Go to the Ant (Proverbs 6:6-11)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:07.190 Well, this morning I were going to take a brief break from the book 2 00:00:07.230 --> 00:00:19.510 of Romans and read a section from proverbs, proverbs chapter six. I've been 3 00:00:19.629 --> 00:00:24.820 thinking a lot about how we it is that we learn from nature, and 4 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:30.460 have even enjoyed some discussions with some of you on this, so I thought 5 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:38.049 it might be nice to consider this together. Proverbs six, versus six through 6 00:00:38.130 --> 00:00:47.009 eleven, God's word about work and a few other things. Let's hear God's 7 00:00:47.049 --> 00:00:54.719 Word from proverbs chapter six, verses six through eleven. Go to the ant, 8 00:00:54.960 --> 00:01:02.640 Oh sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief 9 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.989 officer or ruler, she prepares her bread and summer and gathers her food in 10 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:12.829 harvest. How long will you lie there, Oh sluggard? When will you 11 00:01:14.030 --> 00:01:19.739 arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little 12 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:23.420 folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a 13 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:30.900 robber and want like an armed man. The God bless his word to us. 14 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:42.489 Please be seated. Well, as many of you know, the book 15 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:49.319 of proverbs is a book of Wisdom. It says as much and is obviously 16 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:55.959 so. It contains all kinds of conclusions about life, things that we ought 17 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:01.109 to do and we ought to see. Sometimes they come in just one sentence, 18 00:02:01.269 --> 00:02:06.430 so one little statement about the way life is, the way that we 19 00:02:06.469 --> 00:02:12.669 should live it. Other Times there are these extended sections. This is one 20 00:02:12.669 --> 00:02:15.419 of them, proverbs six, six through eleven. It's a one of the 21 00:02:15.500 --> 00:02:21.539 smaller ones, but nevertheless it gives us a little bit of a picture, 22 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:27.300 more than just a single image. It gives us this conclusion and includes with 23 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:36.530 it warnings and various admonitions. There's two obvious commandments here, or well, 24 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:40.129 at least one of them is obvious. Will start with that one. The 25 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:46.919 obvious commandment here is that we are to work. It's pretty simple, isn't 26 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:51.439 it? It doesn't require a complicated exegesis, it doesn't require a lot of 27 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:55.919 proofs. It's right there on the surface. We're not to be lazy, 28 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.669 we're not to be sluggards. It's not a word we use a whole lot 29 00:03:00.710 --> 00:03:05.830 anymore, but we all, I think, know the meaning. If you 30 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:12.669 don't that the picture of a sluggard is given here. It's given throughout proverbs 31 00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:16.580 and different ways. Here the picture is in versus. Nine through eleven. 32 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:24.939 It pictures a person who is lying there, who's just inactive, not sleeping, 33 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:30.810 not resting, not doing something in along those lines, but just lying 34 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:35.050 there. Well, I guess sleeping, yes. So when will you arise 35 00:03:35.409 --> 00:03:39.689 from your sleep, it says, but it pictures this person as something of 36 00:03:39.770 --> 00:03:46.879 an escapist. They're using sleep, using rest and being lazy as a way 37 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:55.030 to avoid problems, as a way to ignore certain things, certain realities. 38 00:03:57.469 --> 00:04:01.229 Verse Ten comes somewhat in the voice of the sluggard. A little sleep, 39 00:04:01.349 --> 00:04:04.669 a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and sort 40 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:09.789 of the sluggard saying they're it's is not a big deal, I'm just taking 41 00:04:09.830 --> 00:04:15.699 a break, I'm just easing myself a little bit. But then after this 42 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:19.860 sort of relaxed no big deal, don't worry about it, everything's fine. 43 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:28.370 Kind of verse eleven comes in the Voice of the sage and hits strong. 44 00:04:29.410 --> 00:04:31.610 So verse ten is kind of relaxed. A little sleep, a little slumber, 45 00:04:31.610 --> 00:04:35.529 a little folding of the hat rat hands to rest, and poverty will 46 00:04:35.529 --> 00:04:42.279 come upon you like a robber. Want will come upon you like an armed 47 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:46.240 man. I have, fortunately, never had the experience of getting mugged. 