Hallelujah. Thank you, sister. If you open your Bible with me to the book of Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12, I would like to preach tonight from one Bible verse. We'll look at other Bible verses, but I would like to preach from this one Bible verse. Romans chapter number 12, verse number 11. The Bible said, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. God's put it on my heart tonight to preach on laziness. and not not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the lord let's pray lord jesus i love you so much i'm so unworthy that you the king of glory died on a cross on a hillside in israel to save me from hell i bless your holy name lord i am nothing I am nothing and fully dependent on you and your spirit to do and accomplish anything that will bring you glory. Lord, use your word and carry out your will in our lives and help me by the grace of God to have the strength to preach your truth. Lord, I pray you would just encourage and do your will in every heart. In Jesus name I pray, amen. I pondered many things about this topic of laziness. And I don't know about you, but I know that for me, it is easy to be lazy. It's easy. Now, most people don't want to admit that, but it's just a truthful fact that it's easy to be lazy. And so the Bible speaks about this truth, about laziness. It tells us the truth about laziness, and it also tells us and shows us that this is a temptation. in everyone's life to be lazy about many different things. And I want to look into some of those things that we could be lazy about that we definitely should not be lazy about. And then not only the temptation, but the testing. God's going to test us. You know, the Lord, He allows us to study His Word and to know Him and to learn His truth, but then He's going to test us to find out if we're going to live what He has taught us. And then also laziness, you know what it attacks the most? Time. time that God has given us. Now God, he's eternal and everlasting. And so the Bible said from everlasting to everlasting now are God. And so he's always been God and he always will be God. So God is not limited in time, but you and I are. And time for us began when we got born. And time is limited to when we'll die. And we're not told when that will be. And so the time that we have is precious. And you know, I thought about it just in preparation. And let me just say this so I'm not misunderstood. I think rest is important. People need rest. I mean, even the Son of God took a nap and went to sleep on a pillow on a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. And so we need rest. He told us in the Word of God, if you don't come apart, you know, He said to come apart and rest a while. And so what we learned from that is if you don't come apart, you will come apart. Amen? And so we need rest. And there's certainly nothing wrong with recreation. Otherwise, God wouldn't have created the ability of those activities. But the Bible teaches us about moderation. But we live in a day where laziness is taking over. I mean, people live for video games. They live for it. I can't tell you how many people that I have heard talk about staying up all night playing video games. And I'm talking about grown men. Grown men. And they live for that. And that's just one topic. If I hit you tonight by saying that, I didn't even know that you play video games. So it is what it is. And the Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes, if a tree falls to the north or the south where it falls, there it is. Amen? And so I guess let the chips fall where they lie. But that was just one example. That was just one example. But laziness. It's so easy to become lazy. You know how easy it is for me to just say I'll do it later Aunt Mary is over there smiling and laughing because it is easy for me to say I'll do it later I'm not preaching to you or at you my friend when I every time I preach in this pulpit God's worked me over before I ever got up here to preach to you. Amen. I'm not above anybody. I'm not better than anybody. Just like the Bible said about Elijah, that he was a man subject to like passions as we are. I'm not above anybody. I could be lazy just like you can be lazy, amen? B.R. Lakin, he was preaching one time, and he was preaching in this church and got to hitting some stuff, and he said, yeah, all y'all are looking at me like you got your halos on. He said, but I can see your horns, amen? And you know, all of us in here, we're sinners at best. The only good thing about you is Jesus Christ. And the only good thing about me is Jesus Christ. And everything that we do in our life is supposed to bring him glory. And God, he tells us very clear, in this chapter, look at verse number one and two. He said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. God, after he saved you and me, he has an expectation of how you and me are gonna live. In verse number two, he said, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God has a plan. God has a purpose. God has a will. God has a desire. God has an intention and a direction for our lives to go. And it's easy to be lazy. or slothful. It's easy and God does not want me nor you or any of us to be that way. You know what the Bible said about John the Baptist in John chapter 5 verse 35? It said that he was a burning and a shining light. And this verse here in Romans 12 verse 11 said, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. This word fervent, it speaks of burning. It speaks of zeal. And it speaks of having a freshness and a fervency about us. But if you'll look with me, not slothful. So slothful. This word slothful, it means inactive, sluggish, or indolent. It means lazy. Look with me in the book of Proverbs, chapter 24. Proverbs chapter 24 there's many many Bible verses about being slothful But I want to read just a couple of them Proverbs chapter number 24 In verse number 30 The Bible said I went by the field of the slothful I