Good morning. Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to the book of Proverbs. And no, we will not be looking at Lady Folly this morning. I'll reference that passage of scripture and why I had it read in a few moments. It's my opportunity this morning to do something that I've never done before, and while I I get to preach at the beginning of a new year and the opportunity to speak on New Year's resolutions, but I'm not going to. However, I'm going to, with the Lord's help, show us a warning in the book of Proverbs that will hopefully be a success to you as you set out with New Year's resolutions. And my hope is that this passage would encourage you to not only start your New Year's resolution, but to finish it. This morning we are looking at Proverbs 24, and we are looking at the sluggard, or the one who is lazy. As I think back over the past years where I have come up with a list of things that I want to accomplish, whether that be get back to the gym, or eat better, or focus on my soul, my spiritual life, Bible reading, and prayer, I think the silent killer is the sin of laziness. Look at Proverbs 24, and I'll just read verses 30 through 34. The wise sage, or the father, who I take as the wisdom of Solomon, he says, I pass by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, It was all overgrown with thorns, the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it. I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. I'm going to start with a story that I don't know if it's true or not. Perhaps you have heard of the story of the man who lived somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia, who won the title, the laziest man in North America. The man from the sponsoring company who had put up a prize for $10,000 for the gentleman who was successful, arrived at this man's home to present him with the prize. Where, said the man from the sponsoring company, is Mr. Jackson, the laziest man in the world? Oh, said the person at the door. He's down at the bottom of the garden. You will find him there. And so the man went with the $10,000 check down to the bottom of the garden, and there he found Mr. Jackson lying on the grass, not moving a muscle, and although not asleep, his eyes were closed. Mr. Jackson, he said, I am from the sponsoring company. the one that ran the competition for the laziest man in North America. I'm pleased to inform you that you have won, and I have here for you the check of $10,000." Mr. Jackson replied, without opening his eyes, oh, roll me over and put it in my left pocket. Like I said, who knows this is true? but it captures this sluggard, this lazy man. And I think we all know what the wise sage refers to here as the one who is the sluggard, the lazy person. You have this idea in your mind. Well, the book of Proverbs, and I'm going to here say God's view, okay, of the sluggard, the one who is lazy, Proverbs is an uncomfortable book. for the lazy person, giving various graphic and comical details of who the lazy person is and the different characteristics of his lifestyle. Now, while this comical description of the sluggard's lifestyle are designed to highlight the foolishness, and for you and I to say, yeah, I see where that path leads, and I am going to decide not to follow that path. As we see, a lot of these passages here this morning, they paint the sluggard in a very comical light. But if I could just warn us this morning, that before we sit here and think of, man, who really needs this sluggard message this morning, right? Or, oh, I know this guy at work who fits this exact description. Can I call your attention to verse 32? And notice, this is gonna be the fulcrum of the passage. This is gonna be the fork in the road. And notice that it's the wise sage, Solomon, who actually takes instruction for himself from the sluggard. So this morning, if you're here as a child of God, you would do best. You would take the road of wisdom by first looking in the mirror yourself and inspecting This pockets of laziness may be hidden in the back corner or in the closet of your life. If we're honest, laziness may just be one of those persistent, habitual sins that has fallen into the category of a respectable sin. And I use that because I know we've been going through respectable sins in small groups, and hopefully you guys have a category for that, right? As I've studied this myself, I have just found multiple areas in my life that I have repented to the Lord over, over the sin of laziness, okay? So this sermon's for me before it is for you, okay? Now, when we come to the book of Proverbs, there's a couple things that we want to keep in mind. The book of Proverbs, you know, you might think of a, don't carry all your eggs in one basket, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, not leap before you look, look before you leap, right? For those of you who are starting out in the gym, it's the beginning of the year, New Year's resolution, no pain, no gain, right? Okay, so these are Proverbs. that the world has come up with. It's a general observation about how things generally work in life. A proverb is not an absolute statement that you can take to the bank and say, this is exactly how life is at all times and all places. A proverb is not a promise. The really easy one, the thrashing boy, if you will, that everyone goes to. