children you know God's given us children and he doesn't want you to just be lazy and raising those children and just slothful and raising those children rather realizing hey you know the substance of a diligent man is precious these children that God's given me are precious and I'm gonna work very hard to take care of them look at Matthew chapter 25 Matthew chapter 25 and we'll get the parable of the talents where the Lord basically has three servants he gives to one man five talents and then he brings back five towns more to another he gives two brings two more and then to another servant he gives one and that servant just buries it in the earth is lazy and doesn't do anything with it well look at verse 24 says then he which had received the one talent came and said Lord I knew thee that thou art in hard man so there's that excuse right reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed so we see the same thing making excuses now in verse 25 it says and I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth lo there thou hast that is thine so he's wasting his master's good he's not being productive with the time that his master has entrusted him to take care of his things verse 26 his Lord answered and said unto him thou wicked and slothful servant thou newest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed thou oddest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers and then in my coming I should have received mine own with usury take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents run to everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath and here's here's the scary truth you have to understand of why it's so important to not be lazy to work hard to value the things that God has given us is that in this in this parable the person that has the person that works hard the person that gained the talents for their master what happens to them they get more and so just just like a Christian if God's blessed you with something like we already talked about a church friends family health children all of these things if you take care of that if you value that and you work hard at being a steward of God well then God's just going to give you more and then the Christian life gets better and better and God gives you more and more and more blessings but on the contrary if God gives someone a blessing and they waste it and they're lazy and they make excuses and they waste what God's giving given them then God takes it away gives the blessing to someone else and that person has less and that's I mean that's a scary thing we should always be in the fear of the Lord that at any time God can take away all the blessings that God has given us and also God can immediately bless us at any time too if we're faithful to him if we work hard but that is that's a very real truth that we have to get deep into our hearts that God can take anything away from us at any time if we decide to be slothful if we decide to make excuses we decide to waste what God's given us so are you a lazy person well you make a habit of oversleeping you have a habit of making excuses you waste what you've been given number four go to Genesis chapter number three says if you live on government handouts when you're able-bodied you are lazy now this is sadly becoming an epidemic in our country even right here in Houston every time I leave the building I go under the little underpass over there it's the same 40-something year old dude that's always sitting there he's got his whole tent and everything set up and he's just real happy living his life being homeless he's not trying to get a job he's not trying to be productive in his life he's just completely staying as a bum why because he's not working he's living on government handouts otherwise how is he alive I mean no if he's not working if he's not getting money somehow he's getting it from somewhere look at Genesis 3 verse 17 it says and unto Adam he said because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded these saying thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return so since the very very beginning God has ordained man to work by the sweat of his face to cause the earth to bring forth its fruit and the earth is cursed so Adam has to put work into the earth he's got a till it he's got to take care of it in order to be able to provide for himself and for his family it's only a new invention that people are in our country are literally able to survive without working and sometimes not only survive but sometimes literally make more money on welfare than they would working there's actually a huge labor shortage right now in the United States you look at any single business I mean I see all the time hiring signs why is that well because ever since the coronavirus pandemics happen the government handouts have just been flowing from the United States they're giving monthly checks they're giving all sorts of increased unemployment benefits to where a lot of people who are working like a service job a regular just entry-level job they're actually getting paid more by the government to sit at home then to go to their job and so of course people are taking the government up on that and doing nothing but this is a curse on our nation because our nation is just rapidly breeding lazy people and having a bunch of lazy people around is not a good thing because like we read at our opening text a bunch of lazy people what did they do they just destroy everything the house drops through and right now our country looks like it's about to drop through right I mean our country is just insane right now do you think that in Russia and in China there's 20 year old men begging for food on the side of the road do you think the government is just paying them to literally just sit at home and play video games no rather China's like banning video games right so all these other days even just from a national security perspective having all of these government handouts is a curse on our nation it's not something that God wants but if someone lives off government handouts and they're an able-bodied person that person for sure is lazy now I don't think there's anyone in this church or at Fort Worth even that's living like that but it's just something to realize like if you see that person that 20 30 40 year