And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and low it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man. Then look on me in chapter 26. Chapter 26, verse number 14 through 16. Here we just have multiple verses. God's dealing with the slothful. Verse number 14, as the door turneth upon his hinges, so did the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom. It grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. And so we see here that it's all negative what God has to say about being slothful and about being lazy. And many times when we think about being slothful or being lazy, our mind is thinking about physical labor. And certainly, certainly we should not be lazy about work. Amen? We should not be lazy about work. You know, how we work, it reveals our heart. It reveals our character. It reveals our integrity. When you watch a man work or when you watch a lady work, it builds people's trust in who you are. And the Bible would teach us that how we work is a testimony to the Lord. The Bible says, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. Amen? And so we should not be slothful. We should not be lazy about our work. Amen? About our physical labor. But I want to look and just, I don't think I'm gonna preach long. But I want to just, I've been meditating on this verse since God pointed it out to me. About many different ways that we can allow laziness or slothfulness into our life. And God does not want us to be that way. He showed us very clearly, not slothful in business. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Well, first of all, let me say this definitely applies To how we are in this world You know if you go and work for somebody if you want to keep your job, you better not be slothful Amen, you better not be lazy When the bossman or the manager, whoever, asks you to do a job, you better do it, amen? And you better do it right away. And you better fully do it. And you better do it well. Otherwise, your job is at risk. You know, I just noticed this recently, you know, with all that's been going on in society and the economy. You go into many places, a fast food restaurant or Walmart, and service is horrible. You know what I notice almost everywhere? Is that employees have their headphones in, listening to music while they're working. I walked in a store yesterday to buy something, and a man was on his phone texting, telling the employees to wait. I'm not lying. He was standing there waiting while the man was texting. And I just see that this character, this integrity in society, it's lacking greatly. Don't y'all see that? Yeah, and so I've been thinking, not slothful in business, and certainly this business, it would apply to physical labor in the business world. Certainly, we should not be slothful because that would be a bad testimony to the Lord. Wow, the people of God, they don't work at all. Well, God forbid that that'll ever be said. Well, the people of God, they don't labor, or they don't work hard, or they don't get their job done. God forbid that that would ever be said. The people of God should work harder than anybody. You know, if you go over in the book of Daniel, chapter number one, in Daniel, when he had requested of the prince of the eunuchs, that he could follow the dietary laws that God gave and not eat the portion of the king's meat. You know what Daniel told him? He said, you're going to find out that what I'm doing is better than what you're doing. And he said, just try it for so many days. And you go and you read the whole chapter, and it'll tell you that they found Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be 10 times better. than all of the others. Well, my friend, I think that there's a principle in the scripture that our work ethic should be 10 times better than that of the world. God forbid that the work ethic of a Christian is lazy or that the, you know what the son of God said, if a man will compel you to go with him a mile, what'd he say? Go with him twain. And so we should be willing to work harder and to sacrifice more. for the testimony of Jesus Christ. So not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. It's easy to become lazy. But then may I say this, I want to apply this now. I've spoken about not being lazy in our work. And I think I just said that pretty direct. We shouldn't be lazy in our work, amen? We should work hard. We should do a good job. And we should do it with all of our might. And that's what the Bible would teach us to do. But I would like now to start looking at this in our spiritual life. And don't get me wrong, don't misunderstand me. How we work at the job and how we work for our employee, our employer, it definitely is related to our spiritual life. Because that employee that's working hard and trying to glorify God in their work, they're doing that for the glory of God. You know, many people, they wonder, well, I'm just a layman. I'm not a missionary or a pastor. Well, you know, that layman goes to work, and they put their blood, sweat, and tears in earning that money that they put in the offering plate to send that missionary to the mission field. And so you realize without that layman working and giving their blood, sweat, and tears to put that offering in the offering plate, nobody's going to the mission field. You realize that. And so that work is definitely connected. Physical labor is connected. But I would like to also look at some other things in our work for the Lord spiritually. We should set up some safeguards in our life that we are not spiritually lazy, that we're not lazy anywhere. including that we're not spiritually lazy. And we should take this to heart, that we might be motivated and yielded to God. Because God is telling us, God is commanding us, God is teaching us, God is instructing us not to be slothful in business, but to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Now, you know what Jesus Christ said when he was, what was he, 11 years old? And