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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Faith Word Baptist Church. So good to see you all here for our Sunday night service. If you don't, please find your seats now. Take a song book. Go to hymn number 70. We'll get started tonight. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. Hymn number 70. We'll get started tonight. Hymn number 70. Number 70. Will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. Once he finds your place, we'll begin on that verse together now. Number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. Let's sing it out on that verse now. Hymn number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. When Jesus comes to reward his servants, will Jesus find us watching? Hymn number 70. At the dawn of the early morning, He shall call us one by one. When to the Lord we restore our talents, will we answer Thee well done? O can we say we are ready, brother, ready for the souls crying home? Say, will you find you and me still watching, waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come? Have we been true to the trust He left us, do we sit and do our best? If we obey all the Lord, come next us, we shall then be truly blessed. O can we say we are ready, brother, ready for the souls crying home? Say, will you find you and me still watching, waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come? Blessed are those whom the Lord finds watching, in His glory they shall share. If He shall come at the dawn or midnight, will He find us watching there? O can we say we are ready, brother, ready for the souls crying home? Say, will you find you and me still watching, waiting, waiting when the Lord shall come? Pray that you would just bless the singing and fill Pastor Anderson with the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches to us later. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Up to hymn number 124, hymn number 124. God will take care of you. Hymn number 124 begins, be not dismayed, whatever be tied, God will take care of you. Hymn number 124. Be not dismayed, whatever be tied, God will take care of you. Be ye this wings of lullaby, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through every day or all the way, He will take care of you. God will take care of you, through days of toil will your heart not fail, God will take care of you. When dangers pierce your path as sales, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through every day or all the way, He will take care of you. God will take care of you, all humility will provide, God will take care of you. Nothing you ask will be denied, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through every day or all the way, He will take care of you. God will take care of you, no matter what may be the test, God will take care of you. We weary one upon his breast, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through every day or all the way, He will take care of you. God will take care of you. Isn't that a good singing? All right, this time we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hands nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside, we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This Wednesday, we will be in Psalm 76. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Across the page, next Sunday morning, we will have the donuts and coffee before the service at 10 a.m. for those celebrating their birthday. It's in honor, it's for everybody, but in honor of those celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries in the month of April. And then below that, there's a soul winning event coming up on this Friday, April 4th, organized by brother Steve Tilson. So I think this is the third one of these things that he's put on. So some of you have already been out there and done it. It's been pretty productive. And so there's another one coming up. You meet at that address, and Steve Tilson's phone number is right there so that you can talk to him and get connected. The recent cruise trip to the Bahamas was a huge success. We had a total of 27 soul winners and 272 salvations. So thank you for your prayers and support with that. And then also, we have another team of guys right now that are hitting about, I believe, six different countries over the next week. They're going to be on a cruise hitting a whole bunch of different stops. And so be praying for them. It's brother Daniel Ryder, brother Sean Conlon, brother Kevin Rowe, and brother Kenton Knowles. So the four of them. And they're going to be hitting it hard for the next week. A lot of great stops. So pray for success on that trip. On the back, we've got the ladies tea party. Mother-daughter tea party, I should say, for all ladies and girls. So RSVP for that if you haven't already. And then other upcoming events. The baby shower for Shannon Betty is one week from today, 2 o'clock. All ladies and girls are invited to attend. Don't be shy if you don't know Shannon because it's a great way to get to know other ladies by showing up at stuff like this. And then we've got Pastor Bruce Mejia preaching on April 9th. We've got Pastor Dylan Oz from Anchor Baptist in Oklahoma City preaching on May the 25th. So a lot of good stuff coming up. Let's go ahead and count up our soul-winning numbers from the past several days. So going back to Thursday the 27th. Before we do Thursday, though, I need to write down the total from the mission strip. Somebody can pull up WhatsApp or nose that off the top of your head. I know it was 272 for the whole trip, but I already wrote down what you guys did on the first two days. So see how I made things complicated. So I need to know just only what was done on... Can you look it up for me, Alex? Just only what was done on Thursday. Or you could just give me a full total for the trip minus the first two days because I already logged the Monday and the Wednesday. So figure that out and we'll come back to you. All right, Thursday. Any other soul-winning on Thursday besides the mission strip? Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Anything else? And then how about Friday? Is that a three? Okay. Okay. Anything else from Friday? What about Saturday? Okay. Okay. Anything else from set? Yep, gotcha. Okay. And then... Ah, there we go. Okay. And then what about today, Sunday? Okay. And then we got one here, one here, two. Okay. Anything else from today? Okay. All right. Very good. All right. Any luck with that? I can figure it out myself in a moment. I don't want to hold things up here, so very good. What's that? How many? Yep, that sounds right. Okay. 59. Very good. I'll double-check that in a moment. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work. And let's go ahead and sing our next song. Come lead us. All right. You should find the answer in front of your hymnal entitled, Farther Along. If you don't have an answer, please raise your hand and you'll receive one. We'll sing it on that first verse together. Tempted and tried, we're off made to wander. Sing it out together now. Tempted and tried, we're off made to wander Why it should be thus all the day long While there are others living about us Nevertheless, stand though in the wrong Farther along, we'll know all about it Farther along, we'll understand why Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine We'll understand it all by and by When death has come and taken our loved ones It leaves our home so lonely and drear Then do we wonder why others prosper Living so wicked year after year Farther along, we'll know all about it Farther along, we'll understand why Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine We'll understand it all by and by Faithful till death sent our loving master A few more days to labor and wait Toils of the road will then seem as nothing As we swim through the beautiful day Farther along, we'll know all about it Farther along, we'll understand why Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine We'll understand it all by and by When we see Jesus coming in glory When he comes from his home in the sky Then we shall meet him in that right mansion We'll understand it