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Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Dangers of Idleness. The Dangers of Idleness. Life sometimes keeps us a little bit busier than we want to be. And sometimes we feel like we're caught in a rat race, whether men or women, where we're just constantly busy, go, move. And sometimes we just wish that we had more extra time. And sometimes being busy like that and having a lot on your plate and a lot going on can actually be the best thing for you. And maybe even God keeps us a little bit busy sometimes because He doesn't want us to fall into the trap of being idle. Because when we get idle, we can tend to get into trouble and get into wrong things. Whereas if we can stay busy with the right things, we can avoid a lot of those pitfalls. If you would look at your Bible there in 1 Timothy chapter number 5, the Bible reads in verse number 8, But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. So one of the most important roles that we fulfill as men is that of a provider. It's our job to provide for the people in our family, to provide for our wife, our children, and possibly even other relatives. In this case, this could be talking about a mother that's a widow or something of that nature, a grandmother that's a widow. Then the Bible goes on to say in verse 9, Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works, if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. But the younger widows refuse. So notice, not only is he saying that widows should only be cared for by the church if they meet these qualifications of being someone who has served the Lord with their life, not someone just coming in off the street saying, hey, I'm a widow, support me, but rather someone who has already been serving God faithfully, but he also just puts a hard age limit and just says, let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old. So even if she has been the wife of one man, and even if she has done all these right things, he's saying, look, if she's under 60 years old, then she does not qualify. Why is that? It says in verse number 11, but with younger widows refuse. And what's younger mean in this context? This means 59 or lower, right? This is less than 60. And so it says, the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. Now these verses are confusing to people because it uses this really like strong and extreme language that seems a little bit overkill if you don't really understand what it's saying, okay? So when it says damnation, this doesn't mean like you're damned to hell. Damnation is synonymous in the Bible with condemnation, okay? So it's not necessarily talking about going to hell when we see the word damnation. Lots of scriptures in the Bible will just use damnation just for condemnation. It's just a strong word, okay? And then the other thing is that a lot of people could misunderstand this and think that there's something wrong with them marrying because it says when they've begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry, okay? Now what did he just finish saying? I mean, he's just about to say that they should get married. So getting married isn't the problem, okay? That's what could confuse people here because what he's about to say right after this in verse 14 is, I will therefore that the younger women marry, and he's talking about the younger widows. Instead of being just on the church's dole, widows that are under 60 years old should get remarried is what the Bible is saying, right? So let's back up again and try to grasp what the Bible is saying here. It says in verse 11, but the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry, having damnation because they have cast off their first faith. What is the condemnation? The condemnation is the fact that they have waxed wanton against Christ and that they have cast off their first faith, okay? What does that look like? Look at verse 13, and with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies speaking things which they ought not, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. So here's what the Bible is saying, and I know this is kind of a complicated passage, but bear with me. What the Bible is basically saying is that these women, if they don't have a job, and if they're being supported by the church financially, so they have no job, no husband, no children, and they're under 60 years old, they're going to get into trouble, is basically what the Bible is saying here. And then they will get into trouble, and then they're probably ultimately going to get married anyway in the long run, but after they've already gotten into trouble, then they're going to get married. What the Bible is saying is get married before you get into trouble. In order to stay busy as a woman, marrying, bearing children, and guiding the house is going to keep you busy and therefore keep you out of trouble, okay? The whole idea here in verse 14, I will therefore that the younger women marry, and their children guide the house, is that that's going to keep them busy doing that so that they're not out partying and doing the wrong things and getting into trouble and living a life of sin. You know, the Bible also talks about in verse 6, she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. You know, that's not the right way to live your life, to just be this party girl living for pleasure. It's like you might as well not even be alive because your life is such a worthless waste if you're just out just partying and doing all this sinful stuff. That's no life at all. And so life is about serving God. And as Christians, we need to serve God with our lives, but we also just need to stay busy in general with the demands of living a normal life. As men, that is us going out and working and providing and paying the bills. That keeps us busy, doesn't it? I mean going out and working a hard job 40 hours a week or maybe working 50, 60, 70 hours a week at a job or whatever, man, that's going to keep you busy because then by the time you get home, you're not necessarily ready to go out and party anyway because even once you're off work, you're probably tired. You've got other things to take care of. You need to rest. And so hey, that grind, it might get to be a little bit of a grind sometimes, but it keeps us busy and focused and scheduled in our lives so that we're not just kind of sitting around wondering what to do and then temptations abound for us to get into sinful