Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So this evening we're going to be in a couple different passages in Proverbs. So we're going to start in Proverbs 24, if you want to go there.
[00:00:08] Now, the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant. I trust even those of you who may not be basketball fans, you know who Kobe was. He was a legend. He was known for many things. Many of us still recite his name as we throw trash into a trash can or throw anything into any sort of makeshift hoop. But one of the most prominent things about him, and you may not know this, it was his work ethic. He was known as just insanely disciplined. I recently read that his off season workout had been called, at least at one point, the 666 program.
[00:00:47] Not because of anything to do with the Antichrist, so don't let your mind go there, but because he would spend six hours a day, six days a week for six months doing this program. That's a lot of time. That is more hours than a full time job. In those six hours a day, he would spend two hours running, two hours practicing basketball, and two hours lifting weights.
[00:01:15] This was a very serious routine.
[00:01:19] Some Team USA teammates Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade once said when they were in Las Vegas for practice, they would arrive at team breakfast after waking up, just after waking up, and they would find Kobe Bryant drenched in sweat, having just worked out. He was the epitome of discipline.
[00:01:39] We too need discipline in our lives. We may not have a routine like Kobe Bryant, and in fact, that may not be healthy for you, but we want to be disciplined. Now, tonight, I hope the proverbs help us answer questions like why should we be disciplined? Is it just because it sounds good or is there something more? And then also, how can we be disciplined again? Hopefully we see this tonight as we search the word. We're going to be focusing on two passages.
[00:02:10] The first has to do with laziness, and the second has to do with drunkenness and gluttony, both. And so we'll kind of summarize those two together and call them over indulgence, indulging too much of something.
[00:02:27] Both are related to discipline, this idea of discipline. But even as we remember discipline as a helpful solution to laziness and gluttony and drunkenness, we should remember the gospel underpinnings of this book that we've recited week after week after week, that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. If we hope to obey anything in this book and live it truly in a way that is actually redeeming, we must know Christ first. We must seek him in order to gain the wisdom that we desire. We must have faith in Christ first and know him. Because Jesus was not lazy. He was not a drunkard. He was not a glutton.
[00:03:15] But I want all of us to walk away tonight wanting to avoid laziness, drunkenness and gluttony. Not because I said so, because it sounds like the right way to live, even because the Bible says so. I want you to walk away avoiding laziness, drunkenness and gluttony because you want to be more like Jesus, because that's how he lived and indeed lives even today.
[00:03:41] I want us to be in love with Jesus and want to live like Him.
[00:03:46] The main idea of the sermon tonight is this, which is partially written on your sheet with some blanks. God calls us to be disciplined, godly. God calls us to be disciplined and godly. Therefore, laziness, drunkenness, and gluttony all contradict the type of lives to which we are called.
[00:04:11] God calls us to be disciplined and godly. Therefore, laziness, drunkenness, and gluttony all contradict the type of lives to which we are called. There are two points tonight, and I have them partially labeled on your sheet.
[00:04:25] Each one is a scene. So as we go to these two main passages, I want us to treat them like we're looking onto a scene through a looking glass or through a window and observing what's happening and taking lessons away.
[00:04:41] So the first scene is the sluggard. We're going to observe the sluggard. So this is Proverbs 24. If you look at verses 30, 34 with me, I'll read them Proverbs 24, 30, 34.
[00:04:56] 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.
[00:05:12] Then I saw and considered it. I looked and received instruction.
[00:05:17] 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.
[00:05:30] So let's join the Father who's instructing his son in the book of Proverbs. He is instructing his son in the way he should go. And we're looking into this scene of a vineyard. A vineyard grows grapes, things on the vine. But this vineyard has been fiercely neglected. You can see just in the few short phrases we have, how it's been neglected and it's overgrown.
[00:05:57] It's been neglected by this sluggard let's pause right there and just make sure we know. You might know what a Sluggard is, but we don't use this word very often. So what is a Slug?
[00:06:08] We get some clues from the text about what a Sluggard is. A Sluggard lacks sense.
[00:06:16] He lacks sense. More literally, the text says, he lacks heart.
[00:06:22] That's really. If we translated really woodenly and literally, we would read, he lacks heart. He has no inner strength, no willpower. He has no true wisdom. His heart is a vacuous space of nothingness, no volition.
[00:06:40] Now, read through the Book of Proverbs. If you're just looking for stuff on the Sluggard or laziness, you'll find a lot of material if you just read front to back.
