Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 10:4, 5, 26 (Gainful Employment) (Labor Day) (Part 30)

We'll be looking at verses 4, 5, and 26 as we begin our consideration this morning, but I will be continuing throughout the book of Proverbs on the theme of gainful employment. Proverbs, the 10th chapter, beginning at verse 4. Hear now God's word. He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. And verse 26, as vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Labor Day is always an awkward situation for this preacher because on the one hand, the plus side, it seems like such a wonderful opportunity to expound the important biblical message about labor and its dignity and its place, the message of our divine calling and how we bring glory to God in all that we do. And yet the history of Labor Day doesn't really match up with the message that I'd like to preach. And so I feel a little awkward, maybe a little hypocritical about that. I don't imagine that many of us have spent time studying the origins of our Labor Day holiday. But just in case you missed that along the lines, you need to realize that at the end of the 19th century, the international socialist movement was strong in a number of places, European, and to some degree in America as well. And many of the organized labor unions, either for good or maybe for ignorant reasons, maybe for some evil ones as well, tended to cooperate with that internationalist movement. In fact, in Das Kapital, Karl Marx was as pleased as Punch, as we say, to see the Eight Hour Movement gaining momentum in this country because he saw it as advancing the needs of international communism. Well, as it turns out, toward the end of the 1800s, if I have the date right, I think it's 1898, but it's right at the end of the century. It turned out that some of the organized labor leaders in this country, realizing that their May 1st celebration of labor Day, which was supposed to be a workman's holiday, was being too conveniently used by those. As you know, May 1st is also the internationalist Day, the day for international communism to celebrate its revolutionary intentions around the world. Well, many of our labor leaders campaigned to change our workman's holiday to the first September 1st, Monday in September, so that we would not have such a close affinity between international communism, the socialist movement, and their revolutionary intentions. And so Here we have Labor Day. We continue to enjoy it. The background of Labor Day, then, is international socialism. And even as that is dissociated, at least in its revolutionary intentions from our workman's holiday, its background is in the lobbying efforts of organized labor, which I suppose, if you know my socioeconomic convictions, doesn't make me warm up to the idea of Labor Day, since I do believe in organized labor, you understand, I just don't believe that organized labor should have legal prerogatives that have been granted to it and also use violence in order to enforce its monopoly in the workplace. I believe in the free market. And that's why much of what labor unions do today, I think, is contrary to Christian principle. But nevertheless, that's the background of Labor Day. And so what are we to do? Here we are on this Labor Day weekend. I have an alternative. Instead of worrying about the general themes that we think of in terms of labor and just using this as a springboard to present them to you, and instead of getting bogged down in what the history of Labor Day is and the sorts of things that maybe would embarrass the attempt to use this to present the Christian message, why don't we just pay attention to what the book of Proverbs says to us about labor today? That would be appropriate, right? Because, lo and behold, if you study the book of Proverbs, there's a fantastic message about labor to be found there to a certain degree. Much of what I'm going to say today you may think you've heard before. That's not my fault, though, you see, because it's been found in the Bible before. God has found it worthy of repetition. And I suppose we can find it worthy of repetition, too. But some time ago I preached to you about going to the ant, thou sluggard. Remember that wonderful passage in Proverbs, Remember the ways of the ant and don't be a sluggard. Well, I'm going to pick up on that again today and continue it as we look at other passages in Proverbs that talk about laboring, that talk about gainful employment. And I hope by the end of this morning's exhortation, you'll see that there's a difference between gainful employment and just being employed at something. Well, what is the point of working? Why should we work? That question was posed a few years ago in a very well written essay in Time magazine. The title of it was, what is the Point of Working? I'd like you to hear what the author begins by saying, because he Begins on a very strong theological theme. I think he's got it wrong. But nevertheless, he wants to incorporate a theological outlook on this. And he says, opening of the essay. When God foreclosed on Eden, he condemned Adam and Eve to go to work. Work has never recovered from that humiliation. From the beginning, the Lord's Word said that work was something bad, a punishment, the great stone of mortality and toil laid upon a human spirit that might otherwise soar in the infinite, weightless playfulness of grace. That is to say, as we were created and meant to be, we would have enjoyed the light playfulness, the spirit of grace where there is no burden of work and labor. When