he was there in the temple, and his mom and daddy were on the way back home, and they had forgotten him in Jerusalem. They didn't know they had forgotten him. And they went back, and they said, what are you doing? And he said, wish you not that I must be about my father's business. Well, I'm thinking tonight about God's business, the business of God. And God has a lot of business going on in this world. And God does not want me to be slothful about it. God does not want his church to be slothful about it. God does not want you to be slothful about it. He wants us to take it seriously. The first thing I think about is the time that's wasted by being lazy. Look with me in Ephesians chapter number five. Ephesians chapter number 5. In verse number 16, the Bible tells us redeeming the time because the days are evil. In the book of Colossians, we also find it in the book of Colossians chapter number 4. Colossians chapter number 4 in verse number 5. The Bible tells us, walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. God wants us to take knowledge of the time that we have. My friend, if you look around, it's getting spiritually darker by the day. America is turning their back on God more and more every day. I know that how things go in America has nothing to do with Bible prophecy. And sometimes, because we're American, we think, oh, things are getting bad in America. Jesus is coming back. Jesus was coming back before there was an America. But Jesus is coming back. And time is short. And we need to be sensitive to God to redeem that time. to use it wisely. Of course, that should include time of rest or recreation with your family and so forth. And I'm not taking away from that, not at all. But we should not waste that time and be lazy with it either. And then may I say this, what about our witness? Are we lazy with our witness? Do you know that the Son of God, the one we sing, oh, how I love Jesus, do you know what he said? And ye shall be witnesses unto me. How is our witness? How is our sharing the gospel? Who have we shared the gospel with this week, verbally, or in a letter, or a card, or an email, or a tract? Who have we? How much have we? I mean, you'd think if we love Jesus as much as we act like we do, or say we do, that we'd want to share them all the time. But you know, it's really easy for folks to be weak or lazy about their witness. You know, he said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Stenet Blue said every creature needs a preacher. Have we been lazy about our witness? How many times have you walked out of the gas station or have I, how many times have we walked out of the gas station and the Holy Ghost said, go give them a gospel check? How many times have we walked out of the store and the Holy Ghost said, go witness to them? How many times has the Holy Ghost said, go witness to your neighbor, go do this, go do that, and we didn't do it? Lazy. not being fervent about God's business. Oh, I'm going to heaven. I'm glad I'm escaping hell, but somebody else is heading there. What are we doing about it? Then I think about this, weariness. You know, when you're trying with all your heart to serve God, and you're trying to be faithful, and you get weary, you know what happens? it's really easy to start getting lazy about doing God's business. You know what the Bible tells us? To not be weary in well-doing. For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. God tells us that he does not want us to allow weariness to make us spiritually lazy. Oh, yeah, but the feelings, the emotions that a person has when they're weary. Can you imagine Philip in Acts chapter 8? He was in a mighty revival. I mean, thousands of people were getting saved. And according to the will of God, the Holy Ghost called him out of that to the desert, to Gaza. And here's this man walking through the desert. Now, there's never a comfortable time to just walk through the desert. All right? I would imagine as he's walking in that heat, that weariness is setting in. I would imagine that his humanly mind was thinking about where he could have been in that mighty revival. But God had a purpose for that desert. the first man to take the gospel to Africa, a eunuch from Ethiopia. He was there seeking God, and he needed a preacher to give him the gospel. But Philip, he could have got weary and stopped. He could have turned around and said, I'm going back to the revival. But he didn't. He followed the Holy Spirit. And then when he did what God told him to do, all of a sudden, the Holy Ghost said, all right, you're done. and he called him out of there. Weariness. Don't let weariness make you spiritually lazy. But then I think about this, wealth. There is nothing that I know of in this world more dear to people than their money. And you know, isn't it sad that Christians look for a reason not to give money to God? You know what I'm talking about. They look for a reason. I need to find a reason that I don't have to tithe off of this massive amount of money that God gave me. How horrible. But it happens all the time. It happens all the time. Mary had a friend named Sheila Doom. Sheila Doom's daddy was James Stewart. the Scottish preacher, I believe he was from Scotland, who worked behind the Iron Curtain. He was a missionary in Czechoslovakia. And me and Mary, we had just started, we'd just gotten married, and I was already on deputation, but we had gotten married and started going together. And Miss Doom met me and Mary for breakfast or brunch one day in Asheville, as me and Mary were on the way to a meeting. And Miss Doom was telling us about the church behind the Iron Curtain that was under persecution. And I love being around people like that, because they make me feel about that big. Some people, nobody knows their names, but they are do or die for Jesus. And Miss Doom was telling us about that church in Czechoslovakia. She said when when persecution was there and the Iron Curtain was in She said she