(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Luke chapter 15 and the name of the sermon is the alphabet of characteristics, idleness, looking at the character of the prodigal son. So we're actually going to be looking at a fictional character, although this sort of story plays out in real life all the time. And we're talking about idleness, which is another word for basically being lazy, right? Think of like an idle car, a car not moving. So we're talking about being lazy. Notice what it says in Luke 15 verse 11, and he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me, and he divided onto them his living. So you've got a father that has two sons. He's got an older son and a younger son, and the younger son says, Dad, can I just have all my inheritance now, basically? I want to have all the money that I would be left with now. Now we don't know how old these people are in the story because Jesus doesn't give an age, and it's just a story. I tend to think of the younger one being a teenager, you know, maybe 16 years old, maybe 18, something like that, and you could have a different opinion, that's fine. But basically, here's a young person who says, I want everything my dad has. I want everything life has to offer now. Not when I'm 25, not when I'm 35, but when I'm 18 years old, I want everything, right? This is a father that loves his kids, and I'm not questioning his love for his kids. I'm questioning the choices he makes, though, because a young person is not ready for everything life has to offer at the age of 18. And point number one is this. When it comes to being idle, someone who's idle or lazy, they want an easy life. They want an easy life, no stresses, no problems. They desire to have an easy life. They want an easy life, right? Go in your Bible to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3. You say, Pastor, what's wrong with that? Here's what's wrong with it. Life isn't easy. You can want it all you want. You can dream about it. You can think about it. You can covet money and all these things. I wish I had this and this and this. It's not the way life works. Life is difficult. It's stressful. It's hard, and wanting an easy life is a foolish thought. Let me show this to you in Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Genesis 3 verse 17, and unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. You know what God said to Adam was a punishment, was the curse of God because of the sin? He said, here's your punishment. Life is gonna be difficult. See, there was two people that had a pretty easy life from when they first came into the world, right? I can't really say when they were first born because Adam and Eve were very unique, but Adam and Eve had an easy life. You say, what do you mean? I mean, the curse of God is that it's gonna be difficult to bring forth food. Cursed is the ground, meaning before they sinned, life was pretty easy in the Garden of Eden. You walk outside, just take off a mango, get a banana. I mean, things are pretty nice. You don't have to work very hard. What ends up taking place? They get into trouble. You know why? Because life is not designed to be easy, and if it's too easy, you're gonna get into problems. And what he said is, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall I bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And what God says to Adam is, you know what? You're gonna be able to make it in life, but it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be about the sweat of your face you bring forth and provide for your family. Go to your Bible to Proverbs 19. Proverbs 19. Man, we have a dead crowd here today, right? It's like, I feel like I'm preaching to an empty room. We need some of you men to get kind of excited about the sermon. You know, I'm glad you went on the ceremony marathon. You traveled a long way. You're tired now, but everybody that preaches will say this, it's a lot easier to preach if you get some response, right? And we need you men to start saying, and otherwise we're gonna have all the women start saying amen, okay? We need you men to get excited about the sermon when you agree with it, right? I get it. We all want an easy life. Life is not meant to be easy. And I'm also gonna say this, I'm also very much preaching to young people here today because of the fact this is something you kind of learn later in life that you need to work hard. But at a young age, you know, kids, they just play and have fun. It's like, they need to learn at a young age to work hard. And life is not easy. Life is difficult, right? The Bible says that, and here's the thing, if you want an easy life, you know what you're basically saying? I want to reverse the curse of God from Genesis 3, right? Because the curse in Genesis 3 is, life's gonna be hard! And so when you say, I want an easy life, I want all the money, I just want an easy life and not have to work hard, you're basically saying you want to reverse the curse of God. Look, the curse of God is upon us as a result. But it's actually good for us because of the fact if life is too easy, we're gonna be like Adam and Eve and get into trouble. And we'll talk about that during the sermon. It says in Proverbs 19 verse 15, Slothfulness, which means laziness, casteth into a deep sleep, and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. So the Bible speaks about the lazy person and it casteth into a deep sleep. You say, you know, what do you mean by that, pastor? Here's what I'm saying. The person that's lazy, they fall asleep and then all of a sudden it's like, you know, 11 in the morning, it's like, oh man, I hit the snooze 50 times, right? And they sleep for like 12 hours. But the Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet. When you work hard, generally what takes place is you fall asleep right when your head hits the pillow, you wake up and you feel refreshed. You feel good. But you know, the person that's lazy, they wake up and guess what? Oh, I'm so tired. It's like, man, I had a horrible sleep last night, right? And look, all of us have days where we're lazy and isn't that true? You wake up the next day and you're exhausted even though you did nothing. Why? Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, the Bible says. And it also says you're going to suffer hunger. You don't even want. Why? Because if you're a lazy person, you're not going to make any money. You got to work hard if you want to provide. Go in your Bible to Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14. It's your turn to Proverbs 14. I'll just read you what the Bible says. By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. The Bible says by being slothful and idle and lazy the building decays. What does that mean? It means everything breaks down over time. I mean, if we met in this church building over the next 10 years and we never fixed any maintenance when things went wrong, we would have no doorknob, right? Because we had to replace the lock many times. I mean, I'm sure, you know, the toilets wouldn't work, the water wouldn't work. I mean, everything would be a mess. The aircon wouldn't work because we're not doing any maintenance. I mean, things just decay over time. And it's like that when it comes to a physical object. It's also like that symbolically, like with marriage, with parenting. Things decay if you don't do the proper maintenance on them, right? But what it's saying is that, you know, your car, if you don't fix it when things go wrong, it's going to be stopped on the side of the road and just dead because you didn't do the maintenance. That's the way it works. No, I get it. At your house, you don't want things to go wrong. And there's always something that goes wrong. The drain doesn't work. We got to catch the mice, right? We need a new lock for the door, right? You know, it's dirty. You got to clean things up. You know, the chair breaks, right? I mean, just things go wrong. That's the way that life is. And I get it. We want an easy life, but here's the problem. That doesn't exist. Life's not easy. Life is hard. Life is difficult. The Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 23, in all labor there's profits. But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. And penury is like deep, extreme poverty. Like mahirah, namahirah. Really, really poor. Right? And what the Bible's saying is, there's people that they just get to work. They see a need and they just do it. They don't just sit around and do nothing. I mean, in all areas of life, there's a need. I'll do it. But then there's other people that talk about everything they're going to accomplish. I'm sure we've all met people like this, right? People that talk about everything in life they're going to accomplish. Well, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. You meet people that in the same month, they're going to be a successful doctor, a successful lawyer, a successful athlete. I mean, they name 50 things they're going to do. And they're doing nothing. It's like, man, just pick one. Pick one thing and do it with your might. But then they don't do that. And then they fail in life. Why? Because they're lazy. They're unwilling to work. And they have extreme poverty. They always talk about what they're going to do, but they never actually do anything. Go to the Bible to Proverbs 15. Proverbs 15. When I preach sermons like this, I have people that come to my mind like, yep, that's the person I'm thinking about. And I'm not talking about people in this church, praise God, but there's people that come to my mind and I'm thinking, man, there's someone I knew in the past that always talked about what they were going to do. Never really did anything. But if you would just find something to do and work hard at it, there's profit in your labor. So let's say you work your job. Let's say you have free time. Find something productive to do. I'm not saying you can never go on vacation, but what I'm saying is don't just sit around and say, well, I don't know what to do. I'll just surf the internet for four hours. That's how you get yourself into trouble. That's how you get the lust of the eyes as we talked about during the last sermon. Proverbs 15 verse 19. The way the sawful man is as in hedge of thorns, but the way the righteous is made plain. The Bible says to the lazy person, it's as if there's so many obstacles. It's like, man, I can't go here. There's thorns. And then they just turn around and give up. What the Bible says is the way the righteous is made plain. And what that means is you just overcome the obstacles. Like the Bible says with Joseph in Genesis, he was like, you know, branches that go over the wall. Now is the wall an obstacle? Yeah, but you know what? There are obstacles in all areas of our life. And you can make excuses why you can't do it, or you can just find a way to get over the obstacle. And to the way the righteous, the one who's working hard, his way is made plain. Like, I didn't even notice any obstacles. What are you talking about? Why? Because they're working hard. But the lazy person, it's like, oh, there's all these thorns in the way. I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't. It's like, man, just find a way. Go to Proverbs 21. Yeah, it makes me think of hiking, because in the U.S. I would hike a lot, you know. And I've had times where you're going in a path, and paths sometimes, you know, when you're in the woods, they don't do the maintenance on them. So there's a lot of obstacles and branches and things in the way. And sometimes there's literally like a hedge of thorns in the way. And what you do, you just put your hoodie on. Put your hoodie on. Make sure your sweatshirt's to the end. And then you just boil right through the thorns. That's what you do. Right? You find a way, because you don't want to stop. It's like, you know, man, we drove an hour and a half go hiking for hours. What are we going to do? Turn around and just give up? You just go straight through it. And in life, that's what you got to do. You say, but man, I might get some cuts along the way. Yeah, you know what? When we did that, we would have some blood on our arms. It's like, get over it. That's the way life is. You're going to have some bumps. You're going to have some bruises. You're going to have some problems. Isn't that the way life works? When you accomplish things, there are obstacles and problems along the way. But here's the thing. You get to the other side and you did something. Or you could just give up every time you got a problem in life and then you'll never do anything. Verse 21, Verse 25, the desire of the slothful killeth him, for his hands refuse to labor. The Bible says, you know, people that are lazy, they have desires. You say, what do you mean his desire kills him? He coveteth greedily all the day long, but the righteous giveth and spareth not. You know what's amazing? People that are lazy and have nothing, they covet everything. And it's very interesting because the person that works hard, it's like they're not as covetous. They're just happy for what they have. They really value what they have. They're thankful for it. But the person that's lazy, they covet. They covet all the day long, the Bible says. And their hands refuse to labor. It destroys them, the Bible says. Go to Proverbs 26. See, the idle person, they want an easy life. And look, I get it because all of us, to some level of degree, I can say I wish I didn't have problems in life. But, you know what, sometimes you have problems in life. It's just the way it is. There's always something. Right? I have many examples I can think about. I'm going to use an example at the end of the sermon that I learned just from a couple hours ago on our way here. We had a lot of difficulties getting here today. But that's just the way it is in life. You know what, sometimes things are not that easy. And in your personal life, you know what, you're going to go home and what's going to happen? Your child's going