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. That's not a promise. Because we know that faithful parents often have children who do not stay true to the way of wisdom, and that's not necessarily the parent's fault. Okay, so it's not a promise, it's not an absolute statement. Rather, a proverb is, it's a snapshot, it captures a snapshot of life to motivate you and me, as God's children, towards proper behavior. A longer definition would be a proverb is a concise, memorable statement, usually in poetic form, expressing a general accepted observation about life. Now, in the book of Proverbs, though, it is a generally accepted observation about life filtered through the first starting point of the fact that God exists and He has spoken. For us here this morning, if you are a child of God, you believe that God exists and that he has spoken. And therefore, that means that what he has spoken, the way of wisdom that we find in his word, it is the way of wisdom that the child of God walks down. The world can pick up many general observations of how the world generally works. Right? Someone would read Proverbs 24, the sluggard, and go, yeah, I need to have good work ethic. I need to be diligent at my job. All while failing to connect the fact that the wisdom found in this passage is ultimately God's wisdom. You see, in Proverbs 3, the wise sage tells us that God has actually created the world through wisdom. so that in the very fabric of all experiences in this world that you and I ever experience and face, all the general observations that the world makes about how this world works, God has woven wisdom through the very fabric of creation. So to find wisdom ultimately and truly is to find God and to find his revealed will for this life. to be truly wise is to have faith in God and submit to His revealed will in His Word. So, those are just some things to keep in mind when we read the book of Proverbs. Now, we come to Proverbs chapter 24. verses 30 through 34, and you're often, as we read through the book of Proverbs, that long section between chapter 10 and 22, verse 13, I think. It's just like these one verses, and they're not really connected to the one before it. Okay? Ours is different. We have a reflection from Solomon, the wise sage, and then we have a proverb at the end. Notice, we have the sluggard's vineyard in verses 30 and 31, And then we have the proverb in verses 33 and 34, which you might recognize from Proverbs chapter 6. It's just, it's a repetition of the same proverb, right? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and here's the result. Poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Okay, so this example story in verse 30 and 31 And this proverb, or the lesson learned from this example, it's separated by the wise sage reflecting, looking in the mirror, taking instruction from this example. In other words, verse 32, it brings us to a fork in the road. Will you and I heed the wisdom of this passage, or will we ignore it and become like the sluggard? So what I'd like to do is just, the rest of our time, I'd like to split Proverbs 24, 30 through 34 into three categories. Okay, first in verses 30 through 31, we'll see devastation along the road. Devastation along the road. Then, sorry, this is gonna be out of order for those of you who have OCD. Then we're gonna look at verses 33 and 34, the road to devastation, the road to devastation, and then we're gonna come back and take a look at what I like to call the fork in the road. So, devastation along the road, the road to devastation, and then the fork in the road in verse 32. So look with me at devastation along the road in verses 30 and 31. I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns, the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Okay, in this first pair, okay, this example story, we're brought into the wise sage's lavatory and he's gonna tell us about a time when he was walking through life and he came upon a devastating situation. And in verse 31, he invites us to see, look, look what I saw. Overgrown thorns, ground was covered, stone wall was broken down. And if you notice in verse 30 and 30, excuse me, in verse 30, we have the field of a sluggard and the vineyard of a man lacking sense. The way that parallelism works in Proverbs, okay, I don't mean to bore you in any way by this, okay, but we could see the field and the vineyards as synonymous statements. And the sluggard and the man lacking sense as synonymous statements. Talking about the same field and vineyard, talking about the same lazy sluggard is the man who lacks sense. So what is this field and vineyard? What do you and I need to know about this field or this vineyard that would help us understand why this is a devastating example? Well, for centuries, The common Israelite farmer worked in a field. He had a vineyard to produce crops. And they would either ground grain to use it immediately or they would store it up in case of time of war