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Now, part of 1 Timothy chapter 5 I want to focus in on is the beginning of verse 1 where the Bible reads, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. And the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow hath children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents. For that is good and acceptable before God. Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusteth in God and continueth in supplication of prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And these things give in charge that they may be blameless. But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Now the title of the sermon comes there from verse 8 where it says if any provide not for his own. And the title of the sermon is provide for your own. Provide for your own. See this is a specific command in scripture that we are to provide for our own. And specifically I believe this is directed towards men. This is something that men are instructed out of the word of God to do. They are instructed clearly from the word of God to provide for their own. They are instructed to make ends meet. They are instructed to go out and to work hard and to work for a living and to provide for the necessities of their family. That's the command in scripture. And specifically for men, because if you notice there in verse 4 it says if any widow hath children or nephews, it says nothing of nieces. Now it does say children, it could mean a woman as well, but I believe that God's will and God's preference and the ideal situation would be that men take care of their own. And we see here even in this passage that God, often when we say that we have to provide for our own we think only of our immediate family, our wives, our children, but it also is making it clear here that we ought to be able and willing, if needed, if called upon, to provide even for aunts, uncles, grandparents. Now this is something that's just completely lost in our society today. Our culture today shuns this, they avoid this at all costs. That's why people are so, they lean so heavily on retirement funds and retirement homes and they do everything they can to avoid having to have somebody else within their family provide for them. But that is the scriptural model that a man would provide for his own. Of course we know that would mean that he's going to provide for his wife and his children, those that are in his immediate household, but the Bible, as we've noticed, also extends that beyond just the reach of the home into your relatives, into aunts, uncles. So the Bible is clear that we are to provide for our own and it's something that's directed towards men. And we know that's directed towards men because men, what it tells them to go out and provide, what it's saying is that they need to go out and make a means by which they can provide sustenance to their family and they need to go out and work a job, which is the complete opposite of what a woman is given charge to do. The Bible says there in 1 Timothy 5, verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, given on occasion for the adversary to speak reproachfully. So we see here that men and women are given specific roles in scripture. And this flies in the face of culture, this flies in the face of feminism, this flies in the face of our society today, but this is what the Bible says. And this is what has gotten us through millennia upon millennia of human history. This is how humanity has managed to survive and make it this far, you know, feminism and these types of things, these are new concepts. And we're seeing the devastating effects that it's having on the home, on individuals and families and it's contrary to scripture, but the scripture is clear here that women are to stay at home, they are to be keepers at home and to guide the house and to bear children. Now a lot of women today, they would consider that to be something very degrading. They would think, wow, that woman, the woman who stays at home with her children and guides the house and raises her children, they would look down upon a woman like that. They would say, aren't you concerned about your career? How is it you can just have all these children and think nothing of your own financial security? What if your man does this or what if your man does that, what if your husband is this or that? And that's, unfortunately, we can look to cases where things have happened, where men have failed and women have been left out in the cold, in a sense, to take care, to provide for their own. But that doesn't mean that the scripture is wrong, that just shows us that man falls short of God's plan, often, but it doesn't have to be that way. This isn't some impossible task, this isn't God asking us to live a sinless and perfect life. This is God saying, hey, the men need to go out and work, they need to provide for their own and the women, they need to stay home and they need to guide the home. Now women today that are endeavoring to fulfill this godly role that God has given them, they should not let the world make light of it. They shouldn't let others look down upon them to make them feel inferior for what they're doing. Today, we have a culture that loves to just sing the praises and glorify the single mother and just lift her up as some beacon of hope and endurance and just this story that we can look to and just really root for and pull for. Well, it's a shame if a woman has to raise her own children. It ought to be. It ought to be a shame if a woman ends up being in that position where she has to be a single mother. And, quite frankly, I would be surprised if any woman, deep down in her heart, even though she might say it with her mouth and act like it, if deep down in her heart she would prefer not to be a single woman. That's a very difficult and hard thing to do, and often it's the consequences of sin, either on her part or on his part or on both parts, but it is not the ideal situation that God has. The ideal situation is that the man provides and that the woman stays at home. And that, when they meet today, they understand that staying at home and raising the family and guiding the house and taking care of the children, that's an important job. That's a very important job. That is not something that should be looked down upon. That is not something that you should let be made to feel inferior about. That's who we should be seeing the praises of, not the single mother, but the godly woman who's chosen to stay at home. Maybe women who are perfectly capable of going out and having a career, going out and pursuing an education, going out and pursuing a big paycheck and a nice retirement fund, and deriving some kind of satisfaction from being in the workforce. Women who opted out of that and decided, I'd rather stay home and raise godly children. Because that's hard work. It takes a lot of time and effort and energy. The hardest working people I know are mothers raising godly children, and that's a fact. So the Bible is clear here that we have specific roles that we need to fulfill. And what I really want to focus in on, we spoke about the woman there for a minute, is the fact that the men are commanded to provide for their own. It's the men that are commanded to provide for their own. The reason today that we have a lot of people who do not want to provide for their own is because people today are becoming increasingly lazy. People today are becoming more and more lazy. There's a lack of character. There's a lack of drive and ambition in a lot of men today. Especially in my generation and younger where it's shameful, it's embarrassing, and it's sad today that even men today would look at this and go, I'm not going to provide for my own. She's going to get out and work. We're going to have 1.7 children. They're going to go to the public school system and she's going to go get a job. And they both love to have it that way. The reason that is is because a lot of men today have gotten lazy. They're intimidated by the idea of having to provide for their own. It's a lot to take on your shoulders. It's a lot of responsibility to say, I'm going to get married to a godly woman and I'm going to provide everything that she needs and I'm going to provide for all the children that are a result of that relationship. That's a lot to take on for a man. That's a lot of responsibility. If the man fails, that house fails. People suffer. There's going to be consequences. There's going to be people that are going to go hungry or whatever it might be. They're going to go without. So it's a lot for a man to take on, but that's not something God will provide. God will give us the strength to do the things that we need to do, to get the wealth that we need to take care of our families. So we should not allow that to be an excuse, this fearfulness, this hesitancy, to allow us to become lazy as men, to become lazy and those that would not provide for their own. The Bible speaks very highly of the diligence of those that would go out and work hard. And we'll see here that that's a command that men are to do, they are to go out and work hard. But if you would turn over to Proverbs chapter 12, we'll just look at some Proverbs. Proverbs that we're probably all familiar with over in Proverbs 12. Proverbs that we've probably read it for those that read our Proverbs through once a month. Proverbs that we would recognize. Proverbs that we've heard preached from the pulpit. We should never grow dull of hearing these things because these are things, especially today, where we need to have these things driven in to us as men and as God's people in general, that we are not to be lazy people, that we are to be hard-working individuals who are willing to go out and provide for our own. That we are to work with our own hands and provide for our own. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 12, 24, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. Now what does that mean to be under tribute? Well it means to be taxed. It means to be, someone's going to rule over you. I think today a good example is, you know, obviously we can talk about the taxes and that's a whole other sermon in and of itself, that we're being taxed to death in this country. That the middle class or some of the, you know, we're being taxed and taxed and taxed and so much of our paychecks and so much of what we work for is going towards government programs. We can also look at those that are in debt versus those who rule well with their well-being. Those who are controlling their finances versus those who are in debt. Those who are diligent, those who provide to pay the bills, those who go out and work hard and don't fall into debt or working to get themselves out of debt. Those are people that are going to bear rule. You know, maybe not bear rule over somebody else, but they'll bear rule over their own life. They won't be, their lives won't be dictated by the aspect of being in debt. They won't let things like debt and financial obligations, you know, be these deciding factors in their life. You know, a lot of times people want to go do something, they want to take this vacation or go on this trip or whatever it might be, but they're unable to do those things because they're in debt. Because they become slothful. They allow themselves to fall back in their finances and now they're under rule. Selling is ruling over them and dictating, you know, what they're going to do with their life for a season and perhaps even for their whole life, depending on how bad it gets. So the Bible is telling us here that we ought to be diligent so that we can bear rule. Not necessarily just over other people, but as I said, over our own lives so that we can do the things that God would have us to do. Turn over to Proverbs chapter 12, we'll look at another one from here in Proverbs 12, verse 27. A thoughtful man roasted not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. Now this is a special verse to me and every time I read this, it takes me back to a time that's actually kind of embarrassing. It's not something I'm very proud of, but it's something that happened and it's something that I learned from. I know somebody that went out, they would go deer hunting and every time they would kill a deer, they would call me and they'd say, hey, do you want this deer? And I would have to, and he would say, just come meet me, we'll go drag it out of the woods and we'll skin it and you can take it home and process it. So I wasn't the one that took it in hunting, but I was the one that was given the opportunity to roast it. And I remember when we first got married, my wife and I got this deer from this guy, and there we are in the middle of the night with this deer carcass on our kitchen table, trying to cut it up and butcher it and get it all put away. And at that time, we were renting from these folks and then they kicked us out, suddenly they gave us 30 days to get out so they could move their granddaughter in there. So we were scrambling to find a place in the middle of winter in northern Michigan and part of that deer ended up getting left in their freezer, we didn't end up roasting that. And then the guy that I was living with, the guy that we were renting from, brought my attention to it. He said, hey, you know what? You forgot a lot of that deer. And I remember a guy in the service got up and preached that verse. He got up and read that verse and he preached the sermon, and it was about the same time and it just, I felt like it was God just reminding him, hey, it doesn't matter what your circumstances are. God gave you some provision, and if you'd been a little bit more diligent, you probably would have had a little bit more meat to get you through at a time when we really would have needed it. So that has always been a special verse to me, that's kind of a rabbit trail. But what it's telling us here is that, you know, the slawful man roasted not that which he took in hunting. And I used to read that and think, well, it's the slawful man who goes out and takes something in hunting and doesn't bother to do anything with it. But now that I've read this verse and heard some preaching, I think what it's saying here is that the slawful man roasted not that which he took in hunting, because the slawful man will not go hunting. He's not the one who's going to go out and even take something in hunting. There's no roasting, not because he's too lazy to roast it. He's too lazy to even go out in the first place and get the animal to roast. Because hunting is hard work, especially when it was something that we'd have to do, not just as a hobby, not just as some leisurely activity for the well to do, but it was something that people would have to go out and do as a means of surviving and hunting, and it was hard work. So it's showing us here, you know, that basically we can put this in modern terms, is you can't fry the bacon if you don't bring the bacon home, right? You ever hear that? Daddy's got to bring home the bacon, talking about how Dad's going to go out and earn the living and make and bring the food home and put it on the table? Well, if you don't go out and earn the bacon, there's not going to be any bacon in the frying pan. That's the concept, right? The slothful man will not roast that which he took in hunting because he's too lazy to go out and get it. But the substance of a diligent man is precious. The guy who does go out and takes that which is something, the guy who does go out and earn the bacon and bring it home, that substance of his is precious. That substance that he has, he understands the value behind it. He can appreciate that meal. You know, it might be that we don't have these exotic five course meals with all the garnishings and all the trimmings and everything that we like, but if it's something that we went out and worked hard for, you know, that meal is precious. But what we're able to give ourselves for sustenance, that is good. And we appreciate it if we're the ones that went out and worked hard for it. And that, you know, we apply that to food, but you think about just in general about the sense of well-being and purpose that a person can derive from the fact that they're responsible enough to pay their bills. A lot of people are so depressed today and so down on themselves because they're so lazy and they don't even have the basic sense of self-worth from just being able to pay and provide for their own. That's why we need preaching this. That's why we need to be reminded that God has commanded us to go out and provide for our own, not only to take care of our families, but also so that we as men and women can feel a sense of purpose, or we can feel a sense of satisfaction, that we can feel that our substance is precious and not that we're missing out on everything. Proverbs 15 verse 19, if you would, Proverbs chapter 15 verse 19, the Bible says in Proverbs 15 verse 19, the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain. So what's this verse saying? It says the way of the slothful man is a hedge of horns. It's as a hedge of horns. Does it say it is a hedge of horns? No, it says it's like a hedge of horns. That's what his way is like. His way to him is so hard, he can't get through it because it's just a hedge of horns. A hedge of thorns. Keep saying horns. It's a hedge of thorns. Have you ever tried to get through a hedge of thorns? It's hard. I remember once when I was a kid, I fell into, I fell out the porch or something into this rose bush that was full of thorns, and that's something that will stick with me. No pun intended. That's something I'll never forget is what I'm trying to say, because that's hard. I can't imagine somebody trying to go through a hedge of thorns. That's got to be difficult. You have to put the gloves on, you have to get the long sleeve shirt on, you have to get out the pruning shears, you have to take time to get through that. That's not something you're just going to push out of your way and go through. The Bible is saying here that the sloth of man, that's what his way is like. When he looks out and he sees, I've got to go out and provide for my own, I've got to get these bills paid, I've got to take care of these kids, I've got to help this wife take care of these kids, I've got to go out and provide for my own, all he sees is a way of thorns, because he's lazy, because he's slothful. It's the people that have been lazy and slothful their whole lives, they can't even begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Because they can't even find the beginning of the tunnel, they can't even begin to see how they can ever get their way back to a place where they