to accidentally break something or spill something on the ground. You're already tired. You're already stressed. You're frustrated. It's part of life. It's the way life works. Proverbs 26 verse 13. The slothful man saith, there's a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. It's like, hey, can you get something in the sorry, sorry store over there? And I'm just using an example. I don't know if this is taking place, but here's 50 pesos. But, I mean, a lion might kill me. It's like, we don't live in Africa. A lion's not going to get you. I mean, a shark might bite me. We're not by the ocean. It's like, what are you talking about? Right? I mean, the tsunami might get me. It's like, there hasn't been an earthquake here recently. What are you talking about? Right? But just, and, you know, is the Bible using a ridiculous example? I believe it is to prove a point that, you know what, when people are lazy, they have a lot of ridiculous excuses for why they can't do something. It's like, oh, man, it's the pandemic. It's like, that was two years ago. It's like, you can't keep using that as an excuse. Right? But people always have a reason. Right? They always have an excuse. And it says, verse 14, as the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The Bible's giving an analogy of someone that would sleep, and then they wake up, and then 20 minutes later, they slowly roll off the bed, and they're finally out of bed. It's like, they just cannot get out of bed in the morning. Right? Their head's in the pillow, and they slowly roll, and everything like that. And then two hours later, it's like they're out of bed. Right? The Bible says, like a door that's just slowly turning. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom, it grieved with him to bring it again to his mouth. So it's saying, you know, a guy is too lazy to eat a doughnut. I can't do it. It's too much work. And obviously, he's using ridiculous examples that are kind of entertaining here. But it's like, someone who's just so lazy, it's like, I just can't do it. It's just too much work. Right? The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. So what it's saying is, the lazy person, they have excuses. They'll say, well, here's the reason. There's this, there's this, there's this, there's this, there's this. And I'm not saying there can never be a valid reason for why something's not working out in life. What the Bible's saying is, hey, learn to be someone who just finds a way around the difficulties. Go to Luke 15. Luke 15. The either person they want an easy life. I would say that by nature, every single person wants an easy life. He said, prove that to me. Everyone who's raised children that are at least a few years old, they will understand this. You know, your kids make a mess in the living room. And you're telling them to clean it up. It's like the most difficult thing in the world to them. It's like so hard for them. And it's just like, you know, it's, it's a tough balance because here's the thing. As parents, we got to train our kids, right? Because realistically, it would be easier for me to just take five minutes and clean it up. But I would really like them to learn to do it on their own. Right? And there's all these toys on the ground and you're just like, clean this up. Ten minutes later, you come back to the room and it's like, they've cleaned up like three out of fifty. And you're like, I told you to clean the room. Why is everything here still? It's like, I did clean daddy. It's like, I mean, this is true because you said why? Because it's hard. And then you ask them to do something like, oh, can you help us? It's like, because they don't realize how difficult life is. I see the reaction of every parent that's like, yeah, you know what? That's true. I'm glad. It gives me assurance it's not just my kids, right? It's like, this is reality. It's like, by nature, kids want an easy life. And I do believe that we should let kids have fun, have birthday parties, get to play. I mean, of course, we remember the joys we had as children. And I want my kids to experience those same things. But we also have to make sure to prepare them for life. Because there's this idea that people have, I'm just going to goof off for 18 years. And then at the age of 18, I'm magically going to become a full grown adult. Let me ask you a question. Let's say, for example, somebody first starts lifting weights today. They've never done it before. And they have a goal of bench pressing 400 pounds. Now, anyone that lifts 400 pounds is a lot of weight. I'm sure nobody in this room has ever benched 400 pounds. That is a lot of weight to bench press. I mean, 300 pounds is a lot of weight to bench press. But let's say somebody has that goal. Do you think that in one week they'll be able to do it? No. It doesn't matter how much steroids they take, they're not getting to 400 pounds in a week. It takes time. But people get this idea. Or let's say you decide, I want to start running. I want to be a marathon runner. Did you know that you're not going to run a marathon in less than 3 hours after one week of training? It's going to take week after week after week after week. Why? Because you've got to build up the endurance. You've got to build up the strength, right? But why do people think that you're going to be lazy for 18 years and just flip the switch? It doesn't work that way. It's the same way with character as it is with anything. You can't just flip the switch. So if somebody's lazy for 18 years, guess what? They're lazy right after that. They've got to learn to work hard. And no child naturally wants to work hard. None of us. We want an easy life. We do. We by nature want to just kind of sit around with nothing to do. You know what most people in this world dream about? I can't wait to retire. I never have to go to work anymore. Now look, I think that's a foolish idea because of the fact that I'm not saying it's wrong to retire. I mean I think that's okay if somebody retires. But don't have this attitude. I can't wait to retire so I can sit around and stare at the wall for 10 hours a day. Just watch the television for 10 hours a day. That's going to make your life great, right? It's going to make your life miserable. But what I'm saying is you don't just flip the switch when it comes to hard work. You've got to build up to it. It's like anything. You don't become an expert at the piano or the guitar or the instrument in one week. You don't become an expert at preaching sermons in one week. It's a bit of a desire to pastor. Guess what? It's going to take sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. You get better. Everything takes practice. Everything. Same thing with working hard. You know the Bible speaks about the word exercise? But it's not always with like physical exercise. You can exercise your habits. You train yourself to be a certain way. It doesn't just go from here to here in one day. It doesn't work that way. Same way with hard work. It takes time to work harder. So we've got to teach our kids at a young age to start having responsibilities. Then they can actually be a hard worker when they are an adult. Point number one, the idle person, the lazy person, they want an easy life. And all of us by nature, that applies to us because all of us are kind of naturally lazy. And hopefully we grow out of it. Point number two though, they waste their substance. The idle person, they waste what they have. It's not just that they refuse to work hard to get something. When they are given something, they waste it. Luke 15 verse 13. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. What does that mean he wasted his substance with riotous living? He wasted his money and everything that he got from his dad. I'm sure he got clothing and money and all these things. He wasted it all with riotous living. Obviously to riot is a very sinful and bad thing. So when you're thinking of riotous, what's the analogy the Bible is trying to give you? Drunkenness, his brother accuses him of wasting money on harlots or prostitutes. That's probably accurate. Gambling, drugs, probably eating at expensive restaurants. He's wasting his money in every way and magically he thinks more money is going to fall down from the sky when he runs out of money. And there's a lot of people that are like this. People that get a lot of money at a young age and they end up wasting it. I had somebody that I knew in high school. I was friends with him. And he had an extended uncle, like a great uncle that died. And the kid's a teenager. And I don't remember the exact amount of money that he got. I remember being a huge amount of money. I mean it was something that would have been like 5 million pesos or something like that from his uncle. Some extreme amount of money. And this kid is like 16, 17 years old and he got all this money from like a distant relative. And here's the thing. You know what? Even in America today, 5 million pesos is a lot of money. How much more 20 years ago? Right? It was worth a lot. He could have bought a house. Within 2 years he spent all of the money. I don't know how he did it. I mean I know he had a lot of different video game systems. He had like a hundred video games. He had the Nintendo 64. You can tell I'm dating myself. Nintendo 64. All these systems, all these games. He had to get the new one. This is a friend of mine. So you go to his house. He's got like a thousand DVDs of every new, you know, all 50 episodes of like Star Wars and whatever and Batman and what. Just like everything. What a stupid way to spend your money. What a dumb way to spend. I mean a hundred thousand dollars, 5 million pesos and you waste it in a couple years. But he did. And I don't even think it was with riotous living. I don't think my friend was a sinful person. I mean I haven't known this guy in a long time, but I think he just wasted it on just entertainment and just these gadgets and phones and stuff like that. But this guy, but you said what's your point? What I'm saying is someone who's lazy, they will waste what they're given. This same friend of mine in college, I remember that the first semester we both had calculus 1. This is a person who's a very smart person. The very first calculus test he got a 99%. Calculus is pretty hard. You know, this is a guy who's very smart. He had a lot of possibilities in life. The guy failed out of college multiple times in college. How did he fail out? Because he couldn't stop from playing video games all throughout the day and basically, he played video games all throughout the night and sleep during the day. Oh, I missed class again. He's like, man, if I miss class two more times, I'm going to fail out of college. Right? It was comical because he would keep hitting his snooze button and, you know, his roommate wanted to kill him because he would hit the snooze like 50 times. Like, man, I'm trying to sleep. What's wrong with you? Right? But I'm saying he's a lazy person. He failed out of college. Five million pesos gone in a couple years. Right? And I don't know what this person's doing now. I hope he's fixed his life, but I doubt it because you don't learn to be a hard worker just overnight. Verse 14, and when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. So he uses up all of his money and now all of a sudden there's a famine. It's like, what am I going to do? Right? It's like, man, I think there's this thing called work. I think I might have to get a job. Right? I've never done this before. Verse 15, and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, to feed the pigs. And he would have fain and filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat and no man gave on to him. I mean, he's willing to eat what the pigs eat. Pigs are known to just eat garbage. They're known to eat slop, as we say. Now, just a heads up, next week's sermon I'm actually preaching on pigs and you might be grossed out to eat pork next week after I preach on it because they have the most disgusting diets and they live, like, just disgusting lives. Okay? But I'm just giving you a heads up. You can do whatever you want. But it says here in verse 17, when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and despair and I perish with hunger? He's like, what am I doing? I'm being stupid. I'm just wasting all, I wasted all my money and now I'm living like a homeless person. I'm living like a castaway. I'm willing to eat what the pigs are eating and my dad's got many servants that are above me. Right? And then he comes to himself, he realizes, how foolish am I? Go to Proverbs 12. What's my point? My point is that he wasted what he got. He had a lot of money given to him, just wasted it. Why? Because he's lazy. He said, I don't know, this story's kind of hard to believe, I mean, how someone could waste that much money. Oh, really? How many pro athletes get a hundred million dollar contracts and they're bankrupt five years later? A lot of athletes get that. I mean, it's shocking the names that come to my mind of guys I've heard that went bankrupt before. Scotty Pippen, I think Allen Iverson, Mike Tyson, people that all of a sudden they had like nothing. It's like, those are three very famous athletes that had a pretty big amount of money. I know Scotty Pippen bought like his own private plane for like three million dollars. And of course three million was a lot more 30 years ago. It's like, why do you need your own plane? Right? They buy all these houses and it's like, they buy stuff that they don't even have paid off. It's like, why not just buy a house that's already paid off? Right? You got like 25 million dollars, buy a house that's fully paid off, buy one car, maybe two that are fully paid off, instead of having 20 cars that you're making payments on. But they don't understand that. They have no concept of that. And pro athletes all the time, a few years later, they're broke. So this story's very believable that when people don't learn the value