Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] My name is Eric Bolling. I'm part of the preaching team here and I need to clear something up related to last time I spoke.
[00:00:15] Last time I spoke was the start of the NFL football season. If you know me, you know I'm pretty simple. I like football.
[00:00:23] I predicted that the super bowl would be the Bears and the six time world champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and neither of them made it. But at least we can all agree it wasn't the Ravens, right? I'm kidding. That's a shot. And I apologize from the pulpit, but will I watch the Super Bowl? I say no, but I will.
[00:00:46] So I apologize for getting that wrong.
[00:00:49] So we're in week two of Proverbs, and I'll tell you what, I love the book of Proverbs. It has been a book throughout my life that I find myself continuing to go back to and to learn from and to gain wisdom from. And so today we are going to be in Proverbs, chapter six. We're going to look at verses six to 11.
[00:01:12] But before we dive into the text, we need to talk about why do we even need a book of Proverbs?
[00:01:19] It's really because we're not that smart. Let's be honest, we're not as smart as we think we are.
[00:01:27] Some of you may know this, but in my early career I was a therapist. I then was a high school educator. I taught psychology for about 10 years and so spent a lot of time talking about thinking and those things. And there's something that humans do called cognitive biases. And there's a couple. There's a lot of them, but there's a couple I just want to talk about that sort of prove that we're not as smart as we think we are. The first one would be called a confirmation bias. And it's basically we look for information that confirms what we already believe to be true. And then we go, yeah, look, see, like all of this data. That's one. There's another one called the sharpshooter fallacy, where we take a bunch of data and we look at it. And actually, humans are pretty good at spotting patterns and things and making connections. And so the problem is we take all this data and then we start making connections and we end up in crazy conspiracies and things that really aren't there. So the idea is like, you shoot a bunch of shots, then you just move the target to where the shots are and there you go.
[00:02:32] One of my, one of my favorites is called the availability heuristic. And I'm Going to ask you a question.
[00:02:38] What's more dangerous, sharks or cows?
[00:02:43] Now, again, some of you are like, this feels like a trick question. And it is, okay? Cows kill more people per. Like, almost exponentially more than sharks.
[00:02:55] And yet we don't celebrate the cow like we do sharks. Can you imagine if I was like, hey, there's a great series coming out. It's cow week, right? But cows are much more dangerous. Well, why do sharks stick out to us? Because shark attacks tend to be pretty sensational, as we can imagine, they're pretty rare. So we go on the most available information, and we go, yeah, see, look, like, dangerous. Okay? Don't be around sharks, and sharks are dangerous. Let's not get it wrong, but cows are more dangerous. How about this one last one about the belief that a tiny groundhog in Punsutawney, Pennsylvania, will come. It will come out. Yeah. Happy Groundhog Day to those that celebrate. Right.
[00:03:40] I don't want to ruin it for you, but supposedly he saw a shadow.
[00:03:44] Yeah, right, that guy. Six more weeks of winter. Anyway, we're just not as smart as we think we are. Why is that? Because we're finite. We're limited. Our brains don't have the full capacity to see everything and know everything.
[00:04:00] But I will say it's unique because we do have a lot of knowledge. And I want to take a second to kind of break down knowledge versus wisdom, because our culture tends to separate them. The Bible connects them. So when we go through Proverbs, when you see, like, knowledge, it's talking about wisdom. But for us, I want to take a second to make sure we're on the same page, what we're talking about. Knowledge is knowing something, right? Knowledge is like, I have. I know something about this. Remember the old game Trivial Pursuit? Before you could look up everything on your smartphone, right? You get together. Anybody have those friends that were real good at that and they only wanted to play that game, Right? You're like, no, but we just know stuff. We know a lot of information.
[00:04:44] We really do. We can get access to a ton of information.
[00:04:49] But wisdom, then, is knowledge plus understanding.
[00:04:54] Wisdom is knowledge plus understanding. It's what to do with what we know. I'll give you an example.
[00:05:01] I have some mechanics that I take my cars to.
[00:05:05] They're good at what they do. When I bring my car in, I say, this is what's happening.
[00:05:12] I want them to say, well, this is what's wrong.
