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All right, Proverbs chapter number 12. And as we always do, we're going to read the entire passage. You can follow along silently while I read Proverbs 12, starting in verse number 1. The Bible reads, Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish. A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones. The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them. The wicked are overthrown and are not, but the house of the righteous shall stand. A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. He that is despised and hath a servant is better than he that on earth himself and lacketh bread. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. The wicked desireth the net of evil men, but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips, but the just shall come out of trouble. A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. A fool's wrath is presently known, but a prudent man covereth shame. He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit. There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health. The lip of truth shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil, but to the counselors of peace is joy. There shall no evil happen to the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are his delight. A prudent man concealeth knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh its stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduceth them. The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come back together to meet up here in your house, dear Lord, and to go through the scripture. I pray that you would please help me and fill me with your spirit, dear Lord. Help me to preach this message this evening. I pray that you please help us all to be attentive and not distracted, Lord. I know in the afternoon we have a tendency to be kind of weary from the work that was already done today, and I pray that you would please just strengthen our flesh to help us to be able to stay focused tonight, that we can learn and that you can instruct us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. All right, the part of the chapter in Proverbs 12 that I want to focus in on is there in verse number 24, where the Bible reads, The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. Now the sermon for this evening is really closely associated with this morning's sermon, and this morning I was just preaching a lot about working and working hard and getting back to work, right, and kind of getting back in the swing of things. And the title for the evening sermon is laziness or greatness. Laziness or greatness, right? You have choices to make. You either be lazy or you can do great things. And I don't think anyone wants to be mediocre. I should have said laziness, mediocrity, or greatness, right? Let's not strive for mediocrity, all right? Be hot or cold, right? I would that you were hot or cold. If you're lukewarm, God's going to spew you out of his mouth. We got that verse by our coffee machine, right? So we have some people here that drink iced coffee. We have some people that drink hot coffee, but you know what? Not that lukewarm stuff. We're going to spew that out of our mouths. So laziness or greatness is the title of my sermon. We're going to be starting the first part of the sermon looking at a lot of verses that talk about slothfulness, the sluggard, you know, people who just do not work and they're not willing to go to work and they're not willing to do stuff and, and how that's going to ruin their life. And whereas on the other hand, you have the diligent, you have people who are, you know, up on things, ready to work, ready to get things done. And like the proverb says here in verse 24, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule. So, you know, the person, you know, rulers don't come around by accident. First of all, you know, people who are out moving, working, doing things are the ones being the rulers. Now we may have a lot of wicked rules, but I'll tell you what, even the rulers of our day didn't just get there because there are a bunch of lazy slobs that sit on the rear and don't do anything. They may be wicked at heart and have bad motivations, but I'll tell you what, a lot of, they work real hard. People have gotten to where they were by, you know, putting in a lot of effort and time doing what they do. That's just, you know, if you want to get in any position of leadership, you have to show yourself as a worker, as a doer, as a leader. So just, just right off the bat, the diligent means you're, you're really focused. You're paying attention. You're getting a lot of things done. You could, you can get tasks done. You get jobs done. And really you want to try to go above and beyond. And I said before, you know, not just settling for mediocrity, not just going for the bare minimum while you may not be completely lazy. You're also not being that diligent either. You're just kind of falling in the middle there. And but like I said, we're going to be focusing more on the two extremes of that, where here it says the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. So being under tribute means it's kind of, I mean, just being taxed here, you're answering to other people, you're the servant, you're always serving someone else and never having your own, you know, freedom really is, is, is what this is referring to is kind of the, the two extremes being, being made out here. Look at verse 25. It says heaviness in the heart of man maketh its stoop, but a good word maketh it glad. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduces them. The slothful man rosteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. So here's another attribute of the slothful man where, you know, they may go out and hunt, but then they just, you know, these, these would be the people I would say that just, just shoot and kill and just whatever, and they'll just leave it or just take a rack or something. Whereas the substance of a diligent man is precious where no, it actually means something to the diligent man to go out, you're going to kill an animal, you're going to make full use of it, try to get as much as you can out of it. I mean, essentially when you think about the diligent man, it's, it's this type of a motto of if you're going to do something, you're going to do it right. If you're going to go in and, and, and take on a task, see it through to the end, make sure that everything is done right. Don't just be sloppy and haphazard because that's where you're going to find the slothful man. The Bible says, and I removed this from my sermon notes, but it says that the, the, the, the man is slothful is brother to him as a great waster. And you know, those two attributes go hand in hand as being real wasteful, real lazy, real sloppy, not seeing things all the way through. Like this is not the way, and what we're applying tonight is your, is your Christian life is not the way you want to live your Christian life is just real sloppy, just kind of whatever. Yeah, man, I'll just read a couple of verses and not really applying it, not thinking about it, not meditating on it, not having a real, any impact on your life, but just going, whatever that is not the way that you want to be. You want to be the diligent because the diligent is going to help you and, and really have a big impact on your life and will allow you to be able to do really great things. Flip forward. If you would to Proverbs chapter 19, we're saying Proverbs for a while, just to, for the sake of keeping things easy to turn to here, all these verses are going to go hand in hand with one another, Proverbs 19 verse 15, the Bible reads slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. So again, we're, we're, we're going to be focusing in more now on the slothful and the lazy and you have to watch out for this. And again, I think it's kind of timely. One of the reasons why I'm preaching this this evening is because there may be a lot of people who are either still currently unemployed, not working because the whole coronavirus thing or maybe temporarily furloughed or whatever, but it's easy to get into slothfulness laziness. Well, I can't do anything. I can't go anywhere and just kind of, and find out, find yourself taking naps, right? Casteth into a deep sleep. And to the point to where, you know, if you allow that to creep into your life, it can cause you to become idle and, and kind of play on itself. Now, look, I'm not saying if you've ever taken a nap, you're just like a bad person or something, right? I see some people smile and they're like, that's not what I'm talking about. There's a difference between being really tired and worn out because you've worked, right? Or maybe because you've been up all night because you're, you know, you've got little kids or whatever, that's still, I would consider that working as opposed to just being really lazy, not doing anything and just sleeping. The Bible says slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. It's going to cause you not to, I mean, if you're, if you're just sleeping and not doing anything, well, you need to work in order to eat. It's just the way of the world. That's the way things work. Jumped out in verse number 24, the Bible says a slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. It's like, Oh man, this is just too hard. We figured the guy like eating potato chips off his chest. We're trying to watch her. She's like, man, I can't even lift another chip to my mouth, right? This is, this is what's being described here as a slothful man, just some lazy slug that does nothing. Now don't let yourself even get close to being in a condition like that. It's going to be one, it's going to be bad for your health. Your body's going to suffer for it and it becomes a downward spiral. The more unhealthy people get and the more sleep you get, the more you're going to feel like you need to get more sleep and it just, it kind of has a really bad impact. So you need to be diligent to make sure you don't fall into this, these bad habits and bad routine to where you get to the point where like the slothful man is like, man, I'm not even going to bring my hand to my mouth. That's just too much. Flip over to chapter 21, Proverbs 21. Very interesting passage here about the slothful man as well, and very, very important point here in Proverbs 21, look at verse number 25, the Bible reads, the desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labor. Now we're going to get the more of the meaning on, well, why, why would just his desire kill him? Right? So the slothful man has a desire, but they're not going to get their desire of what they want because their hands refuse to, I refuse to work. Well, I'm not going to go do that. It's like you want, you know, this is part of that entitlement attitude too. People saying, well, you know, you should just pay me a paycheck and then, well, I'm not going to do that. And people just, just not willing to work, not willing to do anything, but expect to be given things or want things. So what the Bible is saying here is that the desire of the slothful, the slothful person is someone who's not willing to go out and work for what they want. They're not willing to go out and invest in it and work hard. They're saying no, but the desire is going to kill them. Why? Well, look at the next verse. It says he covet it greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not. So the desire that's in a slothful person are not willing to work for it. That turns into covetousness because if you're eyeing things and you want things that you can't have, and the reason why you can't have it is because, well, you don't have enough money for it. You can't pay for it. And the reason why is because you're not willing to work for it. Now when you start desiring things, that becomes sin and covetousness is a really bad sin. It says he covet it greedily all the day long. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that when you get involved in that, that you're going to be pierced through with sorrows, there's a snare, and it's going to destroy you. So because the slothful person has these desires, it's covetous, and that is going to destroy them. That is why the desire of the slothful killeth him. And I can preach all day again on being covetous, obviously take that to heart on the wicked sin of covetousness, but if you become and allow yourself to get lazy, you can turn covetous very easily. Because you're not willing to do anything, yet you're probably still going to want things. You're probably going to want to have things handed to you, but if you're not willing to work, then you're not going to get those things, and you're going to turn out being covetous. Flip over to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24. Slothfulness is a sin that really has damaging impact on people, and look, especially young people, kids, listen up to this. You may be blessed to be in a house or a family where you're being cared for, where mom or dad are giving you a lot of