of hard work, they could end up just wasting anything that they get. Proverbs 12 verse 27, the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. What the Bible is saying here in Proverbs 12 verse 27? The lazy person, the idle person, the slothful person, they go hunting for fun and they're too lazy to even cook the meat. It's like, what's the purpose of hunting then? I thought that was like the ultimate part, the enjoyment that you get. We worked hard. We went fishing for hours. I mean, is fishing going to be fun if you never get fish? It's going to be fun when you get fish and then you cook them. I mean, I never really went hunting growing up in West Virginia, but it's like I never knew anyone who would hunt and then just, oh, you know, we didn't cook the food. It's like, well, why'd you go hunting? What was the purpose of waking up at six in the morning in the cold and then you didn't even cook the food? But what the Bible's saying is the lazy person, they waste things that they're given. Think about children again, right? We said children naturally are lazy. All of us naturally are lazy. Isn't it true that kids, you put food on their plates or they want you to cook something? They want something from a restaurant. They eat two bites. I'm full. It's like you're full. This is the reason why most husbands, you know, their wives will ask, why don't you ever order anything from a restaurant? Because we know we're eating leftovers of our kids. I never ordered anything at restaurants. It's like I realized I'm just going to eat the leftovers of Ezra, Krista, Bell, and Zeph. Right? But that's the way the kids are. You know, they just waste. Or they're given a toy. They don't take care of it. They lose it. It's like we bought you that toy. Where is it? I don't know. It just, you know, grew wings and flew away. But isn't this true with kids? And look, I don't remember being a kid really, but I'm sure I did the same thing. You just waste things that you're given. You don't value. You say why? Because if you work hard for something, you naturally will value it. To the diligent man, it's precious. I worked hard for it. I don't want to lose it. But to the person that doesn't work hard for something, and I'm not trying to rip on kids. I mean, look, we love kids. I love all my kids. My kids are great. But this is just by nature what we need to realize as parents. It's our job to teach our kids. Right? Just as we were taught by our parents. Go in your Bible to Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs 18 verse 9. He also that is slothful in his work, this is a lazy person, is brother to him that is a great waster. Do you see how the Bible links the lazy person with the person that wastes? And so the person that's lazy, that's idle, that doesn't work hard, guess what? If they had all this money come to them unexpectedly, they would waste it. They would. And look, if your eyes are open, if you're paying attention, you see this happen in real life all the time. That someone who works very hard, they're generally pretty stingy with it, you know, spending money on stuff. Like, I don't want to eat there. I don't want to eat there. It's like you're very careful with how you spend the money because you realize how hard that you work for it. And you don't want something to go to waste because like, man, I worked, I mean, that's like worth like two hours of my time. It's like I don't want it to go to waste. I don't want it to be broken. Right? Turn it back to Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13. Proverbs 13. It's always interesting, you talk to kids, you know, you talk to your kids, you have conversations with them, and then it's like something breaks and it's like, you know, we'll just buy another one. It's like, with whose money? It's like, with your money, Daddy. And it's like, they don't necessarily understand this. Right? Because they didn't, this is why it's so important that we move them along to that point of working hard, then they can understand. I mean, they don't really realize how long it takes to clean up a house when things get dirty. Something gets dirty, they spill food on the ground, they don't think anything of it because they're not the ones that have to take care of it. But if you do, as a parent, you do understand. Right? Proverbs 13 verse 11. And the Bible says the person that gets money by vanity, think of winning the lottery. Right? Their money is going to be diminished. Story after story after story after story. Somebody wins the lottery, two years later, divorced, bankrupt, their life is a mess. It's like, how is that possible? Well, someone who wins the lottery probably doesn't really understand the value of a dollar because why are they spending money on the lottery to begin with? And here's the thing, the lottery is a lose-lose situation because you lose, like you lose, it's like wow, I threw away 100 pesos, threw away 100 pesos. Over time that adds up. If you win, you also lose. Because you're not going to value that money and then sitting around doing nothing, you're going to destroy your life. Well, think about going to a casino. It's a lose-lose situation. I mean, you lose money like most people do, well yeah, you're in trouble. I mean, do you realize how many conversations there are? You can read story after story, a guy goes out gambling, he comes home and has to break it to his wife, we got to sell our house. I mean, imagine if you had to come home as a husband to let your wife know, it's like, we lost the car. It's like, how? It's like, and then you're trying to think of a valid excuse for how you wasted like two and a half million pesos in three hours, right? You threw away $50,000 in a matter of minutes. It's like, what is wrong with you? I mean, honestly, casinos are one of the most wicked things. You see what you always see? You'll see casinos and prostitution linked right together. Right, like, you know, we live in Anjale City, we don't live near the red light district, but you know what is right beside, you know, Fields Avenue, the prostitution central in Anjale City, is a casino. You say, why? Because they go hand in hand, right? And so, a casino, if you win, you also lose. Right, because you're going to end up gambling it again, and if you do get a bunch of money, what are you going to spend it on? Uh, drinking, drugs, prostitution? It's like, it's a lose-lose situation no matter what happens, right? Tell you about Luke 15. Luke 15. Several years ago in Sacramento, we had somebody fixing the locks at our building, because we were moving into a new building in Verity Baptist. And, you know, he was telling us, as he's fixing all the locks, you know, he was a business owner, and he said, yeah, most business that we get, because in California, especially, they have this big program to help all the homeless people get off the streets. And make no mistake, in America, it's impossible to be homeless unless you're a lazy derelict, because the government pays you when you