all by and by Farther along, we'll know all about it Farther along, we'll understand why Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine We'll understand it all by and by How can I meet him without my loved ones? How can I meet him without my loved ones? How can I smile and obey your laws? When I see Jesus up in the glory Without the souls he ought at such cost O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus Bring every brother and sister to him When God the reaper's home with Armas May all our dear ones be safe gathered in Time now for warning, time now for winning Time now to weep, to cling to the cross To win in heaven, to win our loved ones Too late, too brave, too weak for the lost O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus Bring every brother and sister to him When God the reaper's home with Armas May all our dear ones be safe gathered in Solemn accounting, facing our Savior For his receiving, suffering loss Judgement seat facing Jesus in heaven One day at Stouffville, learning at Stross O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus Bring every brother and sister to him When God the reaper's home with Armas May all our dear ones be safe gathered in How poor in business, in land or business Once he returns, they'll have four things But now the wise will shine in their glory When souls appear, one eternal gain O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus Bring every brother and sister to him When God the reaper's home with Armas May all our dear ones be safe gathered in How glad the greeting, praises and singing When we meet Jesus with all our own Then will our labor seem but a trifle And all our tears and toiling be done O bring your loved ones, bring them to Jesus Bring every brother and sister to him When God the reaper's home with Armas May all our dear ones be safe gathered in Isn't that a good singing tonight? Alright, at this time we'll pass the offering plates around As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6 Proverbs chapter number 6, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1 Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Proverbs 6, beginning in verse number 1 Proverbs 6, the Bible reads How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard, when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and thy want as an armed man A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, suddenly shall he be broken without remedy These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck When thou goest, it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee When thou wakest, it shall talk with thee For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light And reproofs of instruction are the way of life To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread And the adulterous will hunt for the precious life Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife Whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold He shall give all the substance of his house But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul A wound in dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away For jealousy is the rage of a man Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content Though thou giveth many gifts Definitely Father, Lord, thank you for this church. Thank you for all the soul owners doing the work for you. Please fill Pastor Anderson with the Holy Spirit so that he may preach boldly from the King James Bible so we can be edified by the sermon. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Man, the title of my sermon this evening is Sleeping in the Daytime. Sleeping in the Daytime. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 6 verse 6 Go to the ant thou sluggard Consider her ways and be wise Which having no guide, overseer or ruler Provideth her meat in the summer And gathereth her food in the harvest. And of course when the Bible talks about a sluggard it's what we would today refer to as a lazy person. They're called slothful or a sluggard. And the Bible is saying that the sluggard would do well to look at the example of the ant who doesn't need someone constantly breathing down its neck to get it to do its work. The ant just does its work. It doesn't need to be supervised constantly or told what to do constantly. And so the Bible is telling us that we should also be self-motivated, working hard, and staying busy in our lives instead of being lazy and just kind of sitting around and accomplishing nothing. And it says in verse number 9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as an armed man. And the idea here is that the one who is sleeping on the job or being lazy or just sleeping whole days away this person is going to be poor because they're not going to make money. They're not going to succeed at their job. They're not putting the effort in that's needed, you know, to make money and get something done. Now, some people I think misunderstand verses in Proverbs that speak negatively about sleep and somehow they think that, oh, we should sleep as little as possible. Or, you know, we only need to sleep four or five hours a night or something like that. I've heard people say that. I've even heard preachers act like, oh, you should sleep at night as little as possible. And I don't believe that for one second. I don't think that's what this is talking about at all because there are a lot of other scriptures that talk about sleep in a positive way. Like, for example, in Psalm 127 it says, it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. And so, you know, there's no reason to deprive yourself of sleep and stress yourself out by overdoing it either. But here we're not talking about somebody who's overdoing it and working too hard and burning the candle at both ends. We're talking about somebody who's lazy and needs to get moving. We're talking about a sluggard, a slothful man who's sleeping in the daytime when he should be working. Now, the reason I know that this is talking about sleeping in the daytime is because it talks about the folding of the hands to sleep. And here's the thing. People who sleep at night, they don't fold their hands, right? You get into bed at night and you lay down in your bed, and I really doubt that anybody's folding their hands when they sleep. But think about this. When you're in the daytime and you're sitting in your chair, and you do something like this. Right? That's what we're talking about. We're talking about napping in the daytime. Now, obviously, if you're someone who works at night because you have, like, a second shift job or a third shift job, then of course you're going to sleep in the daytime. Then it's totally appropriate and right for you to sleep in the daytime. But here's what we're talking about. We're talking about people who are supposed to be working in the daytime and they are dozing, drowsy, sleeping, not working, and wasting their life away. Now, one of the reasons why people would be drowsy in the daytime, napping, sleeping, not being productive, is because they stayed up too late at night. And again, I'm not talking about staying up too late working. That's totally legitimate. That's totally appropriate if you work a schedule like that. I'm talking about you just stayed up late watching TV, on the phone, playing a video game, goofing off, right? And you're just sort of just staying up late, wasting time doom scrolling or whatever it is that you're doing to just waste time. And then you stay up super late at night. You go to sleep too late. Then you wake up too late or you wake up all drowsy and groggy. You're not productive at your job. You're sleeping in the daytime. And look, I know that there are people out there who are literally waking up at 11 a.m. And I'm not talking about people who work the night shift. I'm talking about people who just are living a normal life, quote, unquote, and they just wake up at 11 a.m., waking up at noon. That is not normal. But why are they waking up at noon? Because they're staying up until 4 in the morning. What are they doing? Playing, fooling around, not being busy. And the Bible is saying, look, you know, you've got to get out there