Proverbs 6:6-11, 10:4-5, 10:26, 12:11, 13:4, 15:19, 19:15, 26:13-16, 24:30-34
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Proverbs. Although it might be easier for you to just look at your worship guide because we're gonna be going through a lot of random different places in Proverbs, and all of those verses will be there. But if you wanna flip to them, you're welcome to. We'll begin in Proverbs 6. We're going to be looking this morning at what Proverbs has to say about the sluggard, has to say about laziness, and actually has to say a lot.
Joel Brooks:I was convinced going into this, studying for this, that this would be something I didn't really struggle with. It wouldn't preach, or it wouldn't speak to me. I decided to preach last week on anger because I knew I I struggle some with anger. And, I'm quiet about it. It's an internal struggle, but I knew it'd be good for me.
Joel Brooks:And then I wanted something easy for me to preach on, which was about laziness. And I just thought it's not anything I struggle with. And I realized I I was I was pretty wrong. I did grow up in a household where probably the worst thing you could ever call someone was lazy. My, my dad was a very hard worker.
Joel Brooks:He actually grew up dirt poor, and home without indoor plumbing. I mean, he went to an outhouse all through school. It took him 9 years to graduate from college because he had to work his way through it. And he just worked really hard and instilled that work ethic in our family. So I don't know what you did on Saturday mornings.
Joel Brooks:You probably watched cartoons or something like that growing up. Breakfast was on the table at 6 am for us on Saturday mornings. Our family would eat and then we'd get to work, on Saturday mornings. And so I was convinced, like, this is one thing I understand. I understand about work and not being lazy.
Joel Brooks:And then Proverbs had a way of just kind of, hitting me a little sideways as I studied it this week. Proverbs talks a lot about slothfulness. There's 31 chapters in Proverbs. If you were to pull together everything it says about laziness, it would probably be about 2 or 3 chapters or about 10% of the book of Proverbs is about this. We're not gonna read through all of those verses, but we are gonna read through about 20 or so, beginning in Proverbs 6.
Joel Brooks:So listen carefully. This is the word of the lord. Go to the ant, oh sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer, and gathers her food in harvest.
Joel Brooks:How long will you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps and harvest is a son who brings shame.
Joel Brooks:Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. The soul or the way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway. Slothfulness cast into a deep sleep.
Joel Brooks:And an idle person will suffer hunger. The sluggard says, there's a lion in the road. There's a lion in the streets. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish.
Joel Brooks:It wearies him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than 7 men who can answer sensibly. I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. The ground was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it.
Joel Brooks:And I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. This is the word of the lord. Amen.
Joel Brooks:And pray with me. Father, I pray that you'd open up your word to us, that you write it on our hearts that we might leave this place looking more like our lord and savior Jesus who is today currently working working on our behalf. And we thank you for that. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Okay. So be honest. For those of you who have opted in to receive our text a day with a proverb, did you enjoy, every day this week being called a sluggard?
Joel Brooks:Somebody actually sent a message to the church saying, who needs an alarm clock? When your church sends you a text at 5 AM saying, get up, oh sluggard. How long will you stay in bed? We we don't use the term sluggard anymore, and I just would like for us to bring it back. It it's an amazing term.
Joel Brooks:You don't have to even know what it means because the moment you hear it, you actually know what it means. Slug erg. I mean, you're you're like a slug. It's used 14, 15 times in the bible. A sluggard is one who is lazy, who's inert, doesn't have any ambition, tries to avoid work at all cost.
Joel Brooks:And by work, I don't just mean your career or your job by which you get paid. There's all different types of work. If you're in school, studying is a work. Taking care of the home is work. Keeping your children alive, that is work.
Joel Brooks:My brother, he currently works in the Ukraine. He goes there for about 3 weeks and he works. And then he comes home, where he has 3 little kids. He's married, has 3 little kids, and he works there. And if you were to ask him, which is harder?