[00:06:50] But a scholar named Derek Kidner, he says the book attributes basically three main characteristics to the Sluggard. I found these helpful.
[00:06:59] First, the Sluggard, he will not begin things. First, he does not begin things. Proverbs 6, 9, 10 says, how long will you lie there, O Sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.
[00:07:19] So here we're seeing, he is lying down. He's not beginning his work, he is staying in bed.
[00:07:27] The Sluggard in Proverbs also is said to number two, not finish things. So he does not begin things. He does not finish things. Proverbs 19:24 says, the sluggard buries his hand in his dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
[00:07:46] Of course, this sounds ridiculous. When you eat, can you imagine being so lazy that you don't even bring the food back up to your mouth? Maybe you do if you've been really tired before.
[00:07:56] But the point is, the Sluggard is ridiculously lazy. He does not begin things. He does not finish things.
[00:08:05] The third characteristic of the Sluggard, he will not face things.
[00:08:11] Proverbs 22:13. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets. He says this in an effort to excuse himself from his daily duties, his work that he needs to accomplish, making up an excuse to not go out because there could be a lion that will kill him.
[00:08:32] See, the Sluggard, from beginning to end is lazy, plain and simple. And he will make the excuses necessary to limit how much work he is going to do.
[00:08:45] But then look at the result of his laziness in verse 31.
[00:08:50] The vineyard, it was all overgrown with thorns. The ground was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down. So the vineyard, which, by the way, this vineyard typically would have just been something passed down in the family. That's how it usually would have been attained by someone. And so we can imagine the son of a father, he inherits this vineyard, and all he's got to do is preserve it. But it's completely overgrown. This valuable asset passed down, completely neglected.
[00:09:20] Thorns and nettles, which, by the way, those are just both types of weeds, if you're unfamiliar, unwanted weeds that even a half decent gardener would have addressed and taken care of the moment they sprung up.
[00:09:33] And instead, he has let them take over and destroy the vineyard. And this is a takeover. We see that the stone wall is broken down, and this seems to be sort of a sign, as the wall would have symbolized protection for the garden, for the vineyard, like a wall would protect a city as well. Yet it has been destroyed and all of the crops have been decimated and pillaged.
[00:10:01] It has been taken over.
[00:10:05] The point is that this valuable asset handed down to the slugger, needed to only be preserved. But that did not happen. He let it become destroyed.
[00:10:19] Now, this should remind us, and as a side note, when we read the proverbs, we should always be looking and thinking, what does this tie us to? Because what we're doing in the proverbs, what the wise man, the Father in here is doing is he's looking out in the world at creation, and he's observing and learning.
[00:10:39] And so when we see here, we see thorns and weeds growing up and destroying the vineyard. We should recall the curse in Genesis 3, Genesis 3, 17, 19.
[00:10:52] And to Adam, God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you in pain. You shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field.
[00:11:15] By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you are taken, for you are dust into dust you shall return.
[00:11:27] When God cursed mankind and the earth and the serpent in that text, the point was not for us to avoid what has been cursed. He is not saying to avoid the ground. He is saying it is going to be difficult to cultivate.
[00:11:45] We don't avoid what is cursed. Though childbirth is painful, we still have children. The working the ground is hard work. Men must work the ground.
[00:11:57] But in our sin, we love to avoid that which God has given us to do. So clearly.
[00:12:05] Interestingly, if we do Work hard as if we're working for the Lord. Even in this cursed world, God will be kind to us. It's like we lose sight of this and just want to avoid. Like the sluggard. That's what he's doing. The sluggard son is rejecting the work that God has given him to do.
[00:12:25] And this is exactly what the Father is pondering. In verse 32 he says, I saw and considered it. I looked and received instructions.
[00:12:34] And as a quick aside, I want to say we should take time like this. This is not really the main point of just want to point out we should take time to observe, consider, meditate prayerfully and look for wisdom in the world.
[00:12:52] This can happen because God created the world with order and intentionality.
[00:12:58] And so when we look about, we can see reflections of his glory even in a fallen world, even in bad examples like the sluggard. Here you can gain wisdom if you just prayerfully live your life and look for opportunities to learn from God.
[00:13:19] Now we see back to the main idea. What the wise Father believes is the Son's issue is laziness.
[00:13:27] Verses 33 and 34 make that clear. And those last two verses are actually the exact same as Proverbs 6, 10 and 11, which is when the sluggard is first introduced. So very intentionally. We're being drawn back to the introduction of the sluggard in chapter six to see this connection.