are taking care of and providing for their own. We're going to talk a little bit about that a little bit later on in the sermon, but the point of the verse is trying to say is that lazy people, they're full of excuses. That's what we see today. A lot of people are just full of excuses, they say, I can't provide for my own because it's just too expensive. It's too much money to try and raise a family today. It's too much money for us to have a single family income. So we see that lazy people are full of excuses. Turn if you want over to Proverbs chapter 21, while you're turning over to Proverbs chapter 21, I'll read a few more verses. In Proverbs 18, here in Proverbs 21, Proverbs 18 says, he also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. So the Bible again is condemning those that would be lazy, those that would be slothful. Proverbs chapter 19, a slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom and will not so much as bring it again to his mouth. He won't even bring it in his mouth again, it says there, a slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom. He won't even bring it, not so much as bring it to his mouth again. That's how lazy this guy is, he just keeps his hand in his bosom, just arms crossed. And he's so lazy that he can't even bring it to his mouth. Now I always wondered what does it mean to bring it to his mouth? Is it maybe he's the guy in the job who when he yawns he doesn't even bother to cover his mouth, he's just... Or is it he's too lazy to try and hide the fact that he's tired and bored and unmotivated. I don't know, or maybe he's talking about he won't have anything to put in his mouth because he hides his hand and his bosom, his hands don't work. There's a couple of ways to look at that. Proverbs 21, look at verse 25, the desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor. Now it's important when we read that verse exactly what it's saying. It says the desire of the slothful killeth him. There's some people, they want things in life. They want to be able to pay their bills. They want to live in a decent home. They want to eat decent food. They want to have a trip every now and then. They want to be able to enjoy some leisurely activity in their lives, and it kills them. They can't have it. They want it. That would be one way of looking at that verse. But it could also be that the people who are slothful, that they want to be slothful. They desire to be slothful. They desire to not have to work. They desire to sit at home and collect a check and live on food stamps and play video games and surf the internet and not go out and work. Or they want to work just part-time, or they want to do, they want to have, you know, worst case scenario, they want to send their wife out to work, you know, and I can't, I don't understand it. I don't understand how men could say, I'm going to send my wife, well she makes more money. Well they go, so what? What does that got to do with it? I mean the Bible says, makes it clear that it's the man that's to go out and provide for his own. It doesn't say unless the wife can make more money. That has nothing to do with it. It doesn't say, you know, every man should provide X amount of dollars. Every household should earn a certain income. It says no, that we should go out and provide for our own as men. And I don't understand men that can stay at home and send their wife to work. I just don't get it. I mean, if that were my case, I'd be ashamed. You know, I'm just speaking for myself. Maybe there's guys out there that doesn't bother them. I don't get it. It bothers me that they're in this situation and it would bother me a great deal if I was staying home trying to raise my kids and send my wife to work. And I would feel pathetic, I would feel like a loser. And I don't understand how people could live like that as men. But they do. Because the desire of the slothful killeth him. They desire to stay at home. They desire to just sit the kid in front of a television and let him take in 3 or 4 hours of cartoons while they go and play video games, while they go and do whatever else besides work. That's their desire. You know what? It's going to kill them in the end. You know, they're not going to have, they're not going to get the health benefits from going out and working hard. They're not going to have the self-esteem from going out and working hard. And it's going to kill them. But why is it? Why is it that they desire to be slothful? Why is it that they're slothful and this kills them? The Bible says there in Proverbs 21, the latter of that verse, it says, for his hands refuse to labor. Now, notice it doesn't say his hands are unable to labor. It doesn't say that he's crippled, that he's disabled, that he's wheelchair bound, that he can't put one foot in front of the other, that he's been in some horrible accident, that he's been born with some kind of deformity, that he's been disabled in life and unable to work. It says he refuses to labor. So he's able to work, he's able to go out and get a job, he's able to go out and get two jobs, he's able to go out and provide for his own if he needs to, but he refuses to do it. It's not that he's unable, it's just that he refuses to do it. You know, these men that are letting their wives go to work and they're saying, well, she can make more money. Well, you know, if you really wanted to, you could get to the place where you could make more money than your wife and then she could stay home. You think that's not possible? Of course it is. It's because you refuse to do it. That's why. And people today, they have all kinds of excuses. My back hurts. Oh, I have back problems. You know, that's just life. I mean, I can't imagine, you know, a few generations ago, what if a man said that to another man. Well, why are you not working? Well, I have, my back hurts, I have back problems. Every guy has back problems, you know, just because you don't hear us complain about it 24 hours a day or let, or see it dictate, you know, the direction of our lives or how we're going to run our households, your back pain, your back problems are why your wife's going out to work. It's ridiculous. It's an excuse. That's, and that's what the slothful people are full of. They have all kinds of excuses why they can't do something, especially in this country, in a country where you can just give jobs everywhere. And we're going to deal with that excuse in a little bit. But if you would, we're going to continue on with the sermon. And if you would turn over to Proverbs chapter 24, it's over. You know, the people are just, they're full of excuses. They refuse to work. So they have to, and they don't want to just come out and say, well, I'm lazy. Well, you know, I don't want to work. I don't like working. I like sitting at home. I like doing X, Y, and Z rather than going to work. The slothful man sayeth, there is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. That's ridiculous. What a stupid statement to make. You know, if there was a lion without, if there was a lion in the streets, you wouldn't have to say it. Everybody would know it. Wouldn't they? Everybody would be like, well, there's a lion in the streets. And they, you know what, the guy who wasn't lazy would go take care of the lion. He'd go get a spear. He'd go get his gun. Go get his bow and arrow. He'd go kill the lion. And a lot of guys say that's what they need to do. They need to quit making excuses about these lions and they just need to go kill the lion. I mean, man, you know, we've been given a, we can have the dominion over every beast of the earth and, you know, men today are just full of excuses because they're lazy. That's the truth of the situation. My back hurts. You know, I have, I have a disability and people, people are, people genuinely believe that they cannot work because other people have told them. The government has said, you know what, you can't work. You're disabled. And they get in their heads and they think, yeah, I guess they're right. I mean, they know better than I do. And I'm telling you what, if you can stand up every morning on your own two feet, you can go get a job. You can go work, especially today where you can get a job sitting down where you could go out and you could get a job, you know, working in, you know, in computers and technology. You go work with information systems, you can get all kinds of good paying jobs that require you to work hard with your head and you can provide for your own. You don't have to go out and dig a ditch today, praise God, that we don't, we live in a society where, and we live in a time where, you know, people can do that kind of work if that's what it takes. Now Proverbs 24 verse 30, I went by the field of the slawful, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. You see how being slawful and not having understanding kind of go hand in hand here? Now the lazy guy, often he becomes the stupid guy, because the lazy guy's never out forcing himself to have to learn something. He's never putting himself in the position of having to get good at his job, or he's having to learn to take in information and process it and apply it and retain it. The slaw, I went by the field of the slawful, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, the nettles that covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. You