Monday, September 5, 2016
Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a
leaky house.
Ecclesiastes 10:18 (NLT)
Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling
in other people’s business. 2 Thessalonians 3:11 (NLT)
There is a single thread running
through the Seven Deadly Sins:
any of them lead you into more!
Sloth, or lazybones is the life of idleness, which always brings
trouble. We’ve all heard the old saying
that idle
hands are the Devil’s workshop.
John Wesley wanted to make sure his
preachers weren’t lazy. He would ask 19
questions of “would-be” preachers before being ordained. Those same questions are asked today by a bishop
before laying-on of hands. Here is part
of question #19:
Will you observe the following directions? Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more
time at any one place than is strictly necessary.[1]
If you couldn’t answer “yes” to those
questions, you were not going to be a Methodist preacher!
There is good Scriptural underpinning
for these questions:
Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord
enthusiastically. Romans 12:11 (NLT)
Part of the reason we are to avoid
laziness like the plague (beside the fact that it is a New Testament command)
is that sloth is a breeding ground for falling prey to temptation of all sorts. If you recall the story of King David getting
into trouble with Bathsheba, you might remember it was sloth that started it
all.
In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent
Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. 2 Samuel 11:1(NLT)
David was a king, and he should have
been with his armies, leading; that’s what kings do. Instead, he sent Joab; he got lazy, and in
his case it led to lust. The lust caused
a pregnancy, which he tried to cover up, and when that didn’t work he became a
murderer, having Bathsheba’s husband killed to protect his own reputation.
In the final analysis it wasn’t just
David’s reputation that died; his family was in shambles and some of his
children tried to kill their father, and did destroy what was left of a
peaceful kingdom in Israel. Sloth breeds
sin!
I wrote a sermon last year about
sloth. (Read
it HERE) In that sermon
are four pictures of what being a lazybones will do for you, or
more appropriately, IN you and TO you!
You end up in destructive pride,
independent arrogance, despair and headed in the wrong direction, away from
God’s loving hands.
This is why sloth – and the other 6
sins are called DEADLY! They lead
to a life outside the will of God…and eventually away
from the presence of God.
For You Today
So, fight this laziness that tries to
creep in; fight it with
·
humility, accepting the counsel of God’s Word
·
accountability, accept help if you need it, but be
genuine
·
stewardship – commit to taking care of
everything God has placed in your hands as holy unto the LORD
·
diligence – never let your hands be idle for
any time beyond the rest that is needed to regain strength
Be Godly, not slothful!
Go to VIDEO
NOTES
[i]
Title Image: Hieronymus
Bosch (circa 1450–1516) or follower [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
No comments:
Post a Comment