God foreclosed on Eden, when he closed the doors to Eden, shut the gate and barred man from it, he sent him to work. And that, you see, is the humiliation, that is the pain and agony that we go through. Now, work is something bad. It is a punishment. Well, a lot more is said here, but I want to point out that, that though it intends to be to some degree giving deference to the Scriptures and understanding man's background and plight in terms of them, that is dead wrong. Work is not punishment. We'll stop right there. Okay, let's take that slogan. Work is not punishment. Let that sink in for a minute. Perhaps we could even stop preaching. That's enough. If you could learn that lesson, that would be enough today. Work is not punishment. I can't read your minds, but I think I can guess. You're saying, yeah, but you don't go where I work if you don't think it's punishment. The Bible says work is not punishment. Now, how do I know that? How could I refute what Lance Morrow has said in this article? Well, I want to suggest to you that we know that he's wrong in saying that man's banishment from Eden is the beginning of his work and therefore his punishment. Because what do you think man was doing before he was banished from Eden? Oh, this is going to shock some of us. He was working. Yes, he was. He was working six days and resting in God's goodness to him, remembering the Lord's day on the 7th, if there was a 7th. People speculate man didn't make it a week. But nevertheless, man was intended to work before sin entered the picture, before God had to make his work a matter of sweat and toil. Man was to work. He was to be gainfully employed in building the kingdom of God and subduing all of creation to the glory of God, not only in naming the animals but in tending the garden and nourishing it and building it up. So that if I might do a little theological speculation, I believe that if man had not fallen into sin, Adam would have eventually built the city of God. What we read of at the end of the Bible is the New Jerusalem might have been at the beginning of the Bible if Adam and Eve had continued in a godly effort to do what God said for them to do. They did not have some playful, gracious time of bliss and free time before they fell into sin. This is completely muddled. It's wrong headed. Work is not punishment. Work is part of the human condition. There's an interesting testimony to that fact to be found not just in the one particular article that I brought this morning, but any number of sociological studies of people who have won raffles or lotteries who have come unexpectedly into great amounts of money. It's incredible the kind of effect that it has on people. And I suppose it would be really too idealistic to think that we could generalize and say every single person falls into this pattern. But there is an interesting pattern in the case of many of these people. Many of these people say, well, here's somebody who is won, like in one case, $312,000 a year until he dies. You figure you could live pretty comfortably and $312,000 a year, right? And so the first thing that comes to the minds of people and probably to those who get this, is, well, I'm going to stop working. Forget this toil, forget this grief, forget this punishment, and now I'm going to enjoy life. Well, you can't take it. I mean, if I had 312,000 extra dollars this year, I would enjoy life a bit more as well. I mean, we'd pay off some problems, we'd make some improvements, maybe get a new car, take care of some things you can't take care of without that extra cash. No doubt about it. I'm not putting that down. If you get some extra money, keep it. That's great. Okay, but what about this idea that I've got so much money I don't need to work? I think you know what I'm building up to. You know what happens in a large number of cases. Here's a man who paints and puts up wallpaper. I don't know how much he enjoyed that job while he was doing it, but for me, it would be a living hell. I hate painting and wallpaper is my enemy. I know that there's a conspiracy against me when it comes to wallpapering and so if I had that job and I got 312,000 extra dollars a year, you know, I'd quit, right? Well, he quit, so I'm wondering maybe he felt the same way I do. But he didn't quit for long after. I don't know what it was, a year, maybe a year and a half. He said he couldn't take it anymore. He went back. I would have looked for a new line of work, but he went back to painting and wallpapering. Why? Don't think it was because he couldn't feed himself. He was doing fine on that 300,000 a year, no problem. But there was something missing in his life. There was something wrong. I suppose if you were a secular psychologist, you might try to account for it by saying, well, he was just so accustomed to going to work and seeing his colleagues and so forth that it was just throwing his schedule off and he just couldn't adjust to that. I don't think so. I've been on vacation at times that I really needed a vacation badly. And I think I could get used to that. It's not just that. Well, I'm just used to getting up at 6 o' clock and doing my studies and sitting at the computer and making these calls. No, that wouldn't be it. If I felt the need to go back to work. I think in this man's case and mine, and probably in yours too, we would feel the need to go back to work. Because there's something about the human condition that requires us to be gainfully employed. It's really funny. It's ironic, I suppose. All of us to some degree, daydream about having more