in life and get things done. If you want to have money in the bank, if you want to pay the bills, if you want to succeed, if you want to achieve something, you've got to work hard. And that involves not sleeping in the daytime but being up in the morning and out there doing something, being productive. Okay, that's what the Bible is saying here. When he says, hey, how long are you going to sleep, oh sluggard? Hey, it's 10 a.m. Why are you still in bed at 1030 a.m.? It's 11 a.m. Get out of bed. He says, when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as an armed man. Now, you know, it's kind of an obscure reference here in verse 11, maybe tough to understand. Here's how I understand it. When it says, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, you know, you could think of that as a traveling stranger who just sort of shows up and just starts taking your goods, right? Just shows up and, you know, that family member that comes and visits and stays with you and they're sort of just eating all the food in the fridge and eating you out of house and home. Thy want as an armed man, kind of a similar idea except instead of the traveler who kind of shows up and maybe takes a little too much advantage of your hospitality and eats you out of house and home, the armed man is the guy who just points a gun at you and says, give me all your money, and he robs you of your money. And the Bible is saying, you know, poverty is going to come upon you. Maybe suddenly could be the idea here with one that travelth or an armed man. It's going to come upon you suddenly, and why? Because you were lazy, you slacked off, and you didn't get it done. You're sleeping. And stop and think about it. If you're staying up until four in the morning, I don't think you worked very hard. Because typically if you work hard, at the end of the day, man, you're ready for bed. If you put in a hard day's work, it's not like, all right, let's party till three in the morning. You know, after a hard day's work, typically you're just kind of looking at that clock, ready to hit the sack, nine, ten, eleven, you're ready for bed. Okay. And so obviously there are exceptions to this. Like I said, people who work odd hours or whatever the case may be. And obviously there are going to be occasions where you take a day off, like even in the Old Testament they have weekly Sabbath where they have the whole day off. It's probably pretty normal to take a nap on those kind of days, taking a nap on Sunday afternoon between church services, or just, you know, you have friends over that you haven't seen in a long time, and you stay up till three, four in the morning. Hey, I'm not talking about, you know, doing that on occasion. I'm talking about just a lifestyle of being a slacker, right? Just a lifestyle of just fooling around, sitting around, dozing and napping through days, and then staying up till all hours of the night, fooling around, being idle, and getting nothing done. That's what we see here in Proverbs chapter six. Let's go to Proverbs chapter ten now. So that's Proverbs chapter six verses six through eleven. He's telling us don't be lazy, be like the aunt, push yourself, get out there, work hard, make money, achieve something, and don't be a guy who's just slumped over, taking a nap in the middle of the daytime when you should be working, and hustling and getting something done. Look at Proverbs chapter ten verse four. It says, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, right? If you are a slacker, if you're not working hard, don't be surprised when you don't have any money, when you don't get a raise, when you're getting paid low wages, and you're getting cut, and your hours are cut, and you're getting laid off and fired all the time, you know, and then you're not going to have the money that you need. He that becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent, maketh rich. Not only does he himself do well financially, but he also makes other people rich. He's also helping the company, he's helping his family, he's helping the people around him. Verse five, he that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Right? So going out there and gathering in summer, just at the very beginnings of the harvest, he's already out there, he's Johnny on the spot, gathering as soon as he can possibly gather, he's not complaining about how hot it is outside. He gets out there when it's hot, he gets it done early, he's not procrastinating and doing things later. He's getting them done right away in the summer. But he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. And again, this is talking about somebody sleeping in the daytime. Obviously everybody needs to sleep at night. Look, the son that sleeps in the harvest, we're not talking about him going to bed at ten o'clock at night and sleeping for eight hours and being up at six working. We're not talking about him going to bed at nine and getting up at five or something. We're talking about a son that's goofing off and then he rolls out of bed at ten a.m. and it's a time when dad is really relying on him to bring in that harvest and it's supposed to be all hands on deck. And I'm not a farmer, I've never been a farmer, I'm never going to be a farmer. Sorry honey, every woman has these organic farming dreams or whatever. But we all have that part of us somewhere inside. But the point is that I don't know much about farming. But from what I understand, the harvest is like a window. And it's like you've got to get it done in a certain amount of time because of the fact that there's a fine line between being under-ripe and over-ripe. And so, you know, when things are ready, you want to bring them in before they just kind of rot on the vine. And so you've got to get out there, you've got to get all your illegal aliens out there and you've got to get it done. Okay? And you've got to do those jobs that Americans won't do and bring it in. So it's saying, you know, the son who sleeps in harvest is a son that causes shame. It's an embarrassment, you know, because think about it. The householder, the father, he's hiring all these people to do the work and, you know, assuming that his son's going to be out there pitching in. And imagine how it feels for the dad, how embarrassed he is when his employees are out there working. It's like, where's your son? Where's Junior? Everybody else is out here working. Oh, he's sleeping. He's constantly AWOL, constantly finding excuses to use the bathroom every 20 minutes and just be gone. And he's constantly getting a drink of water and taking a nap and just, he's just always finding a way not to work and not to be productive. It's embarrassing. Flip over, if you would, to chapter 19. Chapter 19, verse 15, the Bible says, slothfulness, Proverbs 19, 15, slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. The Bible's saying, if you don't work, you're not going to have food to eat. You're not going to be able to pay your bills. Now look, charity and almsgiving should be for people who are genuinely down on their luck. Meaning that through no fault of their own, they find themselves falling upon hard times. It should not be for people who refuse to work. People who refuse to work should not be given charity. And here's the thing, when you give charity to someone who refuses to work, you are not helping that person. It's not just, hey, how dare you help this bad person? Don't help them. They don't deserve it. No, no, no. You're harming them. You're literally harming them. It's sort of like when you go to the park and they tell you, don't feed the wildlife, don't feed the bears. Because if you feed them, then they become reliant upon humans and they forget how to get their own food and then they die. Right? And so what happens is, if you have a person who's refusing to work and then you give that person money, or you say, well, I don't ever give them money, I just give them food, you're still harming them. Because by giving food to people who are refusing to work, you are helping them to continue in a lifestyle that is not good for them. It's not just that it's not good for the city. It's not just that they're stinking up the