don't work. I mean, you gotta really try to be homeless, right? And so, you know, the government will pay you not to work, but they're doing this big thing, and people are like, well, you know, we're trying to help them get out of poverty, so they give them a free house. They didn't work for it. But it's a government program where all the people that do work jobs, they pay for those that are homeless, and then they give them a house. And what this guy told us, he's like, almost all of our business is for the governmental houses for homeless people. He said, because they move in, and within a week, they break all the windows, they break all the doors, they destroy the place, and then, of course, the government pays to fix them, which comes out of our pockets, you know, the people that live there. You say, why? Because they didn't work hard to get it. They don't value it. Doesn't really seem like a big deal to lose their temper and throw a rock through the window. But if you have to pay for it, you're not throwing a rock through the window. You're not kicking the door over because you gotta pay for it. But if you're giving it for free, it's like you don't think anything of it. You know, you just let it be broken. It's not a big deal. You know, well, I'm not the one paying for it anyway. I mean, that's reality. Point number one, the idle person wants an easy life. Point number two, they waste what they do have. They waste their substance. Point three, we see wrongdoing and sin. Wrongdoing and sin. Luke 15, verse 13. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Lazy people live very sinful lives. Go to verse 30. What does it mean by riotous living? Let me just give you the cross-reference I showed you earlier, or mentioned. Verse 30. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. I'm assuming the older brother is correct in that. Probably was already in his nature to begin with, the younger son, to spend money on harlots or prostitutes or whatever. But he's like, Dad, you gave him a lot of money, and he just spent it on a different harlot every single night. I mean, that's what people do that live a lazy life. They spend all of their money on riotous living, wrongdoing and sin. They don't value it, they waste it if they get it, and then they fall into major, major sin. Verse 18. I will rise and go to my Father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Even, he admits, I've sinned pretty majorly. And he has the right attitude because he says I've sinned against heaven because above anybody. Because when you sin, you're going to sin against or harm your fellow man when you go into sin. But above everything, you sin against God. You sin against heaven. Right? Go to your Bible to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6. Proverbs chapter 6. What do you think of the story of David and Bathsheba? David was generally in his life, I would say, a hard worker and a very godly person. But the Bible says at the time when kings go forth to battle, he tarried still at Jerusalem. Meaning, instead of going to the battle and doing his job like he was supposed to, he just let other people do it and he just sat around. And then all of a sudden, what takes place? All of a sudden, he's walking on a roof at nighttime. Why would you be walking on a roof at one in the morning? Well, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet. And if you don't work hard, he can't sleep. So guess what? He's walking around. He can't sleep. And guess what? He looks upon something he should not, just like a young man might look upon pornography at midnight because he can't sleep because he's lazy. And then all of a sudden, he ends up committing adultery. So you're seeing laziness and committing major sin very attached with one another. And look, this is reality that if you live a very lazy life, you will commit big sins. You will destroy your life. The Bible says in Proverbs 6 verse 9, How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. The Bible's referring to a lazy person, a slugger, a sloth, a lazy and sluggish person. Verse 11, So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth. You can look at the traveling as a couple different things, kind of like a vagabond, but bouncing around from job to job. You fail at this, you fail at that. Or think of the person that's always begging for money at different parts. In Andales, I have people that ask me for money every day. When I went soloing on Thursday, it's like along the way in the gypney, people hand you those cards, they want you to put money in. It's like literally five times during the day, people are asking me for money. And I'm not saying that every single one of those people is a bad person. That's not what I'm saying. And I'm sure that they are in one. That's why they're asking. But it's just like, I don't even know these people. Now the thing is, if you're at a local church, you actually get to know people. I personally would not advise you to just give money to a random stranger that you don't know. I wouldn't do it. I would only recommend it if you really know somebody well. Because you don't know anything about them. Just take the example of the person I preached about recently that was an evangelist in Butuan City. A lot of people gave them money. They didn't really know them. Guess what? They just wasted their money. And that money was probably used to commit major sins. I presume, I don't know for sure, but it's like they wasted that money on someone who was just taking advantage of them. But the Bible says here, and I want as an armed man. Now what does it mean by an armed man? Well, I mean, think about taking up arms. Think about going to war. Isn't that an expression, take up arms for the battle? You know, a gun is referred to as an arm, symbolically. You'll say an arm. Take up arms. Take up weapons. But what is their desire as an armed man? What it's saying is, you're going to be like the person that robs 7-11 with a knife. That's what it's saying. You're going to be desperate. You have the desire of someone that's going to use a weapon to steal. The next verse talks about the wicked person. And so the Bible is saying, you're going to be like a robber. And the lazy person is going to be like a robber. They might literally rob people in order to make money. Now, of course, I would hope that none of us would ever do something like that, but it's certainly possible. The Bible says that one, as an armed man, that's a pretty bad sin. Would everybody agree that if you use a weapon to force, like, give me all the money in your cash register? That's a pretty big sin. Well, I didn't shoot anybody. That's still a pretty big sin, my friend. And the Bible is saying that one is as an armed man. Then it says this, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a furred mouth. He linketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teacheth with his fingers. Furrowed witnesses in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. These