Proverbs 6 | The Race to the Bottom

Sunday Morning | April 27, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In his sermon "Proverbs 6: The Race to the Bottom," delivered on Sunday, April 27, 2025, Pastor John explored the dangers of spiritual and practical laziness as outlined in Proverbs 6. He warned that carelessness with financial commitments ("Lazy with Loans"), a sluggish approach to work and responsibility ("Lazy with Labor"), and a failure to nurture relationships and love ("Lazy with Love") all contribute to a downward spiral in life. Pastor John emphasized that true wisdom calls believers to diligence, integrity, and love, urging the congregation to resist the easy path of complacency and instead pursue a life of purpose rooted in God's truth.

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Transcript

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Well, it's great to gather back together again after a great time of celebrating Easter. And we're going to continue in our study now of the Book of Proverbs. We're working through the Book of Proverbs a little bit at a time, chapters one through nine, each kind of stand alone. So we'll take those one at a time, and then chapters ten through 30. We'll just view through the lens of a topic. Ten different topics that slice through across all those chapters. Today we will be in chapter six and in chapter six, in particular, we see this plea for wisdom as the whole book of Proverbs is about, but in particular around the realm of making sure we're going about things the way that God intends. I remember in high school and into college, I worked at a local grocery store over on Flintlock Avenue, Melton Food Mart, and I actually really liked working there. I thought the work was fun. The people, I learned a lot from the people. The managers taught me a lot about life and growing up, sometimes in ways that I didn't really want. They taught me about how to grow up as a young man. One thing, though, I did not like at all about that job was that first day I came home with my first paycheck, and that $3.35 an hour didn't go very far. I think I had about a $12 paycheck that first time, and I thought, there's got to be an easier way to make money than this. And so I remember sitting around thinking, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to come up with an idea where I can make money without doing anything. That's what I'm going to figure out. And so I sat there and thought, and that day I couldn't come up with anything. And so the next day I thought, you know, this needs a little more thought. Yesterday wasn't enough. How can I? Of course, every time I tried to think about it, everything I thought of required a lot of effort to make more money than that. What I wanted was the easy way out. I wanted the easy way. I wanted the lazy way, we might say. And there are times where we need to approach the easy way, but sometimes we want that so bad and we don't realize most of life is not easy. In fact, the things that matter like wisdom, they don't come easy. There's a hard road to gain true wisdom. What we're going to see in Proverbs six today is the father giving a warning to his son. There are many ways that people want to take the easy way out, the lazy way. We're going to see three ways, in particular, those who want to be lazy when it comes to loans or their money. Those who want to be lazy around labor might relate to me at times in life, and then those who want to be lazy around love. We want the easy way out in some of these key areas of life. Here's what's interesting about Proverbs chapter six. What he shows here is a progression how each one of those build on the other, leading to a pretty dangerous path. So turn to Proverbs chapter six and we'll look at this first one here. What about those who want to be lazy with their loans? Lazy with their money? Proverbs chapter six. If you turn there, the page number should be on the screen for that. If you don't have a church Bible which the page numbers on the screen, tie into our church Bibles which are out in the connection corner. You can slip at any time and grab one. Those are free for you. We want you to have a copy of God's Word to be able to read from it on your own. I'm going to start by reading just these first five verses of Proverbs chapter six. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger. If you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go hasten. Plead urgently with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep. Give your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter. Like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Verse one starts with that phrase we've seen over and over again in chapters one through nine. My son. It's as a father pleading with his son to gain wisdom, to find wisdom, to listen to instruction all through chapters one through nine. My son, my son, my son. And the first way he does that today is he warns them about the attraction of wanting to take the lazy way when it comes to money. In particular, he's targeting in to the person who's kind of flippant with their money. I'll just hand it out to whomever, oh, you've got a good idea about how to make more money. Sure, I'll give it to you. Oh, you need some more? Sure. And look, the Bible is clear that it's okay to be generous. We want to be generous people, but we also want to do that from a place of strength, from a place where it doesn't end up causing you to be in a really difficult place. I remember a guy coming to me, this was probably ten years ago now. He had moved from overseas. We had gotten to