things and get into the wrong things. So as men, we need to make sure that we're working hard, that we're working plenty of hours and that we're staying busy doing both our earthly job of being a provider and also the spiritual job of serving God and winning souls to Christ and prayer, reading the Bible, all the right things that we should be doing. And then as women, typically that is going to involve being married, bearing children, guiding the house because that keeps you busy. My wife is extremely busy. Your wife, if she has children, is probably extremely busy. And so she's not having to constantly resist the temptation to be out partying and gallivanting and getting into all these wrong things because she's busy doing the right things. So the bottom line is, get busy doing the right things and you'll be less likely to do the wrong things. An idle mind is the devil's workshop. And so stay busy. That's what the Bible is saying here. It's a little bit of a tough passage here, but that's the idea. It says in verse 13, with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house. So because they're bored, they're going from house to house and they're gossiping. They're getting caught up on all the latest scuttlebutt. Now today, maybe they wouldn't physically be going from house to house, checking in on what's going on, what is the word on the street. This probably could be done over the phone or maybe even more likely this could just be a life spent on social media. Just constantly following every twist and turn on social media. And this is not a profitable use of your life and you can get into trouble and get into the wrong things. That's why he says, I wilt therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Why? Because women who are gossips or partying or getting into the wrong things, they end up giving Christianity a bad name, right? Idle men who don't provide for their own. The Bible says they've in essence denied the faith and are worse than an infidel. They give Christianity a bad name. And then it says some are already turned aside after Satan. Now look, obviously a person could be saved and we know of course that it's impossible to lose your salvation and that once we're saved, we're always saved and that we have eternal life and we shall never perish and no man can pluck us out of Christ's hand and we have eternal life and so forth, but it still is possible for Satan to tempt you. Look, Satan tried to tempt Jesus. Satan approached Jesus and tempted him. So are you as a saved Christian immune from being tempted if Jesus wasn't even immune from the devil targeting him? If the devil's going to come to Jesus and put something in front of him as a temptation and of course we know that Jesus wasn't tempted in the sense of he didn't think, hmm, should I do this? Because obviously Jesus was light years away from falling for the devil's deception. That's not what we mean when we say that Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. That means he was tried, tested in all points like as we are yet without sin and the devil tempted him in the sense of putting something in front of him and gave him an opportunity to do wrong. Jesus wasn't tempted in the sense of like, oh man, I'm kind of tempted to do that right now. That's a different meaning of tempted, right? Oh man, that's really tempting me right now. That's different. Okay. But Jesus was tempted by Satan. So are you going to be tempted by Satan? So what happens if Satan puts the carrot in front of your nose? And what happens if you, unlike Jesus, you actually go for that temptation? Who are you following at that moment? You're following Satan. You're going after Satan. Satan's saying, all right, here you go. Come on over here. Follow me to the casino. Follow me to the bar, right? Follow me to the strip club. Come on down. If you follow that temptation and sometimes it's not going to be necessarily, you know, as obvious as that, as the devil showing up, he's got pitchfork and horns and he's like, who's ready to party? You know, that's not really the way it works, but this could be through advertisements. This could be a billboard that tempts you. This could be commercials and whatever the advertisement for casinos or bars or other wicked institutions that want you to go there and commit sin. And so when you give in to the temptations of Satan, you are going after Satan. You are following, even if you're saved, even if you're a Christian, you're going after that temptation. You're going after, you know, you're fulfilling Satan's will at that point because he wants you to do those things. Okay. So that's what the Bible means when it says some are already turned aside after Satan. Because women are not going to some kind of a Satan church and saying, hail Satan, and throwing up a devil horn symbol or something, and, you know, they're not necessarily stirring a big pot with frogs and all kinds of, I don't know what goes into that witch's brew or whatever. I don't know. But anyway, that's not what we're saying when we say they're going after Satan. We're just saying that they have fallen into Satan's trap. And just like Eve in the Garden of Eden, what did she do? She fell into Satan's trap. She hearkened unto the serpent and she ended up committing sin. Well, guess what? That same serpent is trying to get me and you to sin as well. And we need to resist those temptations, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. What does that mean? That means the devil is going to come to you and tempt you and you have to resist him. If he wasn't coming after you, you wouldn't have to resist him, right? That's common sense. So therefore, when it says some are already turned aside after Satan, this is saying that there are women who have given in to the temptations of the devil, whatever those temptations are, because they're not staying busy serving God. Now the ones who have children or nephews, you know, God's will for them is that their children and nephews provide for them and take care of them. Okay, that makes sense. Should women get remarried if their husband dies? The Bible says, yes, they should. In general, obviously the exception proves the rule. But in general, yes, widows should get remarried and then they can be busy with their new husband and have more kids and continue living their life serving God. Now if they're over 60, they might just decide that they want to stay single. Well, at that point, they're kind of out of the woods on becoming this big time sinner because of idleness, okay, because they're just old at that point. No, I'm just kidding. Not necessarily. Some of you that are over 60, you go girl, all right, but make sure you're serving God though with all that spunk that you got, all that energy that you got. Okay, so that's what the Bible is saying in this passage. And then it just goes on in verse 16, if any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them and let not the church be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. Now, along these same lines, go back a few pages to another kind of difficult passage in 1 Timothy chapter two, 1 Timothy chapter two. First it has some teachings that are not very difficult. Verse 11 is not a difficult verse. Although in 2023, some people seem to be struggling with it. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, period. Pretty clear folks, right? I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man, but to be in silence. And the Bible of course says in 1 Corinthians 14, let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak. Although I'm not sure, I'm actually starting to wonder if this is really true because over at Asbury College, God's clearly pouring out his spirit and you've got women and faggots and, you know, leading the service. So I mean, hey, maybe we should just rethink everything we believe because a bunch of Charismaniacs are having revival in Kentucky, or we could just go with what the Bible says. Okay. And let me tell you something. If you have women getting up and preaching in the house of God, just take it to the bank. That's not of God. That church is not following the Bible. Okay. This is nothing against women. Women are every bit as smart as men. Women are every bit as spiritual as men. In fact, in individual cases, certain women could be even smarter than men or even more spiritual than men. But I don't care if it's the most spiritual, smart woman on the planet. I don't care if she's the most godly woman on the planet, literally. I don't want to hear what she has to say behind this pulpit for five seconds. I don't care how smart she is, how godly she is. How righteous she is. She doesn't belong there because she's a woman. It's just that simple because that's what the Bible says. Okay. So it's not about who's better. It's about the Bible saying, let your women keep silence in the churches. It's not permitted under them to speak. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve authority over the man but to be in silence. That's just the word of God. You say, why did you say that, Pastor? I didn't say that. The Bible said that. I'm just reciting scripture to you. And so we need to understand that when the Bible says that women are to be in subjection, to learn in silence, not to speak in the church, it's not that God is being negative toward women. It's that different people have a different role to play in life, okay? And the role in the church of leading, of preaching, of teaching the word of God, that role has been designed by God to be played by men. Not because men are better, but just because God said so. Men are in charge. That's the beginning and the end of the matter. Now it says, I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you serve 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. And so this goes back to part of the curse in the Garden of Eden. When Eve ate of that forbidden fruit, and then she gave to Adam, and he did eat also, God begins to dole out punishments to them. Now keep your finger here, we're going to come right back here, but go if you would to Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to see how this ties in with idleness. So don't think that I have gotten off course. I am on track right now. I'm coming back to idleness, I'm building the case here, okay? Go back to Genesis chapter 3, and look if you would at this doling out of punishment. So of course, God confronts Adam about the sin, and so we have this pattern where he confronts the man, the man shifts the blame to the woman, the woman shifts the blame to the serpent, and then God doles out the punishments in reverse order. So it's A, B, C, C, B, A, right? Also known as chiasmus. So this is a constant thing the Bible does, where it does things in this kind of like ascending, descending order. So you know, why did you sin? He blames the woman. Why did you sin? He blames the serpent. Then he punishes the serpent, then the woman, then the man. So man, woman, serpent, serpent, woman, man, right? So look down at your Bible at verse 16 in Genesis chapter 3. It says, unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. And sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. So God instituted in the Garden of Eden that the husband will rule over his wife, that the husband is the head of the home, that he is the authority, okay? So this is not necessarily an intrinsic thing that man rules over woman, but it is a result of this sin in the Garden of Eden where it's a punishment that now basically, because he hearkened to the voice of his wife and got into sin, now she is going to be subservient to him. That's what he's saying. So the woman is supposed to obey her husband, okay? And then he turns around and he says, of course, he's going to multiply her sorrow and her conception, and she's going to bring forth children in sorrow. But then next he speaks to the man, and it says in verse 17, unto Adam he said, As thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and is eaten of the tree of the which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dost thou art now to dust, shalt thou return. And so we see that the woman's punishment is to have multiplied sorrow and conception and to be subject to her husband. The man's punishment is that he's going to work by the sweat of his face all the days of his life, right? He's going to have a harder time making a living, and he's really going to have to get out there and work hard in order to make that happen, okay? So this thing that we see, if you want to go back to 1 Timothy chapter 2, this thing that we see of the woman learning in silence with all subjection, this idea that the woman is to keep silence in the church, this is connected to what we saw in Genesis chapter 3, this punishment upon women that says you're not the boss, you're not in charge. Not only does that go for the home, but that also carries over into God's house, doesn't it? That men not only rule their own