or famine. Now in our case, the farming industry has been overrun by mechanics. So we just have these huge machines that do this job. So we're separated by a lot of years. Some of you might be farmers in here and you understand this. For sake of time, I would like to go to Isaiah 28 and show you guys the diligent farmer. Okay. I thought about Isaiah 28. I really was interested in this vineyard and this field and all that went into making sure that you put food on the table every night. And so I did a ton of research on this and then my notes were like eight pages long. So I just scrapped all that. And I thought that this would be a much quicker way to give you an idea of the hard work of agriculture and farming. Look at Isaiah 28, 23 through 29. Isaiah 28, 23 through 29. Give ear and hear my voice. Give attention and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat and rose and barley in its proper place and emmer as a border? For he is rightly instructed. His God teaches him. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheeled rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever. When he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the Lord of hosts. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom. Now, a side point is notice how the diligent farmer is connected to the one who is wise. Okay, that's one thing. But two, notice these words. Verse 24, he's plowing and he's sowing. He's harrowing his ground. He's leveling the surface. He's scattering. In verse 27, he's threshing. He's beating out with a stick. and there's grain going, okay, these are all descriptions of the laborious task that it was to be a farmer in this time. I just had my parents here this past week, I think it was last week for Christmas, yeah. And there was kind of a lull in the vacation. And when there's a lull, my dad gets to thinking. And he goes, you know what I was just thinking? He's like, we're just sitting here, and we don't even have to think about going out and killing an animal and dragging it in here so that we can have food tonight. We could just go to the store, or it's in the fridge already, and my mother and Meg were going to put that together for us. And he was like, imagine if that was the case. He was like, I would have spent almost all your childhood training, he's speaking to me, training you how to go and hunt or till a field and plant a vineyard so that you could provide for your family. And that would be a wise thing. Well, we have a field, we have a vineyard. Hopefully I've made the case that this takes a lot of work. And if you ever get the chance to view an agricultural calendar, the plowing, the sowing, the harvesting, the reaping, the threshing. You were doing that all year round. You could never not take a break from doing it. Now let me ask you this. With a job like that, what do you think the lazy person's vineyard looked like? Look at verse 31. And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns, the ground was covered with nettles, or thistles, and its stone wall was broken down." Now, this sluggard, or this man lacking sense, who is he? Well, the term for this individual is used 13 times in the Old Testament, and it's all in the book of Proverbs. This individual, this title, it means to be sluggish, slow, lazy, or slothful. And later, we'll take a look at how the book of Proverbs characterizes or describes this person's life. But notice who this sluggard is paralleled to, the man lacking sense, or a senseless man. This word literally means to lack heart. or fail to open the eyes and just realize what it is like to live life. Now, out of all the uses in Proverbs, this man-lacking sense is described as one who is weak in temptation, lacking the ability to see future consequences of his immediate actions. We saw the man-lacking sense in Proverbs 7. It was a man who placed immediate gratification over future consequences. He can't see clearly. He lacks sense. Now, while you and I might look at the sluggard or the lazy person and think of it as just a character flaw, like, yeah, that guy just needs to do better, right? Just wake up. If we truly read Proverbs closely, the book of Proverbs views the sluggard, the man lacking sense, as a sinner. It's not just a character flaw. It's a moral issue. It's a sin that needs to be dealt with. It's a sin that needs to be repented of. Both of these individuals, time and time again, the lazy and the one lacking sense, describes individuals who have problems that go much deeper than character flaws. So let's look at this sluggard now that we know what a vineyard is and what a sluggard is. Let's look at his vineyard. Now with this sluggard in mind, Imagine, let's imagine we all, somehow we found a, well we took the church bus, sorry, so we all went and got in and hopefully it started. And we were driving down the road and we came to a house like this. Now obviously there's probably not gonna be a vineyard, right? But we came to a house that was overgrown. The weeds had overgrown the sidewalk that you couldn't even see to get to the house. How many of you guys have ever seen anything on social media where a landscape company