Joel Brooks:Being in a chaotic, you know, war zone, or going to the Ukraine, like, which is harder? He he is gonna tell you, like, it is being home, keeping those kids alive. That's by far the harder work. There's all different types of work. And the Bible teaches us that we are to do all of this work wholeheartedly as to the Lord and not be lazy.
Joel Brooks:One of the themes that runs throughout Proverbs is this, laziness leads to ruin. Now since I don't have that much time this morning, I'm not gonna, like, go through everything that, Proverbs has to say about sluggard. And I'm certainly not gonna talk about, an entire theology of work, but I do want us to just kinda hit through a number of these quickly as we can, to see what Proverbs teaches us about the sluggard. And we're gonna begin with Proverbs 6.
Jeffrey Heine:This is
Joel Brooks:where we're introduced to the sluggard. And the first thing we learn is that the sluggard has no ambition. Sluggard has no ambition. Verse 6. Go to the ant, oh sluggard.
Joel Brooks:Consider her ways and be wise. So the proverb tells us to go to the aunt consider her ways. This is actually just such a mic drop slam against humanity to be told to go to the ant. I mean, here, the book of Proverbs tells the very pinnacle of creation, mankind, the one who was given dominion over this entire world to now go to a mindless, soulless, tiny insect to learn the most, rudimentary things about work. But that's how much humanity has fallen.
Joel Brooks:We have to go to the tiniest of creation to be told to do what we used to be the pinnacle at. And it's not just a book of Proverbs that does this. This is Jesus does the same thing. When Jesus wants to outsource some of his teaching, you know, point to someone else and say, learn from them, He actually doesn't have another human to point to. And so Jesus has to say things like, you struggle with anxiety.
Joel Brooks:Well, look at the Raven. And you're like, okay, well, at least a Raven's somewhat intelligent. Well, then after that, he says, look at this plant. He tells us to go and to learn from an inanimate object, a a plant there. And he says, consider the lilies.
Joel Brooks:They don't toil. And Jesus even goes on to compare the lily with the wisest person of all time, Solomon. He says, actually, look, the lily's doing it better. The only time Jesus will ever even refer to a person for teaching is when he does a parable and he has to make up someone. But it seems like when we need to learn actually about humanity, we are so fallen, there's not another human example.
Joel Brooks:And so God tells us to consider something about creation, to consider an animal or a plant, and let them show us what it means to be human. Let them show us what it means to work. Let them show us what it means or who God is and who we are. So we're to consider the ant. But what does the ant teach us?
Joel Brooks:Verse 7, Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food and harvest. The aunt doesn't need to be forced to work. The ant doesn't need to be persuaded. The ant doesn't need to be browbeaten or coached. Doesn't have to have motivational speeches.
Joel Brooks:The ant knows it's supposed to work. The ants doing what the ant was created to do. This is what we can learn from the ant. We were created to work. We read this in the very first page of Genesis.
Joel Brooks:In Genesis 1, God creates us to have dominion over the entire world. And in Genesis 2, He puts us in a garden to work. And he he works and he creates and he steps back and he's like, oh, that was good. He has such joy in it. So he creates some more and he steps back.
Joel Brooks:He's like, oh, that's that's that's good. He's taking such delight and joy in his work. And then when he comes to creating humans, He essentially rolls up His sleeves and He puts His hands in the dirt. He doesn't just speak us into existence. He works harder on us, the pinnacle of creation.
Joel Brooks:And he also wants to show us what it means to be created in his image is to be a hard worker. And of course, after he finishes creating us, he's like, oh, that was I outdid myself. Like, that's really, really good. Such joy and work. Work is a gift from God, like like marriage, like sex, like having dominion.
Joel Brooks:It was always meant to be enjoyed. It wasn't until sin came and we fell, and then that's when there was the toil and the sweat and the thistles and the thorns that began to make work harder. But we were created to joyfully work. The next thing we see about the sluggard that he teaches us is that the sluggard, not only is he not ambitious, he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. But the sluggard experiences poverty.