houses, but also that the church is also run by men and that women do not fulfill that role of leading or preaching or teaching or ruling in the house of God, okay, for the same reason. Does everybody see the connection there? That's why he's bringing up, you know, Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. So she has this particular punishment, as it were, this curse upon her. Then in verse 15, it says, notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Now again, this is a confusing verse to some people because of the fact that when you use the word saved, we're obviously not talking about going to heaven here. Sometimes the Bible uses the word saved, it's not talking about spiritual salvation and eternal life. For example, when Peter is drowning and he says, Lord, save me, he's not saying like, hey, I know I'm a sinner, please take me to heaven. He's saying, get me out of this water right now, okay. So in this situation, what the woman is being saved from is she's being saved from the deceptions of the devil, the snares of the devil, the pitfalls of a life of idleness where if she has all this free time and all this freedom, she could get sucked into the wrong things. How is she saved from that? Through childbearing. This is what keeps her continuing in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Having children gives her a purpose or a function that keeps her busy doing something right with her life so that she doesn't get caught up doing the wrong things. Does everybody see what's going on here? The same thing with men, if you think about it, our job, working by the sweat of our face all the days of our life, that keeps us as men out of trouble. So in fact, these two things came as a response to sin, right? Man and woman in the garden, sin, and the punishment, yes, it's a punishment, but also, it's not just a punishment, it's also a solution to the problem in a sense. Because here's a way to keep you out of trouble by keeping men busy, working by the sweat of their face, keep the women busy bearing children and taking care of their children and all the headaches that come with that, and then they're not sitting around like, oh man, why can't we eat of that one tree that we're not supposed to eat of? It's like, hey, just shut up and do your job. Stay busy, men. Stay busy, women, right? Just stay busy. Now look, obviously there are other situations, you know, for example, there are women who don't have kids for whatever reason, right? Well, here's my answer for you is you got to find a way to stay busy, right? Because if you're a woman who doesn't have kids, what you don't want to do is become idle, right? Or maybe you're a teenager and you're not to that age yet, or maybe you're over 60 and you still just have tons of energy or whatever. Hey, find something to do with all that energy. Because the idea here is to stay busy. Obviously for most men, that's your job, your full-time job. For most women, that's being married, having kids, that keeps you busy. But if you're a single woman, you don't have a husband, you don't have kids, well then you got to find another way to stay busy. Bottom line, everybody, man, woman, boy, and girl on this planet, better get busy doing the right things because if you sit around idle, you're going to get into trouble. That's the moral of the story in the end. Now if you would, go back to Proverbs 31. Proverbs chapter 31. And so what are we talking about tonight? The dangers of idleness. Why it's so important to stay busy. Because if you don't stay busy, you can get into trouble. We saw that Paul was worried about women, if they were widows, just getting idle, not having enough to do. And they're older maybe, but they're not quite 60 and they just, their kids are grown or something and they're just kind of just floating through, hey, find something productive and busy to do. And for most women, that's going to be getting married, having children, guiding the house. And for most men, that's going to be providing for a family that's going to keep us super busy all the time. But you know, it's so funny how some people just dream of a life of idleness, like, oh, I wish I could win the lottery and never have to work again. Folks, if somebody just handed me $10 million, you know, that would be enough for me to live off of for the rest of my life because I'm not a complete idiot. Like most people who win the lottery and celebrities and so forth, because I'm not a complete idiot. If somebody handed me $10 million, I would never have to work again. But let me tell you something, I would just keep on working. I don't care if you give me $100 million, I'm going to keep working, keep working, keep working. Why? That's what life is. It's work. You know, you've got to stay busy. Now, here's the thing. If you and I had huge amounts of money, we might choose to do something different for a job or something like that, something more meaningful, although I'm going to have a hard time finding something more meaningful than pastoring. So I'm just going to keep pastoring. But the point is, you know, maybe you'd find something more meaningful to do, but you'd still be working. Amen? I mean, you'd still be doing stuff because sitting, oh, I could just play all day. I could just relax. Folks, you're dead while you live if you're just living only for pleasure. And it's going to get old, and it's not going to be the paradise that you think it's going to be. You've got to stay busy, work hard, be productive, find something good to do with your time no matter what. And when we go back to Proverbs 31, we have a story about the virtuous woman. Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? So this is a really valuable kind of woman. Now what does the Bible teach is a valuable woman, really on the back of a postage stamp, it's a productive woman. It's a woman who stays busy and works hard. I mean, that's the kind of woman that's being glorified in this passage, because the Bible says, for example, in verse 13, she seeketh woolen flax and worketh willingly with her hands. So notice, the virtuous woman isn't the woman with the greatest manicure, she's the woman who's willing to work with her hands. Because at the end of the day, you may be enamored by the woman who is so groomed and so fancy and looking so nice, but at the end of the day, you want a woman who is functional, right? It's like, oh, this car is so beautiful, this hot rod sports car, and it's a two-seater. Or the back seat is so small, it's like being in the back of a police squad car when you're back there, because you can't stretch your legs out and get comfortable. It's got two doors, okay? No, no, no. When you mature a little bit, you realize we need a car with four doors, and you want to have more space, and you want to have something practical. You don't necessarily want a car that's going... You want a car that's going to be reliable, it's going to run smooth, the parts are cheap. Hey, do you want some car where every time something breaks, it's super expensive? You don't want some woman where every nail that breaks is expensive, every purse that breaks is expensive, every garment that breaks is expensive. You know, I want a wife with cheap replacement parts, you know what I mean? Hey, let's replace those shoes. Let's replace that purse. Let's replace... You know, and it's easy to replace, because you want functionality, right? You want a woman who goes into the kitchen and can cook. Want a woman who can keep the house clean, who's smart enough to homeschool the children and who works hard taking care of the children, cooking the food, taking care of business, getting things done around the house, not just some kind of an ornament, okay? Now here's the thing. I bet there are some people out there who are very wealthy and they have really fancy cars, like super fancy, I don't know, Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff like that, but you know what? That's probably not the car they drive every day. They probably have a car that they drive every day that's more practical. It's not like, oh, got to run up to the drugstore, let me hop in the Testarossa and run up to the drugstore, right? They probably have a more basic vehicle for those type of errands, right? But here's the thing about getting married is you only have one wife, you know, and you don't want her to be the Testarossa, because of the fact that it's going to be too expensive for the replacement parts, gas guzzling, I mean, I don't know, what does a Lamborghini get on gas mileage? I don't know. Nobody cares. Nobody's ever even checked because it doesn't even matter at that level of car. So the point is I do care how much my wife is going to cost me, right? Because I'm a practical man, you're a practical man. And so the virtuous woman, she seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. She's like the merchant ships. She brings her food from afar. Why do merchant ships bring their food from afar? Are they just taking the long voyages for their health? No. The reason that merchant ships bring food from afar is they go somewhere where things are really cheap and then they bring it back and make a huge profit. That's what merchant ships do. They go somewhere where they can buy something ultra cheap and then they bring it and sell it where it's expensive. So basically this is talking about how the virtuous woman goes out and finds good deals, right? She gets the good deals on groceries and household items. She riseth also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maids. Look, she's up early cooking breakfast. She considerth the field and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hand she planted the vineyard. I mean she's out there gardening. She's out there making things grow in the yard. She's making textiles. She's getting deals on household items and food. She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. We're talking functionality here. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good. Her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff. These are tools. These are instruments by which she gets things done. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. Why is she able to help those in need? Why is she able to give things to people that lack? Because she has abundance because of her hard work. She even worked hard and produced and now she's able to share the wealth even with the poor. It says she's not afraid of the snow for her household because she lives in Arizona. No, I'm just kidding. For all her household are clothed with scarlet. Why? Because she worked hard and she made those garments so they don't go naked or cold in the winter. Verse 22, she maketh herself coverings of tapestry. Her clothing is silken purple. Her husband is known in the gate when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen and selleth it and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing. Notice it's not about the name brands, the fancy clothes, the broided hair, the gold and silver and pearls and costly array. No, strength and honor are her clothing and she shall rejoice in time to come. You say, I don't know, this doesn't sound like a very happy life. It just sounds like she's just working and struggling and just, you know, I want to go out and play all the time with my fancy nails and my fancy hair and my fancy clothes and my fancy car and everything else. Yeah, but she shall rejoice in time to come. At the end of the day, who's got the joy? The virtuous wife has more joy than the party girl in the end. She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. And then look, the final verse here before her children and her husband rise up and call her blessed, look at this final verse in verse 27 that kind of sums up the whole thing. She says well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. So this woman, the virtuous woman, is the exact opposite of idol. She's not idol. She's busy. She's doing stuff. So again, 1 Timothy is warning women, don't go down that road of idleness. Some have already turned aside after Satan. There are all these temptations, there are all these pitfalls. Don't learn to be idol. And then on the flip side, we've got the virtuous woman who doesn't eat the bread of idleness. And then the Bible even goes into great detail about how busy she is and all the stuff that she's doing to stay busy. Okay, go to 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel to the left in your Bible, 2 Samuel 11. So we've talked a lot about the women and how the women need to stay busy. Let's talk about the men. The men need to stay busy as well. And typically that's more like going out and working for someone else. You know, obviously some men have their own business, but most men are probably going to go out and work for someone else and have a job and they have responsibilities to be there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, maybe even Saturday, right? Maybe