joint. It's that you're doing them a disservice because I guarantee you that that is a sad, unhappy life. And if these people would actually be forced to actually go to work, they would actually find that their life is happier working. Because obviously all of us have this sort of innate laziness as humans where we all kind of have this part of us that doesn't want to go to work. Right? There's a part of us every single morning that just maybe wants to stay in bed or not go to work or whatever. But here's the thing. Once you get up and go to work, you're always glad that you did. Even if you're thinking like, oh, I just want to stay in bed, oh, I don't feel like doing anything, oh, I don't feel like... But then once you get out there and do it, you don't have any regrets about it. You're not thinking like, oh, man, you know, I wish I would have just stayed in bed all day. No, because getting out and working actually makes you feel good. Accomplishing something makes you feel good. Even just from a biological standpoint, your body is releasing endorphins and the reward center of your brain is lighting up when you're going to work and working hard and doing stuff. But when you're just sitting around and you're a drunk and a drug addict and a derelict and you're living that homeless life, that is an unhappy life. And when you give them money and give them food and give them anything, you're basically helping them persist in that lifestyle. You're encouraging their delinquency. And when you do that, you're actually just making them more miserable, you know. Bottom line is slothfulness casts it into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. If you're idle, if you don't work, if you're lazy, you're going to suffer hunger. And what does the Bible say in the New Testament? It says, if any man will not work, neither should he eat. Okay. When the Bible talks about helping the poor, it's talking about helping people who need money, who need food, who need help. Even though they're willing to work, they don't have what they need. So maybe they're going to work and getting a really small amount of money. Or maybe they went to work and they made money, but they ended up having some unexpected expense or something went wrong or whatever the problems that they have. And obviously, we should want to help people that are in need and help the poor. But there's a difference between the poor and the guy who's slothful, the sluggard. Look, let me just tell you right now, these people standing out there at the street corner holding up a sign asking for money, that person is not called the poor in the Bible. Don't come at me with some verse about the poor, about that guy. No, I'll come at you with a verse about the sluggard, the slothful. That is what that guy is that is standing at the corner holding that sign and they hold these deceptive, lying signs. Like there was a guy, because I pass by the same ones every day, you know, in my part of town. And there's this guy, he's got a sign like, oh, my, you know, my house burned down. He's holding the sign for years. And I'm thinking, okay, so your house burned down, what, a year and a half ago? Because you've been here for a year and a half holding that sign about your house burning down. And then the same guy is out there holding the sign again for years holding a sign saying, oh, I got fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine. Just years of this. It's like, okay, time to move on, buddy. And which one is it? Did you, your house burned down and you got fired for refusing the vaccine and you're just reeling from these two blows for years on end? Get a job, brother. And they have all of this, you know, just stupid, lying sob story. You know what? Why don't they just tell you like it is? It's drugs. It's booze. Show me which of these people is a teetotaler. I wonder what are the chances of you ending up as a panhandler on the street if you're a teetotaler. I'm pretty sure it rounds down to a zero percent chance that you will be out there if you never, let me just tell you the secret, how to never be a homeless panhandler. I can, I'm going to give you homelessness insurance right now. Never touch alcohol and never touch drugs and you will never end up out there. How about that? Because I've never seen one yet that's just a thousand percent sober out there and just, how did I get here? Just doesn't work. Now look, anybody who's watching online, I'm preaching from an American point of view. I'm sure that there are many places in this world where you can be a hardworking person and end up out on the street, but America is not one of them. Okay? America has a lot of opportunities, a lot of programs, a lot of ways for you to succeed and get by. So I'm sure that there are people out there really struggling in, you know, India or something like that. Okay, that's not what I'm talking about. Let's go to chapter 20. Chapter 20. And it says in verse 13, love not sleep. I didn't say Leviticus 2013, Proverbs 2013. Proverbs 2013, love not sleep lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. Now I don't know about you, but it seems like when I'm reading the book of Proverbs, it seems like poverty and riches aren't necessarily just magical things that just pop. Some people just have money and some people don't and there's no rhyme or reason to it. Is that what the Bible says? It seems like the Bible is over and over again saying, Hey, here's how you get poor by being lazy. Here's how you get rich by working hard. Now look, obviously there are exceptions to this. The exception proves, I'm not saying that this is without exception, but in general principle, if you work hard, you're going to be rewarded. You're going to have what you need. You're going to be able to pay the bills and if you slack off, you're not going to have what you need. This is a general principle. You know, everybody obsesses over exceptions, but it's better to live your life by the rule than by the exception. You know, you should, you should approach life with this mentality. Children, young people approach life with this mentality. If I work hard, I'm going to have the money I need to get by and if I don't have the money I need, I need to work harder. No, that's not true. You know, it's not people's fault. Okay, but here's the thing. What good would it do to go through life saying I'm the exception and it's not my fault and I don't have any money and it's through no fault. Wouldn't it be more helpful to say, well, you know what? I don't have enough money. Time to work harder. What do you think is going to get you further in life? Think about it. So instead of going through life being a victim, blaming everybody else and claiming that you didn't do anything wrong, it's better to realize in general, work hard equals paycheck. No, you know, work hard, you know, money and bank. Okay, that's, that should be the general rule that you live by. Okay, and obviously there are exceptions, but you know, let's not fixate on the, the, the exceptions. He says, love not sleep lest thou come to poverty. And again, this isn't saying not to get your healthy eight hours at night. Loving sleep would be overindulging, going beyond the normal eight hours that someone would sleep or indulging in sleep at the wrong times or things like that. Love not sleep lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. Look at chapter 24 of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 24. And of course the book of Proverbs has such great practical advice for how to live our lives. And so it's good to constantly be just living in the book of Proverbs as a Christian so that you can be making wise decisions about your life. Look at Proverbs chapter 24 verse 30. I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. And lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Now the idea here is that the field of the slothful, the vineyard of the man void of understanding represents potential for making money. Right? The field is potential because it could be tilled and planted and reaped. He owns this field. He can do something with it to make money. Right? The vineyard represents the potential for