48 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:51.319 Maybe I hope none of you have, but that's what's being described here. 49 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:56.389 A robber coming upon you, slamming you up a well, against a wall, 50 00:04:56.790 --> 00:05:01.629 taking your things. This kind of surprise attack is what will happen to 51 00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:06.980 the sluggard. Poverty will come upon you like a robber, like an armed 52 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:11.100 man. So there's the picture we have. This sluggard, then, is 53 00:05:11.220 --> 00:05:16.579 commanded to go and work as people made in the image of God, if 54 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:23.290 we are to be wise, we are to be workers. The Bible Commands 55 00:05:23.329 --> 00:05:29.769 US and tells us that being lazy is not an alternative and that bad things 56 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:35.160 happen. Bad things happen. Proverbs gives various kinds of things that happen when 57 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:42.680 we're lazy and not hard workers. Proverbs ten, twenty six. Twenty six 58 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:46.399 says that it irritates those who we do business with. Have you ever had 59 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:51.790 a coworker who was lazy, somebody who is on your team and we were 60 00:05:51.829 --> 00:05:56.750 expected to get a job done, and yet they were always saying verse ten, 61 00:05:57.709 --> 00:06:00.990 don't worry, it'll get done, just relax, they don't show up 62 00:06:00.990 --> 00:06:10.339 for work. Coworkers, employers, it's irritating, it's frustrating. Proverbs ten 63 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:15.180 five says that the sluggard shames his parents. In Proverbs Nineteen and twenty four. 64 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:20.730 Chapters nineteen and twenty four says that the sluggard destroys a family inheritance. 65 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:27.569 All that has been worked for and gained, perhaps even for generations, can 66 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:32.360 be lost when a person says I don't really feel like working, I don't 67 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:40.519 really feel like being a wise person going out into the world engaging. But 68 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:47.029 it's not merely these sort of interpersonal conflicts and money problems that come, like 69 00:06:48.230 --> 00:06:53.310 poverty and want, mentioned in six through eleven, but it's a moral problem 70 00:06:53.509 --> 00:06:57.910 too. It's not something that you can simply say, well, I would 71 00:06:57.910 --> 00:07:01.459 just prefer to have that kind of lifestyle. I'd prefer to be poor and 72 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:05.779 in want and I don't care about my family's inheritance and I don't care about 73 00:07:05.899 --> 00:07:13.620 my employer or shaming my parents. It's not really a decision and an alternative 74 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:21.610 that you can make because it's a moral problem. In proverbs there are many 75 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:27.449 verses. I won't all list some of the chapters and verses here. Sixteen 76 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:30.199 six through eleven, ten, four, eighteen, nine, two, thousand 77 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.439 and thirteen, twenty one, twenty five through twenty six. The list goes 78 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:42.360 on. It connects being a sluggard with the loss of life. It's contrasted 79 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.470 in fifteen nineteen with being upright. It's contrasted in twenty one, twenty five 80 00:07:47.550 --> 00:07:54.910 through twenty six. If being righteous, being a sluggard is the opposite of 81 00:07:55.069 --> 00:08:00.699 being upright. It's the opposite of being righteous, and this makes sense when 82 00:08:00.699 --> 00:08:05.420 we consider how it is God made man. You remember that God made the 83 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:09.819 world in six days and he placed man in it to do what, to 84 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:15.170 work. Now, God gave him a day of rest as well, and 85 00:08:15.490 --> 00:08:20.170 even exhibited that pattern in his own working. Six Days, you shall labor 86 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:24.730 and do all your work, and on the seventh you shall rest, the 87 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:28.120 fourth commandment says. But there is a command to work, there isn't there? 88 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:33.039 We were made for this. Sometimes we think of work as being a 89 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:37.919 cursed thing, and that's true, it is, but it's not work itself 90 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:46.029 that is the problem. God Gave Adam and Eve this task of cultivating and 91 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:52.070 creating, of living in a way that expanded the garden that we're in, 92 00:08:52.509 --> 00:08:58.940 that multiplied their children and taught those children the ways of the Lord. There 93 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:01.860 is this thing that we were built for, and I think you know that 94 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:07.980 you experience it. A job well done feels good in your bones. You 95 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:13.970 look at a a clean room or a sale that you've made, or a 96 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:20.330 house that you've built or or a case that you've won, and you said, 97 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:24.159 how is good, it was fun, it's hard, I enjoyed it. 98 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:31.360 We like, I'm getting outside even and doing manual labor. Even if 99 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.399 we're not able to do it, we kind of find ourselves missing it in 100 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:43.470 some ways. There's this way in which we really are made to enjoy our 101 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:50.110 work, and so when we are lazy, when we are sluggards, were 102 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:56.179 cutting against all of that and bringing about these consequences that God warns about. 