Laziness

1. What We Think

We think Busy and Lazy are opposites

The reality is they are not

Just because you are a student athlete who serves in the church and has a job does not mean you are exempt from laziness

Busyness does not equal diligence

Busyness does not equal fruitfulness

Busyness does not equal faithfulness

You can have a BUSY SCHEDULE yet its BUSY with tasks of secondary importance

You may be busy neglecting important work

We think procrastination is a personality trait

Its Something we are born with and have no control over

You may say:

“if its not due tomorrow, then I don’t need to focus on it now”

“If its due tomorrow, I’ll drop all other priorities and stay up late to finish it”

once we finish we deserve a reward

Procrastination is never defined in the bible as a bad habit, a quirk, or a personality trait BUT as sin

When we put off priorities to play video games we are procrastinators

When we scroll on our phones while HW is in front of us, when we spend our time on youtube yet HW is open and incomplete on the other tab we are procrastinators

When we skip out on that d-group study, on that personal devotion time, or any high priority BECAUSE we need a little more sleep, because the snooze button is too easy to hit. We are procrastinators

We think Sin is done by doing

What I mean is that many would define sin as “doing something wrong”

So therefore if I do nothing I cannot sin, if i am just doing things that aren’t inherintly wrong that I am not sinning

But there are 2 types of sin: Sin of Commission and Omission

Comission: Doing what God says not to

EX: When you tell a baby “don’t touch that” and they look at you and slowly touch that

Omission: Not doing what God says to

Pick that up… “No”

So when it comes to laziness we are going to find that it is most often a sin of omission “not doing what God commands”

Gaming and scrolling and watching and binging and sleeping and walking ARE NOT WRONG on their own BUT when we do those things INSTEAD of doing what we are commanded to, thats when WE are in sin.

SO do not be decieved into thinking Sin can only be accomplished by DOING

We think HS is the time to enjoy life without major responsibilities

I am sympathetic towards the HS life. I was there with you, heavy assignment loads, practice everyday, part time job, serving in the church, responsibility at home, wanting to keep a social life. - There are times when life felt overwhelming and I do not say this in a condescending way like “just wait and see”

BUT the reality is life gets busier and responsibilities get heavier. No one is married in HS, you aren’t responsible for keeping a roof over your head and food on your plate, no one in HS is providing for a family.

So, many students use the 4 years of freedom to live lackadaisical and indulge in whatever they want in the moment

endless hours of Video Games

Chores

Slack off in sports

Bad grades because of bad discipline

Sleep in late

Use their parents as servants

2. What He Thinks

Laziness is a lack of motivation to work. It is an apathy towards responsibility. It is OPPOSITE of God’s design and it is SIN.

And remember there is no scale at the gates of heaven. Your good vs bad will not matter. One sin is enough to send you to hell. Because heaven is a perfect place with ONLY perfect people. The only way a lazy person gets to heaven is through Jesus Christ dying for their sin of sluggishness.

So for the believer - we cannot tolerate an ounce of laziness in our life for many reasons BUT mainly because every act and attitude of laziness is what nailed Christ to the cross. Your laziness caused the death of the saviour. And NO ONE who loves God goes on doing the things HE HATES

For the unbeliever - who thinks they are a good person and that enough. Please hear what God thinks of the lazy person. And if he takes this seemingly “small sin” this seriously than YOU have an issue. Because He is the judge and on that day when you meet Him, your opinion no longer matters ONLY his does. Don’t be decieved into thinking you are not that bad. Because “not that bad” is still bad and NOTHING AND NO ONE with a hint of bad, with a single mark on their moral record gets to heaven. Laziness is serious.

TIME WASTER

Ephesians 5:15-16 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

We are commanded to walk wisely and the first way a wise person is described is by making the most of their time.

we all have the same amount of time, no one gets 25 hours in a day, you can’t purchase another hour.

Time is the great equalizer, the rich and the poor all have 60 min in an hour and 24 hours in a day

Thats why the wise person seize each fleeting opportunity while it is there. For once it has passed, even the wisest people cannot recover it

AND FURTHERMORE God is the creator and giver of time.

We are stewards of the time HE gives us.

So we must be purposeful in how we spend it, always asking ourselves if this is the best use of our time.

Now God doesn’t have a specific schedule for us to follow hidden somewhere in Obadiah

Lazy Laborer

col 3:23 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,”

First 2 chapters of genesis make it clear that God gave man work before the fall occured and so sure work was affceted by the fall BUT it is still a God given duty that we can find joy in

Not all of you work at a place that gives you a paycheck but all of you still have work to do

Yard- WORK

Home- WORK

School- WORK

We shouldn’t look at those things as annoying obligations, or reasons for complaining or something we speedrun through OR CHEAT AT

But we must see it as a God given duty that is to be done for the Lord

You know often our effort in our work depends on who its for.