know him through a ministry at universities. Great guy. We think a lot of him. I really respect him. I think he's a trustworthy person. He asked me, hey, can I borrow money from you to help pay for grad school? I want to get started into grad school now. I've got college done. And I said, look, for me to lend you money, I'd have to borrow it from someone. So I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to risk my family's future. And I think you're a trustworthy person. I think you're a great guy. But maybe you need to go work for a little bit to work up, to be able to do grad school. Take take that route. I'm not going to risk our future for this, which is still a great thing. You know, part of it is we're called to use wisdom with our money, to be a good steward with our money. If you go to the bank and ask for a loan, they're going to do their due diligence. They're going to research all they can your credit score, your background, your job, your earning opportunities, your health like, and all the stuff you can imagine. Your hobbies. They want to know who are you? Will you be able to pay this off or not? And when they don't do that, by the way, when they didn't do that, when they got greedy back in the early 2000s, that led to a nationwide setback financially. Should have been a little bit of a hint when they called those loans Ninja loans. That's should be just a clue that maybe these aren't the best loans they hand out. No income, no job, no assets. We get greedy sometimes, and we think even the banks want at times the easy way out. Look, we can keep printing money. Look, it's great. There's this naivete that settles in, especially on the young, of saying there's an easy way out. But the call is to be good stewards. In fact, if you find yourself in that situation, maybe you've overextended yourself with someone. Maybe it's a relationship you've entered into too quickly, rashly, without wisdom. Look. Look at what he says you're on what to do, on how to approach it. Do this then, my son. Verse three, save yourself. In fact, twice in verse five he says, save yourself, save yourself, go into it and he uses some pretty intense words hasten, plead urgently. Give eyes no sleep, eyelids no slumber. There's a heavy sense of urgency in these words. Take this seriously. Take this like your life depends on it. Take this like someone is hunting you down. Don't treat it flippantly. This is serious stuff. In fact, a couple of these words, the word hasten, it can also be translated humble yourself. It can also be translated lower yourself. When you're in this position. This isn't the time to get all puffed up. And I'm. I'm too good for that. I'm better than that. I don't go asking people for help and I. No, no, no, no. When you're in this situation, now's not the time to be all puffed up. Now's the time to lower yourself. In fact, one of the other words you use here plead urgently. It has this idea of. In fact, one translator said it may be borders on the edge of bully, but press into this person. Do whatever it takes to say, we got to get this arrangement changed. I backed myself in with the words of my mouth. In fact, it says twice in verse two, you snared yourself with the words of your mouth. You said something too rashly, too quickly, and you didn't really have the ability to back it up. You didn't think it through. You backed yourself into that corner with the words of your mouth. So now use the words of your mouth to get out of this situation. I've shared this before, but one day when I was a kid here at church, we walked over to a local gas station to get some snacks before church, and as we were walking there, some guy I could just see over in front of the apartments. I heard him yell out, nerds! Me and another guy, we're walking over there and you know what? To be fair, that was probably pretty accurate. Pretty accurate assessment of the situation. I in the moment thought, I think this deserves a response. I have no idea why I thought this, and I thought, here's what I said. Come over here and say it. Yeah. As soon as the words left my mouth, I thought, what are you doing? What's the phrase? It's something like your mouth is writing checks your fists can't cash. And of course, he thought that was an excellent suggestion and took me up on it. He is running at incredible speed and he's getting much larger as he approaches, leaping over fences in single bounds. And here he is right in front of me saying, what did you say? And now I had the opportunity to use the words of my mouth that ensnared me to back out of the situation. This wasn't the time to be more puffed up, and I was able to, we won't say grovel, we won't go that far, but to, let's say, negotiate the situation and get out of it. Even though one of my cute classmates was walking past as this was going on, this wasn't the time to try to act tough and proud. This was at the time to say my bad. Oops, I didn't mean it. Good to meet you. Let's be friends. Let us go on our merry ways. There comes a time when you've backed yourself into a tough situation. Don't let pride get in the way of getting things right. Lean on the wisdom of others. By the way, don't overreact and go I messed up and make another bigger mistake. Get on wisdom from others. Get insight but make it right. Don't just continue down that road of being lazy with your money, with your stewardship. God has called us to be wise with the resources he's given us, even if they're just $3.35 an hour. Be wise with that little bit and honor him. So the temptation is to want to be lazy with our money, lazy with our loans. Now look at