leisure time and more money to spend in that leisure time. And yet when people get that free time and the money to do what they want, they find out it's kind of like that fuzzy ball, you know, that is chased by the greyhounds, right? The ball explodes and all of a sudden, what's going on? They don't know what to do. They're not pursuing something. Then they're aimless, they're lost, they're confused, they begin fighting, being whimpering, and who knows what to do. Our lives, you see, are not just as a matter of custom, but I think, as a matter of essential need geared toward gainful employment. Some rather interesting attitudes that are expressed by people. Let me tell you about this one fellow here I'm reading. For many, there were new homes and new cars and vacations no longer postponed, but for the most part, once embraced the work ethic apparently was difficult to abandon. A life without labor and direction, many said, was a life adrift. And then we had this one illustration here of a fellow. I guess he's getting 215,000 a year. People keep saying, I don't know why you're working, he said, but you need that commitment. You have to keep pushing yourself. On the other hand, there are people who haven't realized the necessity of gainful employment who will have fellow workers say come into this fortune and then when they keep working, those who have not gained the fortune resent it. It's fascinating case here of two people I know about were waitresses. The author says they wanted to keep their jobs, but their co workers resented them and said, look, you're taking money away from people who need a job. And the idea that they would work because there's dignity to work and because it's part of our divine calling to be gainfully employed in this world was totally out of question. People need a job only to get money. And then finally this one fellow, Dr. Kaplan, who is a social scientist to whatever degree they are scientists, has developed a theory. Simply put, he believes that just playing the lottery breeds a kind of complacency. For the sake of the dream, that winning ticket, you will tolerate conditions in your life that you should be putting more action into changing. He said, that's very true. People you see, will tend to rest their life in get quick, fast schemes. And instead of chipping away and chipping away and making gradual reform and gradual form and slight improvement after slight improvement in their lives, they just hold back and they don't do anything waiting for that, that windfall, you see. And then finally they're going to do something right. They're going to change their lives. And then lo and behold, the people who get the windfall, they say, you know, the thing I need most is to get back to work. What does this tell us? What is the point of working? We need to be gainfully employed because God did not make man to enjoy in some blissful period of grace, idle time, just unrelieved leisure. God made man to perform a task, to get ahead. Not for himself by the way, but for the purposes of God and his kingdom. But nevertheless, God made man goal oriented. God made man needing to work, to accomplish something, to find his dignity and his place in a higher scheme of things than our own little kingdoms and our own little interest and vacations and things like that. God made man to be a worker in his kingdom. The book of Proverbs, as you know is a book promoting wisdom. And if you want to be wise this Labor Day, you should learn the outlook of Proverbs on your employment, on your work, remembering that man was not made for leisure, he was made for work. Let's not look upon work as a punishment. Let's not look upon work as something we need to escape. Let's rather look upon work as something that God has blessed us with. God has given us to make us truly human, to bring glory to his name, and to advance his kingdom. In that framework, Proverbs 10:4, 5 tells us there's both a material and a moral aspect to the quality of our labors. A material and a moral aspect. In verse 4 we look at the material aspect. He becomes poor who works with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Proverbs is very much down to earth and recognizes that good, diligent, thorough, high quality work is what brings riches and a slack hand does not. It brings rather poverty. However, there's also a moral aspect to the quality of our Labor. In verse 5 we read that the quality of our labor distinguishes between a wise and a shameful reputation. Maybe you get a little tired of hearing people talk about the good old days when when men took pride in their work and quality. What they did there on the factory line or as a carpenter or plumber, whatever it may be, was something that they cared about totally apart from how much money they made. That sounds ideal. I don't know to what degree it is true, to what degree it's just kind of a speculation and nostalgia whatever. But the fact is we should look at our work that way. The quality of our work should be something that we take pride in, and if we don't. If you work with a slack hand, you're going to be a shameful son. That is to say, your reputation is going to bring you down. And if you work with a diligent hand, then of course you'll be wise. Wisdom says you care about your work and about doing it well. Notice, however, here that the person with the slack hand is nevertheless described as working. You know you're going to get off real easy this morning if you think all we're talking about here is being occupied with something to do. If you think the sluggard is