to the book of Matthew, and we're gonna go to chapter 25. And while y'all are opening and getting to that spot, I'm gonna talk a little bit. And I'm gonna tell you something that we are all very, we all know this, is that we are living in a culture that produces a self-righteous, lazy, generation. Would you agree with that? Yeah, yeah, I see a lot of big head nods out there. But we do we live in a culture that it's all about me. It's all about what I can get. And if I can do nothing to get it, I'm going to do it. It's called laziness. The Bible calls it different things. If you're in a King James version, the Bible calls it being a sluggard or a slothfulness. In New King James, you'll see the scripture references it as to be lazy. Or over there in 1 Corinthians, there's a scripture that talks about being lazy. It's called, they say, disorderly or idle. But it's all the same thing. It's all being lazy and being a sluggard. And it's hard to, you go to work, which I don't have this problem much anymore. I get to see good quality workmanship where I'm at now. But it's hard when you go out to the work field and you see these young kids that are doing nothing and you see the older generation that's doing everything. There's something wrong with that. And God does not, he doesn't bless that. He doesn't honor that. God does not like laziness. But that is what it is. And it's put a huge hindrance in our country today. We've got jobs all over the country where you see help wanted, help wanted, but yet you still see so many people that's doing absolutely nothing. And I'm not taking away for those who can't do anything. What I'm saying is that there's a lot of people that's able to do something that they choose not to. That is wrong, that's hindering our country. But I can honestly say, we can take this and bring it home a little bit, and we can say that this is hindering our state, this is hindering our community, and this is hindering our churches. This idea of the self-righteous laziness is not just in a physical sense, but is also in a spiritual sense as well. We've taken this idea of self-righteousness and laziness, and it's all about me, and we've allowed it to infiltrate our churches in a spiritual sense, or even in a physical sense when it comes to the work of the church. Laziness, slothfulness, being a slugger, is sin. To do so is sin. And I'm gonna show an example of But we'll just read it. Let's look at chapter 25, verse 14. Now, this can be a two-fold lesson. It could either be physical laziness or spiritual laziness. And here's what I say about this. When it comes to the word of God, if it convicts, let it convict. If it encourages, let it encourage. Wherever it falls in your life, let it do so, okay? So remember, these are not my words, but His words, okay? So I'm just a messenger, so don't be mad at me. If the shoe fits, wear it. All right, verse 14. And the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling to a far country who called his servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, and to another two talents, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightaway he took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded the same, and made then five other talents. And likewise, he that had received the two, he also gained two. But he that received the one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants came back and reckoned with them. And so he that had received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou hast delivered unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. And his Lord said unto him, well done, thy good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents, and behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. And the Lord said to them, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over few things, thou wilt make thee ruler over many things, entered thou into the joy of the Lord. Then he which had received one talent came and said, Lord, I know thee to be a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid the talent in the earth. And lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knowest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strawed, and thou oughtest therefore have put the money to the exchangers, and then at my command I should have received my own usury. Take thee therefore the talent from him and give it unto them who hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given and shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye unto the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." I hope we see the importance of how laziness is to the Lord. He even told that one that did not bring back his talents. He said, man, it would have been better for you if you would have took that talent and put it in a bank. That way I would have at least got some interest out of it. But you've done nothing with it. You've took this talent I have given you and you buried it. You hid it from when you could have profited so much. Now, I'm telling you, church, we... Here's a clear image of what as Christians, as followers of Christ, we should be as the first two men. We should be those who take this talent that we have been given and go forth and prosper that to bring honor and glory to our Lord. Because one day He is returning home. And I don't know about you, but I want to hear those words, well done, thy good and faithful servant. I crave those words. I'm fearful of hearing those words, you slothful servant. I hate the idea of somebody calling me lazy. I hate the idea of me being lazy, and I ain't gonna lie, there's times I get lazy. Sometimes I can lay in bed till 7.30. I mean, I can get quite lazy at times. But it does not feel good. To be lazy does not feel good. I do not enjoy it. Why? Because we are not called to be lazy. We are called to go forth and work and spread forth the talents that we have been given. Now this can also be in the workforce, or this could be in spiritual sense. Now remember, scripture says that, now I'm gonna pick on the fathers, because that's me. Scripture says a man that will not provide is worse than an infidel. God tells us as men that we are to lead our families and we are to work. Now that's physically. We are to provide for our family in a physical sense, and if we cannot, we are worse than an infidel. I'm not trying to take away from those who can't because of physical ailments or something like that. I'm talking about the lazy person who decides to stay at home and does absolutely nothing while somebody else provides for the family is wrong. We are not called to do that. We are called to work. And scripture says that when we work, we are to do it unto the Lord. So when we go into work, no matter how hard it is, we're to give it our best ability as we're working unto the