Wisdom and Work (Proverbs 24:30-34)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And our college was not cheap. And they knew it all year long.
That if they did not pass, they were going to have about a $135,000 tuition bill that you cannot retroactively go back and get scholarships for. And they didn't pass. And they did not get commissioned. And they had a large amount of student loans that they were going to have to pay for. And I remember him talking. He's like, I'm in the military and I have moms calling me about their kids.
He's like, what is happening? But they knew it. They knew it was coming all year. They knew the consequences. They didn't pass a basic PT test. But they rejected their responsibility.
They conceded. This drift towards chaos was coming. And they just conceded. They didn't take it seriously. They didn't own the responsibility in this. The Proverbs speak fairly aggressively against this type of conceding to chaos.
This type of neglecting your work and your responsibility. It has quite a bit of correction for those who do not take work seriously. And my hope this morning is that as we walk through this, I don't know if you've noticed this. At times, the Proverbs assaults you. It's a lot. And this is one of those mornings that it will assault you.
My hope is that we would not be so prideful. That we would not hear the word of God. See the correction that we need in response. That's the hope every morning as we sit under the authority of this word. And I hope indeed that is our posture this morning. Let me pray for us and then we'll jump into the text.
Father, we thank you that you've given us work. I pray that you'd help us see this morning that we would glean from the Proverbs. And the wisdom that it provides. So that we could be complete workers who glorify you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Alright, so. A few years back, we did a series called The Hammer and the Hammock. It was just a quick series discussing work and rest. We had more time and more space to cover both of those subjects. So if you were not here, if you want to go back and listen to it, I would encourage you to go on our website to our sermons page and go back and listen to it.
We had a lot more space there to cover this subject. But I want to briefly give a theology of work to kind of help us, orient us to understand this well. So we are made in the image of a God who works. God worked to bring about creation. He made everything out of nothing from the universe and the stars all the way down to the deepest depths of the ocean. He made everything.
For six days, He worked and then He rested. Modeling a pattern of a rhythm of creation. And we're made in His image. That He formed man from the dust of the earth. Breathed life into it. And placed His image in us.
One of the ways we reflect the image of God is that we get to be workers who glorify God. Work is a pre-fall reality, which means that it happened before the fall. I know some of you might hate your job and think it is cursed. It can be for different reasons. Work is difficult, but it is actually a gift. That when He puts Adam in the garden and tells him to cultivate and take care of the garden, He is getting to participate in something that is different than any other aspect of creation.
He gets to reflect God who worked and brought about creation. It's a gift that He's given us. That we get to work in this garden, in this world that He has given us. He's given us dominion over. Now we know how the story goes.
That Adam and Eve sinned against God. And then one of the curses that gets handed down is work. That you could work in the field by the sweat of your brow, but you would only produce thorns and thistles. That is a curse that is work is going to be difficult. It is going to be hard. You may work very hard and it may be fruitless.
But we can't miss that work is something that was before the fall. That it's a good gift that God has given us. That we get to be made. We get to conform to the image of our God and to the image of Christ. And how we labor as we labor unto the Lord. Now, like I said, we spent a whole series on that.
I would encourage you to go back and listen to it. You need to know that going into it. Because the Proverbs does not want to give you a comprehensive view of work. It is not going to give us a comprehensive theology of work. What it mostly does is it gives us a pretty strong rebuke of our lack of work. And it has some language that shows up over and over again.
One of the characters that shows up throughout the Proverbs is the sluggard. The sluggard. Shows up over and over and over again. And one of the ways that the sluggard rejects his calling to work is in sloth. Slothfulness. We are going to see that language show up over and over again.
Proverbs 24 verses 30 through 31. You can find it in your Bible. You can also follow along on the screen. Verse 31. Verse 30. 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. That's it. That's the connection right there. Right back to the beginning. That the sluggard has a field.
And he neglects the field. He concedes to the chaos. He doesn't own his calling. And it becomes covered with thorns. It is a rejection. The sluggard rejects the calling of work.
And that is what we're going to see today. As we walk through a bunch of different Proverbs, we're going to see eight different ways that the sluggard concedes to the chaos. That he just neglects his calling, neglects his work, and does not own who he is supposed to be. So, we're going to walk through these section by section, starting with this first way that the sluggard concedes to chaos. First, this is the most obvious. The sluggard is lazy.