growing grapes and selling them and making a profit. So the potential is there and it's being wasted. Right? It's just in ruin. It's all grown over with thorns and nettles covered the face of it. The stone wall thereof is broken down. It's not being maintained. It's not being kept up. Then I saw, verse 32, and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. Again, that's kind of slumping over in a chair in the daytime kind of sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man. So notice when the author of Proverbs comes by the field and he looks at it, what does he say? He says, you know what? This guy's lazy. Now you say, I don't know, man, that sounds super judgmental. But when you see the fact that there's all this potential to do something and produce something and make something and it's not getting done, then you can see why the author of Proverbs here is coming to this conclusion. You know, he looked at it. I saw and considered it well. You know, he stops. He looks at this guy's field. He looks at the broken down wall, all the thorns and the nettles. He looks at it. He considers. He thinks about it. And look what it says. He received instruction. You know, he doesn't need somebody constantly lecturing him about the need to work hard. He just takes one look at that field and he gets a lesson for himself and realizes, you know what? That's not going to be me. I'm not going to be that guy. And you know what? That's what we should think when we go through life and we're seeing people that are refusing to work, people that are lazy. You know, and here's the thing. When I drive down the road and I see somebody that's standing out there holding up that sign, you know what I'm thinking to myself is, you know what? I need to work hard and not be that person. I'm not going to go down that road. And you say, oh, I don't know if you should think that. Well, I mean, that's what the Bible says. The Bible literally says, hey, I looked at this guy's situation and I took a lesson from it. I'm not going to go there. And that's a good way to go through life. You know what? There's two ways to learn from mistakes. You can learn from your own mistakes and you can learn from other people's mistakes. Right? Experience is the best teacher. But you know what's even a better teacher sometimes is other people's experience. Right? You shouldn't have to make all these mistakes yourself. You shouldn't have to go out and drink and do something stupid. It's funny. I just heard a story from somebody the other day, okay, who said, and this is someone that I know, and they said, oh yeah, I drank an inordinate amount of alcohol. Okay? I drank this huge amount of alcohol because I was in a contest of how fast or how much I could drink with these friends of mine. Now think about how stupid that is. To be engaging in that kind of activity, it can literally kill you. That kind of binge drinking, especially if you're not used to it, if you don't have tolerance for it, and if you do have tolerance for it, you're an alcoholic and need to get help right away. But if you are doing that kind of binge drinking, it can literally just kill you on the spot. I mean, alcohol level hits certain level, your alcohol rate hits certain level in your bloodstream, you just die. Am I right, Dr. Sharma? Yeah, I mean, it'll kill you. Okay, so this guy, he's just drinking, and this is very recently. This is, you know, like the last few months or year or whatever. This guy is just pounding alcohol to impress his friends. So he ends up laying down at this party, he lays down in a bed at the party, you know, just in order to, because he's just smashed, he's just wasted from binge drinking. He wakes up to being molested. Now look, that's not the blessing of God. That's not anything that anybody wants to wake up to, some weird perverted molestation, because you're drunk. But what does the Bible say? Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that put his thy bottle to him, and makest him drunk, and also that thou mayest look on their nakedness. So you've got a man and a woman, you know, basically, you know, molesting, bro. You know what? But you know what? This idiot should have listened to the preaching of God's word that already told him that that was going to happen. Am I right? Because anybody who's ever been under the sound of my voice preaching the word of God about alcohol and about sodomites and everything else, right? Anybody who's been in faithful word Baptist church or any of our friends' churches or other like-minded churches that actually preach what the Bible says and preach hard against liquor and preach hard against the sodomites and preach Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 15, right? Anybody who's heard that should have known, don't get drunk. Don't go to a party and black out from alcohol or something perverse is going to happen to you. But then an idiot has to go out and experience it for himself. Fool! You're a fool! What does the Bible say? Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Okay? And so you've got just the stupidity of young people growing up in the house of God, listening to Bible preaching and then having to go out and just learn it all for themselves the hard way. They have to go out and learn what laziness gets you, what does drunkenness get you, what does fornication get you, what does drug use get you, what does adultery get you. And I'm wondering what's next. It's like I guess Christian young people are going to have to go out and commit adultery with another man's wife and get beaten half to death. And they're like, wow! What do you know? If I commit adultery with someone's wife, I got beaten within an inch of my life. Who'd have thunk it? But isn't that what the Bible said would happen? The Bible said that jealousy is the rage of a man. You commit adultery with a man's wife, he's probably going to kill you! Or at least harm you severely. I had a buddy that I worked with in the alarm company and he came home one day and found his wife committing adultery with another man. Just in the act. And he just became enraged, lost. And this guy that I worked with was a big guy. He was probably like, I don't know, at least four inches taller than me or something. Six two or maybe he was even taller than that because he was a pretty tall guy. He was a big guy. Well, he got enraged. He got mad. He grabbed this guy and hurled him through the window at the front of his house naked. And, you know, when you get hurled naked through a glass window, you get all kinds of lacerations all over your body. And this guy got lacerations all over his body. Had to be rushed to the hospital, the intensive care unit. And thankfully he survived because otherwise my buddy would have gotten, you know, charged with manslaughter or, you know, second degree murder or something, whatever he would have gotten charged with for killing this guy. But he was this close to having killed this guy. And what the, you know, the Bible explains that that exact thing is going to happen in Proverbs where he says that jealousy is the rage of a man. And, you know, you're not going to be able to calm this guy down. You're not going to be able to talk him down. Do not commit adultery with another man's wife. It's the stupidest thing that you could do. And you're an idiot and you must just love death. Right? And here's what wisdom says in Proverbs chapter eight. All they that hate me love death. Right? If you don't listen to the wisdom of the book of Proverbs, you must just love death. Oh, you go and black out drunk. Well, you know what? You just love, you must love death. You must love being molested. You just must love getting the crap beaten out of you. You just must love getting in a car accident and killing yourself or others. Folks, learn from what the Bible says. Learn from what the preacher is telling you. Learn from other people's bad example. Don't have to go out there and experience it for yourself. And, you know, when you see other people getting punished by God for their wickedness, you know, you should say, whoa, I better get right with God right away. Whoa, I better not go down that road. I don't