the second temptation here. This starts in verse six. This is where the temptation, in fact, sometimes an overreaction to this first situation. Hey, I'm. I was too aggressive. I was too generous. I extended myself too far. We're going to see two overreactions to that in the arena of work, where we become lazy with our labor in response. Because what happens when you run out of money? You got to go get some more work in. You got to go find some more money. Sometimes, though, the temptation even in that effort is to be lazy in our labor. So look at verse six. We see two examples of this in particular. Verse six, go to the ant, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise without having any chief officer or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer, gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. So there's a couple of different lazy overreactions to this situation of being in a tight spot with money. One is, and some of us have this tendency, look, I got in trouble for messing up. So my response now, my overreaction is to do nothing. If I do nothing, I can't mess it up again. The sluggard says I better not try anything else. I better just lay here, play it safe, not mess anything up. Now we know from the New Testament Jesus was very critical of this kind of person in the parable of the talents, where money was given to those to be a good steward of it, and it's the one who did nothing with it, who received the greatest criticism. At least try something. So the overreaction is to do nothing. And I love the encouragement that is given here. The example to look to is the ant. You know, the point here is you don't have to look far. For a good example, you talk about the most prevalent insect on the face of the earth likely. Anywhere you turn you can see an ant. And there's two things in particular, he says, take note of what the ant does. First, it has initiative. It doesn't have to have somebody standing over it cracking a whip. The ants just all seem to who knows how they were. I mean, I know it's a great mystery in science about how insects communicate, but you don't see couch potato ants. They're all doing something. Now, of course, you can be too busy toward no end. That could be a problem as well. But there's an initiative here that is praised. Get up and do something. Also, though, the other thing that's praised is forethought. The ant is thinking ahead to the time of year when food is not abundant. The ant is storing up food now, getting ready for a time where I can't just walk around and find it laying on the ground. I read a study, years ago about the difference in economic success of certain countries, and they showed this pattern, this trend. It's not absolute, but in general, it was true that the most successful, successful, economically economically successful countries were those that had a in a colder climate. And they proposed that the reason why is because if you live in Sweden and you want to be warm in January, you better be stacking up wood in July, you better be thinking out ahead. And the colder it is, the further out ahead you have to think. If you want to eat bread in February, you better be storing up your grain and harvesting it well in September. You learn early on if I want to survive the winter, I got to think out ahead. I got to be thinking about it six months beforehand. Contrast that with us when we lived in the South Pacific, this tropical island in Fiji, as we got to know some of the locals, one guy said to me, hey, tell me, how do you I've heard about this thing camping in the U.S. how do you go about camping? And so I tell him all about it. You get your tent, you get your sleeping bag, you get all your equipment, you get your gas stove. You make sure maybe you have a comfortable air mattress pad. You get a like list of equipment, equipment, equipment, get the proper boots, rain gear. And he's smiling the whole time I'm saying all this, he's laughing inside. And finally he says, let me tell you what I do when I go camping. And he reaches down and picks up a machete, which might make you nervous, but I knew what he meant. He said, this is all I need. I just start walking and I'll cut down a coconut or a papaya or a mango, and if we don't find it there, we'll walk down to the ocean. And I got a little fishing line in my pocket. Grab a fish. I don't have to think ahead at all. There's no reason to. It's all there. It's an abundance for me. Any time I want. It's always on the trees. The encouragement here to the sluggard is think ahead a little bit, because if not, here's what will happen. Poverty will come upon you like a robber in verse 11, like an armed man. And the implication there is, I didn't see it coming. I don't know how it happened. All of a sudden, out of nowhere I was poor. Like an armed man. Like a robber that came out of nowhere. I thought everything was great. And then it seemed all of a sudden I had nothing. No, be wise. Think ahead. You know, it's interesting. This isn’t...again, this isn’t absolutely true. But in general, the robber, the armed man, don't go after the strong. They look for the weak to go after. They want it easy too. And if you've only laid around wanting just a little more sleep. Sleep’s not bad. Sleep is critical. Sleep is important. If you cheat on sleep, it'll catch up to you. But we're talking about the person that only wants to sleep but can never get up. I'm not talking about chronic medical conditions either. You know what I'm saying. And if you just lay around, those muscles atrophy and you get weak and you're easy prey physically and financially. So one overreaction is to do nothing. The sluggard says, hey, I'm just going to play it safe. I don't want to be in that situation again where I messed up. Well, no. Another overreaction then, that's one lazy way. This one's not as clear. But sometimes people go, okay, I messed up. I didn't use my money well. I overextended myself. Now I need more. Let me be lazy in how I go about it in a different way. In fact, look at verse 12. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger with perverted heart, devises evil continually sowing discord. Therefore, and look at the how it ends here. The same situation occurs. Calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment he will be broken beyond healing. So one overreaction is the sluggard. The other overreaction is the trickster, the person who, instead of figuring out how to make money in an honest, productive way, let me. Let me use deception and lies and trickery and charm and navigate. In fact, you know, you hear these stories sometimes about all the effort that goes into some crime and you go, why didn't they just use all that effort to make money in an honest way? They put so much time and energy into tricking someone, because what happens is they end up loving the trickery even more. It's not. It becomes not even about the money. I love the deception. I love the game more than even the outcome. This swings to the other extreme. But it ends up in the same place all of a sudden. Calamity, the end comes upon them and again, they didn't see it coming. It comes out of nowhere. It all. Everything seems great. And then come the FBI and it all ends in a second. Both are people who are being lazy when it comes to their work. You know God has blessed work. Yes, there is difficulty with work. There are thorns. But he's given us work to do. It should be a joy and delight. We honor him in how we work and both extremes of just laying around doing nothing but using trickery and deception ultimately don't serve you well and don't honor God. So there's those who want to be lazy with their money, lazy with their work. Now, here's the progression that I want to point out. In all these situations-- and the warning here is because next we're going to see those who are lazy with love. And the progression here is if you are lazy in these other areas of life, it's going to lead you to a more dangerous place. Part of the reason why you want to figure out how to be a good steward of your money and of your work, is because it's going to affect the other areas of life. Don't continue down this path because here's where it's going to end up. It's going to put you in a really dangerous place when you get lazy with love. So look at this next section. In fact, we're going to jump down a few verses. Look at verse 25. He's talking about the prostitute, the harlot and the adulterous to watch out for them. And in verse 25 he says, do not desire her beauty in your heart. Do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. For the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread. But a married woman hunts down a precious life. Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So he is who goes into a neighbor's wife. No one who touches her will go unpunished. Look at verse 34 for jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. If you have developed this pattern of laziness in your-- with your money, with your work, you've developed habits in your heart that are going to lead to laziness in other areas, and it's going to lead to laziness in love. And here is the implication. This person wants the easy way out in love, either to buy satisfaction, whether it's the price of a loaf of bread or not. Remember, Proverbs is meant to be strong contrast, to overstate, to get your attention. The contrast is, okay, yeah, maybe you can go buy love, take the easy way out there and you think that taking the easy way out by taking someone else's wife is the easy way out, but it's not. That is going to open the door to your destruction. What this highlights what has happened in the heart of the person that this is speaking to, is a person who no longer cares about outcomes. They no longer care about what happens to themselves. They no longer care about what happens to others. In fact, I think that the main thing that is criticized here is in this group of verses that highlight what's really at the core of what's going on in this person's heart. Look back at verse 16 and there's this interesting device Proverbs uses to highlight this. You see this in a couple of different places in Proverbs. There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are abomination to him. Sometimes you'll see there are three, then there are four, there are six, then there are seven. You see this in a few different places. And I've often wondered what, what's the point of that? Are you telling me there's only six things, or maybe only seven things the Lord hates? No, this isn't meant to be exhaustive. This is meant to group together a number of things. But then often the seventh, the last is being emphasized in the list. So there are six. But the seventh is maybe one way you could say it is what we're really talking about. And if you notice these six things that are mentioned six and seven haughty eyes, lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, those are all descriptors of the man who was faulty in business. But notice what number seven says, one who sows discord among brothers. This was also the description of him in verse 14 one who sows discord, continually sowing discord. And here's the point of all that. It's one thing to