six things doth the Lord hate. Ye seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. You say, why are you mentioning all these wicked sins in Proverbs chapter 6? Because that's right after it talks about the lazy person. The Bible's not randomly put together. It's saying the lazy person is more likely to do those things than the non-lazy person. And those are some pretty big sins that you see in these verses. I mean, when it says in verse 16, these six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, it's just a poetic way to say that he hates or it's an abomination all seven of these things. It's not saying literally there's six things he hates but one he doesn't hate is an abomination. No, all of them he hates. All of them are an abomination. Like, six things, actually seven things are an abomination to him. Seven things are extremely wicked. And all seven of these things he lists are major things that are being committed. And here's the thing, it's right after it talks about a lazy person. A lazy person is far more likely to do those things than the person that's not lazy. Go to the Bible at 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2. And look, when it comes to this series on the alphabetic characteristics, I mean, we're at letter I, which would be, I guess, number nine in the series. I think this is certainly one of the most important. You say why? Because if somebody works hard, it will fix a lot of the other characteristics along the way. I mean, a lot of these problems we have in life are because we're lazy. And the reality is all of us have a tendency to be lazy. Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman. And everybody can fall into major sins if they sit around and they're lazy. Every single person. Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman, or whatever, it's like if you're a lazy person, you're going to get into trouble. 1 Timothy 2 verse 12, But I suffered not a woman, to teach her to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. I've been speaking primarily about men, because that's primarily what the Bible is saying, but let's apply this also to women about being lazy. The Bible speaks about being saved in childbearing. A lot of people have questions, what does that mean? Is that saying that if a woman is godly, she'll never have any problems in pregnancy? Obviously not. Some people think that. That is obviously not true. I know plenty of people. My wife and I, we've had problems before Zeph was born. It's like a lot of people lose babies along the way. That would be an insulting thing to tell somebody, too. It's like, well, if you were more godly, then you wouldn't have had any problems. That's ridiculous. It's not a saying saved in childbearing. Remember, even in Genesis 3, he says that pregnancy is going to be hard, it's going to be painful. That's kind of one of the curses upon women, right? And so that just is what it is. What does it mean, though, by saved in childbearing? Well, let's just stick to the same book to understand the context. Go to chapter 5. Chapter 5. And it's going to use this word, idol, in the context of women. And in 1 Timothy 5, you know the context. It talks about men providing for their homes, and then it mentions the women starting in verse 11. But the young girl widows refused, for when they have begun to wax one against Christ, they will marry, having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. And with all, they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tatters also in busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. And when we're seeing this, you're seeing that a guy that is lazy, one thing he really has to pay attention to is watch out for the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. That's a sin that guys could easily fall into when they're being lazy. For ladies, one of the big things that you can fall into is becoming a busybody or a gossip. And look, you know, it's funny, in the world we live in, if you were to say, you know what, men probably struggle more with lusting, everyone's like, yeah, that's true. Women struggle more with gossip. That is true. Well, how dare you say that? Well, how dare I read the Bible? There's, we don't have a gender neutral Bible. There's a reason why certain sins are more like, it's not, I mean, of course, a woman could lust and commit that sin, and a guy could gossip. We get that. But if we're talking about more likely, what's the context here? Well, a woman has too much free time, she could be a busybody. And in today's world, it's a lot more dangerous because of this and Facebook. Because you don't have to go from house to house. All you have to do is start one group message and it's good to go. Right? That's the world that we live in now. Verse 14, I will, therefore, so what's going to save a woman from getting into these sins? I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. You know what saves a woman from getting into major sins and problems? Getting married and having children. You said right. There's no more free time, my friend. If you're raising kids, you don't have free time. That's just, you know, the way it works. Life's busy. Right? You know, I'll just give an example coming, you know, to church today. It's like, you know, along the way, you know, and my son Ezra first. Right? And I'm thinking, okay, I've got Christabel and Zeph. It's okay. All over the place. Right? And I know how to say this, but I put it in my notes because I get nervous speaking Tagalog. I might make a mistake. But it's like everywhere. I mean, Ezra, I'm just thinking, I mean, I don't know how, it was like everywhere. So, of course, we have to stop, you know, clean up and everything like that. It's like just a mess. But here's the thing. If you don't have kids, you might be like, wow, that's a strange story. But no parent thinks that's strange. It's like, yeah, that happened to me last week. Right? Or you're at home and guess what? You know, your kids accidentally break something. They spill something. I mean, yesterday, I can't tell you how many times, you know, it was Christabel then Ezra, Christabel then Ezra got hurt. Right? It's like over and over and over again, falling, bumping their head, and I'm just, it's like, oh, man. But this is very common when you raise kids. Every parent understands this. This is what happens with kids. And so here's the thing. If you're raising kids, you know what? You don't have a lot of free time. Now, you wish you did. You wish you could relax. But you know what? You're not really going to have a stress-free life when you're raising kids. That's just the way it works. And, of course, you know, I'm not saying everybody's in this situation of being like a one-income providing family. I understand a lot of families at our church, both the husband and wife are working. But, of course, the traditional roles are the husband's a provider, the wife raises the kids. And how does a husband stay busy? He works hard at his job, works overtime, and when he comes home, he does what? He works hard at his family. That keeps you out of trouble. Right? It's pretty hard to get into major sins if you work hard at your job and then you come home and you spend time with the family. Well, for a lady, if you're raising kids, I mean, it's going to be pretty hard if you're actually doing what you should be doing, actually teaching them and training them rather than just sitting on your cell phone or computer, but actually being there for them. Guess what? You're busy. There's not really any free time. But, you know, that's good. You say why? It keeps us out of trouble. Because if we have too much free time, you know what's going to take place? Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman, you're going to get into trouble. That's the way it works. Right? Now, let me just answer this question because I get asked this question a lot, and I'm not sure if I've directly mentioned it in a sermon before, but a lot of people are going to ask me this question. Well, what about, you say, well, you know what, I'm a guy or I'm a woman and I'm getting married and we want to follow the traditional rules. We're going to try to do it. And so, you know, the wife is planning to stay home with the kids and the husband's planning to work. And then the question comes up, well, what if you get married, you don't have kids, should the wife stay home before you have kids? And I get asked this question a lot. And what I would say is, you know, my end answer is let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. But I can see arguments for both sides. You say, why? Because if a woman has too much free time and she's sitting around doing nothing, because if you don't have kids, you're going to have a lot of free time, she could easily fall into major gossip and problems. The Bible mentions that. Right? At the same time, of course, I understand why when you're married, you don't, you know, want your wife to have to go out to work. You know what it's like when, for example, when my wife and I got married, my wife did do some teaching online, but she was also at home. So she wasn't outside the home. And obviously not everyone's in a situation that they can have a one-person working family. I would say I see arguments on both sides. My mom, you know, had always made the decision. My mom and dad, once they had kids, my mom was going to stay home with the kids. And it's like once my sister was born, my mom stayed home, took care of the home, homeschooled us and all those things. So I see arguments on both sides, and honestly, not everybody's situation is the same. That's something for the husband and the wife to talk about and say, well, you know what, should I work before we have kids? I know many people that have done that, and then I know many people that have not done that. I say let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. You say, why do you say that? Because I cannot point to a verse that says, Thus saith the Lord. The job of a wife is to be the keeper at home, so if you're able to keep the home while working, that wouldn't really be breaking, be a keeper at home. Do you understand what I'm saying? And not everyone's necessarily going to agree with that. That's fine. That's my position on it, that basically I don't think it's two plus two equals four. I think it really depends on the situation. Many people at this church have asked me about it, and I've given a very similar answer, where I was like, well, you know what, whatever you decide, we'll ask God to bless your family, and everybody's in different situations. So there's dangers on either way, but there is a real danger in having too much free time. So whether you're a guy or a girl in this room, if you find your life being a lot of free time, you need to really think about how to fill that so you're not getting into problems. You say, why? Because if you're sitting around with nothing to do, it's going to lead to problems. That's what you see in the Word of God. So you see with the idle person, well, the idle person, they want an easy life. They want an effort-free life. This is why there's religions like Taoism that are really popular, because it's like, well, you know, quit swimming upstream. Learn to just swim with the flow of the Tao. And you can have an easy life. That's ridiculous. You become successful by working hard. That's the way it works. Many people, they want an easy free life. They want a stress-free life, an easy life. And here's the thing. If somebody's lazy, they're going to waste what they do have. And then they're going to fall into major wrongdoing and sin. And look, I believe that's true for each and every single one of us. If any of us just were lazy, you know what? We're going to fall into trouble. We're going to fall into problems. But see, when you're busy, you're just kind of too busy to get into trouble. And I showed you a lot of verses here today, and I preached on laziness before. There are a lot of other places in the Bible that talk about this. That show the person walking disorderly, a guy who refuses to work, but he's eating other people's food, and then all of a sudden he's in these major sins and problems. This is all throughout the Word of God, and it's a very important topic. You say, why? Because all of us naturally, by nature, we're lazy. We want an easy life. We don't want to have to work hard. Every single guy in this room would love to just have a ton of money and just be in amazing shape with a six-pack and benching like 300 pounds without having to go to the gym, without having to work hard. You just kind of wake up, and then you just have everything. I don't know about here in the Philippines, but I remember in the U.S. the big craze was you put on this thing over your stomach or whatever, and they give you a small electrocution. Within 30 days of using our product, you're going to have a six-pack. That's ridiculous. And look, if you have that electronic shocking thing, I'm not against you. I'm just saying I don't believe in it. Because if you want to get good at something, it takes hard work. Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman, boys and girls in this room, take heed to this. You want to fix 90% of your problems in life, learn to work hard. And you know what you're going to see? Your way is not going to be a hedge of thorns. Your way is going to be made plain, as the Bible says. You just find a way to get things done. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to help all of us, including myself and my family, help us to apply this message. Help us not to be idle people. Help us not to be lazy people. Help us to find things to do, God. Help us to stay busy. Help us not to get into trouble, God. And I ask you to help all the young people. Help us as parents to teach our kids at a young age to learn to value hard work and learn to appreciate what they do have, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.