[00:13:49] This is the reason the vineyard is overgrown. Because of 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.
[00:14:03] Now, when I read that, especially the first time, I asked, how can a little sleep be bad?
[00:14:11] I sleep every day. I hope you have all slept within the last 24 hours.
[00:14:18] You probably have.
[00:14:20] Sleep is good. And I'm not contradicting what we're reading here, but sleep is good. We all have to rest. We do sleep. But I believe that this is a more poetic way to state the point, because clearly what has happened in the vineyard did not happen overnight.
[00:14:39] It was not one good sleep and he woke up and it was all in ruin and disrepair.
[00:14:47] This is the result of a lot of neglect and laziness over, yes, years.
[00:14:54] The point that we should draw from this is that a life of laziness begins somewhere. There is a first step. It begins even with that first occurrence of choosing to neglect what you need to do in order to do what you want to do, or in order to just do nothing.
[00:15:14] And so consider your own life, your own habits. In this point we mostly all make at least some decisions that could be described as lazy. Sometimes we even casually say, I'm so lazy, I don't want to do that. We kind of throw this around, but it can be really serious. As it becomes a habit, the more you do it, it becomes a little bit easier to make the lazy decision next time and a little bit easier the next time until your vineyard is in ruin.
[00:15:45] Now we need to realize exactly what laziness is if we want to examine it in our own lives. It's more than just sitting around and doing nothing. It's more than just sitting on the couch or in your bed all day. It's more than just someone who lives in their parents house for their whole life and never moves out. It's more than those typical caricatures that you might think of when you neglect to do something that, let's say you've been asked to do something by your parents. You've been told to do a chore of some sort, but instead you chose to do something you wanted to do. You still chose to do something. That's still laziness as you neglect the thing you ought to do, even if you choose something that might be good in another circumstance.
[00:16:31] Let's say I chose to go practice in high school. I chose to go practice my free throws because I wasn't a great free throw shooter, but I was asked to do my homework. I have still chosen the lazy thing because I have chosen to do what I wanted to do, not what I was told to do.
[00:16:52] So we need to expand our understanding of what it means to honor and work as we ought.
[00:16:59] I expect this to be difficult. Discipline is difficult, especially as sinful humans. I understand we want to rest, we want to sleep. But if we lazily lounge in our beds or on the couch, I want us to remember the example of Jesus.
[00:17:18] In Matthew 8:20, Jesus says, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
[00:17:29] He also prayed to the Father, saying, I glorified you, Father on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
[00:17:40] Christ lived and worked, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do.
[00:17:46] So before you make plans in your head to reject laziness and be more disciplined and do what you need to do. Just don't waste your time. Don't waste your time trying to fix up your life because you see these holes where you really need to get on it. You need a new workout plan or whatever it might be before you do that. Don't waste your time before you turn to Christ, before you look on his perfect example, before you put your whole trust in Him.
[00:18:16] If you do it the other way around and you think, I'm going to get all my life together and disciplined, and then I will be a better Christian, and it doesn't work in that direction. You need to turn from your sin first. You need to confess your laziness first and hand it to Christ and allow him to redeem you, and then to look to Christ as the example and to follow in his ways.
[00:18:41] And then we can really understand this verse here. First Timothy 4, 7, 8.
[00:18:48] Paul wrote, rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and for the life to come. Our primary need is to be spiritually disciplined, to pursue godliness through Christ.
[00:19:17] Efforts at self discipline are good because we should care for our bodies and our possessions. But all earthly things will pass away. Even the bodies of believers will pass away and be renewed by Christ when He returns.
[00:19:34] The viral don't die, Guy. He will die. And his stringent routine of pills and exercise will be a waste.
[00:19:44] When you see the ways in which you are a sluggard, let that drive you to Christ.
[00:19:51] Let that drive you to the foot of the cross. Because he accomplished his work.
[00:19:58] His works are the ones that save you. It's not that you get, you know, you pray a prayer and then you do these good works because you're now in Christ. No, his work, it's not any of your works. It's not even your act of believing. It is Christ's work that actually redeem you.
[00:20:14] It is through faith that they are applied to you.
[00:20:18] So we must look to his works, devote our lives to him, and then you will see more clearly how you can be disciplined for the sake of godliness.
[00:20:29] But now we must go onward to our next scene, the drunkard.