I had a teacher at MV whom I cannot name because He is still there BUT he always assigned HW and never ever ever actually checked it. Every class he would give us a list of problems to do and we had like 15 min to start it and whatever we didn’t do became HW. Obviously I never wanted to have HW so I would do it ASAP. But i soon realized he would just look at it for 3 seconds and then sign it w/ pencil.

So i caught on and tried something. I would just take the hw from last class erase his signature and then hand it to him AND IT WORKED.

Yet there were other teachers that were extremely thorough and those teachers I was more careful with. I had to take the time to make sure I completed the work and did it right.

But there were some teachers I genuinely liked and respected and would do the work willingly and diligently because I KNEW the teacher that assigned it and couldn’t imagine disrespecting them by putting in minimum effort on their assignments.

YET ULTIMATELY ALL WORK THAT WE ARE GIVEN IS BY GOD. He is who we are to be working for, it is his box we place the essay in. Its his surgical equipment your selling, its his dishes your washing, it his word im preaching

WHATEVER OUR WORK IS we cannot disrespect God by doing it lazily and carelessly. WORK UNTO THE LORD don’t be a LAZY LABORER

EXCUSE MAKER

Prov 26:13-16 “The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion is in the open square!” As the door turns on its hinges, So does the sluggard on his bed.

The sluggard ignores responsibility by making lame excuses

In fact the only thing he works hard at is finding ways not to work

You do not want to be like the sluggard

In a moment we will dive deeper into excuse making but allow me to show you what God thinks of the sluggard and what a sluggards life leads to

Prov 14:23 has nothing but poverty

Prov 10:5 lives a shameful life and is and embarrassment to parents

Prov 13:4 always wanting but never has

Prov 10:26 “Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, HORRIBLE REP

Prov 26:14 doesn’t love sleep but in enslaved to it STRUGGLES WITH MEANINGLESS REST

Prov 24:30 “I passed by the field of the sluggard And by the vineyard of the man lacking sense,”

Prov 12:27 “LEGACY OF UNISHININHED PROJECTS

Prov 15:19 ENDURE A HARD AND UNPLEASANT EXISTENCE

Prov 21:25 “The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;”

Laziness is a sin that leads to death and Hell.

Whats your excuse?

For a bad grade in an easy class - bad teacher? Confusing assignment, they don’t like me, they made a mistake

some people have real learning disabilities and struggle to get good grades I understand BUT THEY STILL NEED TO WORK HARD

But a lot of you are smart yet your report card says differently not because you can’t remember the pythagreom theorem but because you don’t even try to

For not trying on the court or on the field

We already heard Christians are to be the hardest workers out there because they have the best person to work for

Yet we show up to practice late, with a bad attitude and don’t even try

Bad coach? Long day? Cleats to small? Teamates are annoying?

For not doing chores?

Waiting for the trash to get fuller? Its your brothers job? Had too much HW?

Don’t call kittens, lions

Speaking of lions that fit this topic:

The lion in Wizard of Oz was a wuss. He was scared of a talking hologram but in-reality all it was was a fat dude behind a curtain. We laugh at him and think How silly He could have just walked forward

Yet we are the coward lion when we make ridiculous excuses for not doing what we ought to

3. So What?

Some practical ways to be productive

Create a schedule. It is a freeing thing not a restricting one. If we are going to honor God with our time we will have actually think about it. Think of it as a “life - time card for God”. Will he be pleased with what you are doing with the time he gives

Get an alarm clock.

Go to bed

Don’t be idle - HS have a lot of FREE TIME use it for something worth while, read a book, listen to a sermon, exercise STOP SCROLLING

My personal preference with no verse to back it up, “Sell your xbox”

No time on your hand? Write out what you do with every hour of the week starting at 5 am and ending at 10 pm. You will probably find some time

MORE IMPORTANTLY and BEFORE THESE THINGS

Repent from the heart. Laziness will find a way to live even if you have a strict schedule and a loud alarm

You will never be free from this sin or any sin until you find your hope, forgivness and power to defeat it in the gospel

Jesus Christ lived a perfect, diligent and hard working life. His ministry was shorter than a presidential term and yet he completed ALL of THE FATHERS WILL FOR HIM

Jesus healed every person he was supposed to, he flipped every table he needed to, he resurrected as many people as he was directed to, and he drank the exact amount of God’s wrath that was required to SAVE all whom the father would call.

So that at the end of his life he could say to the father Jn 17:4 ““I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”

He died for you and I… the lazy, procrastinating sluggards AND we can find hope in nothing else but Him.