103 00:09:56.419 --> 00:10:03.259 And so here he commands us to work, to work like the aunt. 104 00:10:03.220 --> 00:10:07.330 Don't wait around for people to tell you what to do, don't wait to 105 00:10:07.570 --> 00:10:15.090 be instructed and reprimanded and commanded. Just do your job, do the things 106 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:20.850 that you were made to do. So this is the first and obvious command 107 00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:24.879 that we have in proverbs six through eleven. It's not only here but throughout 108 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:31.080 scriptures and in our very hearts and nature built in. But there's a second 109 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.149 command here that's also important to consider, and it's the very first word. 110 00:10:37.429 --> 00:10:43.669 Go, go now, not just go anywhere, of course, but go 111 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:48.830 to the aunt now. It's a specific command, but it's meant to be 112 00:10:48.909 --> 00:10:54.460 understood in a more broad way. God is commanding us not only to go 113 00:10:54.659 --> 00:10:58.419 to the aunt to learn this lesson, but to go out into the world 114 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:05.049 and learn wisdom. We are to be observers, reflectors. We are to 115 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:11.370 learn how to make analogies and see things in the world and learn moral lessons 116 00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:16.330 from them. In some of the texts that we've read this morning we've heard 117 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:22.639 about how in creation itself, God proclaims things, he tells us of himself 118 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.679 and his commands. So it makes sense that we would be studiers of that, 119 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:33.149 that we would go and learn the natural laws that God has made, 120 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:39.110 that we would be deeply reflective about them. And that's exactly what it the 121 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:46.509 God commands here in six through eleven to the sluggard. He doesn't only tell 122 00:11:46.549 --> 00:11:52.340 him the conclusion. He doesn't merely say go sluggard and work. He knows 123 00:11:52.379 --> 00:11:56.940 that he has to feel it inside, he has to kind of realize it 124 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:03.289 for himself. He needs to see the lesson played out. It's not only 125 00:12:03.330 --> 00:12:07.769 a matter of doing the thing that is to be learned, but he's also 126 00:12:07.929 --> 00:12:16.039 to learn the lesson. Go to the aunt, consider her ways and be 127 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:22.200 wise. This is such an important lesson when we think about what it means 128 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:30.110 to be moral people to follow God's law. Sometimes we want to reduce God's 129 00:12:30.110 --> 00:12:35.149 commandments to just a list of things, maybe ten things. And indeed scripture 130 00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:41.549 gives a summaries of God's laws, a commandments which are to be understood and 131 00:12:41.789 --> 00:12:46.940 followed. Proverbs itself gives us lots of lists of things to do and to 132 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:54.940 see. But God didn't merely give us ten or twenty or a thousand principles 133 00:12:54.940 --> 00:13:03.450 or rules to follow. God created a moral order that can be in many 134 00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:11.090 ways compared to the world that he has made. Consider God's world. It 135 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:18.240 is complex, beautiful, interrelated. You don't just have water, air and 136 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:26.159 fire or something like that. You don't just have these basic elements or things 137 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:33.629 a periodic table sort of floating around somehow. Know, you have rivers, 138 00:13:33.389 --> 00:13:39.909 hurricanes and candles. You have things that overlap and work together, things that 139 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:46.820 influence one another. There's a there's a complex system and order in a way 140 00:13:46.899 --> 00:13:52.179 of life. There's divisions. Right when God made the world, he separated 141 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:58.169 things, male, female, sky, land, Sun, Moon. But 142 00:13:58.330 --> 00:14:05.409 these divisions aren't aren't these held in these little boxes they are. There are 143 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:09.450 ways in which they interact with each other. They relate to one another, 144 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:15.480 male and female. He made them, and yet they become one when they 145 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:22.120 join together in marriage. That's complex. It creates relationships that are complex. 