[00:05:16] But I want them to go a step further and say, and this is how we're going to fix it.
[00:05:21] If they were like, well, good luck with that, that would be discouraging. Or how about your doctor?
[00:05:30] When I go to the doctor, I want to say like, look, I got this going on. I want him to go, well, it's this.
[00:05:36] How do we fix it? I don't know.
[00:05:39] Go to WebMD?
[00:05:42] No, I want him to say, like, here's the knowledge, understanding. I don't want to be his first patient either.
[00:05:48] Like, I want him to have gone through that. So this idea of wisdom is knowledge plus understanding. Here's what it is and here's what to do with it. With that in mind, I want us to flip quickly to Proverbs, chapter one, because why do we need or how does this book of Proverbs help us get wisdom? I want to read this to you. Just a couple of verses, verses two to six, and then go through and look at. This is what Proverbs offers us. Let's go to Proverbs, chapter 1, verse 2.
[00:06:18] Proverbs are about to know wisdom and instruction to understand words of insight, to receive instruction and wise dealing in righteousness, justice and equity to give prudence to the simple knowledge and discretion to the youth.
[00:06:36] Go ahead and read through verse six here. Let the wise hear and increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddle. So why? How does Proverbs help us? Number one, we know. We know wisdom and instruction through the book of Proverbs, really the entirety of Scripture. But we know that through Proverbs 2 we understand insight. We receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, equity. We gives prudence to those of us that are simple knowledge and discretion to those of us who are young. And so Proverbs at the very outset in chapter one says, if you read this book and if you understand and if you apply this book, this is what you get. And here are the benefits.
[00:07:22] To hear and increase in learning to obtain guidance to understand.
[00:07:27] So Proverbs is a valuable book for us as we look to live as wise people. So where does wisdom begin? Proverbs 1:7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And remember, Bible will use knowledge, wisdom, interchangeably.
[00:07:45] So wisdom begins when we humble ourselves and admit we don't know as much as we think we know. Wisdom starts where we realize there's God and we are not Him. And he knows more than we know. He understands more than we know he can do more than we can do. And when we can get to that Point to say, look, God, I am starting with a fear of you, a reverence for you, and understanding that you are God and I am not. The scripture says that is the start of knowledge.
[00:08:23] Not degrees, not what we read in books, not podcasts. Understanding that there is God and we are not Him.
[00:08:32] So what do we learn through Proverbs, really? There's three things. Wisdom and moral. Wisdom and instruction, moral and ethical teaching, fear of the Lord.
[00:08:43] All of that to set up what we're going to look at today. Proverbs 6, 6 through 8 says this. Go to the ant, O Sluggard.
[00:08:55] Consider her ways and be wise. Let's pause there. Go is what the sluggard is told to do. Go literally means walk with, spend time with.
[00:09:08] That phrase, consider her ways is an idea of a road or path. So what the author is saying is. He's saying, look, sluggard, go to the ant.
[00:09:19] Look and learn from the ant.
[00:09:27] The sluggard is someone who is. It's a negative connotation. I know. It's not one we throw around too much anymore. When's the last time someone's called you a sluggard or you've called someone else a sluggard? Right? We don't, but it really. It's negative. It's talking. It's lazy, idle, unwilling to work. Lack of responsibility, motivation. A sluggard, at its very basis is. Is lazy. It's what a sluggard is. So let's get the setup here. We have the writer of Proverbs says, look, go to the ant, o Sluggard. Let's pause. Who's the sluggard? Probably if you thought of somebody else, you're missing the point.
[00:10:07] Saw a few, like, that's you.
[00:10:10] My wife and I raised teens. We'd often be like, look, he's talking to you. It's us. We're all sluggards. Right? Go consider the ant.
[00:10:19] Why? Because the sluggard is lazy. Laziness, at its core, is a spiritual problem.
[00:10:26] It's the idea of a lack of discipline, a lack of fear of the Lord. It leads to unfulfilled life.
[00:10:34] And so the writer of Proverbs is saying, look, there's a problem.
[00:10:39] There's laziness in your life. There's a lack of fear of the Lord. There's a lack of discipline. So how do we solve it? Go to the ant.