said that church would do anything for God She said people were being thrown in jail people were being beaten people were being persecuted people were suffering and they were happy about it and out of her own mouth, I heard her say and then freedom came and It spoiled him And she said, you couldn't even get them to give an offering at church. Wealth. People get lazy with God with their wealth. My friend, in the book of Malachi, the prophet told them that they robbed God if they weren't tithing. Oh, in Korea, there's actually churches, they build their church by announcing that they don't practice tithing. My friend, people say, well, tithing was under the law. No, tithing was before the law. It goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, to the book of the beginning. And everything else from the book of Genesis, sin, marriage, men, women, Israel, God, creation, we follow all the rest of it. And tithing is right there, too. Let us not get lazy with God about tithing and giving our tithe. May I say this? I thought about not getting lazy, not getting slothful about wrestling with God in prayer. In Genesis 32, it records the account of Jacob and he wrestled with God all night long. He wrestled with God all night. You know what he was asking for? Bless me. Bless me. I was talking to Dr. Akin this week, and he was telling me about when the revival fell years ago before the church, before Tabernacle was started. He said that Dr. Seitler got in the pulpit at Pelham Baptist Church, and he said, church, we need to pray about two things, the revival of the saint and the evangelism of the lost. And it wasn't just a preacher calling people in a service to come pray. Those people wanted to pray that way. And so they come all week, every day, around the clock, when they could, to just pray. And he said that revival fell, and he was telling me about when his dad got saved. He said his daddy was driving down the road one night and he turned on the radio because he wanted to listen to country music. And he said Pelham Baptist Church was airing their late night Sunday night service. You see, the revival had already fallen. And so many people were coming on Sunday nights. They couldn't fit in the building. They had the windows open, and people were standing around the outside listening to the preaching. But there were so many people, they couldn't all come. So they turned church out, and they'd have another service after that. And he said that his dad, he heard Dr. Seitler preaching on the radio and said, I believe I'd like to hear him preach in person. I believe it was two weeks later. They went to Pelham Baptist Church, and Dr. Aiken said he sat in a chair up front. He was a little bitty boy, and his mom and daddy sat in the back. And that night, his mom and dad heard the gospel, and both of them got saved that night. You know where that happened? Because somebody was wrestling with God in prayer. My friend, we don't need religion. We need the power of God. Let us not get lazy. Don't answer me. But I'm going to ask us all the questions. How much time do we spend in prayer? What's our prayer life like? Are we really in fellowship with God and with heaven, walking in the Holy Spirit, as the Bible said, praying in the Holy Ghost? Wrestling with God in prayer. Sometimes spiritual warfare. You know the devil still attacks Christians. And that can discourage people and tempt them to be lazy about doing God's business. Weakness. You know what the Apostle Paul said? We were with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Weakness doesn't have to make us spiritually lazy. We can still be fervent in spirit. The Holy Ghost has not lost his strength. Matter of fact, the Bible said, though the outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day. God doesn't want us to be slothful, not slothful in business, and that would include God's business. You know what God wants? God wants you and I to be serious about him. That type of radical Christianity that changes lives. That's something different than we go to church on Sunday morning and blow the dust off our Bible and look at the table of contents to find out where the preacher's preaching. I'm talking about the real thing. And then I think about this laziness in our worship. Laziness in our worship. I think people have lost their shout. I remember one night in Bible college, we were singing up here in the choir, and the Holy Ghost fell, and we were shouting it out, and Jimmy Rose was sitting right there on the front pew. And Dr. Akin, during the singing, oftentimes he'd go sit down there, because he wanted to listen to the choir sing. And I remember it got on, and we were shouting it out, and Jimmy Rose jumped up. And I don't know how old he was, but he ran to the corner of the pew, and he come back and told Dr. A, he said, I forgot how old I was, but I was about to take a lap around the church. When was the last time you've seen somebody get so full of God they just shouted it out? Are we getting lazy in our worship? You know, you don't come to God, come to church and worship God in power like that if you don't worship God Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. You know what I think? I think there's a whole lot of gossip, a whole lot of strife, a whole lot of backbiting, a whole lot of just things that are keeping people from having a relationship with God like they should. Amen. That's exactly right. And so people aren't praying like they should, people aren't getting right with people like they should, and worship is suffering. Not slothful in business. Serving the Lord. Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. My mama, she's in heaven. She led me to the Lord, and she'd tell me about the mountain church revival she'd seen. She said A.C. Durham would preach the gospel, and she said every time he preached, it felt like the rapture was gonna happen before church got out. I was telling Dr. Aiken about it this week. I told him there was one man in that church he got saved. He said that Brother Durham preached the gospel, and he got under conviction, and he said his feet were on fire while he was walking the aisle to go to the pew to get saved, or go to the altar to get saved. He knew that much. He was on his way to hell. And churches used to have power. People used to shout and worship God, and the glory used to fall. What's going on? Where is it? Are we getting lazy in our worship? But then our willingness. Isaiah the prophet, you know what he said? Hear my Lord, send me. I fear the day and hour we live in, most people are saying, oh Lord, don't send me. The Wednesday night, I mentioned I'm doing some research on the 1040 window. The 1040 window reaches across northern Africa, lower part of Europe, the Middle East, all through the Middle East, and all those regions, and China, and all through Asia. 62%. 3.32 billion people. 5,600 people groups. And according to statistics, these are unreached with the gospel. And we're in Greenville, South Carolina, where you can find 900 preachers that are just, they're here. And I know it's not the will of God to send all of them, but I'm sure it's not the will of God for all of them to stay here. Amen. Has the Holy Ghost stopped calling people? No. No, I think people stopped listening and stopped being willing. Where's that spirit of Isaiah? Hear my Lord, send me. I'll go. Just tell me where to go and how far to go. And he was willing. Then I think about this. This is gonna sound awkward, but hopefully I'll be able to make it make sense, but lazy about waiting on the Lord. You know, the Bible talks about waiting on the Lord. It talks about those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. But let me ask you, what do good waiters do? They wait. They serve. You go to the restaurant, when do you really want to give a good tip? when the one that's waiting on you and serving you does well. And I believe while we're waiting on the Lord for things, we should serve him. And we should serve him fervently. And we should serve him with all of our heart. Sadly, when discouragement creeps in, worldliness, it's just a, it's an allurement to humanity. And when worldliness gets in our lives, you know what it'll produce? Laziness and spiritual things. You see, you can't read the Bible and pray like you should and walk with the world. They're gonna fight against each other. The Bible said it clearly. The friend of the world is the enemy of God. The enemies of God do not read their Bible faithfully and pray and walk with God in the Holy Spirit. You can't do both. and worldliness all around us is trying to creep into churches, then I think about this, laziness with wisdom. The Bible tells us how to find wisdom, to pray for it, to search it out in His Word, to search it out in the multitude of counselors. But I would say there's a famine. of seeking sound wisdom in these days. Laziness about these things. God does not want us to be slothful. He wants us to be fervent. This is not a message that's meant to rebuke. It's a message to encourage us in our hearts to guard. The Bible said, guard your heart with all or keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. that we might be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. In our spiritual walk, how closely are we walking to the Lord? What about in His word? You know, the Bible said in the book of Ecclesiastes, much study is a weariness to the flesh. As you study, and you study, and you study, and you study, and then as you study, and you pray, and you study, and you pray, and you study, and you pray, oh, it's a weariness to our flesh. We need the help of the Holy Ghost, amen, to be in His Word. I'm almost finished. I think about this. I think about the wounded, the ones that get hurt for whatever reason. Whoever you are, whatever hurt you, the world, the flesh, the devil, the person, you know what that does? It just, it just, I don't know why, but it causes people to clam up. And they might go to church, but they stop giving. They stop praying. They stop witnessing. They stop going on visitation. They stop serving the Lord. And all it does is hurt them more. And you know what else it does? It starts to produce bitterness and unforgiveness. Not always, but it can. And you know what happens? Oftentimes, these individuals, they just end up hurting themselves. Don't let that happen to you. Don't let that happen to you. And then in closing tonight, I think about the will of God. the will of God. How do we know the will of God? From the word of God. How much of his Bible do we know? You know, when I was thinking this week, hearing the stories of those who were martyred, burned alive, beheaded, tortured, because they were trying to translate this Bible And here we sit, many people with 30 or 40 of them in their house, and some of those people don't even read one of them. Laziness, slothfulness. May God help all of us, me, you, not to be slothful, but to be fervent in spirit. Serving the Lord. Fervent about prayer. Fervent about witnessing. Fervent about serving. Fervent about growing in the Lord. Fervent about doing His will. Fervent. This word, serving the Lord, I looked it up and it means to be in bondage to Jesus. It means to be a slave to Jesus. It means to be submitted to Jesus. It means to obey Him. God wants us to serve Him with all of our heart. And the Bible teaches us in the book of Hebrews that whatever the sin or the weight that doth so easily beset us, that we need to lay it aside. And I would submit to you, whatever it is that would keep you from being more of a burning and shining light for Jesus, lay it aside. Whatever or whoever it is. The same for me. not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Let's stand together. The altar is open if the Lord spoke to you. Lord Jesus, search our hearts. May the will of the Lord be done. Have your way and will. I love you. And may you just lead God in direct.