Joel Brooks:Proverbs 69. How long will you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? At least 14 times in Proverbs, laziness is linked to poverty. You see an example, you know, 10 verse 4.
Joel Brooks:A slack hand causes poverty. And now not every poor person is lazy by any means. But make no mistake, laziness will absolutely lead to some form of poverty. By poverty, I don't just mean lack of money. That is a form of poverty, but that's not the only form of poverty.
Joel Brooks:There's also relational poverty, theological poverty, recreational poverty, a poverty of meaningful relationships, a poverty of health. If you fail to work at any of those areas, you're going to experience a poverty in those areas. So if you don't put work, real work in towards building and maintaining friendships, well then like the sluggard, poverty is going to come upon you like a bandit. If you do not put the work of studying your bible, or reading good theological books or articles, then the day is gonna come when you really need to know what God says, and you're not gonna have anything to draw from. You will be poor.
Joel Brooks:You see the sluggard wants something for nothing. We read that in chapter 13 verse 4. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. So the sluggard might want bread, but the sluggard is not gonna work to make that bread. And just because you crave something, doesn't mean you're going to get it.
Joel Brooks:If you want to have deep meaningful relationships, you gotta put in the work. And some of you, you you have an okay marriage. You have a decent marriage, but you actually crave for more. Maybe you're you crave for a deep, passionate, exciting, joyful marriage. Are you putting in the work?
Joel Brooks:There's a warning here in Proverbs 6 about how poverty in these areas eventually comes to us, And it comes gradually. I mean, no one goes into life thinking, you know, I really wanna be a loner 20 years from now. I really my goal is to have no friends 20 years from now. I want a terrible marriage. You know, I I want to, have an unhealthy body.
Joel Brooks:I don't want to know what God's plan is for my life 20 years from now. Nobody goes into life with those things being your goal, but those things most certainly happen. They just kinda happen. A little sleep. A little slumber.
Joel Brooks:A little folding of the hands. And before you know it, bam. It hits you like a bandit. That's what Proverbs 24 was about when it says, you know, I passed by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense and he found it overgrown with thorns, the ground covered with nettles, the stones are breaking down and he considered it. And he says the same thing.
Joel Brooks:How did it get this way? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Used to be a beautiful vineyard, but it began to fall apart gradually. If you don't put in the work, you're gonna find yourself 20 years from now with a marriage that's just kind of, It's okay, but you'll want more. Or you'll you'll find yourself turning 40 and wondering where did all your friendships go?
Joel Brooks:Or your kids will suddenly be grown up and they'll be leaving the house, and you're thinking, you know, I never really knew them that well. Or suddenly suffering is gonna hit you, and you're gonna try to pull from God's word for comfort because you remembered you used to have some verses memorized from VBS a long time ago. But you've forgotten those. And there's no words of comfort to draw from. In those moments, you will crave those things, but you will be poor.
Joel Brooks:I think Lauren and I, we have a I'm very thankful that we have a a what I call a wonderful marriage. And in the last few years, we've gone to some marriage retreats. We took the last marriage class they offered here at the church. Someone at that class said, what are y'all doing here? I mean, I I thought y'all had a great marriage.
Joel Brooks:It's like, and you just answered your own question. Yes. We do have a good marriage, And it's because we go to marriage classes. We're trying to put in the work for this. Are you putting in the work towards those areas of life that are important?
Joel Brooks:Alright. Let's pick up the pace here. Next, we see that, the sluggard is always making excuses. The sluggard only sees the obstacle before them. Look at chapter 15 verse 19.
Joel Brooks:The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, The path of the upright is a level highway. Here, we see, like, the sluggard would like to move forward, would would like to be going in this direction, but there just always seems to be something blocking the path for the sluggard. They just can't ever make a decision, you know, because all they ever see is the obstacle before them. The sluggard is the one who always says, yeah. I know we should do that, but what about this?
