Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 6:6-11 (Ants and Lazy Fools) (Part 18)

Continued this morning in our exposition of the Book of Proverbs. And we take as our text the sixth chapter in Proverbs. And I'd like to read verses 6 to 11, so please turn with me in God's word to Proverbs 6, where we'll read verses 6 to 11. Hear now, God's word, go to the ant, Thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no chief overseer or ruler, provideth her bread in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard, when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as a robbery and thy want as an armed man. And thus far the reading of God's word, well known expression from God's word, go to the ant, thou sluggard, go to the ant. You know, though man was created superior to, and indeed created to have dominion over the animal world, man's sinfulness has brought him into attitudes and brought him into habits which are below his created dignity. Indeed, in man's fallen condition, he often has something to learn from the animal world rather than to teach the animals. In certain, not all, but in certain ways, sinners can stand to act more like the animals. And that's interesting. Bill Gothard, well known because of the basic youth conflicts seminars that he puts on around the world, has realized this truth about the fact that we can learn from the animal world and has beautifully set forth some moral lessons from the animal world in his book Character Sketches from the Pages of Scripture Illustrated in the World of Nature. Now the book is one of the most handsome publications, beautifully illustrated, beautifully organized, one of the nicest books to be published in the Christian world, perhaps in this century. And in that book we learn about loyalty, and we learn that from the natural habits of the owl and the goose and the bee and the bear. And Gothard sets forth responsibility from the behavior of the woodcock and the crow and the otter. He turns to the weasel and the hognose snake, the duck and even the skunk to teach us. Courage and determination is found in the moth and the salmon and the wolverine. Orderliness illustrated by the woodchuck, the beaver, the gull, the chipmunk, the raccoon, swan and sandpiper encourage initiative, he shows us, while the shrew and the osprey and the badger and fox point us to decisiveness. And this beautiful book ends. I say, wait, there's one more. How can you have missed it? How can you have this beautiful book and so many wonderful lessons that we can gain from the animal world? But it puzzles me that after examining that book, the specific lesson from the animal world that is twice mentioned in the book of Proverbs doesn't appear. The inspired wisdom of God as we look at the animal world somehow doesn't get into the pages of that book. I'll still get the book and read it. It has a lot to you. But before that, master this book, the Word of God. God says, look at the animal world. And he says, listen you sluggards, go look at the ants. Go Consider what the ants can teach you. Proverbs, the sixth chapter is not the only place we read that kind of exhortation. In Proverbs the 30th chapter, verse 25, you'll see another reference to the harvester ant, which was well known in the land of Palestine. There we read the ants are a people, not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer. Proverbs says, take a hint from the ants, they aren't strong, they aren't mighty. In fact, they're so insignificant we think about squashing ants as we walk along, right? They're not a mighty people, but they're wise enough to provide food, so that'll be there when they need it. These two passages then Proverbs 6 and Proverbs 30 single out for commendation the ant world, showing us, I think, at least three things about the ants we should imitate. Of course there are things we shouldn't imitate about ants. Ruining picnics is not a Christian virtue. Biting and devouring is not the sort of thing we're supposed to be imitating. But there are things about the ants we can learn and these three stand out. First, we see the industry and the hard work of the ants, don't we? They are a hard working group. Secondly, the individual self discipline of the ants stands out. Proverbs 6 says, without having a ruler and an overseer, without having a union boss standing over each and every one of them, driving them on, the ants just go about doing their work. And thirdly, we see their wisdom in making preparations ants will store up for the hard months ahead. Ants are wise in that way, so they are industrious, they are self disciplined and they make preparation for the future. And God's word says, be wise, be like an ant. And so if you want to show how much you really are, into the spirit of this morning's sermon. This afternoon, if you have some free time, get an ant farm and just watch the ants for two or three hours. You say, well, what a waste of time. I could be watching football. I could be doing something else. No, watch the ants. The Bible tells you to just go out and if you haven't got the money to buy an ant farm, go find some group of ants out in the field or a meadow somewhere and just watch the ants for a while. They'll teach you something very important. Now these observations are preparing the way, however, for a message that has something to do with more than ants in the animal world. A message having to do with laziness. Laziness, according to the Bible, is the mark of a fool, not the only, but is a real mark of a fool. In turn, laziness is a possible indicator of unbelief. That's something that we don't like to hear. The world wouldn't