Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia Law School, says that our society has become slaves to the ‘tyranny of convenience.’

He suggests that we have become so obsessed with making our lives more convenient that our lives are actually less satisfying and less meaningful.

Rather than devoting our minds to doing a task or a job to the best of our abilities, we are instead devoting our minds to how might get out of the task or make the task easier.

We are on this never-ending quest for lives that are more convenient with more leisure and more spare time.

Yet, something seems wrong, doesn’t it?

Even though our lives are more convenient that they’ve ever been, even though we have more lifehacks than we’ve ever had, even though we don’t even have to go inside of Wal-mart any more to pick up our groceries, our depression rates and anxiety prescriptions are going up, not down.

Convenience and leisure aren’t making our lives more satisfying, but less.

In fact, this goes so much against our initial design, that Wu points out that most of us have hobbies that are for the purpose of making our lives less convenient.

Without even realizing it, we almost instinctively search out for a measure of inconvenience to add to our lives so that they will be more enjoyable.

People work with wood rather than buy a table, not because it’s convenient, but because it’s slow and requires craftsmanship.

People paint and landscape rather than buy a painting or hire a landscaper, not because it’s more convenient, but because they want to know what they are capable of and want to have something that they’re responsible for.

You can look to golf and hunting and baking and sewing, and behind all of them is this return to something that is less convenient than going to the store or shopping on Amazon Prime.

You see, God has designed us for work, and the avoidance of work doesn’t make our lives more satisfying, but less.

This morning, we’re going to see in Proverbs as the dad warns his son against going against God’s design of work.

God’s Word

Read

Picture One: The “Wisdom” of the “Ant”

v. 6 “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”

In verses 6-11, the dad uses two contrasting pictures to call his son to a productive and satisfying life.

He starts verse 6 by addressing a ‘sluggard’, but the intention is for the son hear of such a man and not want to be like him.

The first picture that he paints for his son is the “wisdom” of the “ant”.

Because all of creation comes from the mind of God, we are able to observe much about the wisdom of God by looking to the world that He has made.

And, that’s what Solomon is doing when he begins to talk about the ant.

Proverbs presents the ant twice as a picture of wisdom, once here and then again in chapter 30.

It’s a striking picture too, isn’t it?

He’s not commending a lion or a leopard or an eagle, but an ant.

To us, there are few creatures on earth less significant than an ant, and yet in the economy of God, they are elevated as champions of wisdom.

And, this is not lost on this dad talking to his son.

He’s holding up the ant as virtuous and the sluggard as immoral.

He’s telling this lazy man that he has less sense and less wisdom than the lowly ant.

The Ant “Self-starts” and “Self-regulates”.

v. 7-8a “Without having any chief, officer, ruler, she prepares her bread for summer” Describing the wisdom of the ant, he points out that the ant doesn’t need a boss breathing down her neck, and she doesn’t need a impending performance review hanging over her head to do the work at hand.

The ant “self-starts” and “self-regulates.”

The ant has an inner pressure, an inner drive that compels her to do her work with all her might.

She doesn’t need someone to drive her out of bed with a whip, and she doesn’t need somebody to hold her accountable.

She lives in light of true reality, and reality holds her accountable.

Reality gets her out of bed.

She doesn’t pretend like winter isn’t coming, and she doesn’t pretend like she isn’t going to need food.

When I was a youth pastor, I would always demand that the students keep at least $5 back from the money their parents gave them so that they could eat on the way home.

Inevitably, on every, single trip, at least one student would come to me and make the case that they weren’t going to be hungry on the drive home so it would be fine if they went ahead and bought a pair of window-blind sunglasses at the novelty store.

They were ignoring reality so that they could do what they wanted to do in the moment.

But, this is the opposite of how the ant operates.

The ant lives with a constant eye toward the reality of the looming winter and the hunger that will come.

You’re sleeping, and they’re toting off an entire box of cereal one Frosted Flake at a time.

You’re watching TV, and they’re ambushing your leftovers as though its their greatest pleasure in life.

Regulated By Reality

APPLICATION: The wise live in reality.

They don’t ignore reality so that they can follow a momentary impulse.

They don’t buy a new pair of shoes today, and pretend that they don’t have to buy car tags next week.

They don’t sleep late and watch three hours of TV, and pretend as though they’re too busy for time with God.

They don’t procrastinate their project at work and pretend that the deadline is no big deal.

No! They live in reality, and reality motivates them.

Reality holds them accountable.

Reality regulates them.

Where in your life are you trying to ignore reality so that you can justify what you want to do?

Coram Deo

APPLICATION: The wise don’t need a supervisor to be faithful.

They don’t run from life’s most sobering reality: we live always in the face of God.

The reformers often used the latin phrase ‘coram deo’, which means in ‘God’s presence.’

This is the picture of the wise.

They live their lives accountable to God, regardless as to whether they answer to another man/woman or not.

They live in the fear of the Lord.

They give their best, first and foremost, not because they want to impress a boss or a coach or a teacher or a parent, but because they want to be pleasing to God and to glorify God through their lives.

Do you need a supervisor to be faithful, or is God enough?

Do you believe so strongly in the presence of God and accountability of God that his pleasure is enough, even if nobody else will know if you surf Facebook rather than work or talk your day away rather than doing what’s you’ve committed to do?

The Ant “Prepares” for “Tomorrow.”

v. 8 “she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” The dad also tells his son that the ant “prepares” for “tomorrow.”

She works throughout the summer so that she will be ready for the winter.

Her winter meals are resolved well before winter gets here.

Her bread is ready.

Her harvest is gathered.

She lives today in a way that will allow her to thrive in the future.

And, there’s a beautiful dignity in this type of work, isn’t there?

The work here is mundane.

This is the essence of a dead-end job.

The ant is never going to get to a place in which she no longer has to worry about winter.

She’s never going to get to a place in which she can skip a harvest or ignore the crumbs left behind from your picnic.

And, she’s not going to be the Time magazine “Ant of the Year”.

Her work won’t feel like it matters much in the grand scheme of the world.

But, as mundane as it is, as seemingly insignificant as it appears to be, it’s her job to do, and she has to do it.

And, because she shows up for work every day, because she doesn’t back down from what seems like a dead-end job, she lives just as well during the winter as she does during the summer.

She’s not an eagle, and she’s not a thoroughbred horse, but she has a beautiful and wonderful dignity.

The Dignity of a Dead-end Job

The wise know that there is dignity in a dead-end job.

From the beginning, work was woven into the design of mankind.

We, as image bearers of God, work as God works.

Work is not the result of sin, but it has been tainted and complicated by sin.

And so, even at its best, all work is bitter-sweet.

But, the dignity of mankind is closely related to our work.

And, like the ant, we work today so that we can thrive in the future.

The ant has “what” she needs “when” she needs it.

Tomorrow is secured.

Our work prepares us for tomorrow in at least two ways.

Winter Is Coming

APPLICATION: Our work prepares us for the looming winter.

Winter is coming to your house.

Whether it comes in the form of another recession, an injury or illness, or maybe its just age, winter is coming.

And, the wise person doesn’t wait for winter to figure out what they’ll eat.

They don’t just live however they want to until the winter and plead with God for mercy.