146 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:33.470 It creates a world that is complex, complex and beautiful and studiable. Well, 147 00:14:33.549 --> 00:14:37.470 this world that God is made is not only a thing of matter, 148 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:43.539 but there's also this moral order that God has made, an order that we 149 00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:50.419 learn and grow from. We don't just have a periodic table of commands, 150 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:56.250 we have an orderly world, a system that works in particular ways, and 151 00:14:56.409 --> 00:15:00.690 that's what a lot of proverbs is about. Deuteronomy, when God gives the 152 00:15:00.769 --> 00:15:05.289 laws to Israel, is much more boom boom, boom boom, a very 153 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:09.799 strict list of commands with all kinds of sanctions and things like that, blessings 154 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:13.679 and sanctions. Proverbs goes out in that world and says, let's look at 155 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:20.909 the way things work. What happens when you decide not to be a worker 156 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:26.230 and a hard worker? What happens when you decide to be a sluggard? 157 00:15:26.269 --> 00:15:33.350 Well, they are consequences. Poverty comes upon you, want comes upon you, 158 00:15:33.669 --> 00:15:39.620 shame comes upon you. This is the way the world works. There 159 00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:46.019 are laws and consequences and blessings. There's this created moral order God has made, 160 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:50.970 and we are called not merely to glean from it particular principles, but 161 00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:54.889 we are to observe it. We are to go to the ant and to 162 00:15:56.009 --> 00:16:02.330 the stars and to the forests. We are to go to the relationships that 163 00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:08.440 we have with one another and and learn from these things. We can't treat 164 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:15.320 our ethical lives as though it was simply following a set of ten little rules. 165 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:22.429 We are to be studiers, pursuers of wisdom, and that takes time 166 00:16:23.470 --> 00:16:30.950 to observe, reflect, make analogies. This kind of thing is illustrated in 167 00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:36.019 proverbs twenty four. I'll read a few verses to you there, and it's 168 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:41.980 related to our passage in proverb six. Proverbs for twenty are, sorry, 169 00:16:41.059 --> 00:16:48.330 twenty four versus thirty through thirty four. Here we have an example of the 170 00:16:48.409 --> 00:16:52.970 kind of thing we are to do. In proverb six, the the wise 171 00:16:53.129 --> 00:16:59.730 man commands the sluggard to go out and observe. Here the wise man is 172 00:16:59.850 --> 00:17:04.319 doing the observing. He shows us how this works, exemplifies it. I 173 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:11.240 passed by the field of a sluggard by the vineyard of a man lacking sense. 174 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:15.390 So he is going out into the world, right, he sees something, 175 00:17:15.950 --> 00:17:21.750 okay, he takes the time to observe it. What are as observations? 176 00:17:22.710 --> 00:17:29.430 And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns and the ground was covered 177 00:17:29.549 --> 00:17:33.940 heard with nettles and it's stone wall was broken down. So you see, 178 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:37.420 he doesn't merely pass by the field and notice it and move on. He 179 00:17:37.539 --> 00:17:45.009 takes the time, he notices particular details, but he doesn't stop there. 180 00:17:45.730 --> 00:17:52.369 Verse Thirty Two. Then I saw and considered it, I looked and received 181 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:59.279 instruction. And then this will sound a familiar a little sleep, a little 182 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:03.119 slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come 183 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:07.599 upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. So you see, 184 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:11.910 you have two people doing similar things here in Chapter Twenty Four. You 185 00:18:11.990 --> 00:18:17.750 have the wise man doing this. He's learning his lesson right. He goes 186 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:22.670 out and he sees this field. Here's a field that is owned by a 187 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:27.299 sluggard. He has a vineyard, he has something that can produce him wealth 188 00:18:27.339 --> 00:18:33.579 and joy. What does he do? He doesn't work and instead of having 189 00:18:33.660 --> 00:18:37.819 this vineyard, this man who has less lacks sense, has a field that's 190 00:18:37.859 --> 00:18:44.569 overgrown with Thorns, oh stone wall that's broken down, animals and people coming 191 00:18:44.650 --> 00:18:48.089 in and out. Poverty is upon him. Want is like an arm man. 192 00:18:48.210 --> 00:18:55.759 He's learned this lesson in for chapter six it's turned just a little bit. 193 00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.079 Instead, the command is to the sluggerd hey, why don't you go 194 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:02.640 out? Why don't you go out into the world and learn a lesson? 