want to end up like that guy. Instead of saying, oh, that'll never happen to me. It's crazy, man. Learn from what the Bible says. Learn from other people's experience. And that's what we see in this passage. We see this guy, he doesn't have to let his own life fall apart and let his own bank balance go into the negative. No, all he has to do is drive his car, and I know it's anachronistic since they didn't have cars back then, but he just has to drive his car up, look out the window and see that field overgrown with thorns and nettles and just take a lesson right there. And he's instructed. He doesn't need mom to lecture him. He doesn't need dad to lecture him. He doesn't need the preacher to lecture him. He just looks out the window, takes a look at someone else's failed life and says, I'm not going to do that. Right? He just reads Habakkuk 2.15 and says, I'm not going to let people get me drunk and then abuse me sexually. I'm just not going to. You know, he doesn't have to go out and experience it. He just looks at the field. He just looks at the word of God. He listens to the preaching and he takes instruction. Okay, that's what the Bible says. There's a little bit of a rabbit trail there. I have no regrets. Flip over if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter five. Got to get back on topic here. Sleeping in the daytime. Sleeping in the daytime, right? Obviously, if you work at night, great, but if you don't work at night, if you don't work second shift, if you don't work third shift, you know what you need to do? You need to be awake in the daytime, productive in the daytime and sleeping at night. Okay, now look, here's the thing. Usually jobs where you work at night, they pay you a little more sometimes because people don't want to work at night. You want to know why? Because working at night is unnatural. Working at night is unnatural. Now look, hey, I've done it. There were times when I had to for weeks or months on end work that graveyard shift. I've done it. I didn't like it. It's not healthy. It's not natural, but here's the thing. If that's what it took for me to pay my bills and make money, I would do it, of course. There's nothing wrong with that lifestyle. So if you are someone who's a day sleeper because you work at night, hey, God bless you. I'm not against you at all. Somebody's got to work at those hours, right? Somebody's got to keep things going. We all like those 24-hour services. Somebody's got to be the first responder in the middle of the night and stuff. I get it, but here's the thing. I'm talking about people who don't have those jobs, though, because if you're getting paid good money to go out and work at night, well, then that justifies it. But if you're just staying up all night because you just have a weird lifestyle where you just stay up till 4 in the morning and just fool around and goof off till 4 in the morning and then sleep till noon, that is not a healthy way to live your life. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. It's not in the Bible, but it's still pretty good. I think it was Ben Franklin or something. Are you there in Ecclesiastes 5, verse 12? It says, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. So what the Bible is saying is that if you work hard, then you sleep well and your sleep is sweet. You work hard, then it's easy to go to bed early. You say, I can't go to bed at 10 o'clock. I'm not tired. Did you do anything? Did you work hard? Because if you did, you'd probably be getting tired by 10 o'clock. No, no, no, I can't go to sleep till 3 in the morning. Well, try working harder because the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Why will the abundance of the rich not allow him to sleep? Let me give you a couple reasons. Reason number one, because people who are rich are worried about their money. See, when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose. People who have a lot of money, they're stressed out about it. They're worried about it. You know, I was kind of thinking about, and I'm not really an economics guy. I'm not a finance guy. I'm not really into money. I don't really think about these things that much, and I don't really know that much about them. I'm not an expert on finance at all, so if I get this wrong, forgive me because this is not my forte, but I was thinking about, you know, I saw a news article. It was something about like, oh, Elon Musk's XAI company is buying X, and it's $45 billion, and they have $11 billion of debt and everything, and it just kind of got me thinking for a second. And I was kind of thinking, and again, if I get this wrong, forgive me, I'm not into finance. But I got to think about it, and I was thinking to myself, you know, according to this article, it says that Elon Musk is worth $330 billion, and I think when most people hear, Elon Musk is worth $330 billion, they kind of just, they kind of picture his bank balance just kind of having $330 billion in it. You know what I mean? Like, he uses ATM card and checks the balance, and it's like, alright, you still got another $330 billion to go. And people will say things like, oh, man, Elon Musk could just spend a million dollars every day for the next whatever, and he's never going to run out of money, blah, blah, blah. But I, you know, and again, forgive me if I'm wrong because I'm just surmising here. I'm just kind of guessing just based on common sense that I'm pretty sure when it says he's worth $330 billion, I'm pretty sure most of that is all like tied up in businesses. It's like stuff that he owns. It's not like money. It's like stuff that he owns in business. And the reason that this thought came into my mind is because I was noticing how it's saying that the company X, which is formerly Twitter, that it's worth $45 billion, but it has $11 billion of debt. So, you know, here's Elon owning a company that has $11 billion of debt. So you're thinking to yourself, like, well, why would a guy who's got $330 billion have $11 billion debt? Why doesn't he just pay it off? Because all his money is just tied up. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's not like he can just reach into his pocket, pull out $11 billion, and just pay off that debt because why wouldn't he? Here's why. Because all his money is out there, tied up, doing stuff, working. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? What the heck does that have to do with the sermon? Oh, I know what it has to do with the sermon. Here's what it has to do with the sermon is that, here's the thing. If you're a wealthy guy like that, worth $330 billion, and I'm not saying he's not worth $330 billion, but I'm saying there's probably a lot of stress associated with that because all of it's tied up and all these enterprises, you got to make sure that it's all going right because you hear about sometimes these millionaires and billionaires literally like going into the red. And you're like, how could you go into the red when you had all these millions of dollars? But it's because it's all complicated. It's all in business and tied up in these different things and whatever. And so the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. You know, it's not like a rich guy who has millions of billions of dollars just lays on the beach all day because he's so wealthy and he just never works. No, he's thinking about making more money and keeping his money and turning it into more money and this company and this business and that, you know. And there's things, yeah, he could if he wanted to probably just kind of cash out of a lot of this stuff and lay by the beach all day, but that's typically not what rich people want to do. They want to keep going. They want to keep making money. And so the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep because he's just got his mind on his money and his money on his mind and he's just thinking about it and he's just laying in bed at night, you know, thinking about it. And stress. So that's one reason, but reason number two why the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep is because possibly a secondary interpretation could be, well, you know, the fact that he