old on the side of the road that's able-bodied and begging for money look that person is lazy that person's not just down on hard times you know it's pretty easy to tell usually excuse me it's pretty easy to tell usually the guy that actually needs help he's got like no legs and a patch on his eye it's like okay this guy might need some help but the guy that is my age looks like me on the side of the road you know it's it's a horrible thing to see second Thessalonians 3 you'll go there second Thessalonians 3 verse 6 it says now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly now a lot of people don't understand what this is talking about when it says walking disorderly I've seen preachers just say that anytime someone preaches something bad or says something bad that oh they're walking disorderly now no the Bible is actually going to explain to us what it means to walk disorderly says and not after the tradition which he received of us verse 7 for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you neither did we eat any man's bread for not but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you so the Apostle Paul was literally working two full-time jobs and only taking a paycheck from one this is the exact opposite of the person that's living off welfare who's able-bodied Paul's doing actually more work he's doing two full-time jobs only getting paid from one he was a hard worker verse 9 not because we have not power he's saying look I could have been taking a check for my role as an evangelist but to make ourselves and in sample unto us verse 10 for even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eat it doesn't sound like Paul has a lot of pity here for lazy people he's saying like I'm working two jobs here I'm only getting paid for one of them and I could have been being paid for two so here's the thing if someone's just not working at all around you guys neither should he eat he shouldn't even be alive basically he's saying he should literally starve to death if you're a man and you're not working and that's that'd be a hard saying for a lot of people in the United States to hear today to say that these bombs on the side of the road that are just purposely not working that they should literally starve to death but that is what the Bible says and that's not coming from a hypocrite that's coming from a man that's working two full-time jobs so he has every right to lay this down in the Word of God verse 12 it says now them that are such so the people that don't work we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread I love that phrase with quietness because the people that don't work the people that are lazy you know what they always want to do they always want to tell you a big story they just want to tell you this big sob story of why they're in that position but Paul's are saying hey hey shut your mouth just with quietness just work with your own hands just stop stop the excuses right and all the time there's been people that have come up to steadfast at all strange hours of the day and night and I've talked to some of these people in there and I'm like you know what are you doing he's like oh I just got dropped off in Fort Worth I was like from where he's like oh man I don't know I was just on the freeway and it's just like what in the world and they start telling you just this weird bizarre story makes no sense whatsoever they want to know why it makes no sense because it's not true it's just some story you know you ever had someone just come up to you at the gas station hey my grandma's sister just died and I need to get to Kentucky it's just like okay just with quietness work and eat your own bread buddy because I'm not buying your story you're a liar Bible says that if you don't work you shouldn't even eat so I love that phrase with quietness they work and eat their own bread but ye brethren be not weary in well doing you think hey you guys are not you guys don't have this problem you guys are working hard and don't become weary in the well doing that you're doing don't stop working hard don't be like these people verse 14 and if any man obey not our word by this epistle so if someone's not taking heed to this doctrine if they are going to be lazy if they're not going to work it says note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed and I have seen in church before someone who's not working that's gone around the church and given their sob story to everyone that's mooched off with people and I have seen that person kicked out of church because they did not get a job and guess what that is biblical that is biblical because someone that's doing that we're supposed to note them and have no company with them why so that they'll be ashamed so that hopefully the sting of getting kicked out of church or at least having their comfort company separated from the brethren would make them feel bad and they should feel bad that's the whole point that they feel bad not just so that they feel bad though but so that they get it right so they get a job and become productive and not be lazy because like we saw lazy people what do they do the house drops through they destroy everything they destroy Church they destroy their own lives we can't have people like that around us and it's for their own good to inflict punishment on them for being lazy go to Proverbs chapter 6 I'll read for you first Timothy 5 8 says but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house yet denied the faith and is worse than an infidel Bible saying look even an infidel even an unbeliever even someone who's not saved you know what they do they provide for themselves and they provide for their family I mean how many unsaved co-workers you have where they're providing for their family just fine they're doing that and so what a shame when a Christian is not doing that you're saying hey you're worse than even an unbeliever because even unbelievers are able to do that so if you want to ask yourself you know am I lazy do I have any aspects in my life that is laziness well number one you make a habit of oversleeping number two you have a habit of making excuses number three do you waste we've been given number four do you live on welfare when you're able-bodied number five if the only time you're productive is when you're told