That's pretty basic. When you think of sluggard, when you think of slothfulness, that's the first word that usually comes to mind. It's lazy. Proverbs 26, 15. It says, the sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
He has a meal set out before him. It's his fork. And it just says, I can't. It's too much. A few nights ago, I was in my bed, and I was on my phone. I think I was looking through Prime deals.
And I found something. And I said, I'm going to buy it. And I went to click to buy it. And it said, you need to re-input your credit card information. And I paused. I said, do I really need this?
Do I really need to buy this? Not out of like a godly contentment, where it's like, do I actually need to buy this? No, my credit card was 20 steps away. And I didn't want to get up out of bed and go and get my credit card and put the Numbers in. I was like, do I really need this? And I thought about it.
I was like, no. I'm preaching a sermon on this coming up. I need to actually go up and get my credit card and put this in. Like, it's just like, oh, there's just this laziness that's so inherent to our fallenness. They were just, ah, it's too much. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, he knows this.
He's built, I mean, there's been interviews where he's said this. He understands that people are generally lazy. The whole platform and shopping platform is built on the premise that you are lazy. He wants to make it as effortless as possible. It's true. The sluggard is lazy.
That's one way we can see to the chaos. The second is the sluggard loves the bed. The sluggard loves the bed. Proverbs 26, 14. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. Yep.
There's a bunch of, there's a few different Proverbs that talk about the bed. When I was in seminary, my preaching professor, which I didn't learn a lot about preaching from. I did learn a lot about life. And it's a lot of nuggets of wisdom. But one day he looked at us and he said, y'all want to be successful pastors?
And me as a young seminarian said, yes, same awards. And he kind of reeled the class in. He said, you. And he put his finger out. You need to hate the bed. And I was like, we thought something else was coming.
But that was where he wanted to go that morning. You need to hate the bed. And then he just went off. He's like, you need to wake up in the morning. You need to pray. You need to read your Bible.
You need to be productive. Some people just sleep in. You need to hate the bed. I was like, all right, Dr. Smith. You getting it?
All right. Fine. And I've lived by that. Like since then, I'm like, no, I need to not love the bed. Like that's an actual proverb that has a lot of wisdom. Sleeping is fine.
It is. Sleeping is fine. There are days that you should sleep in. And then you can go to our Hammer and Hammock series. We spend a whole thing on rest. Yeah.
But there's something. There's too much rest that happens. There's too much sleeping that happens. Some of you love your beds. And I get it. Because I love my bed.
It's a great bed. But there comes a point where it becomes an agent of chaos. Where it's a place that you end up laying in too long. You toss and you turn. And you turn on a hinge again. And you snooze and you snooze and you snooze and you snooze.
No, we're called to be disciplined in life. You should know how much sleep you need. That's something that you should know. Like in my 20s, I finally figured out. I need about six to seven hours of sleep. That's the zone that I need to sit in.
If I want to be productive the next day, that's about how much sleep I eat. Now, some of you are psychos. And you need like three hours of sleep. And I don't understand you. Some of you need a little more. The older you get, that's a reality as well.
But there is a point where you need to understand how much sleep you need to be productive. If you continue to sleep in. If you stay up until 2 a.m. watching Netflix or 2 a.m. playing video games. And then you sleep in the next day until 10, 11 o'clock consistently. You're rejecting your calling. You're rejecting.
The time is a finite resource. It is. And if you sleep and sleep and sleep, the Bible says you are foolish. The sluggard loves the bed. Three. A sluggard doesn't start things.
Doesn't start things. Proverbs 14, 23 says, In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. There's no mere profit in talking and talking and talking and not doing a thing. I remember when years ago, I'm from Lexington. The downtown Lexington area years ago was just lacking. It was not a desirable place to be.
And people talked and talked and said, you know what? This could be really nice. This could be a nice place with restaurants. And it could be pretty. Like someone should do something. There was a lot of talk and a lot of talk.
And no one was actually doing anything until finally some people got together. They started a festival to raise money for beautification for it. Restaurants came in. People risked their money, put their money on the line, put businesses and restaurants. And if you go to downtown Lexington today, it is really nice. It's got nice restaurants.