things, and maybe you don't have to do a lot of work at home. Maybe they're trying to help you and be nice to you and just love on you. Don't take that for granted, because by the time you're going to leave the house and kind of do your own thing, you can't expect to have someone always doing that for you. You need to be ready to work, and what's going to happen when people don't learn how to work and are unwilling to work and have a really bad attitude against working is your life is going to be miserable. It's going to be miserable, because you're going to turn into this greedy, covetous person, and it's all going to come to naught, even the things that you have, because if you're not willing to work and maintain things, everything that you have, you have to maintain, including your health, everything. Everything needs to be maintained. Your spirituality needs to be maintained. Everything about this life you need to maintain, and the lazy person, the volatile person doesn't want to do maintenance, doesn't want to do anything. Here we're going to see a physical field, a physical vineyard in Proverbs 24, but go ahead and apply this to many areas of your life, even just your spiritual life and your health, because it all applies to the slothful person. Look at verse number 30 of Proverbs 24. The Bible reads, 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. Then I saw 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. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as an armed man. So what he's describing here as he's going by the field, the vineyard of a man who's just, he has no understanding, he has no wisdom because he's slothful, right? It's a slothful person. He's saying, man, you know, what would have been really nice, hey, a nice vineyard, hey, a nice place you can grow, you can work, you can reproduce. You can have things coming from the ground and have something valuable. You've got this stone wall, you've got this vineyard, you've got these things, and it's all just grown over and covered in thorns and thistles and, you know, these nettles covering the face thereof, and it's all just broken down and it's deteriorated because a person living there is lazy and not willing to keep it up and had something real good and nice and just let it all go to garbage. And he says, you know what, I looked at that and I noticed something. I learned from that. I learned from looking at that, just a little bit of sleep, a little somber, a little, oh, I don't want to do that right now, oh, I'm tired, oh, I'm going to take a nap, oh, I don't want to do that work, oh, that's too much. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy want as armed man. So it's going to make you poor. Now, I've seen this, you could go through, literally go through neighborhoods and find these neighborhoods that have like these, what used to be these really nice old houses and properties and things like that, and then you kind of see them all in disrepair and disarray. Now sometimes you may see it as a result of just maybe someone becomes widowed and they just don't have any means to maintain it and they're physically not capable of keeping up on it. But oftentimes what you see, especially depending on the neighborhood you go into, if you go into neighborhoods that are just full of people who are lazy and they're not willing to work and they just want to get a check from the government, they're not willing to go out and do anything for it, they're going to find that it's that character flaw is going to allow, you know, makes the whole neighborhood look bad because you've got a bunch of people like that living around each other, the whole neighborhood's going to go to garbage because everyone's too lazy to keep up with their own stuff, and then it turns into this kind of perpetual cycle. You got to watch out for the draw of slothfulness and laziness, especially in a society where it's really easy to have a lot of things at your fingertips that you don't even, you know, there's so many tools and things that kind of make life a little bit easier. Air conditioning, heating, cooling, you know, internet, click a button and you can have basically whatever you want, but you know what, when you get too far into that attitude, you know, you need to be working if you're going to enjoy any of those things because if you're not willing to work, everything is going to come to naught in your life and you're going to end up being covetous and then not able to pay for all these nice little conveniences and things that you want, and before you know it, everything's going to start getting turned off, appliances, you know, the utilities are going to be getting turned off and people aren't going to deliver your stuff to you anymore because you're not willing to, because you're not able to pay, because you're not willing to work to go out and afford all that stuff. Proverbs 26, flip over just a couple pages to Proverbs 26. Now, it's worth stating, as I feel like I regularly state, but you know, this life isn't about things and stuff, we know that, right? So on the one hand, you can get carried away with the covetousness and with all just the things of this world and the things of this life, even if you're not lazy, but when you're lazy, everything's just going to be destroyed and taken away from you, basically is what's going to happen. Everything's going to be run down and you're going to have nothing. Now, there's nothing wrong with being poor and serving the Lord and being a diligent worker and working hard and doing that. There's nothing wrong with that at all. You know, you're going to be blessed of God. But the lazy person isn't doing that. The lazy person isn't having anything. I mean, think about, why would you want to be in that condition? You're not even getting the things of this world when you allow yourself to just become really lazy. You're going to end up being poor, both spiritually and physically, because if you want to serve the Lord, you know what? Serving the Lord is work. It's work. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, doing things, I mean, you have to actually do things. You have to be a minister. And the lazy person isn't going to want to do that stuff. Proverbs 26, look at verse number 13. The Bible reads, the slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so does the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom. It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Now, four different verses, four different attributes of the slothful man. The first one is that the slothful man, the sluggard, has an excuse for everything. There's always an excuse not to do the work, right? Oh, no, oh, I can't go out today, there's a lion. There's a lion in the way, there's a lion in the streets, I mean, I might get killed. There's a coronavirus, I might die, you know, sorry, never mind. I'm just trying to make a joke here. But the slothful man, the lazy person saying, you know what, I can't go out and do this. There's a lion out there. It's going to devour me, so I can't do that. I mean, think about this. This is going to the ridiculous extreme of going like, well, you know what, there's cars outside. And if I go outside, there might be a car that just runs right into me, so I can't go, I can't even walk to work because, I mean, someone might just drive right into me. That would be the excuse of a lazy man, of a slothful person, just coming up with any excuse. And hey, you know, apply this to yourself if need be. Think about, you know, your own flesh and your desire to just not do something. Are you allowing yourself to come up with ridiculous excuses? If so, you're slothful and heed the warnings that we're seeing about being a slothful person. Look at this. You don't want to be this person. And then the second verse here, verse 14, as the door turns upon his hinges, so does the slothful upon his bed. See, the slothful person, they're always tired and want to sleep, but after a while, you're not going to be able to sleep. So you're just going to be tossing and turning because you're not working, because your body doesn't need rest, yet you're so lazy that's all you want to do is just lay down. And the Bible doesn't talk about this, but you know what? That is not good for your health either. That's going to end up causing you even more problems down the road. Verse number 15, the slothful hideth his hand in his bosom and grieved with him to bring it again to his mouth. That's again, it's a reiteration of what I already, we already saw earlier. And then verse 16, the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. Oftentimes, the sluggard thinks that no one else knows what they're talking about. They're wise in their own conceits, right? And think about a person who's conceited, kind of full of themselves, so someone who's wise in their own conceit and saying they're wise in their own conceit than seven men that can render. People who are actually logical, reasonable thinkers, seven people that are good thinkers, the sluggard's going to be wiser in their own conceit than seven people. No, I think they know it all. Watch out for these attributes. Not a good place to be. Proverbs 14, 23, turn if you would to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, Proverbs 14, 23 reads, in all labor there is profit. In all labor there is profit. You remember that even if it's the things of this world, when you're laboring and you're working, there is profit. Profit is a good thing. Don't worry about these communists that want to tell you that profit's an evil, wicked thing. The Bible's talking about profit here being a good thing. And when you work, there is profit to that. You're going to benefit from laboring. Obviously we want to focus our attention. Our first goal is to be serving the Lord, but we also have to work. There are still other things that need to be done. We still need to provide for our families. We still need to do other things. Even for the world to keep going, people need to be working and laboring. What if everyone just decided, I'm not going to do any work anymore? Everybody on the whole planet said, nope, I'm not going to work. I don't think it would take very long for everything just to go down the tubes. I mean, literally people would just die. In all labor there is profit, but look at this, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. So there's people who do and people who just talk about things. The people who just talk about things, that's just going to lead to, penury is poverty. You can talk all day long about what you're going to do and I'm going to go do this and I'm going to get this job and I'm going to go, you need to be laboring. If you're going to get any profit, you've got to labor. You've got to be working to get the profit. Talking about it does nothing. You actually have to do it in order to receive the profit from it. Because if all you do is just talk about it all day long, it's just going to lead you to poverty. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 10, the Bible reads, For even when we were with you, this week He commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should He eat. This is a command from the Bible. Look, being slothful, we have all these other reasons that we saw in Proverbs in a book of wisdom not to be slothful and what goes along with that. But in the New Testament, to the church of Thessalonica, we have the apostle Paul writing saying, hey, this is exactly what we said even when we were there with you. We commanded you that if any would not work, neither should He eat. Look, you're hungry, you want to work? I don't want to hear about it. I don't want you complaining about it. Get to work. If you're not willing to work, then you're not going to eat. That was a commandment from the apostles to the church. God wants us working. He wants you working. He wants you laboring. Because you know what? Laboring is also going to keep you busy and keep you occupied and not give you idle time and idle hands to get off into all manner of sin. We need to be hard workers. If you're going to name the name of Christ and if you want to serve the Lord, don't be a lazy person. Get up and work. Maybe it's hard to find a job right now. I don't know. I've been blessed, thankfully, that I still have my job. But if you don't have a job, you need to get out and try to find work. Do some work to keep yourself busy. Now, maybe for whatever reason, if you don't need the money per se, you still need to be laboring and keep yourself busy. Labor for the Lord. Go out and preach the gospel all day. Make it a job. Make yourself at work busy. Do work. Do something. Do something. In all labor, there is profit. And I would recommend just go out and try to find something. I mean, there's still businesses open. And now in Georgia, things are getting better anyways. But I mean, you've still got your big box stores, these ones that are still open. And you see in more business than ever because everyone else is shut down. Get to work. The Bible says if you're not going to work, then you shouldn't