will just for fun go to a house that looks really run down. They'll be like, hey, I'll do it for free. And then they show a before and after picture. Those are fun to watch. I like that. I like to watch those. Well, imagine if you and I were in the Maranatha Baptist Church bus, okay? And we drive by a house like that. We are going to conclude, we're forced to conclude one of three things. One, there's no one living there. Two, the person who had been living there had become circumstantially hindered. Injury, sickness, and lacking sense. This is not the sluggard. Okay, option number three, the downright lazy man, the sluggard. This is the one who owns this vineyard. This overgrown and useless vineyard is not a result of ill health or old age or the owners moving out, but this vineyard was a result of the sluggard's laziness. This once beautiful vineyard that most likely was inherited from this man's parents is now a disgrace, leaving nothing to his name, and guess who the one is to blame? the sluggard himself, the lazy man. The sluggard is suffering the consequences of his own actions. And we don't have time to get into this. This is a very fascinating study that if you look at the way, look at the various times when thorns and thistles appear throughout the Old Testament, It's a reference or a sign of judgment. Okay, so when a nation was gonna be judged by God because of their sin, thorns and thistles overcame the land so that they could not provide for themselves. This is seen in Isaiah 34, Hosea 9, and Zephaniah 2. Now, there's a very familiar passage if you've probably sit there and think long enough. Where was the first time that we saw thorns and thistles? Genesis 3. when God's curse because of sin upon the ground assured that apart from hard work, the sweat of your brow, the ground would produce nothing but thorns and thistles. Now just zoom out for a second. This is what it's like to live in a post-Genesis 3 world. When you and I procrastinate, when you and I fail to step up and take care of our responsibilities, we suffer greater and greater consequences of sin. This is what it is like to live in a post-fall world. So this sluggard, by neglecting his responsibility to work the ground, he is living in a made-up world detached from reality. He's forgetting that he lives in a sin-cursed world, and he's suffering the consequences for it, and it's almost as if the land personified is, with the Lord, judging this individual for failing to work hard and be diligent. In general, I think we could say this, that as sin increases in your life and my life, so does our experience of just the sin-cursed consequences of what it's like to live in a Genesis 3 type world. Notice the end of verse 31, this stone wall is broken down. This stone wall was a protective wall to keep out intruders, animals, and people. You, remember, you needed your vineyard to be tip-top shape. This is your livelihood. And this man doesn't even, you can't even see the difference between the woods and the vineyard. This is like the parsonage property. Okay. So there's been a few people who've lived there over the last couple years. And let me just say this. I think the property over there is a lot bigger than it seems. It took me a whole day to clear back because I kept getting hit when I was mowing the lawn with low branches. It took me like a whole day to clear those back. You couldn't even see the division from this guy's vineyard and, let's say, the wood line, okay? It was completely broken down. This is a devastating picture. Okay, so we've seen devastation along the road. We have a lazy man's vineyard. It's good for nothing, and he will not survive for very long. But how did he get here? Let's look at the road to devastation. How did he get here? Look at verses 33 and 34. little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and Poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man Now this overgrown this useless vineyard Do you think it's a result of this? Sluggards positive desire for poverty and disgrace like did he wake up one morning and say you know what? I'm gonna have the most disgraceful vineyard along this stretch, this side of the Mediterranean, right? I want so that people can walk by the road and learn from me, so I'm gonna do everything I can to have the worst-looking property in the world. No. No one who is on the road to destruction starts off like that. Rather, the sluggard, and all of us, When we are faced with a responsibility, when we are challenged to simply take hold of the responsibilities and the tasks that we have set before us, this is how we get to destruction. We say this, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. In other words, just hit the snooze button one more time, I'll get it tomorrow, someone else will take care of it, right? Now I'd like to, just really briefly take you on a little journey on the characteristic of the slugger's life, right? The question was, how did the slugger's vineyard get to where it was? Because most likely, this man inherited this vineyard from his parents, and it was at one time a beautiful, bountiful crop-producing vineyard. Well, the road to destruction is, number one, characterized by habitual procrastination, right? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Probably one of my favorite proverbs of the sluggard is 2614. The sluggard, or excuse me, 2614. As a door turns on its hinges, so the sluggard turns on his bed. That is a very vivid, comical picture, and it is funny. We're supposed to, Chuckle. Maybe some of you can remember back to your college days if you had a college roommate. I had one of these. He'll remain unnamed. And he was just like, you guys ever seen that shirt? Procrastinators unite. And on the back, it says tomorrow. You guys seen that shirt? No? OK. It's a funny shirt. The slugger needs it, right? My college roommate, I don't know if he ever made it to a class on time. Oh, I'm sorry. He made it to his second hour classes or his third hour class. But the first one, nah, right? I remember there was a bell in our dorm that would go off 10 minutes before every class started for the case of the slugger. It was a little warning. It was like, OK, if you're not up, it's time to go now. I remember waking up every morning on the day that I had class with him, and I would kind of jar him, and then I'd take all my stuff, go into the bathroom, get ready, come back out. His alarm's going off. I'd jar him again. I'm like, whatever, dude. We're in college. I'm not your mom. So then I would leave, and I'm sitting in class, and our last names were very close in letter, because that's how we were set. He sat right in front of me. Almost every time, he would come in disheveled, his hair not touched, barely passing dress code, because I went to Pensacola Christian College, and you have to have your shirt tucked in and a belt on, and you better have a collar on. So you couldn't really slack that much. But you get this vivid picture. When the warning bell goes off, I would jar my buddy in bed. Oh, he'd move, but he would just turn over to get comfortable again. As a door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard in his bed. He moved in response to the poking and the prodding, but his only movement was a slight roll to put off or ignore the responsibility at hand. Habitual procrastination. Here's another one. The sluggard on this road to devastation, he had to be satisfied with his excuses. Listen to Proverbs 26, 13. The sluggard says, there's a lion in the road, there's a lion in the streets. When you disturb a lazy person's laziness, it is incredible to watch how ingenious they come. They come up with excuses, right? How many of you guys have young kids, school age though, and it's like three days into summer vacation, and they've been at home for three days, and they make the comment, I'm just so bored. They have nothing to do. So, mom throws out a few suggestions, right? Well, you could cut the grass or bring in the garbage cans. You will then discover how inventive Children become or the lazy person becomes in making excuses as to why they should not do Whatever mom or dad asked them to do Why? Well because he's downright lazy The danger is when our laziness gets to the point that we begin to live in the reality like there's a line in the street There's no line in the street. Just get up and go do it and This road of the sluggard is marked by excuses. Another characteristic. The sluggard, he cannot complete anything. Proverbs 26, 15. The sluggard hurries his hand to the dish, but his hand is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. This is comical. This is funny. The sluggard is so lazy that even the most needful exertion to eat becomes a nuisance to him. The slugger puts the food on his fork, but he can't even bring it to his mouth. He would rather enjoy his laziness than his food. Now, before we get too hard on the slugger, there are many things that I'm thankful for about my wife. But one of the things is that she primarily writes up the list of food that needs to be at the store and preps what we're going to eat on each day. and I take it for granted until I'm left home with Winnie and she goes out, which is not often, but she goes out and has a good time, not by herself because we have wells, but away from us. She's at a break. She might even stock the fridge and give me instructions on, hey, while we're gone, here's what's in the fridge, and here's what I'd like you to prepare, and it'll be great. It'll be just like I'm not even, it'll be just like I'm there. Now, you know, do I make the meal? You know, I begin to make excuses like, well, I don't really want my chef debut to be tried out on my daughter. You know, she needs a good, sustainable meal, right? And so I think the thing I conclude is we're either starving or I'm swiping the card somewhere, right? So we head on down to Culver's or get something, right? Okay, while my charitable excuse is, I don't want to try out this whole cooking thing for the first time, you know, and it become a flop for my family, especially when my wife's not here, I'm just downright lazy. I'm just lazy. That's what it is. That's what it is. Another characteristic, unfulfilled desires. Proverbs 21, 25, the sluggard's craving will be the death of him because his hand refuses to work. The life of the sluggard is a continual, unfulfilled desire. The sluggard might establish an objective, he might make a New Year's resolution, but when it comes to actually doing it, it never moves past just an idea or thought in his mind. The sluggard lives in an illusion that never becomes reality because he is unwilling to do the work necessary to accomplish his objective. And the last one, which is most devastating, is this sluggard is blinded in their way. They're blinded in their pride. Proverbs 26, 16. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answered discreetly. Right? Wouldn't it be one thing if the sluggard is confronted about his laziness and goes, oh, no, you're right, like, I see all these areas where, yeah, this road leads to devastation. You're right. I'm going to turn around and I'm going to get my act together. But the reality of it is he's so prideful in his own way that he cannot see his own foolishness. He thinks his own way is wise. This is like the last step before full devastation. This sluggard who will not listen to the correction of wisdom. They continue in their own way, living life by their own wisdom. And look where it ends, verse 34. Poverty and want. The road leads to poverty and want. We now are met with the logical outgrowth We're left with the result of the sluggard's character to a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. Here's the point. With this poverty coming on one like a robber or like an armed man. The point is one day the sluggard wakes up from his arrogant procrastination to discover that he is poverty stricken and it is all too late. This poverty didn't spring up overnight, but the realization of it has suddenly dawned on him and it is all too late. Everyone could see it coming, right, from miles away. And most people may have warned him, hey, turn around, pick a different route. But with his arms folded and his eyes closed and his mouth making excuses, there's a line in the street. he suffers destruction. And it comes on him as a surprise. So we've seen devastation along the road. We've seen this road that has led to devastation. But let's look at the fork in the road. Remember I said verse 32 is sort of like the verse that this entire section hinges on. We come now to verse 32. Then, this is the wise sage, Then I saw and I considered, I looked and I received instruction. This has the idea of inspecting something for the sake of learning from it, for the sake of being instructed. The phrase I saw and I considered it, it literally means to set your heart on something. Now remember, what was another way to describe the one lacking sense? It was the one lacking heart. Okay, so do you see what's going on here? The road of the sluggard started out by not applying his heart to wisdom. And here we see the wise sage actually taking this example and applying it to his heart. I saw, I opened my eyes, I considered it. In the net translation, which is primarily an online translation, you might have the app on your phone, it's the second phrase, it says this, I took instruction. In other words, the wise sage is first, receiving instruction for himself before anyone else. This is what's really interesting about verse 32 though. You only see the word I two times in verse 32? Well, in the original language, every word is either in the first person or it's connected to a first person, I'll just call it relationship for the sake of our time, okay? Why is that significant? Other than, like, why is that significant? Well, here it is. More than anyone in this proverb, the attention is ultimately drawn to the sage. The one who walked by the road, saw the devastating vineyard, saw what it ended in and said, you know, I'm going to step back from this and I'm going to learn something from it. The wise sage is the one who actually chastens or disciplines or corrects himself through this reflection, through this study, through this inspection of this sluggards vineyard. You see, it is only those who first look in the mirror when considering the sluggard's vineyard who truly benefit from the wisdom found in this proverb. Before pointing the finger at someone else or who you think in this auditorium needs this sermon, we all must self-reflect. We first must apply our heart to God's revelation if we are going to navigate wisely through this life. After all, the wise individual is the one who avoids the path of this life. So which will you choose? Which will you choose? In conclusion, I'd like to just think of two things. Thought number one is there's two ways to live. The matter of laziness is not something to ultimately be joked about. It's rather a sin to be repentative. And if it's not, we will be failing in our daily responsibilities to do our absolute best for the glory of God and for the sake of living wisely in the world that he has created by wisdom. You know, Ephesians 5, 16, making the best of every opportunity that we have. 