[00:10:50] The opposite of the sluggard. Listen and learn. Now, this text forced me to learn a lot about ants.
[00:11:00] Now, I be honest with you. I do not like ants.
[00:11:05] Every spring, my wife and I, no matter how much we pay Certain pest control companies have ants in our house. And maybe we should celebrate because it's a sign of spring. Like, hey, spring is here. Trail of ants. Right?
[00:11:20] I just. I find them to be nuisances, to be honest with you. Okay. And maybe I get that. Honest. I remember as a kid, my dad, if we had a big anthill in our yard, he would pour gasoline on it and light it on fire.
[00:11:35] Now, my dad, that's the 70s and my dad was from southern Ohio. So consider context. But I mean, just, ah, ants. I don't. Right.
[00:11:45] I need to ask him why he thought that was a good idea.
[00:11:50] But the scripture says, go to the ant, learn and listen and look at what he has. What the ant teaches us. Let's look at verse 8 says this. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
[00:12:07] So like I said, I've had this sort of a annoyance with ants, but I did a deep dive. I was like, all right, I gotta learn about them. Here's a couple of ant facts for you. Number one, there are 12,000 different species of ants.
[00:12:21] I thought there were two. Black and red.
[00:12:24] It's 12,000.
[00:12:27] They're found on every continent except Antarctica.
[00:12:33] I guess that should have been assumed, but this one blew me away. They have two stomachs, one for their own food and one for other ants.
[00:12:44] Yeah. I was like, whoa.
[00:12:47] And then their average lifespan of an ant is between 40 to 60, 45 to 60 days. But Queen ants can live sometimes up to decades. Amazing. Well, what does that have to do with our text? Why does the sluggard have to consider the ant?
[00:13:04] First thing is ants have relentless work ethics.
[00:13:08] Think about this. Have you ever seen a bunch of ants just out, like, sunning themselves? No. They're always moving, always constant. What are they doing? They're foraging for food, building and maintaining nests, caring for young, defending their colony. Like, they're always working. They're relentless.
[00:13:28] One thing we learn from ants, number two, they're highly cooperative in their labor. Ants are highly organized. Every ant contributes to the good of the colony. They all have jobs to do. Matter of fact, ants can sometimes form what's called super organisms, where you get millions of ants together and they sort of function like one. I won't say one mind, but, like, it's. It's not eerie, but it's like, whoa. All these ants got together and they accomplished things. They solve complex problems, like efficient routes to food, nesting adaptation.
[00:14:05] They have sophisticated communication. They leave pheronomes for each other to follow. They take down much larger prey through swarming, biting, stinging, chemical deterrence. I don't know if you've ever been bit by ants. We really don't deal with that up here in the north much. But I got a son that lives in Florida and if he's mowing his lawn and he hits what's called fire ants, they light him up.
[00:14:30] They're aggressive. There's some YouTube videos of ants taking down larger prey. I'm not going to show it because it's Sunday morning. It's pretty aggressive, but it's, it's pretty fascinating, I'm not gonna lie. Right, because they all band together. A couple other things with ants and why the sluggard should consider them perseverance and resilience. They continue to work in the face of difficult terrain, harsh weather. If the nest is destroyed, they immediately start to rebuild it. And I know all of you have stepped on an ant hill just to watch them come out and rebuild it because it's impressive, like, whoa, here they are. They're immediately to work. And in preparation for the future foresight, they store food during winter months when they know food sources are going to be scarce. And again, they do this without anybody telling them to do it. It's how they were designed by God.
[00:15:23] And God is saying, go to the ant, look, learn. Well, what are three things we learn or what the slugger can learn? Number one is this idea of diligence, this idea of sticking to a task until it's completed.
[00:15:38] The idea of not giving up too industriousness. Ants are self motivated, they just get after it themselves. They don't wait for somebody to tell them to do it. And last thing is responsibility. Ants are planning ahead for the future. And so the lesson here is this.
[00:15:57] When we look at humanity created in the image of God, infinitely smarter than a group of ants, God is saying, look, you need to understand that there are still things for you to listen and learn from from these ants. And I find it interesting that of everything that God could have chosen, the ant is what's been picked.
