Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13 verse 4.
The title of the message tonight is "Fat Souls."
"Fat Souls."
So we'll begin with the first part of the verse.
It says, "The soul."
"The soul."
"And if there's one thing I can say without a shadow of a doubt," That is, when a person dies, their soul goes to that grave, and when the Lord comes again, that soul comes up out of it.
Isn't that right, Brother Ray?
Brother Ray, we went to some church one time, and they came up with some doctrine like that.
And he would just tell me about that whenever we pulled in the driveway, so I was just having a little fun with him.
But the soul does not go in the grave.
We're going to learn a little bit about the soul tonight.
And the soul refers to a living, breathing creature.
Now, if something's dead, it's not living or breathing.
So you sure don't have a soul in the grave, but the soul refers to a living, breathing creature.
Now, the church that I attended when I was young, one of the churches, taught that a soul was something that people have, that distinguishes us from animals.
You all ever heard that taught before?
Yeah, I see some people doing this and some doing this.
They taught that a soul is something that people have that say, "Well, they have a soul now.
Don't forget they have a soul."
And it was incorrect.
That's a misunderstanding of the Bible.
They used to say animals don't have souls.
I remember that was another thing.
People do, and you got to love that person.
Remember, they have a soul.
And animals don't have souls.
But again, that's an incorrect understanding of God's Word.
And I believe it's because most people connect the word "soul" in the Bible to the first time that that English word "soul" appears in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7.
In Genesis 2 verse 7 it says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."
And I believe that's why they make that connection.
They say, "Well, man became a living soul."
So, but again, it's still not good Bible study to come up with those doctrines, because you see, a soul isn't something a man has.
A soul is what a man is.
A living, breathing creature which has a mind of its own, in contrast to non-living, breathing creatures, which don't have minds of their own, like plants and trees.
The Hebrew word translated "soul" is translated many different ways in the King James Bible.
And the first time it's translated "soul" is where we just read it in Genesis chapter 2.
Man became a living soul.
But the first time this Hebrew word is used in the Bible is not in connection with man, it's in connection with the animals.
In Genesis chapter 1 verse 21, for example, the Bible says, "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth."
Now that word "creature" is the same Hebrew word translated "soul" in Genesis chapter 2 where it says, "Man became a living soul."
Man became a living creature.
Or every living soul that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly.
Again, same exact Hebrew word.
And so, the soul here, this Hebrew word "soul", it distinguishes between the plants and the trees and the grass, versus every living creature that moves, you see.
That's animated, they're able to move around and breathe and think on their own.
And so, "Which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every wing foul, after his kind, and God saw that it was good."
The word "creature" again is the same Hebrew word translated "soul."
Now again, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 24, the Bible says, "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature.'"
Again, that's the same Hebrew word translated "soul."
So it could just as easily be translated, "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living soul after his kind, cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after his kind, and it was so.'
" So cattle, creeping things, beasts, fish, and fowl are also souls.
God created man, however, as the highest order of living souls. having breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and by doing so, by breathing into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, he put his spirit in man.
Now, that's what separates us from the animals and the bugs and the fish and the fowl and the cows, is that man is given a spirit.
Man is created to be the house of God, where God's Spirit dwells in man.
God breathed into his nostrils, and now man, not just like the birds, just like the fish, just like the cows and everything else that lives and breathes and moves.
Now, God breathes into man and he becomes a living soul, but now he becomes a living soul that is filled with the Spirit of God, because God breathed into him, and nowhere did it say that God breathed into those animals.
In fact, if you'll write down in your margin, John chapter 20, verse 21 and 22.
John chapter 20, verse 21 and 22.
Now this is the same God, Jesus is the same God in the New Testament that breathed into Adam's nostrils in the Garden of Eden.
Same God.
And in Genesis, I'm sorry, in John chapter 20, verse 21 and 22, it says, "Then said Jesus to them again, 'Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.'
And when he had said this, he breathed on them.
Look at that.
Now God was breathing in Genesis chapter 2 into man.
And now God is breathing on these people in the Gospel of John chapter 20.
And when he breathed on them, he said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
So man does not have a soul, man is a soul.
That's how come the Bible say there were 12,000 souls, right?
Or souls were added into them or whatever.
Man doesn't have a soul, it's not something we have, it's something we are.
And unlike the vegetation God created, a soul has a mind, an emotion, and a will.
In fact, this Hebrew word translated "soul" is also in the King James Bible, sometimes translated as the word "mind," "will," and "pleasure."
How about that?
So tonight, we are learning about the mind, the emotion, and the will— look back in your text now— of the sluggard.
Of the sluggard.
Solomon didn't say "the sluggard."
He said "the soul of the sluggard."
That is how the sluggard thinks, what the sluggard desires.
That inward mind, emotion, and will of the sluggard.
What is a sluggard?
A sluggard is a lazy person.
Now, not an inactive person.
Don't get that mixed up.
Not an inactive person, but a lazy person.
You know, a sluggard may keep busy.
Sluggard may keep himself busy, but he will not make himself productive.
There's a difference, you see.