195 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:07.759 Why don't you go consider something and become wise? Pay Attention, wake up, 196 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:11.710 get to work, stop lying there thinking that everything's going to come to 197 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:18.190 you or that you can escape the harsh realities of poverty and want. Go 198 00:19:22.069 --> 00:19:29.140 consider the ant, be wise without having any ruler officer. She prepares her 199 00:19:29.259 --> 00:19:33.779 bread in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. What about you? 200 00:19:37.819 --> 00:19:41.970 So this is the way that we are called to go into the world. 201 00:19:42.049 --> 00:19:47.970 Sometimes proverbs gives up straight up conclusions, but other times it teaches us 202 00:19:47.970 --> 00:19:52.920 how to reach those conclusions on our own. This is where wisdom comes from 203 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:59.640 and it's how it's obtained. Now, when we think about this and how 204 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.279 we do or don't do this in our own lives, I find that I 205 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.990 come up short in many ways, and I think you probably do too. 206 00:20:10.430 --> 00:20:12.750 We want wisdom, at least in some ways. We want to know how 207 00:20:12.829 --> 00:20:15.869 to how does the world work? How can I make a lot of money 208 00:20:15.910 --> 00:20:21.309 or how can I have a good marriage? But it's not merely about obtaining 209 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:26.619 these things, although that's good, but it's an inside matter too. How 210 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:30.380 do we live before the Lord? How do we fear him in a way 211 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:34.619 that respects the world that he has made, this moral order that he has 212 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:40.170 put into place? How do we, as his image bearers, go out 213 00:20:40.210 --> 00:20:45.329 into the world and act accordingly? But what we often do is what we 214 00:20:45.410 --> 00:20:52.400 ought not to do. Sometimes we're lazy. Say I don't have time and 215 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:57.599 I don't want to bother with thinking and reflecting and considering. I don't want 216 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:03.759 to bother with working and obeying and doing the things that God has commanded. 217 00:21:04.109 --> 00:21:10.109 We act as though we are masters of our own orders, as oh the 218 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:14.230 world that God has made is simply not the world that we want to belong 219 00:21:14.349 --> 00:21:18.140 to, that we'd rather do something else, we'd rather live in another way, 220 00:21:19.220 --> 00:21:23.140 do things according to our plans, in our ways. That's, in 221 00:21:23.259 --> 00:21:26.579 some ways, what the sluggard's doing and what all the fools in the book 222 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:30.180 of proverbs. Do they look at the world as it's made and say, 223 00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:36.130 AH, I'd rather not. And they're fools. Right, we know that 224 00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:40.250 they're fools, because bad things happen to them when they do these kinds of 225 00:21:40.329 --> 00:21:45.809 things. But we're fools too whenever we go against the world that God has 226 00:21:45.890 --> 00:21:51.079 made, against the order that he has created, and this is no little 227 00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:56.799 thing. Ultimately, it's an act of idolatry, it's an act of rebellion 228 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:00.759 to tell us ay to the God who has made all of these things, 229 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:06.789 who has brought forth into the world not only this good created a creation, 230 00:22:07.430 --> 00:22:17.299 but a balanced, wise moral world filled with goodness and blessing, and to 231 00:22:17.420 --> 00:22:21.859 rebel against that, to say no to God, to say no, I 232 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:25.660 don't want to work, no, I don't want to study. No, 233 00:22:25.779 --> 00:22:29.619 I don't want to reflect, I want to live how I want to live, 234 00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:33.329 on my time, on my schedule. It's not just being foolish, 235 00:22:34.450 --> 00:22:48.559 it's being rebellious. The Bible gives us these strong commands and uses these strong 236 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:56.160 words like struggles or sluggard or fool or death or shame to wake us up, 237 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:03.910 to wake us up from our moral slumbers, to say hey, things 238 00:23:03.950 --> 00:23:07.470 are not good here. If God didn't love us, if God didn't care 239 00:23:07.670 --> 00:23:11.750 about us, he wouldn't tell us these things. We'd simply slip into our 240 00:23:11.859 --> 00:23:18.779 deaths, and just fully, rightfully so. But God is gracious and uses 241 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:23.180 this, these things, to wake us up. But he does more than 242 00:23:23.259 --> 00:23:30.170 that as well. God even saves us from these things. If you struggle 243 00:23:30.250 --> 00:23:36.690 with laziness, if you struggle with taking the time to learn and to think 244 00:23:36.730 --> 00:23:41.250 about the world God has made, if you find that your sell you live 245 00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:48.359 in a way that is rebellious and foolish, then God has given us a 246 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:55.480 salvation from these things. It's a salvation that comes not just from waking up 247 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:57.710 and moving forward. Indeed, some of US find I can't wake up, 248 00:23:59.549 --> 00:24:06.150 I'm dead. I'm so entrapped by these feelings, by my own desires, 249 00:24:06.349 --> 00:24:11.180 by my own lefts, that I don't know what to do. That's why 250 00:24:11.299 --> 00:24:17.859 God works for us. He does a work that we are unable to do 251 00:24:18.099 --> 00:24:25.529 and that he saves us from our sluggardly. I don't sluggardliness, our laziness. 