Joel Brooks:Or what if this happens? Often, their their excuses are completely irrational. They are driven by fear. You see that in Proverbs 2613. The sluggard says, there's a lion in the road.
Joel Brooks:There's a lion in the streets. The lion the the slugger just wants to stay inside, but just fear of what might happen. There's there's not a lion outside. This is an absurd irrational fear. Do you ever have any of those?
Joel Brooks:Sometimes are you just paralyzed and you can't make a decision? You can't move forward in your finances? You can't move forward in your relationships because you're just focusing on everything that could possibly go wrong. Hear me, the Bible does not say you were being cautious. The Bible says you're being lazy.
Joel Brooks:Notice that the next couple of verses after the whole, there's a lion in the street thing. Verse 14. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. What a great image. This is the image of someone tossing and turning and never progressing.
Joel Brooks:A door on a hinge is not going anywhere. We'll be the same place 10 years later and 20 years later. There's no meaningful movement forward. Some of us toss and turn in bed. Others of us, we toss and turn in our minds.
Joel Brooks:We just go back and forth and back and forth in things, and we we've been doing that for years. We see that the sluggard can never finish what they start. Find that in verse 15. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
Joel Brooks:That's a great proverb. I mean, it's hilarious. What an absurd image. I mean, can't you picture this? Picture it like college football Saturday, couch potato, you know, just laying on the couch.
Joel Brooks:Like, even you get tired working the remote. And, you've got you've got your your nacho dip there, and you got your chip, and you're like, why is life so hard? And you, like, you struggle, and you're like, let me just gain the energy, and I'll bring it up to my mouth later. It's, it's, it's an absurd picture. This, this absurd picture is meant to teach us something, That there's a lot of us who have really good intentions, but no follow through.
Joel Brooks:We can visualize just how good something's gonna be, but we never actually get it done. So you can just see it. You can dream it. I'm gonna be an amazing piano player. I'm gonna be in a rock band.
Joel Brooks:I'm gonna be able to run a 5 minute mile. You know, I'm going to, I'm gonna live in a beautiful house and I'm gonna have the most amazing backyard you have ever seen. I'm gonna memorize all of Ephesians. No, take that. I'm gonna memorize Ephesians and Romans this summer.
Joel Brooks:And you're like, you can see it. And it's beautiful. You put your hand in the dip. Gosh. That's too that's too hard.
Joel Brooks:Let me just get my strength. It'll eventually get there. The sluggard is a quitter. And as a result, they will experience what we read in 134, they will crave but they will get nothing. Verse 16 gives the reason for this.
Joel Brooks:The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than 7 men who can answer sensibly. The sluggard is driven by pride. You've heard the term, the lazy know it all? It's the sluggard. The sluggard looks around at people sweating and toiling.
Joel Brooks:Like, what idiots? Like, work smarter, not harder. As if you can't work smarter and harder. They're like, no. I mean, I could just sit around, do nothing.
Joel Brooks:The the sluggard is the one who, is usually hypercritical of their supervisor. They're always looking at other workers and just thinking, I could do that so much better. You know, if they had put me in charge, it'd be completely different, yet the slugger does nothing. The sluggard only points out the flaws of everybody else doing the work. You're too self centered to to get involved.
Joel Brooks:And, we see next that the sluggard, not only are they proud, the sluggard is always going to disappoint those around them. We see this in chapter 10 verse 26. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send them. No one wants to drink vinegar. No one likes sitting around the campfire when the smoke goes all in your eyes.
Joel Brooks:And at the same time, no one ever wants to be put on a group project with a sluggard. You don't want to be assigned to do work with someone who will never carry their own weight. Someone who, won't even respond to emails. No one wants to work with someone who never completes task. I don't even want to go on vacation with someone like that.