[00:16:24] And the point is saying, look, you need to consider this because you're on a path of laziness that's not going to end well for you. And that's how we pick up in verses 9 to 11. So the, the writer says, look, go to the ant sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Then it picks up in verse nine and says, how long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
[00:16:51] A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest. You don't get the idea that this is a nice tone here because the author just said, go consider the ant.
[00:17:05] But where do we find the sluggard? Still in bed.
[00:17:10] It's like he missed the point. It's like, I told you to do this, and yet you're still doing what you need to do. Laziness for honest is is gradual and deceptive for us. It kind of creeps in. I don't know if I've ever met anybody. I said, hey, what. What do you want to do with your life? I want to be really lazy.
[00:17:30] I don't know if I've ever personally just thought, you know what? I'm just going to be. I'm going to be. I might say I'm going to be lazy today, but I'm not meaning, like, I'm going to give up my entire life. It creeps in. And the hard part is the more you do it, the easier it becomes, the more that you get in these patterns of behavior.
[00:17:53] It happens. And oftentimes again, we're pretty good at rationalizing and we sort of COVID it with, well, it's just a little more rest.
[00:18:01] I mean, how many times have I deceived myself with that? I'm just going to hit snooze one more time. Oh, you know what? I'm just going to watch one more episode. Oh, you know what? I'm going to whatever, and we're going to talk in a second. That that doesn't always necessarily mean that I'm being lazy, but it is a pattern. And we're going to talk about laziness versus rest. But before we get there, we have to understand a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest is the mechanism by which laziness takes hold and leads to a pattern of unproductive living.
[00:18:39] And it's quite honestly something that all of us need to guard against because it's easy for us to slip into it. So how do we. How do we tell the difference between laziness and rest, though, right? Like, how do we know? Like, am I lazy? Am I resting? Well, really comes down to motive and intent.
[00:18:59] Like, why am I doing it? What's my intention behind this? Let's look at a couple things about rest. Number one, rest is purposeful. It's intentional.
[00:19:09] It's done with the idea of recharging oneself.
[00:19:12] It's stepping back on purpose to say, look, I'm going to take. We'll take some time here. I'm Going to take a break with this.
[00:19:21] Laziness is aimless and unproductive. It's avoiding work and responsibility. So there's, there's a purposefulness to rest.
[00:19:30] I'm going to go do this because I know it's going to be good for me.
[00:19:35] Outcome. Rest leads to renewal.
[00:19:40] Rest leads to renewal.
[00:19:43] I don't know if you've ever had little ones in your house when you know the best thing for them is to go rest because they're overtired and they know they're overtired, but what do they not want to do? Go rest.
[00:19:59] And you fight them.
[00:20:02] But we know it's good for them because it leads to renewal. Laziness leads to stagnation and even more laziness. So the idea of when I'm resting, I get up from that and I'm now ready to tackle whatever is in front of me.
[00:20:17] Whereas laziness is, I rest. I'm lazy. I don't want to deal with anything else.
[00:20:23] Attitude. Rest. Rest equals gratitude and trust in God's provision.
[00:20:30] Laziness is about discontentment and entitlement, lack of self discipline. See, what's interesting about rest versus laziness is we are commanded to rest. Exodus, chapter 24th commandment. Remember the Sabbath, which was designed by God to give his people a day of rest.
[00:20:49] God himself rested on the seventh day of creation. So this idea of rest is, rest is good.
[00:20:58] Rest is created by God. It is good for us.
[00:21:04] It's intentional and purposeful. It leads to gratitude and trust. And a question we have to ask is, am I being. Am I resting or am I being lazy?
[00:21:14] Because sometimes those, those lines can get blurry. And that's what we talk about. It's motive, it's intent. Now my wife and I, our three kids are gone from the house and we enjoy what we call slow Saturday mornings. Nobody's got to get up at a certain time. We have coffee. Sometimes we don't even talk. We just sit and look at each other.
[00:21:36] We've been married almost 31 years and again we call it a slow Saturday. We don't have to run kids anywhere. We have no activities.
[00:21:46] Are we being restful or are we being lazy? Well, I would argue that's rest for us.
[00:21:52] We need that time.
