Proverbs 13. One verse, two thoughts. Proverbs 13.4. In my reading of the Psalms and the Proverbs, the Lord blessed me, convicted me here with this verse. I still have a little bit of laziness left in me. I don't like to be lazy. A lot of times after I've been lazy for a point in time, I get convicted over it. I really never want to be lazy. Solomon wrote here, the soul of the sluggard or those that are lazy and idle as a habit, A sluggard is someone who's just typically lazy. They're not industrious. They just want to sit around and do nothing. The soul of the sluggard, they have desires. They desire it, but they have nothing. They never get their desires because they refuse to be diligent. Their desires never translate. into pursuing what that desire is. So the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Spiritually, that is. Solomon in this passage teaches us a valuable lesson about two different types of people. Those who are diligent and industrious, those who are resolved, they're resolute, they're, as an old friend of mine would say, they're doggedly determined. I like that phrase. They're resolved to attack everything that they do. One of the chief master sergeants of the Air Force, number three, his name was Chief Robert Gayler. He taught about being zealous as an airman and how leaders ought to be zealous and take care of their airmen. He says, everything you do, you ought to be zealous. He says, listen, when I cut my grass, I attack the grass. And so I know what he means. By contrast, those who are sluggards or lazy, they have a lot of good intentions. Lazy people may have good intentions, but their good intentions never come to pass. They end up being procrastinators. You ever procrastinate? It's like you delay to do what you know you need to do. They're procrastinators who are too lazy and who lack the drive and the initiative to do what they know they should and must do. Let's ask God's help. I don't wanna forget that. Father, please help us. Lord, help me. Father, help us all, Lord, to be diligent in the King's business, in our Lord Jesus Christ's business. Father, in the business of our souls, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. When I was on active duty, those that were diligent, you might've heard this term, they called them movers and shakers. You ever heard that? They'll say, he's one of the movers and the shakers. Means they get things done. Those who were lazy and never motivated, we call slugs. You ever see a slug crawl? The little black slugs? They move really slow. It's where the word sluggard comes from. Now don't miss in this passage that Solomon wrote about the souls of these two different kinds of people. Listen, there ought to be no such thing as a lazy and inactive Christian. Ought to be no such thing. No such thing as a Christian who is a sluggard. No brother or sister in Christ should be spiritually lazy or, and here's where Solomon talks about the soul, so my assumption And I think the implication in this proverb is he's talking about someone who is a Christian or someone who professes to be a Christian. But by contrast, he's talking about somebody who would be a Christian. So it's someone who professes to be a Christian or perhaps somebody who would be a Christian. And then the second part is the one who is a Christian. So there ought to be no such thing. We ought not to be spiritual procrastinators. We ought not be full of good spiritual intentions, but at the same times, spiritual do-nothings. Shouldn't be us. The Christian life is not a do-nothing life. You hear people say, just let go and let God. Just don't do anything, let God do it all. No, that's not the Christian life. The Christian life's not a do-nothing life. And as we have learned in James, we are to be what? Doers of the Word. Doers of the Word. Diligent in the King's business. Listen, your desire might be to be spiritually minded. Listen, we've all probably done this. I'm going to do this. I'm making a resolution. New Year's resolution, you know. I'm resolved. I'm going to do this. We used to kind of laugh in one of the gyms that I used to go to a long time ago. All of the folks that went and worked out regularly, this was back in the 80s, we didn't like the gym from January 1st to February 15th. After that, it started being okay. And you know why that is? Because all the New Year's resolutions were gone by February 15th. We wanted them to be gone because they were crowding all the stuff. I hope that's not how our resolutions for Christ are. I hope they'll never be that. Listen, your desire might be to be spiritually minded. That's a good desire. To know the scriptures, to be faithful in prayer. Good things that every one of us should desire. The soul of the sluggard desireth. It's not that his desire is bad. It's just that he never does anything about it. These good things every one of us should desire for ourselves, but does our doing match our desires? Does my doing match? When it comes down to going after those good things and those right things, do you? Do I? Do we actually go after them? Listen, don't be a spiritual procrastinator. Don't be one that says, you know, I really need to read my Bible. I really need to do that. Just do it. Don't say, I really need to read my Bible. I really need to