Proverbs 22, 29 says, Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. Hard work pays off. And when a business is run correctly and when a nation follows biblical law and ethics, then a man who is a hard worker, a diligent man, will earn promotion and will have the respect of other good men. That's the general idea being taught in our proverb when it says, seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. Yes, there are men who become wealthy by cheating and stealing and lying. George Soros became a billionaire by manipulating foreign currency, and as a result, he ruined thousands of families. He destroyed the economies of whole countries. For one example, look up Black Wednesday of 1992 and what Soros did to the Bank of England. Soros was diligent, but his diligence was pure evil. What our proverb is talking about is the honest, consistent, faithful, and skillful, hardworking man. And that sort of man is definitely rare these days. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? Not too often. Most men are not hardworking, at least that's been my own experience. When I worked for private companies, most of those I worked with were constantly looking for ways to get out of work. The few that did work hard had a saying about those other people. If he worked as hard doing his job as he does trying to get out of doing his job, he'd get a lot of work done. And you may have to think about that for a minute. but you understand what I'm saying. They spend a lot of effort trying to not do their jobs. I also work for the government, and I always said that four out of five government workers spend their day watching the one out of five of us who do all the work. The fact is, the employee who doesn't give their employer an honest day's work is a thief. They are stealing wages for services not rendered. So it's not only the lazy that is violating the principle of our proverb, but another message we get is that crime doesn't pay. The diligent man is a hard worker, but the thief is the man who steals his employer's time or the thief that steals his employer's property. That man will at some point be exposed and lose his job in most cases. Laziness does not pay. And usually the lazy, they end up being thieves. I once worked with a guy, he reminded me of Chester on Gunsmoke, played by actor Dennis Weaver. He's a really nice guy, but he's just a real slacker. And he's always just trying to get out of work, just go off somewhere, find him later on. One day a supervisor came to me and said, Greg, you're a hard worker, but I want you to keep your distance from so-and-so. He wouldn't say anything more and explain what he meant, but I respected him, so I took his advice, and sure enough, I came to work sometime later, and I was told that Chester's lookalike had been fired. He'd been stealing and was caught in the act. And that was my experience of our proverb being fulfilled in real life. Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. But the opposite is true of the man who isn't diligent, the man who isn't a hard worker, the man who isn't a hardworking, honest man. So work hard and stay away from those who don't. That's the good, practical advice from the word of God found in our proverb. It also is the principle taught in the words given by God to the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3, verse 23. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. If you work as unto the Lord, you're going to work hard, you're going to be honest. And if you please the Lord, then you ought to please everybody else.