know what's interesting about how when he begins to describe his place? These are not all things that come catastrophically overnight. These things that happened with the thorns, the nettles, the stone wall breaking down thereof. I mean there are places where there are stone walls that have stood for centuries. I mean I think back in Michigan of some of these farm houses, you know the basements are made out of stone, and they have houses that people are living in today. A stone wall to be broken down is something that takes time, and it takes a lack of people maintaining it. For something to have thorns grown over it, I mean how long does it take for something to completely overgrow something? I mean obviously it can happen quickly, but the point I'm trying to make is it's not like a storm blew through and knocked everything down. It's because the slawful guy didn't get out and take care of it like he should have. You know and a lot of times the thorns, once they grow over everything, once the nettles cover the face thereof, now it's going to take even more work to get them off. Whereas the people that just maintained the thorns, maintained the nettles, maintained the stone wall, a little bit here and a little bit there, and just maintained it and been diligent and not slawful and just stayed on top of things, that never would have happened. But now they have this mountain of work in front of them if they want to get serious and straighten things out. Look at verse 32. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction, yet a little slumber, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an armed man. He's saying just a little bit of being lazy, just put a little bit of being slawful, just a little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the hands to sleep. He says that your poverty will come as one that travaileth. Now what does it say about one that travaileth? As a woman, often the Bible uses that expression as a woman in travail. Anybody who's witnessed or experienced a woman go through labor, I mean that's some strong language to compare your poverty to that. And that's where people can get though if they're lazy and if they don't provide for their own, if they're not diligent in going out and taking care of the things that they need to take care of, paying the bills. They get to the point where it's like, you talk to them and they're in travail, ahhhhhh. They're just crying out, complaining and they're screaming for somebody to help them, they're travailing. And it says thy want as an armed man. That's an interesting phrase. It says that thy want shall be as an armed man. It'll be as if a guy took out a gun and came to you and held you at gunpoint and took everything you had. That's what it'll be like. That's what laziness will do. It will rob you of the things that you need. It will take those things from you that you need and cause you to cry out as though you were being robbed at gunpoint, as though somebody came out with a weapon and took everything that you had and left you desolate, left you with nothing. Laziness makes us vulnerable. That's what being lazy does. A man who will not go out and provide for his own, the man who will not go out and be diligent and work hard and do what it takes, it makes that man vulnerable. It makes that family vulnerable. Laziness makes people vulnerable. And we can see that today when we look at the welfare system. When we look at people who are on welfare, let me just come out and say it. People that are on welfare are sitting ducks for an armed man. When you're relying on the government to provide for you, you're a sitting duck. That's your master now. That's who's going to provide for you. That's who's going to take care of you. That's who's going to determine how much money you get every month. It's the government. And anybody who knows anything about the government knows that they're incredibly inefficient at doing anything that they're given responsibility for. They're some of the greatest wasters of money that there is because it's not their money. It's the money they're taking from others. So that substance is not precious to them because it comes in abundance through coercion, through taxation, and then they can just do whatever they want with it. So people that are relying on a welfare system to receive their income, they're vulnerable. They're vulnerable to the whims of the government. To them just saying, you know what, what if all of a sudden they just said, well we're ending welfare, or we're cutting it in half. What are you going to do? Especially if you're one who's been on it for years. You've developed those skills. You've got nothing to offer in the workforce. You're going to have to start out at a base rate, at a base pay, doing unskilled labor. And people today, they're sitting ducks that are on welfare. And let me tell you something, there's a lot of people that are on welfare. I was going to go into the welfare stats, but I want to stay away from it in this sermon just because of the fact that it's such a, you can become such a touchy subject. But I'll just say, I'll give this one out there, about over 23% of Americans today are on some kind of government handout. They have some kind of welfare coming at them. And I'm not saying that there should never be a, that people should never be in a time where they need some help. Obviously, I know I've been there, families, probably everybody's been there at some point where they need a little bit of help. Where they need, hey, they're struggling this month or something happened that they're down or they weren't as responsible as they should have been or they're learning a lesson. There's times where people need to be given some grace and they're going to need a little assistance. But that assistance should not come from the government. That's why we need to be plugged into a local church. That's why we, those of us that are in, plugged into a local church, we should try to get to know those that are in our church and develop relationships so that we can go to our brothers and sisters in Christ and when we're really down on our luck, when we're really struggling, when we really have a need, that we can go to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Or we can go to, as it says there, if we're an aunt or an uncle, we're down. We can go to our nephews, we can go to our extended family, we can go to brothers and sisters, we can go to others that we know in our lives that we've developed relationships with and say, hey, can you help me out? And a lot of times, people will help each other out. But unfortunately, people's relationships today and the attitudes that people have developed within those relationships, they just say, well no, just go get on welfare. Just go get WIC. Just go get food stamps. That's what people do. They want to just take the easy way out. And I understand, the welfare system, they say, well we're all about helping people through a financial struggle and helping them through these tough times in their life and helping them get back on their feet. And the goal of welfare is to get them off of welfare. But the fact is, human nature is, if I'm just going to sit at home and collect a check, I'm probably just going to continue to sit at home and collect a check as long as I can. You know, when I worked back in Michigan, I worked for a company where that company was only able to operate for about eight months out of the year in an excavation firm. Because up there, the ground freezes and you can't dig. So that firm, it was just the way it worked. Around November, Thanksgiving time, they laid people off and you would go on unemployment and then they would bring you back in the spring. You know, and as a result, we paid unemployment taxes. That company paid high unemployment taxes, or unemployment insurance is what they called it. So we had to pay all this unemployment insurance just so, you know, that's the way it had to be. That company needed men like that. They needed men who were willing to go on unemployment for those few months every year so that they could rely on them coming back in the spring. So that's kind of a situation I can see where, okay, I guess that makes a little bit of sense. But I'll tell you what, I worked there for four years. And when I worked there, I remember the first three years, I never took the unemployment. I went out and I got a job. I went and worked at an oil change place. And then I worked in an oil change place and then I would also, I got actually got a second, in the second year I worked at the oil change, if I remember calling those correctly, it may not be, oil change and then I would go milk cows at night. So I would go out and work two jobs. And you know what, that was good for me. I'm glad I did that. Now, I will admit the third year, you know, we had our first child, we just got married. And I decided to go ahead and take the unemployment. And ended up getting let go as a result. Well, not as a result of that, but we ended up not getting hired back on. I had to go out and find a job. And it was like, well, what have you been doing? Well, I've been on unemployment, you know. And I was working at the time on the side at the dairy farm a little bit to try and make ends meet too. But I learned a lesson, I said, you know what, the unemployment