eat. And this is the Bible's way. This is why I like the Bible's way of charity and helping way more than the government's way. Because the government's way is just, well, we're just going to give you some money. And it's practically like no strings attached. There's just very little involved of accountability to people who are asking for a handout. Whereas the church's way is saying, okay, we're here, we're going to help you. But I mean, if you're not willing to work, then you're not going to eat. Don't expect to eat. So the bums on the side of the road that are just like, oh, just give me some money. Oh, no, give me, no, I don't want food. I want you to buy food. I want you to give me money or whatever. People have these attitudes now, these bums that are just looking for handouts, but they're not willing to work. You know what? You're not willing to eat. I mean, I've had this happen multiple times where I go against what I normally do, which is not give them anything. These young, able men, able-bodied people that you can still work, and even if they're not that young, look, you're able. I could see that you're physically able of doing things. You're walking around. You're able to put a bottle of booze to your lips and get drunk. You're able to do something. You're able to do some work, and then they have this attitude where if I break down, I've done this before, or I try to give the gospel to someone, and I kind of use these little incentives like, okay, well, I'll give you something here. Just listen to me because I'm trying to preach in the gospel. But then these people have this attitude where they're like, well, that's not what I want. I want this, and they start telling you, no, what you're going to give me isn't good enough. You need to give me this. And some of them get so bold as just to tell you, no, this is what I want. I don't want that. Well, you don't seem very hungry to me then if you're going to start dictating whether you have a cheeseburger or a pancake. Ridiculous. But that's the sluggard. That's the slothful. They greedily covet things, and they come to poverty. But then they still have this attitude. But see, with the government's plan, they're going to perpetuate that attitude. Because now they can keep on having that attitude, and the government's going, oh, yeah, well, we just need to take care of them. We just need to give these people money. Whereas the church is going to say, you know, you come to church asking, looking for money. You say, well, where are you working? What kind of labor are you doing? Let's get you to work. Because we don't want to just have this leech, you know, just funneling out all of our funds that we could be using to actually help people, to actually further promote the Word of God just for someone who's not willing to work for themselves. No, if you're not willing to work, then you shouldn't eat. Get hungry enough, then maybe you'll go out and get a job and start working. Look, this is the biblical model. I'm not against helping people out. I love to help people out. And I don't know if I've had the opportunity to help people out here in this room or not, but I like to help people. But I like to help people. I don't like to enable people. I don't want to just promote or reward bad behavior of someone who can work and doesn't want to work. I don't want to do that. I want to help someone. I want to help you to be a diligent person so that you can succeed, so that you can get profit. Because that's what's best for you. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 11, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. See, that's what happens when you don't work. You end up becoming a busybody. You're busy about everything else other than what you ought to be doing. Get involved in other people's business. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work. With quietness they work. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ. So are they speaking under the power and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ? You better believe they are. And what are they commanding? That with quietness they work. Jesus Christ commanding you not to be a sluggard, not to be lazy, that you need to work and eat their own bread. Stop going asking other people for bread. You work with your own hands and feed yourself. 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. The sluggard ought to be ashamed of themselves. And at least in church, we're going to put that here not to have company with him. I preach a whole sermon on people we break fellowship with. This is one of them. It says, yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Because we love you, because you love your brother, you don't want them going down this path of slothfulness. So you're going to say, hey, you know, get to work so that you can eat. And I love you, and that's going to be good for you, and there's going to be profit in that, and you're going to be self-sufficient. But if you're not willing to do all that, then you know what? I'm not going to have anything to do with you. Go away from me. You're a wicked person. You're disobedient to Jesus Christ's commands. And that's how you deal with it. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 16. We already saw the Bible reads in Proverbs 14, in all labor there is profit. Hey, deciding to just get up and work and not be lazy and not sleep in and take all these naps, you know, getting up and working, it'll pay off. Now the better type of work that you do, the more it's going to pay off, or the better it's going to pay off. You know, when you're working for the Lord, that's the best work to do, because you know that God is not going to withhold pay from you. You know that God is going to be more generous with you than any employer that you're going to find on this earth. You know that God will take care of you, and that the things that He's prepared for us, you know, that it hasn't even, you know, we can't even think about how good it is. It doesn't even come to mind how great the things are that the Lord has prepared for us. Luke 16, verse number 9, the Bible reads, And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? So even something as mammon, you know, money, it's not something that we should be like really focused on, the unrighteous mammon, but you know what? If you can't even handle being faithful with that, if you can't even be diligent and work hard for just, you know, something as stupid and little as money, then who's going to actually commit to your trust the big