have us think in these channels that logic is not pleasing to us. But it is biblical. And I will not be a good watchman for souls if I don't tell you that laziness might very well be not only a mark of foolishness, but a mark of unbelief, a spiritual unregeneracy in your life. Now why do I say that? I want you to consider what the word of God tells us. If any man provides not for his own and especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Those words are found in first Timothy 5, 8. That's rather hard to comprehend, I think, when we remember Paul's theology about unbelief and what Paul teaches in his epistles about the outcome of those who are unbelievers. He tells us that those who do not take care of the needs of their family are worse than unbelievers, worse than infidels, as some of your translations will put it. When we have a lazy character, it can very well be an indication that we are not believers in Jesus Christ, that our hearts are not right with God, and that we need to be changed. Now the first question that comes to my mind, though, as we begin to take up the subject of laziness over against the ants. That should be our model. As we look at laziness, the problem that we're going to have is can we see the laziness within ourselves? My guess is at this point you might be saying, I don't need to hear a message about laziness. I already know how to say laziness is wrong. You might have to teach me about a few other arcane subjects from The Bible. But laziness, of course that's wrong. I know that. The question is, can you see it though? And can you see it in yourself? The problem with categorizing terms in general like sluggard or lazy one is that they are all too easy for us to objectify, to use and observe. As spectators, we tend to put the category of laziness or sluggards out there and we examine it at a distance, at an arm's length, like spectators. We set it over against ourselves. And since we're the ones who are placing other people into the pigeonhole of laziness or being a sluggard, since we're doing the pigeonholing, we don't consider ourselves as falling into the slot. We don't fall into the category being described. We're the ones who are looking at those who are sluggards. And in particular, if we have sluggardly lazy tendencies, it will be very difficult to see ourselves as we really are. It's going to be very difficult to recognize our own laziness. You'll see that if you look at Proverbs 26:16. Turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 26, the 16th verse, and you'll see the spiritual poison that I'm talking about. There we read, the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer. You find seven of the most clever men you know, and they can't outwit a sluggard who is rationalizing his laziness. Well, that's a powerful proverb. It's one we better take to heart. If we have lazy tendencies, we are not going to be likely to recognize them and to admit them. We are going to fall very easily into rationalization, into self deception. You see, not many people who are truly lazy say, I don't want to do that because I'm just too lazy. No, we find good reasons for not doing what we don't want to do. And we can convince others that we don't really have the ability to get up for prayer meeting. Or we don't really have the ability to accomplish some other task at work for our employer. Or we can't get out there and fix the lawnmower. We can't do this and we can't do that. And we not only can convince others, we can convince ourselves wise in our own eyes. Those sluggards. We are the lazy person. The lazy person is not some freak of nature. The lazy person is not some abnormal specimen of humanity that stands over against all of us. Normal people that we can now, this morning, analyze and dissect and think, oh, yes, isn't it terrible to be lazy? Now you see, the problem is the lazy person is just your plain ordinary individual. Your sluggard is just you and me. People just like you and me who make too many excuses, too many postponements, too many refusals, and have thereby fallen into a life of self deceived, self indulgence. And this character comes upon us imperceptibly. It comes by degrees. You don't have an ambitious, industrious person on Tuesday who all of a sudden on Wednesday turns out to be a sluggard. It doesn't happen like that. It happens in creeping inches, slice by imperceptible slice of life, being given up by degrees, with numbing pleasantness. Just like falling asleep. Have you ever noticed that you don't fall asleep like that? We may say we did, but that's a figure of speech. A person falls asleep by pleasant degrees. And people fall asleep in terms of their industriousness and their responsibility in life. In the very same way we slide into idleness, into an enjoyable comfort of doing as little as we can. And you know, in all honesty, we have to admit, don't we, that that type of mentality and that character trait has been engulfing our culture for years. Slowly but surely self deceptive, step by step by step, we have, as a culture, fallen into a lazy mindset, into a lack of an industrious spirit. And it shouldn't surpr us that our output is nothing. We have lost our productivity in America. We've lost our excellence in the world community. And the only people who will not admit that are mindless patriots who keep beating the drum and proclaiming American patriotism. When, as a matter of fact, we have become lazy fools. We daydream about carefree lives of luxury and free time. We live for weekend ease and for our vacations. And it's no surprise then that our output has been declining for years and the