[00:20:37] You might not even need to turn the page. We're going to go to Proverbs 23, 19:21, just one chapter before.
[00:20:47] Hear, my Son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.
[00:20:52] Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and slumber will clothe them with rags.
[00:21:05] So here we are looking at the effects of what we're going to call over indulgence. And I labeled this point the drunkard, mostly because it rhymes with sluggard, but it also goes with gluttony. So drunkard, glutton, overindulgence.
[00:21:23] To condemn drunkenness, we should start out and just acknowledge the obvious. To condemn drunkenness is pretty easy. While condemning gluttony can be controversial and awkward and typically, not always, but typically. You might hear it less, but the phrase here for drunkard is used three times in the Old Testament and it's always used with the word glutton.
[00:21:50] It's always tied together.
[00:21:53] They're twin sins. They have the same root. That's why I'm calling them overindulgence.
[00:22:00] And overindulgence, if we consider the world around us, is what we might call a preeminent sin. That means it is everywhere. We cannot find a place where we don't find overindulgence. One of the commentaries I read in preparation wrote some statistics. This commentary was written eight years ago in 2017. And so that's pretty recent. And he wrote, In 1957 a fast food hamburger weighed 1 ounce and was 210 calories.
[00:22:31] Today a fast food hamburger averages 6 ounces and 618 calories.
[00:22:41] In 1957, a McDonald's burger, fries and Coke totaled 590 calories. Today, what he calls a supersized, probably just a large combo quarter pounder notches 1550 calories. He says if you eat a Big Mac and large fries and drink a large Coke, you will have to walk non stop for six hours to burn off the calories.
[00:23:12] Now I quite like McDonald's, I should admit, but these numbers should ring alarm bells for us and not because it's McDonald's. It is not just McDonald's. I'm sure there's worse places. There's a lot of places out there that the same could be said of. McDonald's is just the most recognizable brand.
[00:23:31] It's not just them. Taking care of our bodies requires more intentionality now than it maybe ever has. Now I don't say this to exhaust us. I don't think the right reaction is to become very, very strict on your diet routine and you know, just make that your entire life and even an idol in itself. We should just be thoughtful, more thoughtful than we typically are. If you already are very thoughtful, then maybe, maybe chill a little bit.
[00:24:02] You can overindulge in a number of ways and it can look differently. You can eat too much junk food and junk food, not the most clear term. It can mean different things to different people.
[00:24:19] Plus so you can eat too much of it. I would say you can enjoy junk food, but the amount you can enjoy is certainly Less than enjoying more healthy foods. But you can also eat too much good foods also to extravagantly. So this might mean you go to nice restaurants too often. It can become a financial strain where you have such an expensive taste. It is just ridiculous. This is another way that we can overindulge.
[00:24:50] Now. It's difficult to really define where exactly this line is. It's probably another reason it's not preached on or talked about very much. Where is the line John Piper defines gluttony? I think in a really helpful way. This is what John Piper says.
[00:25:07] Gluttony is having a craving for food that conquers you.
[00:25:13] Gluttony, if you want to write it down, is having a craving for food that conquers you.
[00:25:24] Food becomes your master and you its slave.
[00:25:29] It becomes an addiction that you can't say no to. Or maybe you just have a hard time saying no to.
[00:25:37] And if this is the case, if this is the definition, this means something else. It means that gluttony technically doesn't have anything to do with how you look.
[00:25:46] It's often connected, it's definitely assumed.
[00:25:50] But we cannot assume this. It has way more to do with your heart. In fact, I would say even some people that are thinner are some of the worst gluttons that I've known myself in certain times of my life included, because they can get away with it. So it can't be how we look. It's got to be something in your heart. You need to examine yourself.
[00:26:17] Is this craving conquering you?
[00:26:21] Does it own you? Is it your master?
[00:26:25] God is concerned with your heart more than your body. Now I want to say he's concerned with your body. He has given it to you to take care of, but he's concerned first with our hearts.
[00:26:39] Now, as for drunkenness, the text uses the word drunkards, but it's more literally would be translated addicted to much wine. So we get this addicted word. Now, wine is a catch all for alcohol because it was the most common form used at the time. You know, if this was written to Americans today, maybe it would have been addicted to much beer or bourbon. It doesn't matter. It's a catch all term.
[00:27:06] The meaning is twofold. First, you should not ever become drunk. Plain and simple, you should not ever become drunk. That is sin.