riches, right? If you can't even get yourself up, think about this, if you can't get up in the morning and show up and clock in at a job and put in an honest day's work and go home just to make a living, why, if you can't even do that, why do you think God is going to trust you with some great work that He has for you to do? I mean, think about that. Now the, who you really want to be working for is the Lord. You want to be a servant of the Lord because what the rewards that God has for you, the payment He's going to have for you is eternal. It's going to last forever. When you labor for the Lord, man, He's going to, you're going to be racking up rewards and riches in heaven that you can take with you, that will be with you in eternity as opposed to whatever you make here that's just going to burn up anyways. I mean, no matter how much physical money you make here, the dollar, it's all going to be burned up. So the value of that compared to God's riches, it's incomparable, I mean, it's just nothing. It's here today, gone tomorrow. And if you can't even, if you can't even bring yourself to work for that, for the stuff that's going to perish, why would God entrust you to do anything for Him? He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. And if you have the character to work hard and be diligent on things that really aren't as big of a deal, but you know what? It goes back to what I said before, if you're going to do something, do it right. If you're going to be faithful in doing something and say, you know what? This is a job I've been given. It may be a really small job. It may be a menial job. It may not be that important. But you know what? I'm going to put my all into it. I'm going to make sure this gets done right because I'm doing it and I'm going to work as if I'm working for the Lord. Verse 12, and if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. People want to have things and envision this life. And unfortunately, the younger generation just kind of sees the results of a hardworking life without wanting to do the hardworking part of it. And again, this happens when countries and cultures become so rich and people have too many things handed to them that they just get this type of an entitlement mentality of going, well, yeah, I want to benefit from all the good and not have any of the work involved with it. You need to learn to work hard. And you know what? The things that maybe you want, don't worry about those. One day they'll be added to you because of your hard work and you'll be able to achieve those things that you want now, but you need to be willing to put your nose out and get to work. Turn, if you would, to Mark chapter 19. Or excuse me, Matthew 19, I looked at the reference wrong, Matthew 19. The Bible commands us in Romans 12, 11, not to be slothful in business. So Romans 12, there's a lot of real short phrases, Romans 12, 11 says, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. God doesn't want us to be slothful in our business. He wants us, you know, diligent and working hard. I had you turn to Matthew 19, stay there. The Bible says in Hebrews 6, verse number 10, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward His name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So verse 10 of Hebrews 6 says that God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. So when you work for the Lord, He doesn't forget that, you know, you could work for a worldly boss here that may forget about the accomplishments that you've made on the job. They may forget all the hard work that you put in. They may forget the times you've stayed late, got in early, you know, skip things that you really wanted to do in order to get a certain job done, they need to get done. You know, your bosses may forget about those things, but you know what, the Lord never forgets about those things. The Lord is not unrighteous. When you work for God and that labor of love, He's not unrighteous to forget that work. And it says here that instead of being slothful, we need to be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So look to people who are working real hard for the Lord as your examples in how you ought to be living your life. Matthew 19, look at verse number 27. The Bible reads, Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore? This is Peter asking Jesus, well, hey, you know, what type of rewards? What are we going to be given? We've left all and followed thee. And they did, right? You think about Peter and James and John, these other disciples that had their jobs, you know, they were fishermen or, you know, tax men or whatever their job was. When Jesus came and called, he said, Hey, follow me, I'll make you fish men. They dropped their nets. They left their boat and they went and followed Jesus. And then they just stayed with Jesus, right? And they were his disciples and they were following him and learning from him and working for him when they left behind basically their lives to work for the Lord Jesus Christ. So now Peter's at the point now and look, they left in faith, right? They didn't ask upfront, well, Hey, what's the pay going to be? Jesus came calling and they went following, but now the subject has come up. So now Peter decides to, Hey, that was a good time to ask, right? Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. That's pretty significant right there. That's a, that's a pretty big, uh, blessing or reward there to be judging the 12 tribes of Israel. He's talking to his 12 disciples. Of course, look at verse 29 says, and everyone that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake shall receive and a hundred fold and shall inherit your everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first. So the sacrifices that you make, the work that you put in, he's saying, you're going to get a hundred fold, a hundred times payout on an investment is a pretty significant return. You know, I think today people are looking at 10, 12% as being like a good return on investments. If you're playing the stocks or whatever, or you have a business, this is a hundred fold. The Lord will recompense your work and obviously, you know, being slothful and being diligent can apply to all areas of your life. And you know, it ought to apply to all areas. You should be diligent in everything that you do in your work for the Lord and your work for whatever, any work that you do, you should be diligent. And that is a good characteristic to have. That's what we need to be teaching our children to be able to work, to be able to have