excellence of our products has gone down, down, down. We ask how little we can get by with. Now, I'm a teacher, and particularly with high school students, but I've taught seminary, and I'll tell you it's true there too. It's all along the line. Students look for as little as they can to get by with. I have found this to be true. If one year I will lower my expectations, say my reading assignments, because people are saying it's just too much to do in the next year, the next generation of my students will tell me that that mitigated assignment is too much to do, and then I will lower it again. And you know what will happen in the third year? Those students will say, but this is too much to do. It must come down. And I've gotten to the point where I firmly believe that, that students will do just as much as you ask or as little as you demand, that whatever time they have, they will, if they tend to give 1% of their interest to your class, they'll give 1% to your class whether you ask three hours or 30 hours. And if they are really good students and they're going to do the work, they'll give you the three or they'll give you the 30. They'll work it out. We've come, however, as a general culture, not just as students, but as people in general to the attitude of, well, what can I get by with? I tease my students sometimes by suggesting that all they really want to know when I'm lecturing is, is this going to be on the final exam? I don't care whether I understand it and I don't really care if I have the context. I just need to know, am I going to have to memorize this? And if I don't, it's interesting. Hand will go up in class. Dr. Bonson, will this be on the final exam? No, it won't. Pencils down automatically. Okay, now we can laugh at that. But you see, as a generalized character trait, our cultural trait, it's deadening. It's devastating. We expect more and more benefits as people for less and less work. Just look at the unions in our country. Our unions are constantly demanding less responsibility, less output, less. Less quality maintenance of a product. And they want greater and greater benefits. And then they're overwhelmed when foreign nations will underbid our work and out produce us to boot. Now we have become a very lazy, lazy people. Addicted to fast foods, disposable products, low maintenance properties, instant multichannel entertainment. We won't open a new book, we'll turn on the tv. We don't enlist a new church ministry that we could help. We sunbathe or take an extra nap. You see, we need people to motivate us and show us how to do things. We don't take on anything extra, anything beyond the absolutely necessary, Anything calling for perseverance, anything calling for horror of horrors. Hard work. Hard. We have become fat and we have become lazy. And I want to tell you, friends, that's a spiritual matter. That is a spiritual matter. It's not just a matter of what we're doing in the industrial or educational worlds of culture in general. The various proverbs that we read throughout this book of Proverbs contrast the sluggard to a certain kind of person that is usually described as the diligent. And that makes sense. The sluggard on the one hand, the lazy person, the diligent on the other. But what's very interesting to me as a biblical interpreter is that from time to time the sluggard is set in contrast not to the diligent, but the sluggard is set in contrast to. Well, let's look at this. Look at Proverbs 15:19. On the one hand we read the way of the sluggard as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the diligent, the path of the upright, is as a highway. Or consider as well Proverbs 21:26 speaking of the desire of the sluggard. All day long he is craving, while by contrast, the righteous gives and does not hold back. You notice that we learn from this that laziness actually involves. By contrast, we learn that laziness involves a measure of unrighteousness. Laziness involves dishonesty, a sidestepping of our God given responsibilities. God is going to call us to account for our lives, for our industry, for our hard work. And when we haven't got what he demands, he will call us unrighteous, lacking an upright character, dishonest people. The way of righteousness is not the way of ease. The way of righteousness is not the way of idleness. And that's why Proverbs 24:30 tells us it is the man who lacks wisdom and sense, who lets his property get overgrown and is a sluggard and doesn't do his work. It's a man who does not have the fear of the Lord before his eyes. The one who lacks wisdom, the the one who is unrighteous, who is at ease in Zion. So this morning I hope that it will teach us something if we can do nothing more but look at the biblical description of the sluggard and honestly, clearly, bluntly evaluate our lives. What does the Bible say about the lazy one? About the sluggard? Well, let's begin at Proverbs 6, verses 9 and 10. How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Look at Proverbs 19:15. Laziness cast into a deep sleep and an idle man will suffer hunger. Or Proverbs 20:13. Do not love sleep, lest you become Poor, Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with food. The Bible says, the sluggard likes to sleep too much. Yes, I know what you'll tell me after the sermon. Pastor, you're stepping on toes. Well, I have to, though. God tells me. I have to tell you this. You sleep too much. When you have a free hour in the afternoon, you like to nap. God says, accomplish something. You say, no, I'm going to lay back. Maybe I'll watch a ball game, take a little nap. God says, go to the ants, sluggard. You see the ants