They're doing all kinds of cool stuff there. But people talked and talked and talked. It took people actually taking action and doing something. You've got to open yourself up to do something instead of just talking. And it's hard. You open yourself up to failure.
It's a lot harder to build something, to start at zero. But we're not called to just talk and talk and talk. You need to do something. Maybe there's hobbies you want to do, right? Like at the beginning of the year, I said I want to learn to play piano. My goal is by the time I'm 40, I want to be proficient at playing piano.
I don't want to be great because I've tried enough instruments to know that I'll never be great. But just proficient. And, I mean, Matt and I have been writing songs the last few years. It's like I want to grow in this. I want to learn this. So I got this piano, this keyboard, and it's been a busy year.
And I have not made the time for it. And I say this over and over again when I preach. It's not that you don't have time for something. It's that you won't make time for something. You won't make time for it. If I told you in a busy work season that the bank was going to offer you a million dollars, you would make time for that.
You would get in your car and you'd go down there and you'd collect your money. If you value something enough, you will make time for it. You can talk and talk and talk instead of doing something. You want to learn a language? Start. Download an app.
If you want to grow in woodworking, whatever it is for you, don't just talk and talk. Do something. Try something. There's no mere profit and talk. Four, the sluggard has unfounded fear. The sluggard has unfounded fear.
Proverbs 22, 13 says, The sluggard says, There is a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets. The commentators agree on this, that yes, there were lions at that time. They were not in the streets. They're in the wilderness. They're not in the streets.
So it's a ridiculous thing. That's what's being said here. I can't go out to work. There's a lion in the streets. It's a ridiculous thing. It's an unfounded fear.
The reality is that many of us have unfounded fears that prevent us from the good work that God has called us to. One of the ways that I have unfounded fears that shows up over and over again is that I play out scenarios to ridiculous conclusions. So my wife, she'll be teaching dance one night, and it's later than normal, and all of a sudden I'm like, God, she's not here. I'll look at a couple of locations, and she's still at work, but maybe she's not still at work. Maybe somebody kidnapped her. Oh my goodness, maybe she's dead.
What's going to happen? What's going to happen to our family? What's going to happen to our kids? And I play out this ridiculous scenario, and it's like, let's pause and say, No, this is dumb. She's just teaching. I believe in the sovereignty of God.
Stop worrying. We do this. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Others of you are like, I have no idea what you're talking about. You don't think enough then. I don't know.
But we do this. You'll play out this scenario in your head. Maybe you're like, I want to start a business, but if I start this, then what if it doesn't work out? What if I don't make enough money? What if we end up losing our house? What if we end up homeless?
What if we have to fight for ourselves in the street? I've seen The Walking Dead. I don't know how. I'm not going to be able to do it. And it's just like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop.
That's unfounded. Sure, there are concerns. Absolutely. Valid concern. Valid concern. Paying your mortgage.
Valid concern. Taking care of your family. But we believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe Matthew 6. That He provides for the birds. How much more so does He care for you?
He will take care of your needs. Maybe not all your wants, but He will take care of your needs. If God is calling you to take a step, to take a risk, don't let unfounded fears keep you from doing this. Fear, it's oftentimes it's fear of failure, right? That's what keeps us from starting good work. Fear of failure.
And I'm here to tell you that fear is a sluggard man's game. We're called to walk in faith. So what if the business does not succeed? If you are obedient to your calling, that is what's important. Maybe you want to be more missional in your neighborhood. You're thinking, I want to throw a block party.
Get my neighbors to come out. Invite the whole street over for dinner. You're like, I don't know, maybe they won't come. Maybe if they do come, they'll think it's weird. Maybe they'll think we're lame. Maybe they'll think we're bad guests.
And when they walk by our house, every time they're going to think, oh, these are the weird Christians. It's like, no. Be obedient to what God is calling you to. Do something. So what if it doesn't work out?
So what if you share the gospel with somebody and it does not work out like you want it to? You are obedient. That is the goal here. To not let unfounded fears keep us from the good works that God has set out before us. 5, the sluggard doesn't finish what he starts. Slugger doesn't finish what he starts.