doesn't have to do any physical work. He doesn't have to. Then maybe that's not going to help with sleep because the sleep of a laboring man is sweet because he's physically working, physically tiring out his body. Because sometimes working with your mind is not the same as working with your body. Sometimes you can work really hard with your brain and then not be able to sleep at night because you didn't really exert your body. And this is why now gyms are ubiquitous now. I mean, I remember when I was a kid, gyms were pretty rare, if you can believe that. When I was growing up in the 1980s, you didn't see just a gym on every corner and barely anybody lifted weights. Lifting weights was a fringe thing. And the closest thing that I ever saw to a gym in the 80s was like there were these country clubs. Rich people would be a part of a country club that had a little gym or something and you'd go with your friends to the country club and lift some weights or something. But it just wasn't like it is now. We're just everybody's lifting weights. Everybody goes to the gym. The gym is everywhere. Here's why the gym is everywhere because a lot of people don't have physical jobs. They're hitting the gym so that they can get that sleep of a laboring man without actually having a job that's physical. Alright, let's go to Romans chapter 13 in the New Testament. Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. So, in the Old Testament, in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we talked about sleep in its literal sense. Right? We're talking about getting a good night's sleep at night when you're supposed to, going to bed at a reasonable hour, getting out of bed at a reasonable hour, getting a good night's sleep, and then working hard and being productive all day, not being drowsy and tired because you goofed off till 3 a.m. Okay? That's what we talked about in the Old Testament. Now in the New Testament, God will talk about sleep in a metaphorical sense. Right? Instead of literal sleep, he talks about it in a metaphorical sense and it represents a few different things in the Bible. Here's one of them. Romans 13 verse 11 says, And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Verse number 13, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. So in this passage, he's saying, look, the night is far spent, the day is at hand, and the idea here is waking up, waking up out of sleep, and living a godly Christian life in the light of God's word. And this is similar to what it says in 1 Corinthians 15. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. And the idea here is that, you know, being awake in this sense, in the daytime, living in the light, walking in the light, the idea here is walking in the light as in keeping God's commandments, not, verse 13, not in rioting and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, strife and envying. Those are like the works of darkness. So he's saying, you know, come out of that and walk in the light in the daytime, you're awake. Awake to righteousness. Coming out of the night of sinfulness and ungodliness and into the bright shining day of godliness, honesty, walking according to God's word, etc. Okay, but also, go through Ephesians chapter 5, also being awake, so the first thing we saw in Romans 13 is that being awake represents living a godly Christian life. Okay, so you're in the light, you're out in the daytime, you're out in the sunshine, walking in the light, living for God, you awake to righteousness. So the first thing that being awake represents is right living, right? That's the first thing that we see in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 13. But then also, look at verse 14 of Ephesians 5 there, it says, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. And the idea here with walking circumspectly is being awake in the sense that you're aware of what's going on around you. Circum is talking about a circle around. Circum is around, spect means looking, like specter, spectacles, those type of things. It's circumspectly, you're aware of what's going on, you're cautious, you're careful, you're awake to the dangers that are out there. And then it says redeeming the time because the days are evil. And again, going back to what we learned from Proverbs, why get up early? So you can redeem the time. Because when your day starts at 11 a.m., you're not going to get much done, are you? You know, those days that you roll out of bed at 10, 11 a.m., it's just like, whoa, it's 3 o'clock. And you've accomplished nothing, right? But those days when you start at 5, 6, get up early, get going, then you're blown away like, whoa, I've already done so much and it's only 10, 30 a.m. It's 11 a.m., I've already done so much. So when the Bible talks about being awake, number one, it's talking about awakened to righteousness, right living. Number two, it's talking about being awake in the sense that you're aware of what's going on. You're in the light, you're not asleep and not noticing the dangers and so forth. And then thirdly, being awake is redeeming the time. It's taking advantage of the time that God's given you. So if you're starting your day early, you're taking advantage of that day and the opportunities versus letting the day go by while you just keep rolling around in bed until 11 a.m. Redeem the time because the days are evil, the Bible says. Redeem the time. What does redeem the time mean, Ephesians 5, 16? It means getting the most out of it, right? Using it to its potential. Because think about if I redeem a, let's say I have a bottle or a can and it has a redemption value, right? Like, you know, Michigan 10 cents, everywhere else 5 cents or whatever. And you turn in the bottle and you redeem it. You know, you're cashing it in for its value. So if you're redeeming the time, it's like you're exchanging your time for value. Instead of exchanging your time for nothing, you're exchanging your time for work that you're getting done. Value, right? Doing something worthwhile. Last place we're going to turn, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5. So when we talk about not sleeping in the daytime, first of all, let's get the literal lesson. Go to bed at night. Go to bed, get a good night's sleep so you can wake up tomorrow morning and be productive. And accomplish something and not be just a lazy slugger that just lays around until 11 or noon or whatever, rolls out of bed, stumbles downstairs, no plan, nothing productive to do. So literally, sleep at night and be awake and working hard in the daytime. But then figuratively, what does it mean to be awake? It means that you are not, you're not in darkness. You're coming out of the darkness into the light of living a good Christian life. You're coming out of the darkness into the light of being aware of what's going on around you. And you're aware of the dangers. You know what's true. You know what's false. We're not ignorant of the devil's devices. We're sober. We're vigilant. What does vigilant mean? Vigilant literally means awake. We're sober. We're vigilant because we know that our adversary, the devil, walked about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So we're circumspect about the pitfalls, the dangers, the devil's machinations against us. And then thirdly, we're redeeming the time. Being awake in the daytime means getting the most out of your day. It's sort of like when you're on even vacation. When you're on vacation, sometimes you even get up early on vacation. Why? Because you're thinking to yourself, hey, I want to be the first one out there hiking, snorkeling, you know, sightseeing, whatever. I remember my wife and I went to Hawaii like about 10 years ago for our wedding anniversary. It was a big trip and everything. And so we went to Hawaii one time and we went there. I remember the very first day that we were there, we got up at like 3 or 4 in the morning. And yeah, there was a time change. But we got up at like 3 or 4 in the morning and we drove to the top of this Haleakala crater and went up to the Haleakala gondola, you know, went up on the Haleakala crater and like watched the sunrise on our first morning. And it's because