taking naps. The sluggard is the one who is not only anchored to his bed. This is beautiful. I mean, it's just comical in its exaggeration. Proverbs 26:14 says, as the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. Here's the sluggard turning back and forth, just like a door on the hinges, he's hinged to his bed. That's the problem with the sluggard. Benjamin Franklin, not necessarily a godly man, but he had it right this time when he said, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. The sluggard doesn't sleep too much. I mean, the sluggard sleeps too much. The diligent man will follow the example of the ants. Does anybody know when the ants wake up, when they start their day? I'm not going to tell you. Get an ant farm. Go to the ant. You sluggard. Okay, number two. The biblical description of the lazy man. Proverbs 12:24. He has a slack hand. Proverbs 12:24. The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor. Not only does he have a slack hand, he's negligent in the work that he does do. Proverbs 10:4. Poor is he who works with a negligent hand. But the hand of the diligent makes rich. In fact, the sluggard actually refuses to work. Proverbs 21:25. The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work. Second thing you know about a sluggard, not only does he sleep too much, he doesn't like to work. And when he does, he doesn't do a good job. Now, if you've ever been put in a position of overseeing the work of others, I mean, in the slightest way, I don't care whether it's Cub Scouts or some major political party, you know what a terrible thing it is to have someone that you give a job to and they just kind of lay around and don't do it right. They do it negligently or refuse to do it altogether. That's the sluggard for you. Thirdly, the Bible says the sluggard doesn't make advance preparations. There are three proverbs that tell us that. Proverbs 6, 8 We've read this morning. The ant prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest, but the sluggard lies down to rest. Proverbs 10:5. He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully. And then finally. Proverbs 20:4. The sluggard does not plow by reason of the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing. Actually, the Hebrew there says, the sluggard won't plow for reason of the cold weather, and for that reason he begs when it's harvest time. So the sluggard doesn't make advance preparations. And more importantly, he doesn't even take care of what he actually has. Proverbs 24:30, 31. I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. The sluggard doesn't take care of his property, doesn't take care of what he already has, and he doesn't follow through on his opportunities either. Look at the comical illustrations of inertia in the life of people that we read. Proverbs 12:27. A slothful man does not roast his prey. Here's a picture of a man who goes out. He finally catches something, but he's too lazy to cook it. He doesn't even finish the meal. And you think that's an exaggeration? Listen to this. Proverbs 19:24. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it up to his mouth. Proverbs 26:15. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is weary of bringing it to his mouth. Again, here's the sluggard. I mean to overdraw the picture and make a point. The Bible says the sluggard goes and he puts his hand in the dish. And then he says, I'm too tired. I can't even pull it back and put it in my mouth. He won't cook his dinner. He won't even pull a bite off the plate and put it into his mouth. What are we learning about the sluggard? The sluggard is afflicted with inertia he won't make advance preparations. He won't take care of what he has. He doesn't follow through on his opportunities. Fourth characterization of the sluggard that's very important to see is that he rationalizes his lack of activity. He rationalizes by, first of all, personal discomfort. We've already looked at Proverbs 24. The sluggard, you see, will not plow by reason of the cold. He says, well, I don't want to go out there. I'll have to put on a jacket. But, you know, it's uncomfortable out there. My hands might get numb. I can't go plow. And then, of course, he begs in the harvest because he won't. And he uses any ridiculous excuse. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible, Proverbs 22:13, you've probably heard it. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I shall be slain in the street. And so he goes back to sleep. Here's the sluggard, you know, he's going to get up and do a day's work and says, wait a minute, a lion might be out in the street. I could die if I go to work. I better go back to sleep. He'll use any rationalization to avoid having to do his responsibilities. Or as one commentator put it very cutely, because of the lion the sluggard allows himself to lie on. He just wants to sleep and sleep because there could be something that will happen to him out in the world. The same thing is said in Proverbs 26:13. The sluggard says, there's a lion in the road. A lion is in the open square, maybe. And so I'm not going to get up. And finally, the sluggard is tyrannized by unsatisfied desires. The sluggard's the daydreamer. He's the one who says, oh, I wish I had this, and I wish I had that. Oh, wouldn't it be neat if I could get what these other people have? Proverbs 13:4. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat. Proverbs 21, 25, 26. The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work. All day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back. You see, if you're a righteous person, you work and you are prospered. And you are so fat. Not in the medical sense that is detrimental, but you are so blessed with so many things that you have to give to Others. But the sluggard, he just lays around and goes, oh, I wish I had this, and oh, I wish I had that, and wouldn't this be nice? And when the sluggard substitutes wishing for working, and the Bible says he's killed by his cravings, unsatisfied desires, that's the nature of his life. So what have we learned about sluggards today? Have we learned anything about ourselves? Do we sleep too much? Always looking for an opportunity for a nap? The work we do, is it slack and negligent? Or do we actually refuse to do our responsibilities? Are we the kind of people who make advance preparations and follow through on our opportunities? Or do we rationalize our lack of activity? It's uncomfortable. Or any ridiculous excuse to get out of our jobs? And are we people? Sad, miserable, ugly? Really, People tyrannized by unsatisfied desires, Wishing and wishing and wishing, but not working, working, working. Well, if we are, what are the consequences of such laziness? What does the Bible tell us? Well, I see six consequences that should be mentioned in passing. First of all, the Bible says, in no uncertain terms, poverty and hunger will be the outcome of our lives. Proverbs 6:11. And your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man. The same way that when you get mugged in the street, you can't say to the mugger, I didn't plan on this. Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. Certainly there's a more convenient time. And this isn't what you really want to do. No. When the armed man comes and robs you, that's it. And when your poverty comes as a sluggard, that will be it. You won't be able to schedule it for your convenience. God will overwhelm you with not only poverty, but hunger. Proverbs 10:4. Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Proverbs 19:15. Laziness cast into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger. Proverbs 20:13. Do not love sleep, lest you become poor. Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with food. The Bible mentions secondly, forced labor. Proverbs 12:24. The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor. Don't be surprised, children, if you show laziness in your family, that your father will put you to fortune. Forced labor. And that lesson from the family is true culturally and politically too. Thirdly, the Bible says constant dissatisfaction and coveting. We've already covered that. We've seen that. Fourthly, and this is very interesting, the sluggard will become exasperating to people and useless to his employer. Look at Proverbs 10:26. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him. Give a lazy man a job and it's going to be as irritating to your teeth and eyes as vinegar and smoke. You just as soon not have him. In fact, you don't want to have him. Proverbs 18:9. He also who is slack in his work is a brother to him who is a destroyer. You see, the sluggard doesn't accomplish any project. And in that sense, the outcome of his life is no different from the man who destroys project projects. In the end, they both have nothing. And so the sluggard is useless and he's exasperating. He's irritating to people. Fifthly, he's an embarrassment to those who are over him. It's very touching how in Proverbs 10:5 we read, he who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully. This advice is given to the sluggard that he will shame his family, he will shame his father, or actually anyone over him in authority, his employer, his pastor, whoever it may be. No one wants to be associated with a lazy man. He brings disgrace upon everybody. And finally, the way through his life will not really eventuate in one of ease. Proverbs 15:19, a very important insight. The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright like a highway. The sluggard thinks he's taking it easy. The sluggard thinks he's avoiding all the pain, the difficulty, the discomfort of life. But you know, the path through life is like trying to fight his way through a hedge of thorns. It's only upright people who have a highway of life. And so what's going to be the outcome if you're a lazy person? Poverty and hunger, forced labor, constant dissatisfaction, exasperation and uselessness to those who send you, embarrassment to your family and those who are over you. And your way through life in the end will be a hedge of thorns. And so what do we learn from the Bible's teaching about laziness this morning? What do we learn about ourselves? Well, the first point should be obvious. The Bible condemns idleness. It's very interesting. In Proverbs 31:27, the description of the godly and wise woman, what do we learn about her Proverbs 31:27. She looketh well to the ways of her household and eats not the bread of idleness. A godly woman is not an idle woman. Over against that. In 1 Timothy 5, 13, Paul tells Timothy, you tell the young widows to marry lest they become idle. And he says, when they become idle, they'll become gossips and then you'll have the church torn apart. So you want to get rid of gossiping in our church? Let's get you women working. No idleness. You won't have time to be telling stories and going about exchanging little things over the back fence with other women. You men love that when I say that, don't you? As a matter of fact, idleness does the same thing for you. I have found men just as gossipy as women. It's just since they don't do it over the back fence, they don't think they're gossips. The Bible condemns idleness, though. That's my point. Secondly, let's learn something