Joel Brooks:Have you ever, like, been on vacation? Maybe it's a, you know, where it's extended family. You all, like, maybe get a house or something at the beach. You know, you have that non contributor there, the sluggard. I see some of y'all just instantly looked at somebody.
Joel Brooks:Don't. I mean, literally you did. I caught you. Yeah. You know the person you like, they come and, they never take out the trash.
Joel Brooks:They never fix the coffee. They never put a dish in the dishwasher. They literally think I'm on vacation, so everyone else here can work for me. It's like drinking vinegar having that person. It's like smoke in the eyes.
Joel Brooks:No one wants to be around the sluggard. Finally, we see that the sluggard has wrong pursuits. We see this in chapter 12 verse 11. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. This is the one that kind of got me this week.
Joel Brooks:Often, laziness will disguise itself. It disguise itself as working really hard over the wrong things. Busyness can actually be a way of masking laziness in your work towards the things that matter. So, you know, if you don't wanna work on some difficult friendship or some difficult marriage, if you don't wanna work on maybe a hard situation with your kids, well, just stay at the office longer. Just work harder there.
Joel Brooks:And you're, you're telling yourself, I'm just real, I'm just working really hard. No, you're being lazy towards the things that matter. And yes, it's, it's better to go to a place where people are gonna pat you on the back. People probably are like, man, man, you are crushing it today. Cause you know you're not going to get it in the other areas where you're poor.
Joel Brooks:And so it's just easier to just, I'll just pour myself into a busyness here. D l Moody, he, he once said that the saddest thing you could ever experience towards the end of your life is this, not looking back at where you have failed, not your failure, but it's looking back at the places where you experienced success in the things that didn't matter. You don't want that as you're looking back at your life. Yeah. You're fine with the failures, but do you really wanna look back and be like, man, I had such success at things that didn't matter.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said that we are not to work for the food that perishes, but for the food that will endure to eternal life. Meaning that we can do work that matters and that lasts for eternity. And you gotta be careful with Jesus's words here. Listen to what he says. He doesn't say that we work for eternal life.
Joel Brooks:We're not working for our salvation. We're not working to find favor with him. But we are working for food that will endure that will endure to eternal life. There are some things that we could do now presently in this life that will endure for all of eternity. Remember, when when that day comes and you are resurrected, you're given a new body, you're living in a perfect redeemed world, remember that you are still going to be working.
Joel Brooks:You don't like get resurrected and now it's a redeemed world and then what do you do? Just sit on the couch all day? You work. There is still gonna be work to be done in the final in our final state when when the kingdom of God comes. And actually, by faith, we begin we can begin living that way, working that way now.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that after Jesus rose from the dead and he was given his new body, he didn't stop working. He's still working. He's still upholding all things by the word of his power. He's still interceding on our behalf. He is still ruling and reigning over all things.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is still working. And he has asked us to join him joyfully in his work as well, to work for the food that will endure for all of eternity. Is this how you think of work? Is this how you thought about being lazy or the sluggard? Perhaps you've have been as I've been going through this, God's revealed to you some things like, man, I'm really what I thought was work.
Joel Brooks:I'm actually really being lazy in these all important areas over here. Would you commit now would you commit now to put in the work necessary to where 20 years from now, you're not looking at a vineyard of your life in which all the walls are broken down. And there's thorns and thistles everywhere. And you've come into ruin, into poverty. That's not how the Lord has called you to live.
Joel Brooks:Work hard for his glory and faith. Pray with me. Jesus, I thank you that, you are working on our behalf, joyfully working on our behalf. I pray that through your spirit we would begin to look more like you. That we would do our work on a faith.
Joel Brooks:Do all of our work as an act of service to you. Make our work worship. Lord, through your spirit, would you be so kind to us to maybe expose some areas in our life where we have been lazy. Some areas in our life that we're in danger of one day being bankrupt. And Lord, through your kindness, would you allow us to make the changes we need now.
Joel Brooks:We pray this all in your name Jesus and for your glory. Amen.