YOG | 3/20/24

Introduction

Opener: Puzzling Questions

Easy: What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward, or upside down and can still be read from left to right?

(noon)

Medium: What is a 3-letter word that starts with gas?

(car)

Hard: Four cars come to a four-way stop, each coming from a different direction. They can’t decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. All 4 cars go, but none crash into each other. How is this possible?

(they all made right-hand turns)

Opening Questions

Are you someone who likes to work hard all at once to get things done to have more time to play? Work little bits at a time with rest in between? Or find it difficult to get any work done at all?

List the things in your life right now you would consider ‘work’.

(homework, chores, etc)

Lesson

Read Proverbs 24:30-34

Proverbs 24:30–34 CSB

I went by the field of a slacker and by the vineyard of one lacking sense. Thistles had come up everywhere, weeds covered the ground, and the stone wall was ruined. I saw, and took it to heart; I looked, and received instruction: a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need, like a bandit.

Describe the person who is called a “slacker / slob / “old lazybones” / sluggard”. (lazy, slow moving person. From the word ‘slug’)

How does Solomon describe the cause and effect of these verses?

Restate the principle in verses 32-34 in the way a teenager would say it today.

Read Prov 6:6-9

Proverbs 6:6–9 CSB

Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise. Without leader, administrator, or ruler, it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food during harvest. How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?

What should the sluggard learn from the ant? (doing work without being told, prepare well for the future, works hard when there is work to be done)

If sleep is good for our health and our bodies, when does it become laziness?

Solomon draws many contrasts between the lazy man and the diligent man.

Look up these 4 verses (assign one to each student).

Proverbs 10:4 “Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.”

Proverbs 10:5 “The son who gathers during summer is prudent; the son who sleeps during harvest is disgraceful.”

Proverbs 20:13 “Don’t love sleep, or you will become poor; open your eyes, and you’ll have enough to eat.”

Proverbs 28:19 “The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.”

Read each verse and answer what characterizes the lazy man. Read through the verses again and answer what characterizes the diligent.

Application:

What kind of kingdom work do you need God’s help to be more diligent?

How can you apply the principles of work & laziness from the Proverbs to your own responsibilities in life?

Colossians 3:23 CSB

Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,