to be then you're lazy if the only time that you're working is when someone's riding you and telling you what to do that's the only time you're productive then you are a lazy person if you have to be literally micromanaged and watched in order to do anything in life that shows you've no initiative and that you are a lazy person go to Proverbs chapter number six Proverbs chapter six and look at verse six it says go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no guide overseer or ruler provided her meat in the summer and gather at her food in the harvest the Bible talks about this creature called the ant and this ant doesn't have to have a boss to tell it to go provide food to go and build its houses to go and do all the things that ants do to survive there's not an ant boss you know constantly riding them constantly whipping them there's not mom and dad constantly you know telling the little kid ants what to do ants just work hard right that's why the Bible is exhorting us to go to the ant and to learn this principle but you know there's a lot of people that literally they will not do any work unless their boss is telling them each and every step to do for the entire day and as soon as the boss leaves the workshop or as soon as the boss leaves the construction site everyone's done working everyone's completely done or same thing sometimes with a family you know maybe a wife is just one of these ladies that just sits on the couch and watches you know Oprah all day or something like that and her husband has to be like okay did you feed the kids have you read the Bible you know have you done the home school for the kids it's like no a woman should be working hard without her husband having to be down her neck like that same thing with children you know when obviously your tasks are gonna do vary all the time and so your parents are gonna have to give you new instructions saying do this today do that today but there's certain things that your parents tell you to do that you know are gonna happen every single day you know if one of those things is take out the trash at that point you should be taking out the trash without being asked to do it right because you learn that now at a young age then once you're in the job site you can be that productive worker that's just seeing issues getting things done and the boss doesn't have to waste all of his time making sure that you know each and every menial task that needs to be accomplished you know I worked for about a year for a government municipality in the state of Oregon doing sorry paving and road maintenance and all these different things and I had a really great crew leader that loved to work hard and I was very happy to be on his crew but I noticed if my crew leader was sick and we got a different boss for whatever reason this guy was extremely lazy so you have the crew leader which is kind of like the under boss and then you have the shift supervisor who's the main boss well if I had the lazy crew leader he would have us do this thing called hot spotting so basically our job for the day was to go fill potholes throughout the city right and if I'm on the good crew then our boss is running us the entire time we're filling tons of potholes but if we had the lazy shift lead basically what he would do is he'd have us fill two or three potholes and then he'd say okay go hotspot which basically means drive your taxpayer funded government truck around the city all day for the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing he says because a moving truck is a working truck no none of the citizens are going to call us in and complain that the city's sitting there doing nothing and it's like that's a wicked thing to do that's a wicked thing to do is to just take people's money take people's tax money and then just drive around the city pretending to be working now that's someone that will not be productive unless their boss is on them unless someone's overseeing them telling them exactly what to do it's like okay you need to do exactly 70 potholes today if you don't tell him that then he's gonna do one or two that he could fill in and he could write oh it took hours and hours to do these really you know intricate potholes or whatever when really we filled them in a couple hours and then just the rest of the day drove around doing absolutely nothing it's horrible and obviously I'm the the new hire I'm the guy on probation and I was like okay I just do what I'm I'm told at the time but obviously it was not fun and I felt bad about it it's like this is this does not feel right and of course because it's not right right and so make sure you're not that type of person that's just unable to work without being overseen Ephesians chapter 6 I'll read for you verse 5 says servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye service as men pleasers what's I service well it's basically like you're constantly looking around making sure like okay I'm in the sight of the boss and within eyeshot of the boss okay let me make sure I'm gonna start working as soon as he's gone back to doing nothing no we shouldn't be like that rather we should be working unto Christ whose eyes are always on us God always sees if we're working God always sees if we're being lazy verse number six it says not it with eye service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men some people get frustrated because maybe they work a job where they do a lot of menial tasks a lot of things that they consider not important but I love this next verse verse 8 it says knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free so if you're working hard if you're doing your job as a mother if you're doing your job as a dad raising your kids if you're doing your secular job or if you're working unto the Lord no matter what you're doing whatever good thing you do whether you're bond or free the Lord is going to reward that so if it's something as simple you think oh you know cleaning the church that's not a very glorious task but is it a good thing is it a good thing to do absolutely well whatsoever good thing any man do it the same shall he receive of the Lord doesn't matter if it's restocking the soul winning supplies doesn't matter if it's cleaning the church doesn't matter if it's leading a song or running the live stream