Proverbs 12, 27, whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. So the picture here is that he goes out, he stakes out the best spot, he watches it, and then when the sunrise happens, the deer walks out. Gets his sights on him, shoots it. It's beautiful. Takes it to the processor. Gets nice cuts of backstrap and tenderloin.
I'm excited about deer season's coming up. And then he puts it in the freezer. And then when it comes to prepare it, he says, no. No, that's too much. That's the picture here. Is that you would not finish what you start.
That you would concede to the chaos by not finishing work. When I was working on this, and I finally looked at the commentaries on this, I felt assaulted. As I looked at my office, I moved into, I was in one office. I didn't like the aesthetics of that office, so I moved down to this end of the building, Dr. Ken's old office. Refinished the floors.
Took some of the wood that was from the demo over here. Finished it. Made shelves for my books. Isaac painted it. I mean, it was all set up. And for the last, I don't know, eight, nine, however long it's been, ten months, there's been my college diploma and a painting just sitting against my other desk.
Just not, just there. For like nine, ten months, it's just been sitting there. And it took me, and I repented this week, and I put them up finally. It took me five minutes. Didn't finish the work. And I've realized, oh no, like this is what I do.
I don't finish things that I start. Like, we bought a house a year ago. It was a complete renovation. And there are things that we've knocked out. And there's things that just didn't do, didn't finish. Like, we were having a disagreement.
My wife and I had to paint the inside of the door what color to do. So I painted around when I installed the new locks. I painted around it. And it just sat there. If you've been in my house and walked out of our front door, you've noticed, for a year, it's just been painted right around the doorknob. And there's like ten of those things in our house right now that I've just neglected.
I say, I'll get to it. I'll get to it. I'll get to it. Repented this week. Painted the door. Have other things I want to do in the house.
But I think of myself as having a strong work ethic. I do. I put in a lot of work. I put in a lot of hours. There's some days I wake up early. I go work out.
Come into the office early. I'm here until 5.30. Go home. Sometimes I make dinner. I put the kids to bed. Do my devotion with them.
Get up my computer. Sometimes work until 10, 11 o'clock. Not always, but it happens sometimes. And I like to think of myself as having a strong work ethic. But the proverb says, no, you are incomplete.
It is foolishness that I might be focused enough to finish what you start. And I was like, man. I thought I was going to get out of this sermon without feeling a whole lot of conviction. Finish what you start. If you don't, you are conceding to the chaos. Six.
Six. Sluggard is restless and unproductive. I've got a couple of Proverbs on this. 13.4. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. The soul of the one who's working is richly supplied.
Proverbs 21, 25-26. The desire of the sluggard kills him for his hands refuse to labor all day long. He craves and craves but the righteous gives and does not hold back. I have this internal drive, this crave to do a lot of things. I dream. I'm like, I want to do this aspect of ministry with our church.
I want to shift here. I want to focus here. I want to do all these different things. This year I had all these goals and I'm moving all around. I have all these cravings and sometimes I get too far ahead of myself and you can crave and you can crave and you can crave and you won't actually put your hands to the plow and work. The Bible says, don't.
That craving, that desire will crush you. Do something. Work. Focus on something. Complete the task. Your endless craving.
You'll keep going and going. You'll make a hundred excuses why you can't jump into it. You'll get frustrated. I mean, how many of you crave and crave to see a different office culture at your place of work? How many of you crave to see changes happen? And you can crave and crave and desire and desire or you can actually start to bring about change by how you work, by how you lead.
You can do something. How many of you all are frustrated by your community group? Because you came up with a set of values that you wanted to do as a community group and you're like the only one that seems to care about this value and no one else is owning it and you crave and you crave and you crave. How about lead by example? How about be the change you want to see happen in your group? You can crave and it will crush you or you can do something.
You can work to bring about change. Seven. The sluggard makes excuses. Sluggard makes excuses. 1519. The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns but the path of the upright is a level highway.
Now, that's a little more difficult to interpret but there seems to be a common consensus here. that the sluggard always seems to have a hedge of thorns in his path. He always seems to have something in his path but the righteous when he works diligently has a level pathway. It seems to be clear and what's being shown here is that the sluggard always seems to have excuses. There's always an excuse as to why work is hard. Always something that keeps them from doing good work. You're the kind of person that complains about your job all the time.