[00:21:54] I would say, look further evidence. Our bills get paid, our lawn gets mowed, our house gets like all these responsibilities we have, we're taking care of, but we look for that time of rest.
[00:22:05] But we gotta wrestle.
[00:22:08] Am I resting or am I being lazy?
[00:22:12] So what's the consequence for laziness, this is what's the author says, look, laziness is gradual. It comes on, you look at the results. Poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Literally, you're being mugged by poverty.
[00:22:34] So the results are sudden. It happens where, where if you're lazy, you look around one time and you're like, whoa, whoa, what happened? I don't have anything.
[00:22:46] Maybe actually material poverty, maybe other types of poverty, maybe whatever it is, it just says, look, this is going to come on sudden, a forceful attack. So the results of laziness happen like that.
[00:23:01] They happen quickly.
[00:23:04] So the idea here is it's you sleep, you sleep, you sleep is one more, just little rest, little, and all of a sudden, boom, you're there. Poverty comes upon you quickly.
[00:23:16] And I think the author is strong here because it's a big deal.
[00:23:21] It's a spiritual problem. And he wants the sluggard to know, like, look, you have to be vigilant in your life. You have to be on guard with this. You have to be on top of it. Because here's the reality.
[00:23:39] We might be disciplined for a short time, often if we're motivated.
[00:23:45] But the problem with motivation is it wanes, whereas discipline continues even when we don't have the motivation. So what's the Reward?
[00:23:56] Well, Proverbs 6, 6:11 doesn't explicitly state the reward. It's more of a warning. If you're lazy, you're going to have poverty that comes on you like, like an armed bandit. But we can imply a couple of things. That the reward is avoiding the negative consequences of laziness. If you don't want that, don't be lazy.
[00:24:18] You can avoid the consequences of poverty, hardship.
[00:24:23] The flip side is also true. You gain the positive consequences of industriousness, avoiding poverty, and want achieving a stable, secure life. Again, as Pastor Dean mentioned last week, proverbs isn't always a hey, do this and then you get this.
[00:24:39] But I think we have enough from this passage to draw to say, look, if you want a stable, secure, fulfilled life, laziness is not the path to do that.
[00:24:51] Being industrious, being diligent is the way to make that happen.
[00:24:57] The Bible views laziness as a serious issue.
[00:25:02] We tend to not treat it as maybe as serious as we should culturally, because we have all sorts of things. Well, I'm just having a little me time.
[00:25:13] I'm just going to take some time and I'm going to a little folding of the hands to rest. And again, rest is Good rest is purposeful.
[00:25:21] But laziness is an issue that has significant spiritual and physical consequences.
[00:25:27] So what we're told here is to be diligent, industrious, and responsible. Now, if we're not careful, we hear a sermon like we read a scripture like this, and we go, all right, I'm going 180 now. I'm going full bore. At least that's the way I think. I don't know. I think in extremes, right? I'm like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna do this now. And you get these, you know, powerful, slow. He's like, grind, don't stop. And I'm up at 4am and I'm like, I'm gonna work. Okay?
[00:26:00] I don't think the solution to laziness is workaholism.
[00:26:05] I really don't think the solution is just keep doing more. It might be doing more than you're doing now, but the real answer isn't gonna be found in. And just making all of these massive changes. And now I'm not lazy. I mean, the answer is going to be found through Christ, which we're going to talk about in a second here. And so I just want to caution us that when we walk out of here today, the solution shouldn't be for us to go do more.
[00:26:32] It's not the answer.
[00:26:35] 4. So what's related to that? Number one, we need to be honest and admit we don't know as much as we think we know. We're not as smart as we think we are.
[00:26:45] Remember, Proverbs 1:7 says, the beginning of knowledge is fear of the Lord being humble and saying like, look, I am not as smart as I think I am. And then the second, so what goes with that? Ask God for wisdom.
[00:27:05] James, chapter one, verse five says this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let's pause there. It probably should read, all of you lack wisdom.
[00:27:16] What do we do? Let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it's going to be given.
[00:27:25] So this idea that we need to ask God for. For wisdom.
[00:27:31] I've been trying to make it a practice to pray and say, God, give me wisdom, knowledge, understanding. Help me to know more than what I know.