just the guy who lays around in bed and won't get up and do anything, just the lazy bones kind of fellow. Now the sluggard is more than just the person who's addicted to sleep. The sluggard will work. It just won't work. Worth anything. He gets up and he works with a slack hand. And so being employed in doing something is not enough. We need to be employed in doing it well. We need to be gainfully employed, if I might use that expression. By that, I mean we need to be employed in doing something profitably and productively and effectively. We need to be employed in our labors in a way that brings gain first to God, to His kingdom. And the Bible promises that if we seek that first, he will bless us as well and thereby will bring gain to us too. Gainful employment means not just being busy. There's plenty of busy work. Teachers are supposed to be experts at knowing about busy work, right? Just giving assignments that have no purpose. There's no gain to them, no profit. Well, you see, you mustn't look upon your work as busy, busy work, but as gainful employment. In Proverbs 10:26, we read that those who employ the sluggard are bound to become exasperated. I love this proverb. It's really nicely put as vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. So is someone that you put to work who is a sluggard. A sluggard to those who send him, that is, to those who give him something to do is going to be an exasperation. And I'll tell you this. Your employer is going to know whether you are gainfully employed. Unless you are hiding behind a very, very, very large workforce or hiding behind union protections or something like that. For the most, I think it's usually the case that the employer knows whether your work is gainful or not. And you will be in exasperation if you happen to be employed by somebody and you don't give them a good day's work. If you work with a slack hand, rather than diligently turn to Proverbs 12:11, we'll continue our study. There we read, he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread. But he that followeth after vain things is void of understanding. You see, God expects us to show not only a high level of energy in our labor, but God expects us to show discrimination and good sense as well. You know what this proverb is saying? This proverb is saying that we are not to fritter away serious opportunities to do work which will meet our fundamental needs. If you till your land, you're going to have bread. That makes sense. That's down to earth. That's reasonable, it's productive, and it meets your needs. But over against that, there are frivolous pursuits, there are vain things. It could be translated worthless. Pursuits, if you want that sometimes fascinate us. And no matter how hard you work at it, if what you're working at is a vain matter, you're just empty headed and you'll receive no praise. Proverbs says, those who follow after vain things, well, they're not going to get ahead, they're not going to have bread to eat. And so the Bible requires us not only to labor and not only to be occupied and not only to be concerned with the quality of what we're doing, but to make sure that what we're doing is not vain. The word in Hebrew means empty, futile, senseless, frivolous, ridiculous, Dumb. You say, well no one would ever do something that's dumb and work hard at it. Well, no, no one ever would. Recognizing that it was dumb, no one would say, hey, this is really a dumb thing. I think I'm going to really give myself to it. But there are plenty of people who give themselves to really dumb, empty headed schemes, worthless, frivolous things and they think it's so important and they're really caught up in this. You know, the best thing you can do if you're that person's friend is put out your foot, trip them, say, whoa, don't do that, you're wasting your time, you're being an empty head. Proverbs has got a sense of humor. You already know that. Well, you see, the word vain means empty. The point here is the person who pursues empty things is an empty head. Proverbs 12:24. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be put under task. Work. We see here that diligence and thoroughness in our labours is what will bring promotion and leadership. However, those who are unproductive and inefficient, those who give low quality efforts to their work, will have to be put under an overseer, write down to her. Isn't that true? You have an employee that you can't count on to do his work, right? You've got to get another employee to proofread his work, to watch him at work, to make sure that he's not cheating at work. You need an overseer because you can't count on this person. And so we have this, you know, this chain of command and all this corporate buildup. And what you have is, you know, a small group of workers who have a bunch of overseers that are watching them work and checking up on them, who have their own overseers who are making sure they're overseeing those who are working who have the higher overseers overseeing the overseers of the overseers. It begins to be very ridiculous. But Proverbs understands why that is. It's diligence that brings a person to bear rule and to have leadership among people. Those who are slothful, they've got to be forced to work. Proverbs 12:27. Lazy men do not take advantage of their opportunities. The slothful man doesn't roast that which he hunted, but the precious substance of men is to the diligent. Actually, that last part, I think is better translated in the Hebrew. But a rare treasure of a man is one who is diligent. Those who aren't diligent, they catch something and they're hunting and they're too lazy even to roast it. A little tongue in cheek comment about laziness here. On the other hand, a very precious person, a rare treasure, is a diligent worker. If you've ever been in a management position, if you've ever had to have people under you who are working, whether it be in terms of financial profit or in the church or at school, whatever your project is, you know how true that is, well, you just can't beat getting a good, reliable worker to help you out. Proverbs 13:11. Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall have increase. Notice how the word vanity here is clearly contrasted with hard work. The Hebrew is gathering by hand, meaning working at it. Vanity clearly contrasted with working at what you do. Vanity means emptiness. And that again is fitting, isn't it? Because the outcome that is described is a man's wealth being diminished. A man who gains his wealth through vain tasks get rich quick. Schemes and unprincipled ways of profit is going to see it diminished. But those who work by hand, that is productively, those who work hard, are going to enjoy. In fact, they're going to be increased in their wealth. If you want to, you could paraphrase the proverb perhaps. Easy come, easy go. Proverbs 14:23 we read, in all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tends only to penury. So you have toil on one hand and empty talk on the other. You know, there are a lot of people who talk big, don't they, about making it, about getting ahead. How often have I had this happen, people? Well, I've got this scheme, you know, and here's what I'm going to do. And when I get around to doing that, well, I'm really rich. And this is going to pay off. And this is going to be successful. And it's talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Proverbs says, in labor there is profit, but in talk you're just going to get poor. Proverbs 15:19. The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is made a highway. The lazy path, you need to remember, proves to be neither the easiest path nor the upright path. The person who cuts corners and will not work hard is to be deemed a dishonest person. And that person is going to have a tough life. He's going to have nothing but thorns to have to move through. Proverbs 16:26. Again, one of the measures of realism in the book of Proverbs. The appetite of the laboring man labors for him, for his mouth urges him on. You know what that means? You don't work. You're going to get hungry, and your mouth will urge you on. The appetite of the laboring man, you see, keeps him going. I think that's probably true of you. Unfortunately, many of you at the beginning of the sermon probably started at that point. If you were to be honest, which is hard, because we're going to put our best foot forward at church. But if you were to be honest and we were to ask, why is it you stay at the job you're at? You'd say, well, because I've got to eat. I've got to pay my bills. Your appetite spurs you on. You're not there because you see it as a high and a holy calling. You don't continue in that work because you want to perform in a quality way and bring glory to God and advance his kingdom and subdue this world for his ends. You're at work because you're paying your bills. Proverbs recognizes that. Of course, that's good, that that's there. Because since so many of us lack the idealism and the proper outlook on our work, I think a lot of us would become sluggards if it weren't for the fact that our mouth urges us on. Proverbs 18:9. The person who leaves his work undone is really no better than the one who destroys the work that has been finished. He also that is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. Proverbs 19:15. Slothfulness cast into a deep sleep, and the idle soul shall suffer hunger. You know what that tells you? Laziness breeds further laziness. We like to believe. If I could just have another nap, then I'd be refreshed and I'D be able to do a lot more work. Right? You know what happens if you take too many naps? You want more naps. Laziness breeds further laziness. The person who does not work hard tends to want more sleep than the one who does. I have always found that to be true in my life. I mean individually, but also in the people I know. The people who are the hardest working people I know are the ones who say they don't need much sleep. I know that steps on some toes. We have a lot of people around here who like to sleep. I'm learning to like to sleep a lot more myself. But you see, it's not surprising that the consequence of sleeping too much, the consequence of being slothful, is that we tend to hunger, as Proverbs tells you that. Proverbs 19:24, as a wonderful caricature of laziness. Another one that you'll remember. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not so much as bring it up to his mouth again. The guy's so lazy, he puts his hand in there and he can't even get it up into his mouth. That's just so that we'll laugh at ourselves. Okay, Proverbs 24. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter. Therefore he shall beg and harvest and have nothing. You see, discomfort and inconvenience are easy excuses for those who are slothful. If one is a sluggard. Yeah, it's cold in winter. You can't go out there and work. I mean, we're going to have to put on a heavy coat. It's going to be uncomfortable. That's right. And so. And such excuses will catch up with you in the natural course of events. If you don't do the work you have to do when things are unpleasant, there won't be anything there to harvest. Proverbs 20:13. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. For all of the good and wonderful things that can be said about sleeping, the wise man knows better than to love it. I've been lighthearted about this up to this point, but you hear what I'm saying? Sleep has its place. God made us to sleep. Our bodies need to sleep, and emotionally we need to sleep too. By the way, that has a lot to do with how much sleep you need. Emotional trauma and take it out of you too. But the fact is, the wise man does not love to sleep. He loves to be awake. He loves to work Too much of a good thing leads to destruction. Proverbs says, too much sleep and you'll be ruined. So how much sleep is really needed? Well, now we're really going to get personal, aren't we? Well, first, distinguish physical from emotional need. It's one thing to say I need to sleep more because I've been ill, or I need to sleep more because I put in eight hours of, you know, digging ditches or something. One thing to say there's a physical need. It's another thing to recognize that sleep often has an emotional side to it as well. Remember Robert Penn Warren's book All the King's Men? We've all read that. If you haven't, you really need to. But there's this wonderful passage in there where this fella engages in what he calls the big sleep, the great sleep. I mean, he's got so many problems, he's just going to sleep it off. And so for days he goes to a motel and he just sleeps. Well, that's true to human nature. Emotionally, we need sleep, too. And there are different kinds or different qualities of sleep. I don't know a lot about the physiological side of this, but we're told that if you could have this rapid eye movement type of sleep for 45 minutes to an hour twice a night, it wouldn't make any difference how much you slept. Other than that, apparently, because that's what really makes the difference to whether you feel refreshed in the morning and so forth. Well, maybe that could be true. The amount of sleep is not always the most crucial factor. But we have to add to these acknowledgments that often the amount of sleep we think we need is governed by what we've become accustomed to or what we've been told in our family tradition. You know, our family is used to going to bed at this time and getting up at this time, and we fall into that, and we get accustomed to doing certain things. I'm not going to tell you how much sleep you need. I'm just going to advise you that at least Benjamin Franklin had it half right. Early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise. Maybe early to bed, too, but don't love sleep, not if you intend to glorify God. Proverbs to Psalms 21:5 says the thoughts actually in Hebrew, the plans of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but every one that is hasty hasteth only to want. Those who are diligent and thorough in their work can expect to enjoy plenty. But the get Rich, quick schemes and dreams that we so often fall into lead in the opposite direction of plenty toward want and deprivation. The haste which we are warned against here, I think, includes the use of legitimate and constructive work in the hopes of an early financial killing. God does not expect you to live your life saying, well, I'm going to get rich quick. Even doing it right. I mean, even doing good sorts of things and offering quality work that is not to be a primary motivation for us. Proverbs 21:17. He that loves pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loves wine and oil shall not be rich. If you were to do an inventory of the things you love, and you were to honestly ask what place your desires, your attitudes have in your life, I wonder if you would find among those things you love pleasure. Do you love pleasure? Do you love wine and oil? You say, well, pleasure means in Hebrew, joy. By the way, is it wrong to be happy, wrong to want joy, wrong to want wine and oil? Well, it's wrong to love those things. It's not only morally wrong, but you need to understand that you can't get them if you love them either. A man who pursues joy for the sake of joy will never be happy. You can't get joy that way. Joy is always a concomitant of something else. You can't just say, well, I decided to give up my past life and all I'm going to do now is live for pleasure. Then you have to say, well, what's going to bring pleasure? Because you can't get pleasure directly. And as you know so very well, many people who try to pursue it directly, they think, you know, living a life of excess or getting drunk or whatever it may be doesn't give them pleasure. After all, you cannot get joy in that way. So don't let love pleasure and don't love wine and oil. These are concomitants. They are the accessories of gainful employment. And if you pursue them for themselves rather than the employment that brings them, you won't have them. What we need above all in all these matters, my friends, is Wisdom. Proverbs 21, 2021. There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man swallows it up. He that follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness and honor. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus said, shall be filled. Those who lust after satisfaction and pleasure will go empty. Proverbs 21, verses 25 and 26 tells us that it's precisely the desire of the sluggard that destroys him all day. He desires with the desire. The Hebrew says Proverbs 21:25 the desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor all day. He desires with desire greedily all day long. But the righteous gives and withholds not. There's an important lesson that I can quickly make here. You notice there's a difference of orientation. The sluggard desires. He's self oriented, greedily, he wants things all day long. But the righteous is the one who gives. The righteous is the person who is other directed. Again, one of the ironies of life as God governs it in his wisdom, is that if you try to get things for yourself and you live for yourself, you'll find out you yourself are not satisfied. You live for others, live righteously, live according to God's will. Word. Lo and behold, you'll have plenty in abundance. Proverbs 22:13 reminds us that any excuse is credible enough for a person who doesn't want to work. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I'll be slain in the streets. Have you ever seen the freeways out there? I'll get run over. I can't go to work today. Proverbs 22:29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business. He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men or obscure men. Again, thoroughness, diligence in your work promotes you in life. The quality of your performance is what sets you ahead in this world. Proverbs 24:30 34 We've already studied just to remind you of how important this is. There's a real importance because the author self reflectively talks about I looked at this, I considered it, and I learned a lesson. Proverbs usually is just little short pointed barbs. But here we have almost a paragraph of consideration. The author says, and I learned a lesson. And here's the a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, the spirit sleep and your poverty will come as a robber and thy want as an armed man. So just look at the very down to earth practicality of that advice. Inattention, sloth and too many naps are going to produce the very same effect as if an armed robber came into your home. Two more passages and then we'll stop. Proverbs 26:13 16 Again we see how the sluggard will accept any excuse. He's so self deceived that he honestly thinks he has a reason for his lack of effort. The sluggard says, there's a lion in the way A lion is in the streets. But as the door turns on its hinges, so the sluggard turns upon his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, it wearies him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men who can render a reason. Sluggard's got all of his reasons, all of his excuses, and he believes them. And finally, Proverbs 28:19 we'll conclude our Labor Day meditation here. He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread but he that follows after vain things shall have poverty enough. Plenty of bread or plenty of poverty, that's what you're going to have. The pursuit of vain schemes and vain things and vain pleasures is going to bring you to ruin. So till your land The Book of Proverbs is not motivated by the Communist International. The Book of Proverbs has no interest in workman's holidays like Labor Day. But the Book of Proverbs is very practical and down to earth and godly direction for us and as we reflect upon labor. Because in the providence of God, we've been given an extra day this week to do the things we wish to do. I want to advise you tomorrow, in addition to watching the game and going to the picnic or taking a swim, then maybe you stop and think about what is my life all about, why am I working and how am I working, and for what should I be working? Maybe it's time for some changes in your life. None of us are too old to say, you know, this is the wrong path for me. I need to be doing something that not only brings greater satisfaction and dignity to my life, but enables me also to advance the purposes of God in this world better. But some of us need to be rebuked as well, that we make too many measly excuses for not liking the work that we are doing and for not doing it well, and for not bringing glory to our Savior in it. The wise person will use Labor Day to reflect on the things he or she loves and whether in fact you are not made to escape work, but made to pursue it gainfully to be employed in bringing this world to glorify God. Plumbers do that just as much as pastors. You need to remember that God calls all of you to labor in his kingdom. God calls all of you to realize your true humanity in the dignity of a gainful employment, not in the leisure that some people mistake as the outcome of a good human life. Let's pray, Father, take away our love of sleeping the devil. Take away our love and our haste to gain leisure and wealth and help us to understand that whether we had fallen into sin as humans or not, we would be a working people. Working because that's part of our human condition. Working because it's part of the reason that you made us. Working because we are supposed to bring glory to you, whether fallen or unfallen. But Lord, we confess we are fallen. And we often do not look upon our labors in a proper way. We are not discerning in the things that we do. We employ ourselves with vain schemes and we often have the wrong motivation. And far too often we are not concerned with the quality of our work. Take away our love of being sluggards. Make us truly wise people. Make us like the ants. Make us industrious. Make us thorough in our efforts. Make us interested in glorifying you in even the smallest of our tasks that we might learn what it is to be employed in a way that is gainful not only for ourselves, but for the kingdom of God. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen. It.