we're excited. It's like, hey, we're here, we're excited. It's like, hey, once in a lifetime to Hawaii. Sorry, honey, it was once in a lifetime, all right? We're never going back. No, I'm just kidding. Keep dreaming. But the thing is, you know, it's like a once in a lifetime trip. And here's the thing. There was not a single day on that vacation where we just kind of like sat around. We were just like doing stuff, just go, go, go. We're trying to redeem the time. It's like, okay, we're on Maui for once in our lives. We got to hit everything. And we literally, I'm pretty sure did everything that you can even do on Maui. Like we went, we drove down every road and went to every site and everything because we're trying to redeem the time. Even on vacation, we're trying to redeem time, but obviously in our workday, right? We got a workday, want to accomplish something, get work done, you know, make the boss happy, make the company money, get things done, accomplish something, right? Want to redeem the time. Spiritually, we want to redeem the time because souls need to be saved before it's eternally too late. People are going to hell. We want to get them saved. We want to preach the gospel to every creature, right? You know, you're on a missions trip and it's like you got a couple days to go soul-witting, right? You want to get out there and work hard and redeem that time and get it done, you know? And you want to just always make your life count. Now of course there are times when we need rest and relaxation, but rest and relaxation should be planned. Like, hey, now this is a rest day. I'm going to rest today. And then that's accomplishing something. Rest, because we're going to work hard the other six days, you know? Or hey, I'm going to sleep these eight hours because I'm going to be awake for sixteen hours, you know? And it should be planned like that. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. First Thessalonians chapter five says in verse four, But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober. And again, the idea here is that sleep represents, in this case, not being aware of what's going on. You know, being in darkness and then the day of the Lord overtakes you as a thief in the night because you don't even know what's going on because you never listen to those end times prophecy sermons or whatever. So, you know, you didn't read your Bible. You didn't read Revelation. You don't know what's going on. You know, we are the children of light. We know what's up. He doesn't have to write to us of the times of the seasons because we ourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. But we're not in darkness that the day should overtake us as a thief, verse four. We're the children of light. We're the children of the day. We're not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep sleep in the night. So we don't want to be unaware of what's going on sleeping when we should be awake and aware and they be drunken or drunken in the night. Again, the nighttime representing sinfulness again. Right. The sinful activities of this world take place more at night. More people are getting drunk, committing adultery, committing fornication, gambling, you name it. Most of those sins are happening more at night than in the daytime. Okay. So then the night kind of represents that sinful life. But let us who are of the day. We are the day people. We're the children of the light. Let us who are of the day be sober. Right. Sober. And don't let somebody tell you, oh sober doesn't mean sober. Yeah, it actually does. And obviously in the Bible it also has to do with like being serious and things like that. But it also has to do with the absence of alcohol. Absence of drugs. Absence of alcohol. The Bible when it says sober, it also includes that. There's no way God's going to be like, well you're serious even though you're drinking. I know you're smoking pot, but you're still a serious person. No. Sober means sober. And the other kind of sober. Both kinds of sober, buddy. Because there's a reason why not drinking is called being sober. Because when you drink you're not sober. And when you take drugs you're not sober by any definition of sober. You're not any of those definitions when you're drinking or taking drugs. Does anybody understand what I'm saying? So be sober. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So all of that to say this, we as Christians, we need to be awake as Christians. Literally, we need to be awake at a reasonable hour living our lives for Christ, making Monday count, making Tuesday count, making Wednesday count. Not just sleeping in until super late and just binge watching TV and playing video games until four in the morning. Okay? Use your life for something that matters. Redeem the time. And you know, you children, you might think, well I'm just a kid. I don't have anything to do. But you know what? There's a lot of things that you can do as a kid though that are going to make your life better later on. Like doing your schoolwork, studying, reading, learning, doing housework, helping out with chores. And why? Just to build good habits to help your family, help your parents, right? Sometimes you can find ways to make money as a kid and do extra work or chores or get hired at a job or something like that. There's all kinds of things that you can do when you're a kid to be productive. Because the Bible says even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right. So even a kid should want to be productive with their time. You know what? Take advantage of that time that you have as a kid to be physically active, to read books, to learn skills, to learn the Bible, read the Bible, learn things. Be productive. Work around the house. Get a hobby. Get a skill. Do something with your life. Those of us that are older, obviously we need to go to our jobs, our day jobs and work those jobs, work hard, be productive, go to bed at a reasonable hour, get up at a good time, get up early and use our day. Read your Bible. Pray and then get out there and work your tail off and make something happen. And don't be a slacker. So that's physically but then also spiritually we need to be awake and walking in the daytime, meaning that we're following the Bible, we're sober, we're not living that sinful life, okay? We're also awake in the sense that we are circumspect, aware, sober, vigilant, paying attention, knowing what the Bible says, knowing end times prophecy, knowing Bible doctrine, going through life aware of things, having the wisdom of Proverbs always in the back of our brain, guiding our decisions. And then thirdly being awake to redeem the time, taking advantage of the opportunities God has given us. We're living in America. We've got technology. We've got wealth. We've got infrastructure. We've got freedom. We've got the first amendment. I mean there is so much we can do for God as a church. I mean we could turn this place upside down with the gospel. We can do all kinds of foreign missions. We can do all kinds of evangelism right here in Phoenix. And we can make our lives count and our church count if we just wake up and get out there and hustle with our lives. Let's borrow this word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the good advice just for our health that we should sleep at night and be awake in the daytime. And Lord God, help us to be spiritually awake as well and be children of the light walking in the daytime. And Lord God, please bless us as we go our separate ways. Help us all to live for you this week and bring us back safely to church on Wednesday and on next Sunday. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, take your hymnals please if you need the words. For 48, I'll be so glad when day is done. Hymn number 48. We'll sing this twice and be dismissed tonight. Number 48. I'll be so glad when day is done. I'll be so glad when victory's won. There'll be no sorrow when God's tomorrow. I'll be so glad when Jesus comes. I'll be so glad when day is done. I'll be so glad when victory's won. There'll be no sorrow when God's tomorrow. I'll be so glad when Jesus comes. Man, good singing this evening. We are dismissed.