these characteristics that, Hey, look, you're going to work. You need to be a hard worker. You need to be, because ultimately, why? Because the most important work that people give you is working for the Lord. We don't want to just float through life and just kind of end up going through your entire life, not really accomplishing anything, not really doing anything. You know, you just kind of existed. You were here, you know, you might not have been that bad, but you didn't really do anything. And then, you know, you're done and you're shot at life is over. You need to learn to, you know, we need to start applying ourselves, being diligent, you know, it's gonna require some sacrifice. It's gonna require you to give up some of the things that might tend towards slothfulness in order to attain the, you know, the, the things that would tend towards diligence, you know, make the sacrifices work hard. And you know, the title of sermon was, was laziness or greatness. I don't know about you, but I really want to make sure that my life matters here in a great way, in a grand way and on a big scale. I want to, I want to do the most and, and have my, my personal existence here on this planet be tied in with doing something great. Now, in my opinion, the greatest thing to do is to work for the Lord. As I've already mentioned, I want to do great things for the Lord. And you know, this is, this is really boiling down to, in turn, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter two is kind of the whole purpose for me preaching this sermon. I mentioned earlier that I want to start doing more things in our church and kind of taking on more work and just doing more stuff. Okay. And that's always been, I've been pushing that with the, with the challenges, but even the challenges I don't think are good enough. I want to, I want to start, I really want this to see our church grow, thrive, and just be pulsing with people who are, who are servants of the Lord and love God so much and are willing to make sacrifices and just go out and, and, and do the work of a minister. And yes, everyone's going to have different jobs and things that are doing at home, but, but our lives are centered and focused around doing the work of the Lord. That's the vision that I have. That's what I would like to see. And I would like to see Strong Old Baptist Church as a whole with all of our names tied to it here, being one that shines bright in the Lord's eyes, so he can look down and if he looks down at the glory of the different churches who are doing work for him, that we're shining super bright that, that when he looks down on our church, he sees a lot being done. That's the type of greatness that I'm talking about. That's why, but you know what? It's to require work, to require work from not just one person, to require work from all of us together to pitch in and to do more and to, and to say, you know what, I can give up some of these other things and make some sacrifices because I want to have some greatness in my life. I want my life to be worth something. I want this church to have a great name in the Lord and, and do great things and reach and have a great impact on this world. God has the power to do these things and the more we're willing to put ourselves forward and to be diligent and to wake up early and to stay up late and to get things done, hey, you can do that much more. Let's not be lazy. Let's not be slothful. Let's get things rolling, get things moving. You know, I felt like, you know, we had a great star. We kind of had these ups and downs in our church. I don't want to be controlled by outside forces. I think we should just, Hey, if we're, if this is the size that we stay, but we are just, I mean, working as hard as we can, then you know what? We're doing what we can do, but I don't know about you, but I personally don't feel like I'm doing everything that I can do for this church and for the Lord. I know I still have some slack that I need to make up. And if I'm going to make it up and do it, I'm going to try to encourage everybody to join me and say, Hey, let's make it more of a push. Let's see if we can do more. Let's see if we could reach more people. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's roll up our sleeves and do it. First Thessalonians chapter two, verse number seven, the Bible reads, but we were gentle among you, even as a nurse, cherished their children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. This is the heart and the attitude of a person who's really sold out for doing the labor of the Lord. These people are real diligent, the apostle Paul and these other apostles that were with them going out and really trying to help these people preach in the gospel, getting churches started. I mean, Hey, how about that? This is a church. How about getting other churches started and being able to spread and multiply more and more, man, isn't that a great dream? Well, it starts with having the right vision and the right heart of being willing, not even just to impart the gospel only is what he's saying, but also our own souls, because you care about it that much. They care about the work. It is truly a labor of love saying, I'm not even just going to stop at preaching the gospel, which yeah, you need to love people to preach in the gospel. You say, I'm going to, we're willing to give you our souls to help you out. In verse number nine, it says, for you remember brethren, our labor and our travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preach unto you the gospel of God. There's some diligence there. There's a reason why there's a reason why you read so many epistles that were penned by the apostle Paul. There's a reason for that. There's a reason why we see everything that we see in the scripture, but the apostle Paul took his calling and man, he really did the work. He really put forth the effort and did all this traveling and preaching and gave of himself. He goes through the whole list of all the things that he's been through, all the persecutions, all the trials, and still stayed strong and kept going. Not a lot of people, I think, would be able to endure that and suffer that and go through that. Let's try to instill in ourselves that same level of desire and commitment and faithfulness and effort and see the big picture. The apostle Paul saw the big picture. He had his mind and eyes set on the prize for the high calling. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 20. That's the last place we'll look at, Matthew chapter 20. Jesus explains how we can be great, laziness or greatness. I want to be great. Jesus tells us exactly how we can be great. Matthew 20, verse 20, the Bible reads, Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. Right off the bat, I think they have a great attitude because they're thinking about heavenly things. They're thinking about, man, in the world to come, we want to be right up there with you. We want to be as close as we can and in a great position with you. There's nothing wrong with that. That is a great vision of greatness and a great way to be focused. They're not worried about making that here on this earth. They're not going, oh, well, I want my sons to be ruling some nation here before they die. They're not concerned about that at all. They're saying, no, in your kingdom, I want them on the right hand and left. Wouldn't that be great? Great position to be on the right hand and left hand of Jesus Christ. Nothing wrong with that desire. Verse number 22, but Jesus answered and said, ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, we are able. So you say, wait, are you sure you know what you're asking for? Because in order to achieve that level of recognition, you have to go through a lot and suffer a lot and it's a lot of hard work and you got to be, you know, the cup that I drink and be baptized like this is not easy to be exalted that high. And they say, we are able. And he says unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But the sin of my right hand on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father. So he basically says, you know what? Yeah, you are going to go through what I went through because they're going to be martyred. They're going to be suffering persecutions and stuff. And he says, but you know, I can't give that to you because it's already determined, you know, my father's going to determine who's on my right hand, left hand, so I can't make that decision right now. But then the other 10 disciples, they hear this verse 24, it says, and when the 10 heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brothers. They don't like, they're like, hey, what do you think you're doing? There's only two spots on the right hand and left hand. Who do you think you are trying to take those two spots with? We want to be up there too, right? Everyone, everyone wants to be in those positions. So they're just upset because they didn't think of it first, right? They're thinking, hey man, let's get our dibs in on, on these spots. And then everyone else is going, ah. So then Jesus responds to this again, verse 25 says, but Jesus called them unto him and said, ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them. And they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you. So he's talking about these people, you know, the Gentiles, when they're in these, these rulers and princes, or he's in position of authority and it's kind of exercise their authority on these people, um, that are below them. And they're, and they're just exercising their, their will and their authority on people. And he's saying, that's the way the world does it, but that's not how it is with you. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So if you want to be great in the Christian life, guess what it's going to require a lot of work because it requires you to be a minister, to be a servant, to be serving other people, to be helping other people, to be sacrificing of yourself, giving of yourself, to help other people out. That is the mindset and the attitude that's going to make a person great. That's what's going to make our church great. Hey, if we can be a great support for the people of our, of our area of our state and, and getting the gospel to them, teaching and training them how to be godly and live uprightly. And, and, you know, I mean, think about the impact it's going to have on, on so many people's lives. I mean, getting plugged into church, getting saved and plugged into church is the best thing that could happen to anybody. It's going to bring you joy. It's going to eliminate so much misery and sorrow from the wickedness of sin. You know, people could just get in and get right. What, I mean, if we had a million dollars to give to every person, that's nothing compared to just the, what, what comes from righteousness and godliness and the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's so much more. The benefit is astronomical, but it requires us, if you want to be great in that endeavor, to become that servant, to become that minister, and guess what? You can't be slothful. You can't be lazy. It's work. No matter how you slice it, being great is going to take a lot of work. Let's get our priorities straight. Get them settled for yourself. Look, I'm not going to, I don't force anyone here to do anything. You do what you want to do. I'm looking for helpers. I'm looking for volunteers. I want people who want to be here. I want people who want to work. Great. If, if you have your own level, hey, you're so welcome. We love you. You know, brothers and sisters in Christ, let's all come together and do a work. Do what you're willing to do. I want to, I want to see greatness. And personally, that's where I want my life. And in order to do that, I know where I need to do more because it's going to require even more effort and work to achieve that level of greatness. And I hope, I hope that you guys all can, can share in that vision of our church and, you know, we have an awesome group of people here, but you know what? I don't want to keep it with just this group. I want, I want there to be, you know, twice as many awesome people that we have now. And for our, you know, our church family to just keep growing, to reach more people and do more like there's no end. There's no end. It may be a big task, but you know what? You got to start somewhere. Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us, for all the work that Jesus Christ did for us, especially dying on the cross and rising again, dear Lord. I pray that you will please help us to gain control over our flesh, our flesh that wants to cause us to be lazy and slothful, dear Lord. I pray to please help us to have good command and mortify the deeds of our flesh so that we can be walking in the Spirit and truly serving others, being ministers and servants for you, dear Lord, help us to, to make the best use of our time that we can, we can really reach a lot of people here. So in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Brother Peter, do you mind leading us in one last song for the evening?