Proverbs 20:13
The Fruit of Laziness
1. This is the sixth time this particular subject has come up in the book of Proverbs. It is the old Protestant work ethic.
2. The repetition of this theme is not because Solomon was too lazy to proofread his text before sending it to the printer either.
3. This is not an accident or an oversight. It was by design.
4. This is a COMMON temptation of man. It affects every one of us to one degree or another… at one time or another…
5. For some folks, it becomes a life dominating sin and it ruins their lives.
6. Solomon felt that we needed to be reminded of and warned against this sin repeatedly.
7. It’s good to have a lazy day every once in a while, on your day off and to catch up on your needed rest.
8. Rest is good and necessary.
a. Rest, like food, is good and necessary. They invigorate and restore the body.
b. They are blessings that can become curses… when over indulged.
c. There is a fine line between eating enough to keep the body healthy and eating too much.
d. There is also a fine line between getting enough rest and being downright lazy.
9. Being downright lazy is sin… so we should be careful about crossing that line.
A. The Command: Love Not Sleep
1. Do not love to sleep. This is a command, and one God expects us to obey.
a. And it is an interesting command.
b. How to stop loving something? Can a person just WILL to stop loving something?
c. The answer has to be YES. God said to do it, so it must be possible to obey.
d. God never accepts as an excuse, “I can’t”, when in fact, He says that we CAN.
e. When we say, “I can’t”, what we really mean is “I won’t.”
2. Love is a CHOICE.
a. This is not a command to cease from sleeping altogether… nor is it a command to cease from enjoying sleep.
• Solomon’s command is not that we should not love to sleep when it’s time to sleep. Everybody loves that.
• His command is not to love sleep when it’s time to get up and go to work!
b. It is not a command to change our FEELINGS. It is a command to change our ACTION.
c. The Lord Jesus commanded us to love our enemies.
• That does not mean that we are to have warm feelings towards them. Those feelings may never come.
• It does mean that we are to choose to think good thoughts of them and choose NOT to think evil of them.
• But it does mean that we are to seek their best… seek to DO deeds of love towards them.
• We can love an enemy by feeding him when hungry… by offering help when he is in need…
• The decision to exercise love is a deliberate choice.
• It can be done regardless of how we FEEL.
d. That’s important because we are here commanded NOT to be lazy. Love not sleep.
• So when the alarm goes off in the morning, and it is time to get up and go to work, it IS possible to obey this command… and to “love not sleep.”
• It doesn’t mean that we won’t FEEL tired… that we won’t FEEL like turning off the alarm… we may FEEL like calling in sick… we may FEEL like pulling the covers over our head…
• But regardless of how we FEEL, we can still DO what God said.
• We obey the command to “love not sleep” by DOING something… by taking ACTION… by getting up out of bed.
e. By choosing to get out of bed, we have made a CHOICE.
• We chose to love God more than sleep.
• We chose to love others more than self (others at work who are counting on us; others in the home who are counting on us to bring home a paycheck; others in the car pool; customers; etc.)
3. Loving sleep can become a habit of life… a very bad habit.
a. It can become life dominating… life controlling.
b. The more you put off getting up and doing the job you are supposed to do, the easier it becomes to put it off the next time.
c. The only way to deal with this habit is the cold turkey approach… just STOP. Get up out of bed…
4. Loving sleep may only be the outward symptom of the problem of laziness.
a. It is a mindset… a way of thinking… an inner attitude.
b. The “mindset” of loving sleep could manifest itself by taking longer breaks than your company allows… by coming to work late… showing up for meetings late because you were lounging… missing meetings… by disappearing when the work is being distributed… by doodling… wasting time… looking out the window…
c. There are lots of other ways to be lazy…
d. This mindset can also manifest itself in procrastination… putting off jobs until “mañana.”
B. The Result: Poverty
1. Poverty: “To be dispossessed; be impoverished; come to poverty.”
2. Those who have the heart attitude of “loving sleep” are often half asleep even when they are awake!
a. They have a listless, careless attitude and are still half asleep mentally… throughout their work day… and are not very productive.
b. They don’t get much work done… and their bosses notice.
c. It is not surprising that they often get fired or laid off… and have a hard time finding another job.
d. This leads to poverty.