from the ants. Even if you don't buy an ant farm, take my word for it, the ants don't live that way and you're less than an ant. I remember we went up to the World Trade center in New York last summer and we looked down, you know, from 107 stories. And people, as my children said, they look like ants, dad. And we make fun of the ants. They're so little, so insignificant. And what I have to say to you is, if you're a lazy person, you're less than an ant. You're below the ants in dignity. Go to the ants. Learn something about industry. Thirdly, the Bible tells us, Second Thessalonians 3, if a man will not work, he should not eat. Our culture has not only become sluggish, not only become lazy and non productive. Our culture is actually nourishing that by feeding on its welfare system. Those who refuse to work, the Bible says if you won't work, you shouldn't eat. Fourthly, let's ask ourselves as Christians, not just about our cultural output, not just about how many jobs in the plumbing world that we've taken, not just about how many cartons of some product we have sold, not just about what we've done in the world in general, but how about the kingdom of God? Has our industry, has our orderliness, has our energy been applied to the advance of God's kingdom? How many projects, how many good thoughts, how many intentions have gone unfulfilled? If you're like me, you probably can make a long list of Things you thought you would do. Boy, wouldn't it be good if I did this? If I called on so and so, if I witnessed the. If I prayed more, if I read my Bible more, if I was more consistent in church activities, if I cared for others more, if I started living the Christian life? I mean, how many times have we made resolves and not followed through on them? Go to the aunt, you sluggard. How much more in the kingdom of God should our projects and our ministries be industrious matters? And then finally, I want to leave you on this thought. The Bible shows us that sloth. Sloth stems from unrighteousness. And if sloth stems from unrighteousness, what can unrighteous people do about it? You see that sluggard hinged to his bed? What can the sluggard do to change his character? Nothing. Lazy people are hopeless and they're lost. You say, but, Pastor, what can I do if I have this problem? What if I see myself all too well in the mirror? You've held up this morning. What if I am a sluggard? What if I am tending toward laziness? What if I sleep too much and don't follow through on my projects? What if I'm not like the ants? Well, I want to tell you, then your only hope is to be found in what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2. 10. In Ephesians 2, very interestingly, Paul begins by saying, you're not saved by good works. None of your industry, none of your accomplishments are good enough to save you. You cannot be saved by good works. One of the reasons for that is you don't have any good works. So we tend to think. But I think that I've done well in the eyes of God. If you're not a Christian in the eyes of God, if you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, if you're not doing this under the influence of the Holy Spirit and for the glory of God and the advance of his kingdom, if it's not motivated by faith and love, no matter what you do, it's not good in the eyes of God anyway. There are no good works. How then can I work? Well, how can I have good works? And how can I become a good worker? The answer, I think, is found in the tenth verse of this chapter where we read, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. If you look at your life and you say, I don't see a lot of good work in my life, then you need to become a Christian. And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you need to repent of your sins and ask that Christ will make you his workmanship, that Christ will work through your life and in the power of his spirit. Then you'll become productive, productive in culture in general, and productive for the kingdom of God. Then good works will characterize your life. But it will never happen in your own strength. It will never happen because of your own resolve. You've already seen that. How many New Year's resolutions have you failed? You don't need more resolve. You don't need more self dependence. You need to depend on Christ. You need to renounce yourself. You need to confess and you need to trust that Christ and Christ alone can make you to do good works. Let's pray. Father, it's been painful to read your word today because it exposes us for all of our silly excuses and our laziness. We ask you to forgive us for Christ's sake, to forgive us, not because we offer now to compensate by a lot of little things that we think we can do to satisfy you now. We ask you to forgive us for the mercy of Jesus Christ and for him alone. Forgive us for our laziness and for our irresponsibility. Forgive us for our poor productivity and make us in Christ. Now your workmanship. Work through us that we might learn to work. Work through us that our works might be good in your sight, pleasing to you, whether we are evangelizing or praying or studying our Bibles, or even out in the work world doing our mundane labors. How we ask, Father, we would do them all is unto you with industry, consistency and a desire for high quality. Because we know that you will be the one to judge us in the end. Lord, we read in Scripture that the day is coming where you will evaluate the works of all men as our final judge. We pray that in that day you would be pleased to accept us in our labors, saying, well done, good and faithful servants. For we pray in Jesus name, Amen.