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Do everything to put God on display, to make him look valuable to everyone around you. So let me address the children of God in here. This year, Don't be lazy when it comes to your soul, your spiritual health. Don't neglect the responsibility to care for your soul. Get a Bible reading plan. Do it with someone for accountability's sake. read about prayer, something that I am doing for our family because I have dropped the ball. I've tried to start, and guess what happened? I'm a sluggard, right? But I have really tried to put in the effort to think about and implement a time of family worship throughout the week where our family gathers, quick prayer, quick song, something. Like we got Winnie, and if you guys know her, she's not sitting for more than like five minutes, right? But this is good, this is me, as a father, trying to understand how God has orchestrated this world and my responsibility to be wise and shepherd my wife and my family. I don't know what that looks like for you, okay? Husbands and fathers. Don't shy away from this responsibility. If there is a honey-do list, something that your wife has been asking you to do for months now and you haven't done it, just do it. This is how we live with our wives in an understanding way. Wives and mothers, don't neglect your spouse. Don't neglect your children. You have such an opportunity to show and distill in your kids what it looks like to live wisely in God's world by instilling in them character of diligence and to warn them against laziness. Children, don't neglect your responsibility to love and honor and respect your parents. Students, don't neglect your studies. We could go on and on and on. I don't know exactly how this applies to your life this morning, but it's very clear. We don't want to walk down the path of the slugger. There's two ways to live. Will you heed the wisdom of Proverbs, or will you ignore it and go your own way? Second thought, not only is there two ways to live, but there's two ways to die. The book of Proverbs is not just a book about how to get ahead in life. We could bring an unbeliever in here, they could read through the book of Proverbs and be like, yeah, that has captured my experience through and through. And guess what? They could still reject God. The book of Proverbs is more about just choosing to avoid the path of the sluggard. It is most importantly about first and foremost being rightly related to the Lord. The book starts, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you are here this morning and you do not relate rightly to God, there is no hope for you to live in the true path of wisdom. you must first relate to God in the correct way this morning. And it is the way of wisdom that is the fruit of the individual who rightly relates to God. I don't know if there's someone in here this morning that does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. They do not relate to God in the right way. Let me just tell you this. The way that you die well is not learning from Solomon and doing everything that he has told you to do. Do you know why? Because Solomon could not keep his own wisdom perfectly. He messed up his life multiple times as well. But there is one. Matthew 12 tells us something greater than Solomon has come. The book of Proverbs anticipates an individual who is the wisdom of God. Something greater than Solomon. 1 Kings 4 says Solomon was the greatest of all kings in Israel. Something greater than Solomon has come. He is the wisdom of God that the New Testament talks about. And it's Jesus Christ. He has come. He has lived the wise life perfectly, something that you and I could not do. He died sacrificially in our place, and he rose victoriously over sin, death, and the grave. There's two ways to die. You can either die rightly relating to the Lord and enjoying the benefits of walking in this world, listening to his word, or you can pass from this earth rejecting God and the wisdom of his word. So let me encourage you this morning, if you're an unbeliever, turn from your sin, turn from the foolish way, accept the Lord as your savior. And for believers here this morning, we do not live according to the principles of the book of Proverbs just because Well, the world's picked up on it, so it seems like a pretty good idea for us Christians to do the same. No. The reason why the world around us picks up on the wisdom of God is because it's there. In God's common grace, they've discovered it. Let me encourage us, let me motivate us. The reason why we walk in wisdom this morning as sons and daughters of God is because of God's grace. We know Him and we trust Him. So we motivate you this morning. We don't just walk along the road of devastation and say, I'm not going to choose that path because it leads to destruction. Rather, we do it because We know God and we know that His instruction is ultimately the wise way to live. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to look into your word this morning. Would you help us as we seek to live in a way that is wise and as we seek to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? We thank you for Christ and that he ultimately is our hope in this life and in death and is the ultimate reason that we can live wisely in this world. In Christ's name I pray, amen.