or doing any type of work for the church or any type of work at all for the Lord the Bible says if it's good then you're going to be rewarded for that it's not like you have to be a pastor in order to get rewards in heaven for your work it's not like you have to preach a sermon only that's the only thing you can get rewards for no you can get rewards for any good thing any good thing that you do and to me that's a very encouraging verse last thing here how can you tell if you're a lazy person number one make a habit of oversleeping number two do you have a habit of making excuses number three do you waste what you've been given number four do you live on welfare when you're able-bodied number five is the only time you're productive when you're told to be last thing here if you turn to Proverbs 24 you can tell someone's lazy if they or the things that they own are always dirty and unorganized if someone's always dirty if someone's always filthy or the things that they own are always filthy and unorganized that is a lazy person I'll prove it to you Proverbs 24 look at verse 30 it says I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding just picture you know the most ghetto neighborhood possible in Houston right now okay what are you gonna see and lo it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down so your soul winning in the ghetto and what do you see you go up some shack and it's overgrown with thorns all their fences and their stone has just all been knocked down there's just nettles everywhere you know the guy opens the door and you immediately hit with his bo he could barely walk because he's so fat he's got Mountain Dew bottles everywhere cigarettes everywhere his carpet looks like it's never been vacuumed one single time there's smudges all over the wall you're hit with just the smell of death when he opens why because he's lazy that is the picture that the Bible is pointing you go to the house of the slothful person and it's like everything's just disheveled and in a mess and why is that it's because they are lazy and so you know don't make a habit of constantly being dirty and unorganized you see a lot of lazy young guys and it's like oh man I'm looking for a wife and it's like shower bro shower ladies don't like to smell your bo you know what I mean it's like if you're gonna be lazy like that or you know you show up oh man this I remember this so my first job out of high school was as a valet and basically you park people's cars which it sounds real fun but I did it at a hospital so it's like yeah okay the doctors cars were cool and some of the nurses cars were cool but it's like some of the patients that come in not so cool and I remember this one that came in just extremely just morbidly obese woman gets out of her minivan and I get in her car and it's like again just that that death smell of bo I look around and there's literal piles of food just stacked up to the ceiling I'm not even kidding you there was an opened pack of hot dogs raw just an open pack of hot dogs in the summer just cooking in her minivan just horrible smell I literally just I got in I just hold my breath and I drive like a quarter mile away to where our parking lot is holding my breath the entire time and get out and it's like dead but it's like you should look at that and think okay I don't want to be like that person I do not want to make some poor valet kids suffer through my laziness because everything's just disheveled and destroyed and you can't ever have anyone over to your house because it's so dirty and you can't even be around people and then enjoy your company because you stink so bad look these are not pleasant and nice things to tell people but sometimes you have to tell someone look you're being lazy you need to shower you're live you're asking for lady advice there it is that's why you can't get a girlfriend bro because you need to shower because you need to present yourself like you didn't just crawl out of bed at 3 p.m. like you probably just did right you got to present yourself like you're a hard worker and have yourself clean and have the things that you own clean verse 32 says then I saw and considered it well I looked upon it and received instruction he's like oh yeah I see that I'm gonna receive some instructions I don't want to be like that and that's some pretty easy instruction to receive you know if you're a valet at that hospital for a couple weeks you'll receive that instruction that you don't want to be a dirty nasty lazy person like that then it says verse 33 yet a little sleep a little slumber little folding of the hands to sleep so shall thy poverty come as one that travel it and I want as an armed man so again all these things they're all connected when you look at a lazy person you're gonna see one if not several of these categories where they're hitting the mark where they're being lazy verse go to 1st Timothy chapter 5 and we'll just have this and one more verse that we'll turn to 1st Timothy chapter 5 says this and with all they and the they there is referring to younger ladies doesn't with all they learn to be idle so these ladies are lazy what are they doing they're wondering about from house to house and not only idle but Tatler's also and busybody so these ladies have a lot of issues right now and they're like they're lazy Tatler's busybodies they're wandering about from house to house and they're speaking things which they ought not and so what is God's solution to specifically in this case a woman that's lazy a woman that's idle God gives a solution to this it says 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 so we're talking about this specific point is about how you can tell someone's lazy if they're always dirty and disheveled well right here in Bible we have these lazy women and God's prescription to this issue is that they get married have children and guide the house so if you walk into a woman's house and I'm not saying every once in a while thing okay but if it's consistently if her house is always as a pattern of her house being dirty being disheveled being gross that means that she is idle because in order to cure her idleness what does she need to do she needs to get some get married that's a lot of work taking care of one of us right that's a problem having kids that's a lot of