[00:27:16] The second is you should not be addicted to alcohol.
[00:27:22] That is sin. Just as gluttony is a sin. You see the difference? You can never get drunk and yet be ruled by the desire to come back and back again and be addicted in that Way the craving conquers you.
[00:27:39] Now, of course, at your age, students, consumption of alcohol is sin as it violates the law. And so you should obey laws unless they prohibit you from honoring God. But there's actually more to it than being drunk or being addicted to alcohol. We're directed in this text, be not among drunkards, Be not among drunkards, or among gluttonous eaters.
[00:28:10] That's interesting, right?
[00:28:12] I think the obvious first question that you would get if you read this to a large group of people, was not Jesus among such people?
[00:28:21] Is that not a really common refrain? That he ate with tax collectors and sinners and gluttons and drunkards?
[00:28:28] It's true. Jesus says. He answers some Pharisees and lawyers. And this is what he says. The Son of Man has come, eating and drinking, and you say, look at him. A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
[00:28:44] How can this be?
[00:28:46] Well, we should acknowledge who Jesus is and who we are. Jesus was able to be amongst sinners without sinning himself.
[00:28:56] We're not always capable of that, are we?
[00:29:00] Sometimes you're with sinners and you sin too. So I think it's wiser for you and me to consider whether being around certain groups is actually helpful.
[00:29:11] Remember when we read the Proverbs, they're general truths. So he's telling his son in general, you might not want to be around these people. They can tempt you to sin. And this is probably true for the Son of the Father who's learning these lessons. But for you, if you find no temptation, then maybe it can be helpful for you to be amongst such sinners.
[00:29:36] But maybe it's just unwise. And so honestly ask, are you being a light amongst the gluttons or the drunkards?
[00:29:47] Or is their sin reeling you in?
[00:29:51] Are you being a light amongst your friend group, or are they dragging you along?
[00:29:57] Who is actually standing out, if anyone? Because you're not Jesus, you're a sinner. You're probably a glutton at times, maybe even a drunkard.
[00:30:10] In addition, you can overindulge in many ways any craving that conquers you, even if it is a craving not to eat.
[00:30:19] There's another way. We can dishonor God with food by avoiding the food he's given us to enjoy.
[00:30:27] You are not Jesus.
[00:30:30] But praise God that you're not. And praise God that Jesus was a friend of gluttons and drunkards and tax collectors and sinners.
[00:30:41] Praise him for that, that he does not leave us in our sin. He doesn't shove us off to the side just because we have been sinners habitually, even, even the worst of sinners.
[00:30:54] If we come to him in faith, he welcomes us as a friend. He welcomes us to dine with him at his table, to eat with him in the closest and most intimate ways. He's willing to pursue you into the mess of your life and call you a friend. How can we then not be disciplined in body as Christ was? How could we not love him and seek to obey Him?
[00:31:20] Jesus must be your fill.
[00:31:24] Your cup will run empty.
[00:31:26] The plate will also become empty.
[00:31:31] But the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, will never run out.
[00:31:37] And he is welcoming you.
[00:31:41] Proverbs 23:19 at the beginning says, hear my Son and be wise.
[00:31:48] Christ is the wisdom of God. You must reject your overindulgent, lazy and sinful life.
[00:31:56] Christ is happy to redeem you from your sins and to call you his friend.
[00:32:03] Avoid the twin sins of laziness and overindulgence.
[00:32:07] See how even overindulgence ends in verse 21. Slumber will clothe them with rags.
[00:32:19] Both sins go hand in hand, right to sleep. The connection is intentional for us to see laziness, overindulgence, go together. Their lives undisciplined for godliness.
[00:32:34] But the Lord would have us work heartily unto him. God calls us to be disciplined and godly. Therefore, laziness, drunkenness and gluttony all contradict the type of lives to which we are called. So be disciplined. Not because you want to feel better or look better. Be disciplined for the sake of godliness.
[00:32:59] Let's pray.
[00:33:03] Father, we lift these things up to you and ask that you would search our hearts. Help us to see where we fall short. Help us to see the sins in our own lives, the ways in which we choose our own selfish desires to be lazy or overindulge in certain areas. Help us to be disciplined for your sake. That demonstrate to the watching world how to be disciplined, but also how to enjoy the creation that you have given us. Lord, help us to honor and glorify you in all of our lives. And for those in the room that don't know you, Lord, we pray and ask that you would grant them faith that they would turn to you tonight and trust you. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.