[00:27:40] I take to heart this verse that says, ask God, who gives generously, who provides it if we ask for it.
[00:27:51] And even that second part, without reproach. It's not like God goes, really, you're here again.
[00:27:58] I gave you the Bible. I gave you the Holy Spirit. You're asking again? No, it's all the time, ask God number three. We need to develop discipline. If we're honest, all of us could use some more discipline. I think the key though is we need to prioritize spiritual disciplines first.
[00:28:23] This idea of reading scripture, praying, fasting, all of those things like that needs to be a priority. We're told in scripture that physical training has some value, but godliness has value for all things. So we prioritize our spiritual development, spiritual habits.
[00:28:44] There was a book, and it's not a faith based book, but it was written by a guy named James Clear. It was called Atomic Habits. And what James Clear talks about is, he said, in order to build a habit, most of us go to the extreme. Like we talked about before, I gotta lose a little weight, I'll run a marathon, I gotta, you know, I gotta do this. He says, no, the, the, what you need to do is change one small thing over time.
[00:29:15] And he writes in the book, he talks about, let's say you need to get in shape. He said sometimes that may mean you drive to the gym and then you go home.
[00:29:26] He's in the second day you drive to the gym, you open the door and then you go home.
[00:29:32] The third day you drive to the gym, you open the door, you go pay for a membership. You get the point?
[00:29:38] And what he's saying is, he's saying like, look, these things built, just like laziness is gradual, so is discipline.
[00:29:48] And sometimes, like I said, we're tempted to make these massive things when what we need to be do is building slowly. And so maybe even in a spiritual discipline, you're like, look, I need a better habit here.
[00:30:00] Instead of saying, I'm going to read all of whatever, just maybe start with reading a chapter a day. Interesting. Proverbs has 31 chapters.
[00:30:08] Most months have 30 to 31 days. Maybe you start there or maybe you start with before you leave bed, you just are reminded of God's word. This is the day the Lord has made. I'm going to rejoice and be glad in it.
[00:30:25] I don't think the point is quantity.
[00:30:29] I think the point is developing that idea of discipline. And then what happens over time is you look and you see growth, you see gain, you see all types of good that has come because you've had that discipline. It's the reverse of what happens to the sluggard. The sluggard comes to ruin, but we come to gain. Lastly, I think we need to follow Jesus example of work and rest.
[00:30:58] If you read through the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you look at it at the life of Jesus. Jesus was not lazy.
[00:31:08] Jesus was purposeful.
[00:31:10] He was disciplined. There are so many stories about Jesus where, you know, he. He's praying all night, he's healing people. And we have to remember he is fully God, but he's also fully human.
[00:31:22] I'm sure there were times where he was probably done with the crowds, but yet we see this example where he was about God's work. But Jesus also took time to rest, sometimes in strange places. Remember the story where he's in the boat and there's a massive storm? And where did the disciples find Jesus? He's asleep.
[00:31:45] It's amazing to me.
[00:31:47] But Jesus had rhythms of rest. He had disciplines, he prayed, he knew scripture, all of those things. And so I think when we're talking about what we do with this, we just have to understand that, look, laziness is a struggle for us.
[00:32:02] It's part of living, you know, in our human condition. But it doesn't have to be our default, particularly if we take the truth of God's word.
[00:32:13] We rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:32:16] We follow the example of Jesus. We can develop what we need in order to lead disciplined life.
[00:32:25] Pray for us, Father. We. We come to you and we're grateful for your Word.
[00:32:34] We're grateful for what you teach us, Lord, even in seemingly insignificant things like ants.
[00:32:42] Jesus, we're thankful that you understand what it was like to be us reminded of the scriptures that tell us that you were tempted in every way that we were. Yet you were without sin, Lord. Thank you for the example that you set, Lord. Help us to be a disciplined people.
[00:33:03] Help us to be a people that understand that we have work to do and it's good work. It's your work. Help us to not be distracted by our tendency to slide into laziness.
[00:33:18] Or again, we just thank you for the truth of your word and what it provides for us.
[00:33:24] Thank you for this. And we press in your name. Amen.
