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

Matthew Stuckey here and I want to make a quick video talking to you about the dangers of trying to live an effortless life or an easy life. And so I preached on Taoism on Sunday and I want to kind of just almost give a quick recap of what I talked about. And Taoism is this philosophy that their guiding principle is how to live an effortless life. You know, why try to swim upstream when you can swim downstream? You know these various sayings that they say that sound really cute and nice and everything but it's not reality. And I want you to realize that this idea of trying to have an easy life or an effortless life is something the Bible does not speak about. And the Bible actually says it's a bad thing. It's not something that you should strive for. And so the first thing you need to understand is that in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve actually had an easy life. They actually didn't really need to work that hard. The plants basically just grew themselves. I mean everything was just great vegetation. It was pretty easy and everything was nice. And then what you see is that when people have too much free time they get into trouble. And Eve ends up getting into trouble. She's tempted by Satan. She gets her husband to eat of the forbidden fruit as well. And then the Bible says that cursed is the ground for thy sake and that is the punishment. So they have too much free time and then all of a sudden the ground is cursed and God says, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until you return on to the dust of the ground. So basically you're gonna work very hard now to produce your food and to be able to provide. And here's the thing, it's actually a good thing for us. So you could look at this both with men and with women. With men one of the great examples is David. The Bible talks about David who was a man after God's own heart. He did all these great battles and conquered all these things and did great things. And the Bible talks about at the time kings go forth to battle. Because in the past there used to be a time that the kings, the political leaders, actually led the charge in battles. And at the time kings go forth to battle he actually tarried at home. He didn't go. What was the result of that? Well we see that David is walking on a roof in the middle of the night, right? We don't know the exact time but he's walking on a roof when it's dark outside. You say why would somebody be walking on a roof at night? Well he cannot sleep. And the Bible says a sleep of a laboring man is sweet but David didn't go forth to battle. He's being lazy which was not normally part of his routine but he was at that moment. So he can't sleep because he's being lazy and then all of a sudden he looks upon Bathsheba. He ends up committing adultery. And look you know an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And when you have too much free time like David you end up getting into trouble. We would all like to have an easier life but the reality is that when we have too easy of a life we end up screwing it up. Not only with David though the Bible also speaks about that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. And what it says is that there were those that were not working. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busybodies. And the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 11 that if people are not working they have a tendency to be busybodies and to be gossips and to get into trouble and cause problems. Why? They have too much free time. The reality is any of us even if we're a man after God's own heart if we have too much free time it's not a good thing. And then Paul commands them to actually work and it says with quietness they work and eat their own bread. And with quietness the indication is well they're just kind of you know loudmouths always causing problems being busybodies being gossips. And look it's actually good for them to actually work. Now I've been a part of many different churches and I saw this at churches in the U.S. that when people had too much free time and they weren't working or they were working very little they ended up causing problems. You know it's just reality that us when we have too much free time we're just not going to be the best person. You know it's not going to be good for us. So I would just encourage you if you're a guy to try to work hard. And if you have a lot of free time maybe you don't do so much at your job then you know what I would encourage you to find something to do and stay busy. It would be better for us to work 50 hours a week than five hours a week for the same amount of pay. You would be a better person. You'd be happier. You just be much better for you. You know it's good for us to work. God said in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. But it's not just true for men. It's also true for women. See the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 15 that women are saved in childbearing. And you say, why does it say saved in childbearing? Well the reason why it says saved in childbearing is not a spiritual salvation. It's not a physical salvation. But what it means is having children will save women from destroying their lives. Because women with too much free time can be a busybody. They can be a gossip. They can cause problems. And the Bible speaks about that in the same book in 1 Timothy 5 verse 13 where it says, and with all they learn to be idle wandering about from house to house and not only idle but toddlers also in busybodies speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house. And see the Bible says if they have too much free time they can end up going door-to-door, be toddlers, busybodies, they're gossips, they can cause problems. This is a bigger problem in our world today because now we have the cell phones and you can be a busybody just with a couple you know buttons that you press on your phone. You don't even have to go door-to-door. You can get in everybody's house in five minutes by posting on Facebook or by sending a group text message. So this is something we need to be careful about especially in a social media generation both as men and women. We don't want to strive to have an easy life. Life is difficult. That's the way it's meant to be. And the reality is that Taoism is a joke. It's garbage. It's lying to you. And although it sounds good to have an effortless life that would actually destroy our lives. Thank you and God bless.