even putting in overtime. But men are to stay busy working as well. Look at, this is a famous story of King David. What happened when he became idle? 2 Samuel 11, verse 1, it came to pass after the year was expired, and this is the key phrase, at the time when kings go forth to battle. So there's a time when David should be out doing his job as king going forth to battle. Now his armies are going out to battle, but Joab is leading the armies and he's staying home. There's a time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with them and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. Now already this is the problem, he's idle. Instead of being out there kicking Ammonite, but instead he's back home walking around in the evening on the roof, bored. He should be working, he should be staying busy, or he should be so tired at the end of the day, what's the point of climbing on the roof? I mean, I don't want to climb on the roof when I get home tonight. I'm going to be too tired. When you're done with your job, you don't want to go on the roof. Hey, let's go climb on the roof. Now, you know, when I was a kid, I wanted to climb on the roof a lot because I had a lot of idle time, I had a lot of free time, I had a lot of energy that wasn't being used. But you know, men who are out there working hard, they're usually not just taking extracurricular trips up to the roof, okay? David's up on the roof and this is a picture of his idleness because he sent Joab to do his job, he stays behind, and next thing you know, he's looking at porno. Now he's not actually looking at porno, but similar idea here because he's up on the roof and what's he doing? Observing some married woman taking a bath, nude, he's looking at this woman and he's checking her out and he shouldn't be there. Now, obviously idleness is what even put him in this situation. Now let's say that he wasn't being, or let's say that he's in this situation, once he saw Bathsheba bathing, he should have just immediately looked away and said, okay, didn't mean to see that, let's give Bathsheba some privacy, let's tell her to buy a shower curtain and, you know, walk away, you know? Not like David doesn't have a woman to go be with waiting at home, but he's up there and he's looking at Bathsheba and, you know, what does the Bible say? You know, when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death and that's exactly what happens in this story because he begins to lust after and desire Bathsheba. He finds out that she's married, but that doesn't even stop him and he commits this horrible sin of adultery, which is a major, major sin. In fact, in the biblical law of God for the nation of Israel was punished by death according to Leviticus 20 verse 10 and David actually receives a pardon from God because really David deserves to die for what he's done with Bathsheba. And so the moral of the story here, because, you know, sometimes people have asked, you know, why are stories like this in the Bible that make David look so bad or that make some of the characters look so bad? It's because God's warning us that even a good Christian could fall into horrific sin if they allow their life to go a wrong direction and they start getting really idle and maybe they get, I don't know, prideful or just complacent about spiritual things or, you know, whatever problems in David's life led him up to this point. A big part of it was that he's in the wrong place at the wrong time because he's not staying busy, okay? And obviously as adult men, yeah, we're busy working and providing and we keep ourselves busy, but this is even good advice even for teenage boys because teenage boys are not necessarily going to be tempted with adultery, but they're going to be tempted with fornication. And there's a strong temptation for teenage boys to get involved in fornication or other sins like drunkenness or drugs or other stupid things. And you know what? By working hard as a teenager, by staying busy, you're going to stay out of trouble. You know, and that's one of the best ways to stay out of trouble as a young man. If you're 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, man, stay busy. You know, load up your schedule with activities. Get a job. Get activities going. Do sports or whatever, but just stay busy because it's when you're just sitting around idle that your mind begins to wander and you start looking at things you shouldn't look at and going places that you shouldn't go and getting involved in these wrong things. So we can see that idleness is a danger for both men and women. And David's story here is not an isolated incident. Go if you would to Ezekiel chapter 16, Ezekiel chapter 16. It's not just one person, but rather this is a tendency when people have too much idleness and too much free time, they could then get involved in things like adultery. While you're turning there to Ezekiel chapter number 16, I'm going to read for you Jeremiah chapter 5, verse 8, where the Bible reads, They were as fed horses in the morning. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. See what the KJV did there? So they were as fed horses in the morning. Everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. Why? Because they're like fed horses in the morning. They're idle. They're sitting around the barn, nothing to do. And so what do they do? They start looking at their neighbor's wife. And isn't that what David's doing? David's on the roof looking at his neighbor's wife, like a fed horse in the morning. And so the Bible says in Ezekiel chapter number 16, verse 48, As I live, saith the Lord God, Ezekiel 16, 48, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. What was the problem with Sodom? Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Now remember, what did the virtuous woman do? She did not eat the bread of idleness, and she strengthened the hand of the poor and needy. She gave to the poor and the needy. She worked hard, was productive, was staying busy, and able to help other people. Sodom is the exact opposite. Everybody's living for themself. Everybody's in it for themself. They're prideful, arrogant, full of themselves, full of bread. So it's the financial prosperity that allowed them to sit around. Because if they didn't have that fullness of bread, they'd have to be out working and hustling to put food on the table. Because they had prosperity, because they lived in what the Bible said was the well-watered plain, and they lived in this geographical paradise filled with abundance, they had abundance of idleness. And that abundance of idleness led them to be haughty in verse 50, which means arrogant, prideful, and to commit abomination before the Lord. You see that? Therefore, I took them away as I saw good. Now, of course, libtards and weirdos and bozos will try to twist this and say, oh, well, you know, Sodom, that had nothing to do with being a homo. It was just that, you know, they just didn't help the poor. You know, it was just that they had pride and fullness of bread. Well, first of all, all the homos, their slogan is pride, number one. So they're bragging about the first sin here. But not only that, is that in verse 50, it says they committed abomination before me. Let's not forget that part. So everything else leading up to all that pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, that's all just the buildup. That's what led to them doing what? Getting arrogant and committing abomination before the Lord, and that's when they got destroyed, because of the abominations that they committed, right? The perversions that they committed, okay? Now, we live in the United States of America, which is also the well-watered plain. And so we have to be careful in the United States of America that we don't get sucked into this fullness of bread, abundance of idleness lifestyle, because, let's face it, we live in a very prosperous country where we maybe don't have to work super hard and super long in order to make ends meet. Now, maybe you do. Maybe you have to work super long and hard to make ends meet. Well, you know what? Praise the Lord for that. But there are also some people that maybe don't have to work that hard in order to get by, because we're just living in such a land of opportunity. And so we want to make sure that if circumstances are not forcing us to work hard, that we force ourselves to work hard. Look, maybe you don't have to work your fingers to the bone in order to keep the wolf away from the door because you're living in America and we have so much prosperity. Maybe you're getting paid so well at your job that you can just work 40 hours and be done and you've got your needs met. Praise the Lord. But that's 128 other hours in that week. You need to find some ways to stay busy and be productive and do right during that time, because, let's face it, 40 hours at your job is not necessarily going to be enough to keep you out of trouble and keep you busy. Now, some of you are like, well, I don't have that problem, Pastor Anderson. I'm working two jobs. I'm super busy. Well, then I'm not talking to you. Keep it up. Keep hustling. Keep working hard. But I'm saying we live in a nation that has fullness of bread and abundance of idleness, and so what are the dangers? The dangers are that people could commit abominations before the Lord. And look, obviously no Christian is going to start getting involved in being a homo or something, because that's something that people who've been given over to a reprobate mind do, right? But here's the thing. There are lots of other sins. You don't see David lusting after Uriah or something. But it is possible for David to lust after Uriah's wife. That is possible. And that is something that we need to be careful of as men and women alike that we stay busy to stay out of trouble and make sure that the American lifestyle doesn't make us lazy or soft or relaxed. And look, I am not one of these people that says, you know, living in a prosperous society is bad. Technology is bad. Our lives are too easy. Hey, let's go out and create some kind of an Amish paradise where we can all live out there and live a simpler life. I'm not into that at all. I want to live in the city. I want to have technology. I got the smartwatch. I got the smartphone. I got the laptop. I got the car. I'm for it. I'm not a Luddite. I like technology, and I'm not a Mennonite or Amish or anything like that. But here's the thing. And by the way, we're able to serve God in amazing ways because of technology. I mean, these small-town soul-winning trips, you think that would happen without technology? How would we get there, right? That we could just, people have one or two days off and they can travel hundreds of miles, knock doors, and come back 48 hours later, 72 hours later, even 12 hours later, and we're able to evangelize our whole state. We can fly to islands in the Caribbean, go soul-winning for a week, fly home. We miss one week of work and accomplish what missionaries in the past would have taken like a year to get out there and figure out what's going on. You know, the technology allows us to reach millions of people on the Internet. So we're reaching people on the Internet. We're using cars, planes. We're using GPS. We've got maps. You think soul-winners in the time of Christ are like, all right, let's hand out the soul-winning maps, and they just have all these scribes, like all these cartographers making maps for soul-winning. No. So, you know, we have a lot of advantages with technology. And, you know, I don't know about you, I like getting in my car and driving to church, right? That's a lot easier than if we had to walk down here every single time. It'd take a lot of time. So here's the thing. Technology's great. Technology improves our lives. It allows us to have fresh fruits and vegetables and meats and grain all year round, wonderful things. I'm for it. And I'm for a prosperous economy where we can work 40 hours a week and our financial needs are met. Great. Praise the Lord. But you have to be smart enough to exist in a society that makes things easy with technology and prosperity by being smart enough to make things hard on yourself. You have to make your life hard. And you're like, why would I do that? Because you don't want to become lazy, slothful, idle, so you've got to make yourself work. You've got to make yourself work. You've got to be your own boss, right? So you go to work for 40 hours, you know what? You need to force yourself to get involved in something else, maybe get your butt out soul winning, get involved in something else, work on some other side project, get something going to keep you busy being productive, serving the Lord, taking care of your family, or you know what? Hey, why not make extra money so you can help other people or something? But just do something, for crying out loud, with your time. And by the way, it's the same thing with all the technology and conveniences. Hey, I'm so glad