3. There really are serious consequences to laziness.
a. Prov. 6:9-11 – The result is poverty. (Prov.10:4)
b. Prov. 19:15 – It results in hunger.
c. Prov. 23:31 – Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
A. The Challenge: Open Your Eyes
1. “Opening one’s eyes” stands in contrast to “love not sleep” in the first part of the Proverb. It too has consequences.
2. Opening one’s eyes is not really difficult to do.
a. Anyone can do it… IF they choose to do so… just open your eyes, shake off the sleep, and get out of bed!
b. What Solomon commands here is not beyond the reach of anyone.
c. He is not saying that in order to be satisfied with bread you need a Harvard education; or you need to be born into a rich family; or that you need to be exceptionally strong; nor do you need to be all that skilled.
d. All you really need to do is to get out of bed, open your eyes, and get to work!
e. That’s implied after opening the eyes. (He certainly doesn’t mean open your eyes, look around the room for a few seconds, and then go back to sleep!)
3. Once you overcome your love for sleep by opening your eyes and getting up… THEN you can begin to have a productive day.
4. Just as “love not sleep” speaks of an inner attitude, so does “open your eyes.”
a. This speaks of one who wants to SHAKE OFF their sleep and get busy!
b. This is the person who does not allow opportunities to slip by; he applies his mind and heart to the business at hand… and he digs in and gets the job done.
5. But if you stay in bed… and keep your eyes closed, you’re not going to get much done…
a. Then the work will begin to pile up all around you… little by little until it is a mountain of work!
b. Then the mountain of work seems overwhelming… and seems to JUSTIFY your feelings of not wanting to get up.
c. Then you just want to pull the covers over your head and go back to bed and try to forget about it… hoping it will all go away.
d. But it doesn’t go away… it just gets bigger and bigger.
e. And thus, it becomes harder and harder to get up and face it.
f. This is the beginning of a downward spiral… depression…
g. A lot of depression has as its root laziness!
h. You feel bad when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do. Those bad feelings spiral downward along with a person’s refusal to get up and DO what they are supposed to do.
i. But those bad feelings… even depression can be reversed by getting up and facing the mountain ahead of you… and start digging away at it—one shovelful at a time…
j. And it feels really GOOD to see progress… that you are making headway… that there is light at the end of the tunnel…
B. The Result: You Will Be Satisfied With Bread
1. Prov. 10:4 – You might even become rich!
2. Prov.10:5 – Note that working is seen here as the opposite of sleeping. The son who “gathers” in his crops will have crops to eat! He will be satisfied… while the lazy man has nothing.
3. Solomon implies here that ANYONE who has the good sense to get up and get busy can survive in this world.
4. Anyone who is not lazy should be able to provide for their needs. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
5. Diligence always pays off.
1. Rom. 13:11 – Spiritually, this is the time for us to WAKE UP… shake off our spiritual sleep and laziness, and get to work, serving the Lord.
2. Just as there are workers in the office who are lazy, there are workers in the local church who are lazy too.
a. They are more than happy to let others do all the work.
b. They have the uncanny ability to disappear when it is time to do some good old fashioned work.
3. We can be LAZY with respect to reading the Word… praying… attending church… Sunday school… Prayer Meeting…
a. And let’s face it—often the reason is nothing other than laziness.
b. It’s not really a “time” issue.
c. We can become lazy and apathetic when it comes to sharing the gospel with the lost…
d. We can become lazy and apathetic when it comes to ministering to people in need…
4. Perhaps it’s time to WAKE UP…
a. When we wake up spiritually, and begin to take care of our walk with God… are reading faithfully… praying… spending time with the Lord…
b. Then we will begin to experience a satisfaction in our soul… a satisfaction that comes only through being diligent in our relationship to Christ.
c. We will be satisfied with the Bread of Life.
d. And from that place of inner spiritual nourishment, we will be led to service that counts: to more evangelizing; ministering to others.