thing, it's not good. It's better for a man to just go out and work. You know, and thankfully that's the only time I've ever done that. And I learned a lesson from it and I saw the way it made people. Because I'll tell you what, you know, when I came, when I found out, hey, you're not going to get hired back this spring, you know, we're not bringing you back on. It's like, well, I guess I could continue to ride my unemployment. I could have just said, you know what, well, I'm just going to stay on unemployment. Because you get, I had two years. I had two years I could have stayed on unemployment. I could have milked that system if I wanted to. And there's people that do it. I knew people that would milk this system like that. And you don't think that goes on today? You don't think that people are tempted to say, hmm, well, I could, you know, maybe I could just go on unemployment and say, well, I've got six more months of unemployment. You know when people start to look for a job? Right when the unemployment's about to run out. And they work that system. So the point I'm trying to make here is that, you know, laziness makes people vulnerable. And we're living in a society today that panders to people and cremates with people lazy. They want people to be lazy. They want people to go on welfare and to take the government handout and to be on the government payroll without, for not doing anything. But a little laziness can cause, you know, great travails, you read there in that passage. You know, they shall be as, their poverty shall come as one that travaileth and their want as an armed man. So, you know, we could go ahead and go on, take that welfare check and go ahead and be lazy. But when it runs out and we go to get the job and they're like, well, what have you been doing for the last two years? And you don't have any kind of resume. You don't have any, I mean, you're going to, you're going to cry out. You're going to be as one to travail. And you're, you know, and then those bills that you were paying with your unemployment check, they're going to stack up fast. And you're going to be robbed as one with a, your want's going to be as one with an armed, as an armed man. You know, we're all tempted. We're, you know, we're all tempted to be lazy. And laziness is a sin and something that we're tempted with. Everybody, you know, would prefer probably to just kind of take it easy and to, and to not have to work as hard as they need to. And, you know, that's kind of the goal in life, isn't it? That's kind of what the world endeavors. They're all about working hard so that they don't have to work anymore. You know, when you go to work for these municipalities, these cities, these government systems, I've never seen a group of people work so hard at not working. That's what they're all about, not working. I mean, yeah, they'll work, they'll put in the time that they need to, but they're all about, you know, the pay's a little less so they can have a lot of time off. The sick leave, the paid vacations, the 17 paid government holidays a week, 17 paid holidays. That's over two weeks of paid holidays. Holidays like, you know, Martin Luther King Day. Holidays like President's Day. Holidays that only banks observe. You know, these crazy government holidays that people take. And that's what people are working towards. You know, just to not have to work. Because we're all tempted to be lazy. People want to just take it easy. But that's why God had to command us in scripture. That's why God had to say, look, provide for your own. He didn't say if you feel like it. He didn't say if it's convenient for you. He didn't say unless the woman can go out and make more money than you. He said, no, men are to provide. It's your duty. And it's been that way, we're in the New Testament, but it's been that way since day one with God. It's been that way since all the way back in Exodus chapter 20, maybe not day one, but since the beginning. The Bible says in Exodus chapter 20 verse 9, the second half of the fourth commandment is this, six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. So we know the commandment is, you know, remember the Sabbath day to keep the holy. So there was a Sabbath day where they were not to work if they were to take their rest. But he said, but six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. Now even this concept, even amongst people who work today, you know, we're on the 40 hour work week. We're on that work week where it's like five days a week. That's all we work. Once we get to 40, man, now you got to pay me more. But people, I don't think people, especially people who work for a living, never consider the fact that the reason you don't, a lot of times people, they don't get any overtime. Like for me, example, I would love to get some over time, but it's not available in my job. Can't get it because of the fact, a lot of it is because then my bonds would have to pay me time and a half. He has to pay me my base wage and then half as much again to pay for me to work 10 more hours a week. You know, but here's the thing, I would gladly work 10 more hours at my base rate. I would gladly work 20 hours more or 15 hours more at my base rate just to get the money that I need. Instead of having me go out and find a part time job and work late hours in the evening, I would much rather be able to just go work a sixth day with my boss. That would be great. And that's the pattern that God laid out in scripture. But today we have all these laws and these rules put in place that force employers to say you know what, if anyone's going to work over 40 hours, you're going to pay them double. And here's the thing, what boggles my mind is I've actually run into employers who agree with that. They say yeah, I disagree. If a guy works more than 40 hours, he should get time and a half. And quite frankly, I disagree. I think it's their money. They should be able to spend it however they want. They should be able to pay people. You know, if I consent to be paid X amount of dollars for X amount of hours, whose business is it? And it comes from all these stupid labor laws that came up long ago and that's a whole other subject that we can't really delve into. But the fact is, God said six days shelf out labor and do all that work. I would love to have a job, especially right now as one who is working a day job and going out working part time in the evenings, I would love to have a place and say hey, how about you just come in on Saturday and put in another 8, 10, 12 hours. I'd say great, let's do it. Let's do it. I would love to be able to just come home at the end of the evening and just stay home for the evening and get to bed at a decent hour and spend some time with the family rather than having to go out and work, you know, even more hours. So we see in this command for men to labor, that's not just a one time thing in scripture. It's repeated in Exodus 23, Exodus 34, and Deuteronomy 5. Six days shalt thou labor. Six days shalt thou do thy work. Six days shalt thou, thou shalt work. Six days shalt thou labor. God says it over and over and every which way he can. We are to work, we are to labor, we are to work, we are to labor. Six days. God commanded men to work. And the man that is refusing to work, the man that is refusing to labor, is in sin. That man is in sin. You can't get around it. That is what the Bible says. The Bible commands us to provide for our own. The Bible commands us to go out and work and if we're not doing it, we are failing in our lives and we're failing God, we're disobeying the command. And let me just say this, that when you, you know, a lot of times people get, you know, in my own life too, we can get frustrated when we're working so hard and you know, and it seems like at the end of the month there's just not very much left over, if any at all. And it just seems like you're never really going to gain momentum, you're never going to get ahead. But what people lose sight of the fact is that they're not falling behind. And it's a real good feeling when you have to take your car in and get eight hundred dollars worth of repairs done and you say, oh I have that money and you can pay it. You know, that's a good feeling. A lot of people will focus on why does this car cost me so much money, you know, that's a necessity in life, it's something you should budget for, it's something that's going to come up. And it's a good feeling when you've done that and you're able to pay for it. Or whatever the bill is, you know, that's just an example that we went through recently where there was a bill that we had to pay in the car. There were repairs that needed to be made and it was such a great feeling to say, oh, well we've got that. Or, you know, the wife gets pregnant and now you've got to pay, you've got to start paying the midwife expenses. It's great to say, hey, I'm able to do that. I have the, praise God, praise the Lord, that I have the ability, that I have the strength, that I have the wherewithal, that I live in a country where I can just go out and provide for my own. And we can derive, men today, they can get a real sense of purpose and satisfaction for providing for their own. You know why so many men are down in the dumps? You know why so many men are depressed and just, you know, not what they ought to be? It's because they don't