Hall House led chapel service

Sunday, 21 June

Theme: Laziness according to Solomon

Tonight I’m going to talk about King Solomon and the great stuff he had to say about being lazy. As I'm sure all of you have figured out by now, being lazy is pretty sucky and never leads to much at all. Regardless of what I know, however, I’m always trying to procrastinate and I'm just lazy in general. So let's see what the bible says.

King Solomon, the son of King David, the Goliath killer, was met by God in a dream and was given the pretty cool opportunity to be granted a wish. Solomon, being righteous and presumably already pretty wise asked for wisdom and so God made him really, really wise. He went on to write proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and song of songs. This means we can trust what he’s saying indubitably.

Solomon wrote this quite memorable proverb in Chapter 6, Verse 6: “Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise.”

What can ants teach us about laziness? Ants. those incy wincy little bugs that do nothing but get where they shouldn't. Well, don’t blame the little guys. They’re just on orders from their queen. They spend all day walking around doing important jobs like getting food and protecting their queen. It's pretty rare that you see an ant that is not diligently working with his friends. If it isn’t, it's probably dead. They work till they die. I’m not saying we all need to get out there and push until we are face down on the floor breathing our last breath. In fact, no, you should definitely not do that. But as Proverbs 20:4 says, Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food to harvest. You get out what you put in. Anyway, Solomon was a wise man and I don’t think that a wise man would recommend going out and working yourself to death.

We just need to obey those in charge of us and carry out whatever we do diligently as Colossians 3:23 says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if you were working for the Lord, and not for men. It doesn’t say when you do stuff you like or when you do stuff that’s important. It says whatever, you do. In other words, all day, every day, every single act we do needs to be done with all our heart. Being passionate results in the good stuff. It goes on to say that we should do these things as if we were doing it for God. If we fear God as we should, we ought to avoid doing nothing for humans as we are in turn doing nothing for God.

Proverbs 10:26 says; Lazy people irritate their employers like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes. That is pretty irritating. If God is our employer then we should definitely be working as hard as we possibly can. I surely don’t want to irritate God, like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes. Luckily he loves us aye.

I saw a video at some point by Dr Charles Stanley. He used a useful little thought path that I reckon is pretty cool:

We sow a thought and reap an action

We sow an action and reap a habit

We sow a habit and reap a character

We sow a character and reap a destiny

So, if you missed that, when we think about doing something, even if it’s little, it’ll lead to an action, (we’ll do something). When we do that thing repeatedly, it ends up as a habit ingrained into us. The habit will end up changing our character, from our perspective, and that of others. Finally, that little thought at the beginning will result in a new path in our lives. A change in our destiny. I don’t know about all of you but changing your destiny sounds like a pretty cool thing to me.

In life, nothing comes by just hoping it will happen. You need to start somewhere and develop that dream until it turns into your destiny.

How do you expect me to work 100% full on for my entire life? I can practically hear the question being asked by all of you rash individuals. and I don’t blame you. I was thinking the same thing as I was writing this, hence me writing it. The answer is the universal answer that can answer pretty much any question you can ask. So, how do you expect me to work 100% full on for my entire life? Anyone? Ready? Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight.

We don’t have to lean on our own understanding, will, or power to have the passion of Christ in our day to day activities. You just lean on him and he’ll give you all the energy you’ll need. The scriptures are full of this message. In fact, it’s impossible to make your path straight by your own means. As in John 14:6, Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.

The best way to get where you want to go is by trusting in God. Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Pretty simple aye. Just lean on God and he’ll give you all the strength in the world to get off your bum and not be lazy. Who knows you might even get to know God a bit more.