Lord, right? It might not be the best environment. I mean, 16 years I worked in a very dirty, nasty environment. Torrey's still there. It's hard. Is that a desirable place to work? No. But we are called to do that to provide for our family, and we do it to the best of our abilities. So many people will say, well, that's not my cup of tea. Well, if that's your only cup of tea, then you do it. I want to brag a little bit. On my kids, this last weekend, or this weekend, they were working at the Christmas tree farm. And usually when I talk about my kids, it's usually like, well, they've done this wrong, or they've done this wrong, or they've done that wrong, or they're not listening to their parents, or whatnot. That usually goes. Saturday, y'all remember the weather yesterday? It was nasty, horrible, nasty. I'm glad that I built a fire and sat in there by the fire yesterday. My kids were at the Christmas tree farm. Ruthie was in the shack handing out cookies and stuff like that, pouring down rain. She was protected to a sense. It's still muddy, so I'll get out. All day, my son was out there in the rain, hauling trees for people. He could have easily called me and said, Dad, I don't want to do this no more. I'm done. I give up. But he put forth the effort. He knows what it means to work. For a papa, for a dad, man, that made my heart swell. My son has that work ethic that we are called to do by our Lord. Our Heavenly Father is that same way. When He sees us working, His heart swells. We're doing what we are called to do. We work to the best of our ability. So let me take this a step farther, fathers. We are called to provide for our family physically so that way they could do that, and some of us do great, great jobs at doing so, but what are we doing spiritually? As leaders of the home and fathers, we are also called to lead our family spiritually in that work. That's a little bit more convicting for us, isn't it? That's a little bit harder. We can draw, ah, can be lazy in that area, because sometimes I get to that mindset of, well, I'm a man. All I gotta do is work, and I'd be good. No. The Lord says I'm to lead my family in all things, provide for my family in all things. That's physical work, and that's spiritual work, too. I'm to make sure that I'm leading my family down the path of righteousness Christ calls us to go. We are not called to be lazy. I did have a job one time. I worked at a orange juice factory. Easy, easy. So at this job, I got canned. And then the boss comes up to me and says, well, you couldn't concentrate. And after that, they just kind of put the squeeze on me a little bit. Guys, listen, it's okay to laugh in church, all right? It's okay to laugh and have fun and enjoy in church. Even in these serious sermons, it's okay to laugh. You know, to see other Christians being lazy. That's tough. You call yourself a follower of Christ, but yet you're producing no fruit. You know, if you keep reading in Matthew, chapter 25, and you get into the later verses, he talks about separating the sheep from the goats. And though you are saved, if you are saved, you're considered a sheep. But for some of us, we look like goats. We smell like goats, we act like goats. Now, I believe a person can enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he may not hear that, well done, my good and faithful servant, because he did not work, he did not provide. He was lazy in the talents that he was given. Now, we've all been given a talent that is to be used to his own glory. Now, each of us may have different talents, and we'll get into that when we get into the body of Christ here in just a little bit. But with this laziness, you know, there's so much deteriorating, there's so much destruction that comes with laziness. When you read in the Bible, you can look all through the Proverbs, and when you hear about the sluggard and you hear about the slothful, all you see is you see pain, you see poverty, you see destruction, you see death. There is nothing good that comes from someone who remains idle. whether physically or spiritually. Proverbs 13, four says, that the soul of the sluggard desires and have not. That the soul of the lazy desires and has not. So let's take that scripture and let's apply that spiritually. Let's take that and think about our walk with our Heavenly Father. There's some things that we desire. I desire a deeper knowledge, a deeper, more intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father. I want to know Him to the best of my ability. And if I don't, or if I'm not trying, whose fault is that? Yeah, yeah, that's mine. That's me being lazy. Now, He has given us everything. He has given us His Holy Spirit. He has given us His Word. He has said, here, here's all this. But if we don't put forth any effort, you will have nothing. That relationship will be very minimal. When you seek out the Lord and you say, Lord, why can I not hear you anymore? Why can I not see your prayers or my prayers being answered? It's probably because you have not been faithful in your work to the Lord spiritually. You have not been in your studies. You have not been in your prayers. You have not been doing what God has called you to do. You have not been spreading forth the talents that you have. If you want a deeper, intimate knowledge of God, if you want to know Him intimately, if you want to get in tune with that Holy Spirit, then you've got to put forth some effort. Now, I say you. I'm really preaching to me. Every sermon I've ever preached is because the Lord showed it to me, because I need it. I have got to put forth that effort. If I want that close walk with the Lord, I've got to obtain it. And it's more than just coming to Sunday school or coming to Sunday church or Sunday evening. It's great that you come to Sunday school because you learn and you grow. But it's more than just that. It's letting it be a part of your life. It's being who you are outside these walls. Anybody can act like a Christian inside these walls, right? But can you act like a Christian outside these walls when things get tough? You got to put forth thy work. The things that we learn, we've got to apply. What good is it to have knowledge of God and not have any knowledge? What good is it to have knowledge about God and have no knowledge of God? You see the difference? Anybody can have a knowledge of God if they read their book, but you will not have the intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father if you don't put forth any effort and apply it to your life. We are called to work. And I understand there's hard days. I have hard days. These last few years have been hard. Does that mean I get to lay down and do nothing? It's not a desirable day. Does that mean I don't have to work this day? No. No, Bible says you press on. So check this out. This is what I love. When the day when the hard days come and you press on, you get this thing is called grace. Okay, grace will give you strength. Grace will fill your heart. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee. If he has a task for you, he will give you his grace. And if we know that he's gonna give us our grace, that should fuel our work ethic physically, that should fuel our work ethic spiritually, because we know, and we're gonna stand on the promise that he promised us, his grace. His grace is sufficient for thee, right? We have got to learn to stand on this, on these principles of work. Now there's, as a Christian, if we don't fill our duties of work, and we see this, and I always go back to the work ethic or the workplace, because we saw it a lot there, is if we're not filling our days with that joy-type work, working for the Lord and doing what we're supposed to do diligently, then we're gonna fill our days with a lot of other things that brings no honor and glory to God. The Apostle Paul talks about these type of people over there in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 11. Now this is the Apostle Paul, it's a letter to the church. He says, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly. There's that word disorderly we talked about. Working not at all, but are busy bodies. They're moving around, they're doing something, but it ain't what the Lord has called them to do. And we see this in the workplace all the time, and it's also in the church place. I remember this one guy, he was a, I won't say his name because people in here may know him. He was an awesome hydraulics guy. Great, great guy, awesome worker. But he got to the point to where he would not work anymore. He would not put forth any effort, and he would go around, and he'd be busy. He would look busy, and he'd be this busybody, and he'd go somewhere else where somebody else is working, and by him going over there and starting just stirring the pot, it took them away from their work that they're supposed to be doing. How many have ever seen that? Yeah, yeah. We see that a lot. One person can take away two, if their heart's not there. That's the same thing in the church. That's the same thing that we see spiritually. One person can take away the work that should be done from other people. Busy bodies. So when we evaluate, when we look at ourselves, are we truly working or are we being a busybody? Are we bringing distractions and disorder in the church or are we bringing distractions and disorder in our families or at the workplace? Or are we truly diligently working like the Lord calls us to, spiritually and physically? When Now let's talk about inside the church. When we become slothful in our church, what that does, that puts a burden on someone else. So it's kind of like, I guess the best example, like the other day I had the opportunity to go rock climbing. I love to rock climb. Obviously I do not have the rock climbing body, but underneath this layer of clothing and these layers of fat is a rock solid core that it loves to climb. But I love it. But when you're climbing, you have to use all your members at one point or another. If I was to just try to climb with on my right side, my right side will fail. Eventually it will get exhausted and I will fall. Okay, if I'm up there and I get in a position, I'm hanging too hard on this one side, it will get exhausted and it will fall. I have to use all my members to get me up this wall. A church has to use all its members to go forth to what God has us to do. We have to use every bit of us out here today. We have to use every single one of us to help push forth this church. to get out there and reach the people, to preach the gospel, to do the events, to clean this building. There's so many jobs that we have to have inside this church that if we have people that is slothful in this, that means those tasks fall on other people. And generally what you see in churches is you'll see about 10% of the people doing the work of the church and they get exhausted. And when exhaustion sets in, then they get burned out. Then before long, they're like, man, I'm done. I can't do it anymore. I've seen that in churches. I've felt a little bit of that. It's not a good place to be. That's why it's so important that with our talents that we have been given, that we help and we be that hand that we should be, we be that foot that we should be, we be a part of the body of Christ and do our part to bring it all together so we can honor and glory God together and not be slothful. I ask this, this is something that I want you to do, and we're gonna be closing here shortly. I want us to look at our lives. Look at the talents we have been given. We have a very special talent that is given to us, and his name is Jesus. And when we accept Jesus Christ as his savior, and he comes into us, and we have this special gift, this special talent, that we are not to bury, that we're to go and spread forth the gospel. We're to go to our community and preach Jesus. But because of our culture, we are lacking drastically in doing that. I love hearing about China. I love hearing about these other countries in the Middle East and the Philippines and places we've been and how Christianity is just booming. then you look at ours and it is not. Churches close, people leave, they don't come back. Now, I'm not against to a point of watching online if you have to, but we're called to assemble together in a church. That's on the decline, because so many people would rather watch it from their home. We have this gift. this talent that we have been given, and we are called to work that talent. We are called to share the gospel. We are called to teach Jesus. And so my question is this morning, have we been diligent in that, or have we been slothful? Have we been diligent in our work ethic outside these walls, whether it be physical or spiritual, or have we been slothful? Have we been diligent in our work inside these walls for this body of believers, or have we been slothful in putting off on other people? That's a question that I have to answer for myself, and you have to answer for yourself. Stan, we'll have an invitation time and be dismissed. Most gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your words today. I pray, Lord, that as we evaluate ourselves, you show us where we have been lazy. You show us where we need to step up. We all have been given a talent, and his name is Jesus. And we need to use this talent and spread forth and tell Jesus to the world. And we all have other talents that you have given us that we should be sharing. Show us, plug us in where we need to be. Inside these walls, outside these walls, show us where we have been slothful, Father. Lord, I thank you. Jesus' name, amen.