pray. I really need to be more faithful to gather with the saints on the Lord's day. But then you keep putting those very important things off. You ever know that there's something that you have to do and you just keep putting it off. Tomorrow, tomorrow I'll read. I didn't get to it today. Tomorrow I will read. Tomorrow I'll pray. I'll go to church next Sunday. The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing. See, the desire produces nothing. There's nothing. And so the sluggard is never any better for their desires. Proverbs 19 and 15, just a few references. Proverbs 19 and 15. slothfulness. And listen, let me tell you one of the things that promotes laziness. It's this thing right here. See people, they just. Man, that's wasted time. Wasted time. Proverbs 19.15, slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, spiritual slumber. And an idle soul shall suffer hunger, physically and spiritually. An idle soul. Idleness is no good for you. Listen, I know we get tired, and if you've had a hard day, there's nothing wrong with just sitting down for a minute. But listen, I believe even the diligent Christian's rest will be profitable. It'll be profitable rest, it won't be wasted rest. You can have a good spiritual day and go watch something stupid on the TV and ruin it. And fill your mind up with what you don't need to be filling your mind up with. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 4, the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold. Those that are lazy, they'll find an excuse not to do it. They'll find an excuse. Therefore he shall beg and harvest and have nothing. Listen, there's excuses. Listen, this young generation, we are raising one of the laziest generations in history. Young people. Not all young people. But we are in a generation of young people that want something for nothing. It's the entitlement generation. Give me something and I don't want to do anything for it. I don't want to work. I don't want to work hard. Listen, if you're a hard working young person out there, you're going to be leading. You're going to be the CEO of some company. Because most young people, not all, but many of these young, they just don't want to do anything. They're just lazy. That's look, there's no other way to say it. They are. Proverbs 24 and verse 30. Proverbs 24 and verse 30, the soul of the slugger desires and has nothing. You hear some young people say, yeah, I'm going to be the boss. I want to be the boss. I want to be the CEO. I want to be this. I want to be that. But they never work. They never do anything. So it'll never be. 2430, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. And lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down just by neglect. And then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. instruction the wise man received is that this is listen another problem says by idleness of the hands the house droppeth through you just live in a house and do nothing to it it's gonna rot you gotta maintain it beloved that's our souls we have to maintain our souls look he ends yet a little sleep a little slumber, a little folding of the hams to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man." I mean, it's just going to come upon you suddenly. And then finally, 2613, I like this one. Proverbs says, the slothful man saith, there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. That's one of his excuses for not getting busy and getting to work. He invents excuses. Listen, the lazy will invent excuses. Too cold outside. I was lying in the streets. I might get sick. They invent excuses. As a door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The sloth will hide his hand in his bosom, and it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. And he's wiser, verse 16, in his own conceit, than seven really spiritually wise men that can give him good reasons to get up. Oh no, they don't know what they're talking about. He's wiser in his own conceitedness than seven men that can render a reason. Talking about seven really wise, diligent, active men. Tell them you need to get up, you need to get to work. No, you don't know what you're talking about. Don't know what you're talking about. Listen, the world is full of people who want something for nothing. They want to be rich, but their hands refuse to labor. And then you have Christians who want to be spiritual and wise and who want to know the scriptures, but they refuse to labor and apply themselves diligently to the word and to the ministry of the word. and to effectual, fervent prayer." Listen, if you would be strong in the faith of Christ, you've got to be diligent in your Father's business. Diligent. Charles Bridges said this, and I quote. I kind of doctored the quote a little bit because I added a few words, so it's kind of Charles Bridges and a little bit of me. To expect God's blessings in our Christian lives without our own personal diligence is delusion. It's like saying God's going to bless me by doing nothing. It's not going to happen. So the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing. By contrast, the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. That's good fat. That's fatness of soul. Psalm 80, the Bible says, God says, open thy mouth wide, God says, and I will fill it. I will fill it. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Beloved, when you're hungry, you eat. When you're thirsty, you drink. And beloved, spiritually, that's who we ought to be. Listen, one who is spiritually diligent is determined, eager, and a seeker of Christ and His Word. if that's who you are and that's who you should be. Listen, that's who every one of us should be. We should be diligent students of the word. We should be Bereans. The Bereans heard Paul's preaching and they went back and they searched the scriptures. That's work. That's labor. They searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so. You can't just sit there and listen to the preaching or listen to the catechism or listen to any of these brothers preach and then just don't do anything with it. You have to cultivate it, beloved. We need to think upon it. We need to use our Relax time, not to amuse ourselves, but to muse upon the scriptures. Amuse means, the word muse means think. A means no. So amuse means no think. You sit in front of the two, that's no think. It's idle time of the mind. to read the Word of God, to meditate on the truth of God's Word, to think about God's Word after it's been preached and think about it for yourself and apply it to you, that's profitable time, that's labor, that's musing, that's thinking. That's thinking upon the Word. In fact, Paul tells us what to think on in Philippians 4.9. Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are virtuous, whatsoever things are profitable. I don't remember them all, but you know the passage. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, Think on these things. Problem is we get to doing too much no thinking, and we've lost the art of thinking to profit our souls. Beloved, that's what we need. So one who is spiritually diligent is determined, eager, a seeker of Christ. His or her desires are spiritual. They're wise, they're conformed. His desires are to be conformed to the image of Christ. His desires are genuine, and they manifest themselves in His diligence. See, they're desires that translate to labor and diligence. They're genuine, real desires. But a desire that leads to nothing is really, it's nothing. It's just a good intention. It does us no good. But beloved, we need to actively pursue our desires. Listen, there was a man I knew, and he's dead now. He died when he was 40 years old. My wife knew him. I was always talking to this young man about Christ in the Air National Guard. And one day he told me this. He says, you know what? He said, I want your life. I just don't want your Christ. I want the happiness that you have. I just don't want to do all the Bible stuff. It's almost like that passage that Balaam told Balak in Numbers chapter 23. He said, and Balaam was a wicked prophet. He said, let me die the death of the righteous. Let my end be his end. I want that. but his covetousness got the best of him. Listen, we should not be slothful in business, Romans 12, 11. Don't be slothful in business. Don't be lazy, but be diligent. And he says, be fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit, we should be a people that are fixed upon the Lord. Look at 1 Timothy 4, 6. Look at a few passages and then we'll be done. I pray that You would always be diligent in your heavenly father's business. Diligent in his business. Seest thou a man that is diligent in his business? Proverbs 22, 29. He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean men. God will lift him up. Diligent as business, he'll stand before the king of kings. Beloved, we should be diligent seekers of Christ. 1 Timothy 4, 6, notice he says, he's teaching Timothy here, who was a young pastor, I believe, at the church of Ephesus. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, and that's what he had previously written, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. but refuse profane and old wives' fables. Let me just give you a 21st century interpretation of that. Refuse Facebook and TikTok and Instant Messenger and the TV. Refuse things that are not real and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. means train. That word exercise means gymnazo. You know what word that sounds like? The gymnasium. Exercise yourself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth a little. Basically means it has some value, but godliness is profitable unto all things. It has great value. having the promise of life that now is and of that which is to come. And listen, I don't want to be too hard on Facebook and all those things. I know that there's nothing wrong with really looking at it, but if you're on it all day long, there's something wrong with that. We're just saying one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after. that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord. That's, you know, that takes effort to behold the beauty of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple. Proverbs 2 and verse 1, Proverbs 2 and verse 1. Proverbs 2 in verse 1. Listen to how Solomon instructs the man that would have wisdom and listen to what he must do. My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, and lifteth up thy voice for understanding, there's effort in that. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, you know, if you're searching for hid treasures, that takes some, see these guys with a pickaxe in a cave looking for a vein of gold? If you're seeking for hid treasure, it takes some effort. Takes labor, takes effort, takes endurance. If thou seekest her as silver, And what is he seeking? My words. He's crying after knowledge. He's lifting up his voice for understanding. See, it's not just knowledge. You're crying out to God that you would understand the truth of God's words. That's how we become godly. That's how we become wise. That's how we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's how the joy of our Lord becomes strong. He says, if you do all these things, I love verse five, Notice the first word, then. If you do all those things, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord. See, I don't want to just know about the fear of the Lord. I want to understand. And he says, you'll find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of his saints. There's the second then. Then shalt thou understand righteousness. You won't just know about it, you'll understand righteousness, you'll understand judgment, you'll understand equity. Yea, you'll understand every good path. Beloved, that's what I want, and that's what I want you to want. Ecclesiastes 9.10, the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 9 and verse 10. Put your Christian life right here. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Do it with everything you got. Attack it. Give it your full attention, especially in your Christian life, in your devotion in the Word of God, in prayer. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work. Now, he's talking about after we die. There's no work in the grave. No work to be done, nothing else to be done, there's no device, there's no more contriving, no more planning in the grave, there's no more knowledge in the grave, no more wisdom to be given in the grave where thou goest. Jesus said, John 9 in verse 4, I must work the works of God while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work, talking about death. Jesus is one example to us. What an example He is. Hebrews 6 and verse 10, the book of the Hebrews, or the book, the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 6, verse 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward His name. in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. I want that to be about all of us, beloved. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Beloved, I want that to be us. So finally, is your soul full of good intentions and desires to be like Christ, but your desires never translate into action? Well, you got some maintenance to do in your heart. Or are you diligent in the business of your soul? That's what we should all be. We should be diligent in the business of our souls. And listen, I know we're all, we're all fallen. I know we got, There's none of us that are perfect. But beloved, are your desires real and genuine? Do you say, yeah, I'll get to it, I gotta get to other things first. And then by the time, listen, you know when that happens, I'll put this off. 12 o'clock comes around, I gotta read. No, no, I gotta do this. Oh, I forgot about, I gotta go here. And then you come to the evening, and you're too tired to read. And you might try and read, but if you're like me, your memory capital, your mental capacity is spent, especially if you're old like I am. So, beloved, whatsoever thy hand find it to do, do it with your might. Be diligent in the business of your soul. Follow Christ and in his word with all of your heart. To the lost, if you're lost in here, this is your slothfulness. You might think, I know I need Christ, but not today. Not today. Tomorrow, maybe I'll think about it, but not today. There was a man who heard Paul preach. His name was Felix. It's in Acts chapter 24. I'll just read two verses to you. After certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. He had the gospel preached to him. And Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. And Felix trembled and answered, go thy way for this time, Paul. When I have another opportunity, when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. I wonder if that next opportunity ever came. If you're lost, you may not have another opportunity. The soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Be diligent diligent Christians, children of God. Remember, it's in the book of Esther, those words, the king's business requires haste. That's how we ought to think about our king's business, means that we ought to be diligent in his business. I pray that would be all of us, beloved. May the Lord bless us this evening. Let's dismiss in prayer. Father, we thank you and pray that you would help us to not be lazy. Father, we live in a time of so much entertainment. Well, we don't have to work to do anything. I mean, even preparing food is instant this and instant that. Lord, everything's been made so easy for us. I'm not so sure that's good. Oh, God, teach us. Oh, Lord, to be diligent, spiritual laborers. Lord, help us not to just have empty desires, but help us to be diligent as Christians. Father, for I know that that will translate into stillness and calmness and peace within. Oh, Lord, help us. And we give you the praise in Jesus name. Amen.