go around like the naive fool messing up your own life. But where that leads over time is one who delights in seeing that happen in others lives. I don't care anymore what happens to others around me. I'd rather see you torn down where our call is to build others up. Look, our call is to make sure that everyone we know is closer to Christ because they know us. I would hope that people would say because I know John, I am closer to Christ. Now, I know not everyone I've ever met would say that, but the hope is that's what we're striving for instead of tearing down, instead of sowing discord. And how can I be about building others up, drawing them to Christ, and not loving lazily, loving them well, loving them in a way that they go, I am loved by that person, not just taking, but giving. All of these examples are pointing to a deeper reality. Each of these people here's what they want. They want the easy way out. I want things handed to me. I think life should just be given to me. It should be easy. But look, anything of significance has never come easy. Can anybody else acknowledge that reality? I mean, very few things in life that are of significance have come easily. Sometimes that happens. That's the exception. Even if, let's say today, you could gain the perfect body just in the snap of the fingers, in an instant you would look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, which for the I'm talking to the men here. The women may not want that. Who knows, maybe. Even if that could happen in an instant, you know how hard it is to maintain that body? A year from now, if you did nothing-- and you might look still decent-- but it doesn't take long. I mean, you saw when Arnold became governor, he got flabby pretty quick. It takes a lot of effort to even just keep the perfect body. The things of deep significance don't come easy. There's not an easy, lazy way out. But here in this passage, we're given how to approach righteousness. True love. Look at verse 20, my son, keep your father's commandment. Forsake not your mother's teaching. And I love this language here. I love this imagery. Bind them on your heart always. Take them into your very core of who you are to the center of your being. Bind them there. Tie them around your neck. And here's what happens if you do that. If you can hide God's Word in your heart continually, if you can meditate on His Word, if it can saturate in your mind, here's what will happen. When you walk, they will lead you. When you lie down, they will watch over you. When you awake, they will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp. The teaching, a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life to preserve you from the evil woman. I love these pictures. Having God's Word in your life will watch over you. It will lead you. Do you want to know how to make the right decision in life? Getting God's Word. It may not be obvious at first, but get in his word. Search his word. Ask others for wisdom from His word. His word will lead you. Will guide you. When you sleep it will watch over you. I believe there's a lot of truth to this. I don't know about you, but there's times where I don't know what to do. And I think, let me study God's Word and sleep on it and see how I feel about it in the morning. I think his word goes to work in your mind in the night and through it he is watching over you. He is guiding you. He's stirring in your heart. He's directing you even while you sleep. Of course, there's the other side of it that if you live a life that honors God, you're more likely to be safe at night. And then lastly, it says he will speak to you. It will talk to you. God's word will talk to you. And you know how this works. We all have a narrative going on in our mind all day long. You're talking to yourself all day long. I've seen you do it. Don't try to deny it. It's some of you. Do it quietly, some out loud. It's okay. You have this narrative going. Sometimes it's a good one. You're the best, John. You did that so well. Good for you. Other times it's the opposite. You are the worst person on the face of the earth to ever exist. How could you be so stupid? You see, you have these conversations with yourself all day long. What if instead of those, it was God's Word talking to you? You are a child of God. You were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. You were created as his workmanship, created for good works that you might walk in them. Perfect love casts out all fear. And then how about this section from Romans? Imagine talking to yourself from this all day long. We know that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint. For the love of God has washed over us through His Spirit who has been given to us. It is His Spirit that will speak to us through His Word. But there's no shortcut. There's no easy way. If you want God's Word to talk to you, you've got to hide it in your heart. There is no shortcut. It takes being in His word, reading his word, memorizing his word, talking to others about His word. But thankfully, if you know Christ, he is in you, prompting you toward that end. He is increasing your hunger to follow him. And so today, my encouragement for you, in fact, what we're going to do now to remember his death and resurrection on our behalf is do communion. And if you're one of the men who's going to help hand out the elements, now would be the time to slip out and grab those. We're going to do communion. Then I'm going to tell you about our spring picnic and then I'm going to we're going to pray over a family who is facing a big transition. who is facing a big transition.