experience that satisfaction. They don't have that sense of purpose because their wife's the breadwinner, because they're staying at home, because they can't get the bills paid. When a man goes out and provides for his own, man, it makes you feel like a man. And that's what men need today. They need to feel respected, they need to feel that they have some kind of sense and worth and value in this world and in this life. And there's no greater satisfaction in knowing that you're able to carve out a living and provide for a family and take care of other people. You know, I might not be the most important person to the people, you know, in Washington. I might not be the most important person to somebody, you know, in high places, but I'll tell you what, there's four people that live in my house that I mean everything to. That I am the most important person to these kids right here, I'm the most important person to my wife, because they're relying on me. And that gives me a sense of purpose, that gives me a sense of meaning in my life that there are people who are relying on me, and when I'm able to come through and to provide for them, that should give us a sense of purpose, that should give us a sense of satisfaction, of value, of meaning in our lives. But people, they try to, they don't understand that, and they don't experience that in their lives. Men today, they go, they avoid it. They go out of their way to avoid having a wife. They go out of their way, if they have a wife, to avoid having children. And they end up leading just these vain lives, these vain and empty lives. You see, being in work, going to work every day, you know, there's some things that it does for us. And this is actually, you know, it didn't surprise me that somebody had to do a study on this. That somebody had to write this down. You know, and so I just took some of the bullet points and I said, oh, that's true. You know, obviously we get it from the Bible, that these things give us meaning in our lives, but it said, it was giving us the benefits of being in work. I just type Google in something like, the benefits of being employed. You know, and I found this day, it says, they make these points, it keeps us busy, it challenges us and gives us the means to develop ourselves. And that's true, doesn't it? You know, we get in the workforce and we see, hey, there's a direction I want to go, there's something I want to get good at, you know, and it's a challenge to us, it's something that we have to develop ourselves in. It gives us a sense of pride, you know, and not the wrong kind of pride, you know, it gives us a sense of, when they say pride, you know, pride in a job well done. It gives us a sense of pride, identity, personal achievement, and enables us to socialize and build contacts and find support. That's true too, isn't it? If we get in the workforce, we start to work with people, it enables us to socialize. A lot of people, they lack social skills, it's something they need to work on, especially this younger generation that's coming up that have grown up with their face in a screen 24-7, where they think that social interaction is something that only happens online. And I run into these people, you know, my part-time job, I pick up people and drive them places, and a lot of people I pick up are, you know, the Gen Xers, not the Gen Xers, that's the name, but the, what's the next one, the Millennials, right? And they're the ones that are growing up with all the social media and stuff like that, and some of them you pick up, it's like they don't have a clue, they don't have a clue on how to just talk to somebody, how to just carry on a conversation. I mean, good night, the art of conversation is something that's lost. The ability to just chit-chat, the ability to just make conversation for five minutes, to learn how to socialize, and how to interact, how to get along with other people. You know, sometimes in the work environment, you could be under stressful situations with other people, and you have to learn how to get along. You have to learn how to like, you know, deal with the situation at hand, and not bite each other's heads off. There's a demand that's put on you. And that's something that we get from being employed, and that we're able to learn how to socialize, how to build contacts, how to get along with one another. Here's a benefit of being with work that seems rather obvious, but apparently somebody in the UK had to do a study on it, provides us with money to support ourselves and explore our interests. What an amazing concept. If we want to support ourselves, we have to go to work. You know, it's like these guys that do these studies, if they just picked up the book and read it, if they just read the Bible, it's all in there. It says this, some of the health benefits of being at work, the health benefits of being at work. You all need to sit still and listen up. Be quiet. Health benefits of being at work. People at work tend to enjoy happier and healthier lives than those that are not at work. I mean, as the saying goes, if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything. I mean, you look at Job, right, and what did Satan say to God, you know, skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life. You know, touch his body. Take away all is wealth, but if you touch a man's body, if your health goes, and that's very true, you know, when we get sick, when we're not feeling well, I mean, it's like the world's coming to an end for some of us. I'm probably a little bit more of a baby when it comes to that than other people, but it says that if we go to work, we will have happier and healthier lives. We'll be happier people, we'll have a sense of purpose. Our physical and mental health is generally improved through work, and I know that's very true. You know, the job I have now is not as physically intense as some of the jobs I've had in the past. I mean, some of the jobs I've had in the past, the vast majority of my working life has been hard labor. It's been the type of job where as long as you have a pulse and are willing to work hard, you can go to work. As the saying goes, all you need is a strong back and a weak mind, and you can go to work for these people, right? That's all you're interested in is strong backs and weak minds. But I'll tell you what, when I was working those jobs, I would not sit there and watch the weight. I didn't have to sit there and worry about, you know, let's pack on too many pounds, because I was working it off. I was able to work hard and stay in general. My health was just generally better. So physical labor has its benefits. It might not make you as much money, but it might cause you to live a longer and healthier life. People that work outdoors, and this is a fact I can't remember where else I read it, but people who actually work a physical job outdoors actually have a better immune system. They're exposed more to elements and to the germs and to things like that, they're developed a better immune system of those that would work indoors. My job now that I have, I'm in and out of a lot of different places. I'm in and out of residences and homes, and a lot of times I end up in office buildings. Whenever you're in an open office area where there's hundreds of people all corralled together in a large office space on phones, there's a lot of coughing and sneezing. That's one thing that's always grossed me out about those places. I couldn't work there, just breathing the same air as everybody else. I couldn't do it. I wouldn't be able to work in that kind of environment. I'm the type of guy who needs to get out on his own and have his own space. I just couldn't work in that environment, but the point I'm trying to make is if you're the guy who has to go out and work hard, you can probably live a healthier life. Now I don't want to carry on about the health benefits of working. It goes on about the health benefits of returning to work. It's a silly study, but the Bible, if they just read the book, you would have learned all that. The Bible says the problem between my suffering and getting out my law. What's the law? That a man should provide for his own, that a man should work six days a week, that a man should go out and earn a living, that he should be the breadwinner, that he should be the one that takes care of his family. That's the law. That's the commandment that God has given us. My son, if thou forget not my law, but let thy heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. If we would just obey God's command to work as men, to go out and work long hours, long days, do what we need to do to pay the bills, we would have length of days and long life. Just by the fact that we're going out and working alone. Just obeying that command, just the action obeying that command to work would add length of days to us. The Bible says that in Ecclesiastes there's nothing better for a man than that he should eat, drink, eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good and his labor. This also I saw that it was from the hand of God. It's from God's hand that a man should work and that he should enjoy the good of his labor. Also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. It's God's gift that we as men are able to go out and work hard and provide for our own and enjoy our labor. When I come