work right and guiding the house that is plenty of work for a woman to stay busy to not be idle not be a tower to not be a busybody to not be wandering about from house to house and guess what there's more than this too because this is just her carnal duties but God also expects ladies like I said to read the Bible to pray go soul winning go to church to have a Christian walk themselves and so if a woman is struggling with idleness well how are you gonna see that her house is always disheveled her house is always a mess now don't don't start you know just showing up unannounced to people's houses right because number one I didn't say if it's ever a mess you're lazy I said if it's a habit of being a mess right and number two is just rude to do that to people anyways that should never be a culture in this church you just walk up someone's house without them knowing you know that's a bad thing to do but hey if she takes care of those things if she's diligent working hard with children her marriage in her house then she's not gonna have much time to be idle so in conclusion here how do you tell if you're lazy and I go to Hebrews chapter number six for the last place of the evening these are some categories that the Bible is clearly spelled out for us where we could look at our lives and say okay where am I hitting on this point number one do you make a habit of oversleeping number two you have a habit of making excuses number three do you waste what you've been given number four do you live on welfare when you're able body number five is the only time you're productive when you're told to be number six are you or the things that you own always dirty and unorganized so the last thing I want to show you is in Hebrews chapter 6 this verse is kind of an exhortation because Hebrews 6 the context of Hebrews 6 is God wants us to go on into perfection wants us to leave the basic doctrines of salvation and baptism and we need to go on and under perfection it says in Hebrews 6 10 it says for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed towards his name in that you have ministered to the Saints and do minister like I said every good thing God is going to reward and when you work when you have labor of love for other people like this is talking about or just ministering to the work of God God's not going to forget that work other people might forget that work your spouse might forget that work your boss might forget that work you know your brothers and sisters in Christ may not notice the work that you're doing but the Bible says that God is not unrighteous you forget our work and our labor of love every single work that we do for the Lord all of the work that we do in our lives even secularly all of it God's not going to forget it it's not in vain all in all labor there is profit the Bible says in all labor spiritually carnally there's profit in all of it because remember even when you're working carnally who are you really working for Bible says working unto the Lord verse 11 we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end why that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises and sometimes in life like I said we all have the flesh there's that there's going to be times when all of us feel like being lazy when we feel like sleeping in when we feel like making an excuse of why something cannot be done but if we're not slothful if we continue with work and with our labor of love the Bible says that through faith and patience inherit the promises you know someday it's hard to just detach ourselves from our busy lives and our everyday tasks that we go through every single day it's hard sometimes to detach ourselves from the reality that we're in right now to the reality that we one day will be in when you are alone before the Lord Jesus Christ and God is going to examine your works and God is going to see how you did in this life and all of your you know just laziness is gonna burn right up there's nothing to burn there's no works to burn if you're lazy right but the Bible says that through faith and patient inherit the promises there will be great rewards in heaven for those that work hard those that are the hardest worker working Christians will have the most rewards in heaven I didn't say pastors will have the most rewards I didn't say deacons I didn't say evangelists I said the hardest working Christians could those people be evangelist deacons pastors yes absolutely you know who else it could be it could be the mom you know who else it could be it could be the old lady who else it could be it could be a child that decides you know to forsake the vanity of youth and actually serve God in their youth and continue their whole life with work and labor of love and realizing God's not going to forget that that's that's always going to be lasting and someday when we stand before Christ you know through faith and patience we're going to inherit the promises we're going to inherit all the fruit of our labor and so you know it's a new year examine your life see if you you know miss the mark in any of those categories and just purpose in your heart to say hey I'm going to work hard physically and for the Lord in 2022 let's have a word of prayer Lord thank you so much for your word and thank you for how many both spiritual and carnal truths we can find in it I pray that your words Baptist Church would be full of people that want to work hard in this world and for you Lord and pray that you just bless us as we are separate ways tonight in Jesus name we pray amen all right for our last song our last song will be song 44 will work till Jesus comes 44 will work till Jesus comes song 44 will work till Jesus comes Oh land of rest for thee I sigh when will the moment come when I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes and will be gathered home to Jesus Christ I fled for rest he made me cease to roam and lean for sucker on his breast till he conduct me home will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes and will be gathered home I saw that once my Savior sigh no more my steps shall roam with him all brave deaths chilling tied and reached my heavenly home will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes will work till Jesus comes and will be gathered home God bless thanks for coming you are dismissed you