that I can just get in the car and get where I need to go. But you know the downside of that is that then you have people that are, you know, their step counter says that they've walked, you know, to the fridge and back and to the bathroom and back and to the car and back, and that was pretty much their day. And you know what? That's not healthy for your body. So we have the opportunity in 2023 to be the healthiest people that have ever lived. I mean, look, we can be some of the healthiest people that have ever lived. Why? Because we have all these wonderful fruits and vegetables and we have all these wonderful foods at our fingertips. We can be the healthiest people ever. We should be healthier than people 1,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago. We should be the healthiest people. But you know what? If we sit around all the time, because we have all these machines doing everything, we're going to be the most unhealthy people ever. Right? So it's a two-edged sword. The way to get the best of both worlds is drive the car to the small town soul winning and use that convenience to do an unprecedented work for God. And then you might need to actually do some exercise, like maybe go running or lift weights or go swimming and do some push-ups and pull-ups and do something in order to shake them bones because of the fact that technology is doing all your work for you. I'm glad that you have a job where you sit at a computer all day. But you know what? If you sit at a computer all day and then come home and sit around some more and then sit around on the weekend and you're sitting around on Saturday and sitting around on Sunday, and you know what? You're going to die. You will die. Now the devil is going to come along and say, well, you should not surely die. But let me tell you something. You're going to destroy your health, being idle and sedentary. It's the danger of idleness. So what are the dangers of idleness? Number one, getting into sin. An idle mind is the devil's workshop. Number two, danger of idleness is found in the book of Ecclesiastes where the Bible says, through much idleness of the hands, the house droppeth through. It's like if your house, if you don't take care of your house, things start falling apart. Anybody who owns a home knows you have to keep fixing stuff all the time. It's really annoying. Well, you know what? If you have much idleness in this house right here, this house is going to go to pot, meaning your physical body. So that's another danger of idleness. Another danger of idleness is that your body is going to break down if you are sedentary. Sitting is the new smoking. You've got to get out there and move your backside and get busy. And look, hey, it's so wonderful that we have cars, right? But you don't necessarily need to drive to the mailbox to pick up your mail. You don't necessarily need to drive to the store that's like 100 feet from your house or something. You know what I mean? You say, well, why would I walk when it's so much easier to drive? Why would I do that? Why would I take the stairs when I could take the elevator? Why would I? Because you have to do it just for the sake of just moving your body and just staying busy because idleness is the enemy. Idleness is our spiritual enemy because we can fall into sin, whether male or female. And it's easy for us to immediately think of men. Oh, yeah, David, he's idle and he looks about she-ba-bam. But you know what? Didn't we look at some scriptures that warned women about idleness too? You know, they can get into some sins too. They can get into gossiping and doing some wrong things too. And so idleness is our spiritual enemy, number one. But number two, idleness is our physical enemy. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I don't like it when you talk about food and exercise because it kind of offends me. I wish you'd just stick to, you know, preaching spiritual subjects. But here's the thing. The reason that I bring up these things to you is because I love you and I want to help you to actually live a better life for your benefit and for your sake. I'm not trying to run your life and tell you what to eat and tell you what to do and make you exercise. I'm not handing out some exercise program and saying, hey, you know, you're going to need to turn this in and show that you've done these things. You know, I'm just trying to admonish you because I want you to live a long and healthy life so that we can grow old together serving God, you know? And so idleness is not going to help you do that. And so, you know, sitting around and relaxing all the time, hey, get your butt out there and do stuff. And get busy. You need to, you know, hey, we got all kinds of soul winning times. You want to serve the Lord? Well, you know what? There are opportunities for you to serve the Lord around here. You can easily come to a soul winning time. You can come on a missions trip. You can come to a small town soul winning, okay, if you want to get out and serve the Lord in that way. But you know what? Hey, even if you say, well, I'm already doing soul winning and I've still got a bunch of free time and I don't want to do anymore, well then find something secular to do that's wholesome and healthy and productive. But just for crying out loud, find stuff to do. Don't sit around your house all the time doing nothing. Get out, get out there, do stuff. Stay busy, get another job or just find a hobby or something. But you need to get out there and be productive because if you're just sitting around your house, you know what? Next thing you end up doing is falling into sin and getting into stuff that you shouldn't get into, watching stuff that you shouldn't watch, communicating with people that you shouldn't be communicating with and it all goes downhill from there. So tonight's sermon is to warn you of the dangers of idleness. Let's borrow our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, that warns us about these things. And Lord, I pray that every man, woman, boy and girl in this building tonight, Lord, would actually spend their time in a productive way, working, reading, studying, praying, serving you, going soul winning, going to church, helping people, working with their hands, working around the house, being a blessing to other people. Whatever, Lord, just please help us all to stay busy so that we don't fall into these traps that the idol can fall into, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.