home at the end of a long day and I sit down to a home cooked meal and I enjoy my children, that's me enjoying the good of my labor. That's something that brings a lot of satisfaction in life to be able to just go home to a happy home with children and a wife and people that love you and appreciate you and respect you. That's a great reward. That is the gift of God and a lot of men are lacking that today. A lot of men are avoiding that today. These big toe guys or whatever who are just so hell bent on never getting married. A lot of times I wonder it's because they realize they're such losers they never could get married. I'm sure they're just beating them off with a stick, these women. They're just clamoring and just begging these men to marry them. But it's pathetic and they're missing out on the gift of God. They're missing out on a life where they can develop some sense of self-respect and a sense of meaning and purpose and they're living vain and empty lives. See men today, they lack that joy. They lack the gift of God. They lack, as it says, they're to live joyfully with the life of the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of their vanity, which yet give in the end of the sun all the days of thy vanity. For that is thy portionless life and thy labor which thou takest under the sun. They're lacking that. They're lacking the joyful life with the wife of their youth and the labor that they do. Because that's what gives meaning here. That's telling us there that without those things, that life is already vain. Life is already vain. It's already just fleeting. It's already something that just passes by quickly. What is it that we're here to do? What is it that we're here to enjoy? What is it that God gives us to enjoy in this life? And he says it's our labor. It's the fruit of our labor. And men today, they lack that joy. They don't have it because they refuse the God-given portion of this life to get married, to raise a family, to provide for it. They don't have that joy. And as a result, they live vain lives. They live vain lives making YouTube videos. They live vain lives arguing on internet forums. They live vain lives playing video games to all hours of the night. It's a vain and empty life, friend. It's meaningless. It's purposeless. There is no point in it. There's no joy derived from that. Nobody's going to remember your avatar on some video game or some forum somewhere and name their avatar after you. There's not going to be any remembrance of you. There's not going to be any heritage that follows after you. You're not going to leave any kind of a mark on the world online, living a vain and empty life. I'll tell you what, if you're a man, if you man up and fulfill your God-given role as provider and you marry a godly and decent woman and you raise godly children, you'll make a mark on the world to some degree. Your name might not go down in the history books, but so what? Your life won't be completely empty and void and meaningless. Now men, they lack the joy and they're miserable, and here's the thing. A lot of times, wives, they compound this misery. They compound it because they have to go to work. Maybe the guy gets married and he's just some loser bum who doesn't want to work and now their wife has to go to work, or he doesn't want to put in the extra hours somewhere to make ends meet during a tough season in life, and then he's like, well, how about you just go get a part-time job? I'll come home at night and we'll just send you to work. That way I can just stay at home and put the kids to bed and you can go work another job. That would just compound the misery of putting your wife out in the workforce. That's true. Our society today is not conducive for single-family incomes. It just isn't. It's very hard for families to live on one income, but if there has to be a second income in a home, it's because a man works a second job. It shouldn't be because the woman has to go out and work. That really is a sermon in and of itself, and that's probably a point that should be developed at any more time because people, they bristle at that. They say, well, you know, what's wrong with you? We're putting our kids in school. Why can't I go work? Well, there's your problem right there. You're putting your kids in a godless institution that's going to teach them to hate the things of God, to hate the things of the Bible, to hate the things of Jesus Christ, and they're going to turn into, you know, they probably won't even get saved. They're being taught all these anti-Christ theories, all these anti-Christ concepts so you can go out and work a second job so the wife can go out in the workforce. But here, the thing is, if a second income is needed, it's because men need to man up and go work harder. They either need to get better at their jobs and get paid more, or they need to work harder if necessary. Now, you know, that's probably, I kind of want to just end the sermon, you know, because it's really, the sermon, the point of it is to motivate men to go out and get a job or to go out and get that second job, or those that are unemployed to go out and work, or those that are on the welfare system to work, or those that are maybe, you know, have lost sight of the meaning behind what they're doing, you know, maybe the man is providing, maybe the man is taking care of himself, but he's kind of wondering what's the point of it all. Well, the point is that you're feeling the command that God has given you, and that we should take some sense of self-worth out of the fact that we're able to perform that commandment and to fulfill it. But I want to help you, I want to give, just end on a practical note on giving people some tips on getting a job, and these are things that have worked for me, these are things that I've seen work for others, tips on how to get a job, because if we're going to fulfill the command to go out and get a job and to do the work, then we might need to, some people might need just some practical tips on getting a job. You know, this sermon isn't a profound one, this isn't a profound, you know, earth-shaking sermon, but it's a very practical one, and it's a very needed one today. It's one that we need to be reminded about our necessity of a man to go out and work. It's a needed sermon today, it's a needed message, it needs to bear, it bears repeating over and over that men ought to work and to labor and to provide for their own. It's a commandment in scripture. Men should not count on government handouts, they shouldn't sit around and wait for the government to take care of them, because that's an armed man who's got you at gunpoint and you're vulnerable. God already has the solution for needy people, people that are really down on life, we're talking about, God has that needy, the solution, the help for the needy. You know, especially when you go into the law of God and the commandments in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, where God tells them, you know, the seventh year that they would not glean the fruit of the land, that they would leave it for the poor. The other seasons, that they would not glean the corners of their fields, that they would leave those for the poor. Or the year of Jubilee, where every 50 years, you know, all debts were canceled. I mean, how much that would help people to reset, you know, their financial standing. They would be able to chance, at least once in their life, to start over and leave some kind of substance for the next generation. And so you're being taxed to death and put in debt and burdened financially all the way to the grave and beyond. God already has the solution to take care of the poor, and it's not through the government giving you money in the mail. It's not through your EBT card. It's not through your food stamps. Here's a tip for getting a job. Get any job you can, within reason. Obviously, if it's something you ask and you do something immoral or wicked or simple, it's a no-go. There's plenty of jobs out there that wouldn't require anything. You don't have to go work at a liquor store, but get any job you can. That's the first tip for getting a job. Get any job you can. A lot of people who have no work history, people who have been out of work, you're not in a position to be picky when it comes to work. Get any job you can. That's where you start. Taco Bell, Whataburger, McDonald's, I don't care where it is. You want to get a job? Get any job you can. That's the best place to start. People want to start right out being the software developer. They want to just walk right into some job that's going to pay them $75,000 a year. Good luck with that, if you have no skills. Get any job you can, because it's easier to get a decent job when you have a bad job. You might have a bad job, but I'll tell you something, it's easier to get a decent job if you have a bad job. You want to get the good job? Well, you might have to go from the bad job to the decent job to the good job to the great job. People who just want to skip all this other, they want to skip and go right to this great, perfect job, 40 hours a week, two weeks paid vacation, all these benefits, all this great pay without having to pay their dues. If you don't have a job, get any job you can and start somewhere. Go get two lousy, crappy jobs. Go work three terrible jobs if you have to, just