You're the kind of worker that complains about your co-workers that complains about your bosses. Has every single boss you've ever had been dumb? You're the only one that gets it. You're the only one that's a good worker. Everyone around you is stupid but you've got it figured out. Maybe.
It's also possible that you'll find a hedge of thorns wherever you can find one. You'll look and find all the problems and make tons of excuses as opposed to actually doing something and working hard to see change happen. Work is hard. Thorns and thistles. Yes. You're going to have difficulties.
You're going to have problems. You can make a thousand excuses as to why you can't work as you should work unto the Lord. You can't work in the calling and be a complete worker. You can complain a lot or you can clear the path make it better for you and everyone else around you. Last. Sluggard is content with poverty.
He's content with poverty. This one shows up over and over again. I'm just going to list three. Proverbs 19.15 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger. Proverbs 24 The sluggard does not plow in the autumn. He will seek at harvest and have nothing.
Proverbs 24 33-34 A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Now there are a lot more Proverbs that say that same thing. Now what happens is and I want the Proverbs to hear me clearly the Proverbs is not saying all poor people are sluggards. All poor people are lazy. That's not what the Proverbs is arguing. I know that there are those that have means that will use that as an excuse and say everyone who's homeless is lazy.
Everyone who's poor needs to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and not recognize that there are complexities in poverty there are systems of decay that make it difficult for people to rise. The Bible says over and over again from the Old Testament law into the Proverbs into the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus that you should care about the plight of the poor you should care about the complexities of the poor you should care and want to uplift those you should not be the person who treads upon them but it also speaks very bluntly here if you are not willing to work and you are in poverty that's on you. It's not very politically correct in how Proverbs approaches it over and over again. If you're unwilling to work a little sleep a little slumber poverty will come upon you like a robber.
It says this over and over and over again. You may have been dealt a bad hand it may be difficult for you to work for various reasons I'm not denying that but in the end it's on you to control what you can control to work hard diligently so that you can bring about change so that you can pay your bills. Listen I know there's some of us that live paycheck to paycheck in our church and there's nothing wrong with that. It's an exercise of faith to trust the Lord to bring daily bread. There's nothing wrong with that but some of you are mad about it. Some of you are frustrated and mad and angry and bitter and shake your fist at the system.
I'm here to say let me ask do you truly work hard enough? Are you putting in the extra hours? Do you have a side hustle? Do you invest well? Have you thought about any of this or are you simply going to complain over and over again and just give eye service at work clock in clock out and not ever care about being a diligent worker? The Proverbs addresses this fairly aggressively.
My hope is that we would not be so prideful to not respond in all of these. My hope is that we would listen to this. I understand that these are abrasive to say the least. I understand that these can absolutely jolt you and that some of you may want to fight this. You may hear these Proverbs and say uh-uh, I disagree. Uh-uh, you know you're reading that wrong.
Uh-uh. And the Proverbs even has a word for you on that. Proverbs 26.16 says the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. So basically the Proverbs says of course you would. Of course you would fight this. That is what a sluggard would do.
It's even more abrasive. Now it is fairly corrective in bad work in bad work ethic in bad work habits and bad approaches to work. There are only a few places where it speaks a little more uh-uh constructively where it gives more positive this is what you should do. And I just want to point out one. Proverbs 6. Go verse 6.
Go to the ant oh sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. So the positive example the Proverbs is going to uphold is the ant. It's a part of creation. It's the antidote to bad work. I'll take it.
Go to the ant. I had a buddy in college who used to say this to his friends. He used to say go to the ant. Go to the ant oh sluggard. See the example verse 7. Without having any chief officer or ruler she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
So study the ant. Study her ways. That she doesn't have anyone that's telling her what to do. Look at ants. They leave the colony. They go out.
They collect leaves. They collect all kinds of things. I know this because I've seen a bug's life. They collect what they need and they come back and there's nobody standing around them saying do this and do that. There's something intrinsic within them that says no this is what I'm supposed to do. They live in part of a bigger reality.