252 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:33.410 He saves us from ourselves. You remember what Roman says, that Jesus 253 00:24:33.450 --> 00:24:41.160 Christ saved us while we were still sluggards, sinners. Ungodly. God comes 254 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:47.359 into the world in all of our not working, in all of our doing 255 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:52.109 ungodly things and all of our refusing to obey and live as he has called 256 00:24:52.190 --> 00:24:56.509 us to do, and he has sent us a son to work on our 257 00:24:56.630 --> 00:25:06.470 behalf. Jesus is called our wisdom in the Bible because he lived not just 258 00:25:06.750 --> 00:25:11.059 according to rules one, two, three, four, five, six, 259 00:25:11.140 --> 00:25:15.980 seven, eight, nine and ten, but he lived rightly in accord with 260 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:19.900 the whole moral order that God has made. Have you ever been in a 261 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:23.450 situation where you say, I want to do the right thing, but I 262 00:25:23.650 --> 00:25:30.049 don't know how, I don't know whether I should do this or this, 263 00:25:30.809 --> 00:25:33.930 I don't know what the consequences are going to be. I don't know how 264 00:25:33.089 --> 00:25:41.000 to be wise? Jesus was always wise. Jesus was always able to perceive 265 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:48.119 motives and intentions and consequences and to act rightly in the world. It wasn't 266 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:53.109 just obeying a particular list, though he does that too, but every aspect 267 00:25:53.150 --> 00:26:02.789 of his life he lived in perfect wisdom, a King Wiser Than Solomon, 268 00:26:02.950 --> 00:26:07.420 and he does that not only is an example for us, but to save 269 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:17.940 us from our own laziness, from our own deaths and poverty and want spiritual 270 00:26:18.849 --> 00:26:26.210 and otherwise. So when the Bible says to go to the aunt and work, 271 00:26:26.450 --> 00:26:30.569 we do that not in our own strength, but in the fear of 272 00:26:30.809 --> 00:26:38.079 the Lord, the fear of Jehovah, our Covenant God, who has made 273 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:44.319 us in a particular way and saved us in a particular way, who's given 274 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:48.150 us Jesus to work on our behalf and bring us into the kind of life 275 00:26:48.710 --> 00:26:55.630 that is the opposite of poverty, that's filled with blessing and joy. In 276 00:26:55.750 --> 00:27:00.269 the Kingdom of God, we don't live in a place that broken down walls 277 00:27:00.430 --> 00:27:04.539 and overgrown fields, because our lord is a worker. He's given US vineyards 278 00:27:04.660 --> 00:27:08.779 and and he's given us a house that is rich and full of blessing, 279 00:27:08.819 --> 00:27:14.940 much like when God brought the Israelites into the Promised Land and gave them these 280 00:27:15.059 --> 00:27:18.650 kinds of things. When God brings us into his kingdom through Jesus Christ, 281 00:27:19.009 --> 00:27:25.410 he gives us all these blessings, and that's the light in which we work, 282 00:27:26.609 --> 00:27:30.720 believing not that if we simply get up and live, that we will 283 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:33.839 how we we will avoid all of our sins, but we get up and 284 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:38.640 work knowing that Jesus is already worked on our behalf, that he's given us 285 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:44.869 a vineyard that we can move about Freelian and tend to, and all for 286 00:27:44.990 --> 00:27:55.309 his glory. Frustration with our sin is often overwhelming. Sometimes our laziness, 287 00:27:55.670 --> 00:28:00.220 be it in the sort of sense of just working or our or the greater 288 00:28:00.339 --> 00:28:10.740 sense of our moral laziness, our moral slackerdom, it can be frustrating. 289 00:28:11.019 --> 00:28:18.690 It's a parent and appalling. But that's why Jesus saved us. That's why 290 00:28:18.690 --> 00:28:25.690 Jesus brought us in and changed our hearts so that the burden of the law 291 00:28:25.730 --> 00:28:30.240 would be gone and that we could receive a yoke that was easy and light. 292 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:36.920 Matthew Henry says that the yoke that we are given in Jesus is easy 293 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:45.950 because it's lined with love. God's Love, God's love spread in our hearts, 294 00:28:47.910 --> 00:28:52.109 God's love given to us on the Cross, God's love and saving us 295 00:28:52.309 --> 00:28:57.700 from our sins allows us to work, enjoy and anticipation and thankfulness for the 296 00:28:57.779 --> 00:29:03.740 things that he has done. Let us be thankful to God for these things 297 00:29:03.819 --> 00:29:07.619 and get to work. Let's pray