get a decent job until you get a good job until you get a great job. Here's the thing, don't fall for this there are no jobs line. This one makes me sick. I'm going to take the time to make this point, because this seems like people have this mentality and it just blows me away that people have this mentality, that there are no decent jobs. I have an app on my phone called Adeed. It's a very popular search engine. We can go and look at jobs just in my field of where I work in, and I'm kind of in a niche trade. Locksmithing is a niche trade. It's not like a electrician or plumber. But there's already, just since the last time I checked, there's already three new jobs in that, maintenance technicians, building engineers, locksmiths, pay negotiable, I mean just in that small field of work. If we were to go in there, you say well that's Phoenix, Phoenix of course is booming economically. We have tons of work, and we are. Phoenix has a great economy, it really does. This city's booming. It's taking off, especially in the trades. But let's go to a city like Detroit. You want to talk about a city that's financially depressed, a city that's been down and out of luck for a long time financially. I mean the city government's gone bankrupt, they're under the water, they happen to be monitored by the county. But even there today, since the last time I checked it, which was within the last two weeks, I went ahead and looked at jobs in Detroit, there are 2,463 new jobs available in Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, Michigan, in one of the most economically depressed cities in America, there are 2,400 people looking for people to go to work. And how many people in Detroit, Michigan are sitting on their butt collecting a check because there's no jobs, there's 2,400 jobs, maybe not every single one of them is something that you can get involved in. Satellite installation technician, well that sounds pretty high tech, it's putting satellites in a house. Satellite receiving dishes, dock worker, machine operator, warehouse worker, game technician, boy that might be right up some of these guys alley, game technician, machine operator, residential maintenance, appliance repairer, maintenance worker, wiring harness, you know a lot of these guys say well these are over qualified, well you've got to start somewhere. In a lot of places if you show up and say I've been working at McDonald's for the last six months just trying to find a good job, I'm willing to learn, I'm willing to work hard. Some people will say well I'll tell you what, you might not have all the skills we'll need but if you're teachable and if you can show up and do a good job, we'll show you the trade. So that's a tip right there on getting a job and one is don't fall for this lie that they're not going to earn any jobs out there, they're everywhere. Don't fall for the lie, if you don't have a job, getting a job is your job, if you don't have a job, getting a job is your job, that means you're going to put in eight, ten, twelve hours a day getting a job. They'll say well everything's done online, fine apply online, I'm all for it. Make a resume, apply online, get on the job boards, put yourself out there and then go to door to door. I can tell you how many people have found jobs just by going door to door and walking into a place to say are you hiring and I've known people that I can point to and show you that have gotten good jobs that way where people they were not advertising and they walked in and they said hey are you hiring and they got a job in their desired field of employment and what they wanted to do, I'm saying, not just any job either. Follow up with prospective employers, that's how I got into the trend that I was in, I kept following up. I went in there, I physically turned in an application, I looked somebody in the eye, I had my shirt and tie on, turned in my resume, turned in my application, physically handed to an individual, got a name, a number, and I tell you what, I called those people every other day and that lady got annoyed with me, but you know what, when the position opened up guess who the first guy they called was, it was me, it was the guy that turned the application, looked the part, kept hounding us and calling us and hounding us and calling us and I was the first guy they called and that led to where I am today, what the employer I'm with today. And I don't want to go anywhere, dress appropriately, dress like you're taking it serious, don't show up in your shorts and your flip flops and your graphic tee, take the time, put a button up shirt on, a decent pair of pants, some clean shoes, brush your teeth, shave, basic stuff, but stuff that's lacking. And I'll say this too, day labor and temp agencies are a great place to start. If you can't find anything else, if you're at least going to a day labor, if you're showing enough initiative to get up early and go work a crummy job faithfully, you will find work. You will find work. God will bless you for putting forth the effort and leading you to a good job. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3, now we command you brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. The Bible here is giving us a command that if there are brethren that we know of that are walking disorderly, we are to separate from their company. We're not to have anything to do with them. Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which you have received of us. So what is the tradition that they receive? For your yourselves know how ye ought to follow us, for we behaved ourselves not disorderly among you. He's saying, look, we've shown you what it means to not be disorderly, how to behave yourselves in an orderly fashion. So what is he specifically talking about in this passage? Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. He's saying them not being disorderly was when they were laboring with travail night and day, when they were working hard with their own hands. This we command you, that if any should not work, neither should he eat. That's a clear command in scripture. That if a brother is walking disorderly, if he's not working, he shouldn't eat and we should have no fellowship with him. He needs to go out and work. That's a command in scripture. Now them that are such, we command you by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing, and if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. You say, that's embarrassing, I don't work, man, I'm on a government handout. I'm embarrassed. You should be. You should be embarrassed by it. It should bring you shame. That's what the scripture is saying here. It's a shameful thing when a man won't work and provide for his own. And that's what we're living and dealing with today. And people want to help all the bums, and they want to pay all these government programs, to help all these people who are perfectly capable of going out and getting a job, but they're too lazy and stubborn to get any job they can. And you know, the sermon's gone long, I've carried on, but the point of the sermon is this, that men are commanded to work six days, the men are commanded to go out and provide for their own. And if we're not going to provide for our own, we should be ashamed. And we shouldn't be looking to other people to provide for us. God has commanded that a man should stand on his own two feet, and that he should work hard. And there's no excuse for it. Especially in the country that we live in, where work abounds. So take it to heart, and you know, again, not a profound sermon, but a needed one. One that people need to remind you that God has commanded us, it's not an option, to provide for our own. Let's pray. Let me Father again ask you that you would just bless this message, Lord, help us to be, as your people, diligent people, hardworking people, people that would provide for their own as you've commanded us, that we'd be obedient to your scriptures, Lord, not just for our own benefit, or that we would be able to put food in our mouths, and of our loved ones, shelter and clothing, but Lord, that in and of itself ought to be motivation enough, but also that we might receive blessings from you, that we would be obeying the commandments that you've given us. But the Bible says, you said, Lord, that if we love you, we would keep your commandments, Lord, and there are many commandments, and one of them is that we ought to provide for our own, and that we ought to work for a living. Father, I pray that you would help us all to be mindful of that, that we would be diligent, that we would not be slothful, that we would be fervent, that we would work hard, and that we would do the things necessary. Lord, if that's us, if we're one who's not working, if we're one who has been lazy, or has allowed ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that we're unable to work, that we would just sober up, and that we would see the forest for the trees, and you'd help us, Lord, to just develop the initiative and the drive to go out and work. And that, Lord, that you could bless us, that we could have that sense of self-worth and meaning in our lives. Lord, we love you, thank you, that we live in a country where we can go work. Our Father, I pray that you would help us just take advantage of it, or that we might be obedient to your word, in Jesus' name, amen.