It's bigger than them. It's bigger than the individual I am. It's bigger and when we look at this for ourselves and we think about this in light of the gospel the reality is that we live as those who are made in the image of God as those who are called to work. We live in a bigger reality. It's not just work. It's something bigger.
And if you think about this as a different way of looking at this is go to the king O sluggard to see his example that we live a part of a bigger reality. We're made in the image of a bigger God who works on our behalf. It starts to make more sense when we think about how we're made in the image of our God who works on our behalf. Where would we be if God had not worked on our behalf? Where would we be if God had not created this world? Created the universe?
Where would we be if he had not scooped us up from the dust and placed his image into us? Where would we be if we sinned against God in our rebellion? If he crushed us? Where would we be if he had not come? If he had not taken on human flesh, if he had not lived a perfect life of obedience, if he had not gone to the cross to die for our sluggard, selfish ways, where would we be if he had not risen out of the tomb? Where would we be if God had not worked on our behalf?
Praise Jesus, he is not lazy. Praise God that God is not a sluggard. Praise God he is not slothful and apathetic towards us. No, we live in part of a bigger reality. We are made in the image of God who works and is continuing to work and continues to work on our behalf. My hope this morning is that as we look at the ways in which we need to repent, that we would quickly turn towards the one who worked on our behalf.
We would quickly turn towards Christ and in our repentance we would receive grace and we would worship and praise the one who worked for us. The band is going to come up. I know sometimes when I say the band is going to come up, some of you like to check out. I assume that. I don't know that for a fact because I've done in the past. As you sit and prepare for worship, I just want you to think about the ways we need to repent, the ways we need to change from our way.
Some of you have a room in your house that has remained unpainted for a year and you've neglected it and you've neglected it and you've neglected it. You need to complete the work. some of you have very bad sleeping routines and that's not okay. Let's walk through the Proverbs and it's offering wisdom and correction. If we hear it and we are not doers of the word but hear it's only, it's foolishness, it's disobedience. If you have a poor sleeping routine, you need to evaluate that, you need to know yourself, you need to change. Some of you need to stop talking about things and do something.
Pick up a shovel and work. Some of you need to do the daily things that are formative and good for our soul. You need to do the dishes, you need to mow the lawn, you need to help your wife change the diapers, you need to do the formative everyday work. Some of you need to take a risk that you have unfounded fears that have kept you from being obedient to what God has called you to. You need to start that business. You need to respond to the calling of ministry.
You need to go to the mission field. You don't need to let unfounded baseless fears keep you from obedience to what God has called you to. Some of you need to stop complaining about work and making excuses. There will always be a hedge of thorns. Or you can work hard to bring about change and see that happen. Some of you need to get a job.
You need to get a job. some of you need to get to get some of you need good work. You need something to do. It's formative. It's good for your soul. Some of you need to take on some more work. You're doing the bare minimum.
And you could be doing more that is good for you and for the betterment of those around you. Some of you who are older. I'll talk to Dr. Ken about this this morning. And he gave some good wisdom on this. The reality is that as you get older of course you're going to sleep.
As you get older that is a reality. But he said Henry Ford once said anyone who stops learning is old whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. And it's a principle. It's absolutely true. You know the people that work and work and work and work and retire and then just do nothing in three years.
They just dissolve. There's a reason why people as they age into their nineties are still active and doing things and engaging their mind. Don't waste the latter years of your life by doing nothing. No, work. Learn. Grow to know more of Christ.
You're still a missionary. There's still people that need the gospel around. You still have neighbors. You still can serve. No, we need to continue to strive and to grow and to learn and to conform to the image of Christ and being complete workers. in our repentance may we turn towards the cross. I'm thankful we have a God who works on our behalf that His grace covers our failures and in our repentance we get to be the complete workers of God that God has called us to be.
Let me pray. Lord, we thank you that your words are difficult, that they are sharp, that they pierce our hearts. I pray this morning that we would not fight you, that we would yield, that you would go to work in our hearts, that we would not concede to the chaos of this world, the decay of this world, that we would actively in our repentance fight for what is good, that we would strive to be those who do not waste their lives but work in a way that brings you glory and betters those around us. Lord, we love you. May you help us we seek to repent. In Jesus' name, amen.