I mean, you could have a sluggard going out here and there and being busy all the time, just having a good time, making the rounds and everything, and doing all that, but that's not productivity.
The Hebrew word that's translated "sluggered" here, and we've looked at it before in the Proverbs, but to remind you tonight, in Hebrew it literally means "to lean."
It means "to recline."
So it has the idea of an unproductive man reclining in a comfortable, idle state.
I love to recline.
When I get home from work, I like to get my food, I like to kick back in my mom and dad's used love seat that we didn't pay anything for, Brother Shepherd.
And we'll kick back in that.
And I love to recline, and I'll eat my food and we'll watch the news.
It's nice.
And when I get home tonight, if we get home on time, I'll get my luxury bed that reclines with a remote, And I'll kick back in that luxury bed and I may watch a little rawhide, brother shepherd.
Rawhide, I got to keep on rolling, rolling, rolling.
And I'll do that to get sleepy and then I'll doze on off and I'll go to bed.
But it feels so good to kick back and relax.
But here's something we got to remember.
Reclining must always come after achieving.
Reclining must always come after achieving. and a sluggard doesn't practice that godly principle.
To the soul of the sluggard, reclining is more important than achieving.
Therefore, the soul of the sluggard, look back in your text, "desireth."
"Desireth."
You see, "desire" means it wants something.
The sluggard is like everybody else.
Like everybody else, the sluggard has the same basic desires as the next fella.
So the soul of the sluggard, that mind, emotion, and that will, it wants, it desires inside that sluggard, it desires to have the same basic things everybody else does.
The sluggard would love to have nice things.
The sluggard would love to have good food and plenty of money to pay the bills.
The sluggard is a man or a woman just like everybody else.
He wants a nice house to live in, a nice car to drive.
Whatever the average person wants in this world, the sluggard wants to.
The difference is between the sluggard and everyone else.
The sluggard wants these things or desires these things.
Look back in your text now.
And has nothing.
See?
The sluggard desireth, and hath nothing."
So, there's a difference here in the Bible between what the sluggard wants and what the sluggard has.
The sluggard wants what others have, but he doesn't have what others have.
He wants, but he doesn't have.
Now do you know what determines the difference between what the soul of the sluggard wants and what the soul of the sluggard has?
Do you know what makes that determination?
One thing, the soul of the sluggard.
That's it!
The mind, the emotion, and the will of that sluggard.
That's what makes the difference between what the sluggard wants and what the sluggard has.
The soul of the sluggard has the desire.
But it lacks the drive to get up and do something about it.
It's a whole lot easier to recline than it is to get up and go.
A whole lot easier.
And you know, there's a whole lot of ways a man or a woman can recline.
It doesn't mean you just have to sit around and do nothing all day.
Did you know that you can have a full-time job and still be a sluggard?
Sure can.
You can have a full-time...
If you are capable, if God has equipped you to do more, if He has given you the potential of accomplishing more, but you're willing for you and your family to do without essential things Because you'd rather do less, then you're reclining.
You're reclining.
Here's the kingdom truth for you tonight.
To waste your God-given potential is to recline as a sluggard.
To waste your God-given potential, to not meet up to your God-given potential, is to recline as a sluggard.
And if you're reclining, then you have no right to complain about what you don't have.
None.
Brother Doug, if you're listening tomorrow or today, whenever you're listening this online, I know he listens to us the next day on Wednesday.
Brother Doug, I got a little jingle for you.
You ready?
Here's the jingle.
If you're reclining, then stop your whining.
If you're reclining, then stop your whining.
How about that?
The soul of the sluggard wants, but doesn't have, because it lacks that inward drive to get up and do something about it, to get up and meet the needs that you have, the desires that you have, the desires that your family has.
I remember several years back, Brother George Odero in Kenya was trying to teach the people there in Africa.
And I tell you, man, there's something about that culture over there where they really need to have that drive.
A lot of them don't have that drive.
And to this day, we're still taking up money to drill water wells over there.
And I'm thinking, it's a hole in the ground.
It's a hole in the ground.
How complicated can it be?
I understand that they don't get as much rain, but I tell you what, if I was thirsty enough, I think I'd get me and some other fellas, and if all we could do was spare one hour every night after work, we'd dig an hour's worth every night, and before long, brother, we'd make it to China, or we'd get us some water.
But we'd get something.
And there has to be some type of inward motivation make you look and see, you know what, I don't have something, but I want something, and I'm going to do what it takes, short of stealing or robbing, to get it done.
And I remember Brother George O'Darrow over there, he was trying to teach the people that principle.
And he told people, he said, "Even if you don't have any land to raise your food on," He's telling you, "You hungry?
Go out and plant you some food."
You don't have to go to the market to buy some.
Plant you some food in your backyard.
If you don't have a backyard, you know what He told them to do?
Get you a little container of dirt and at least sprinkle some seeds in it.
He said, "But everybody can at least do something."
That's what He was teaching them.
Everybody can do something.
But that sense of reclining and whining go hand in hand a lot of times.
And I understand that not everybody has the same potential.
Not everybody has the same capabilities.
I understand not everyone has the same economy.
I understand all of those things.
But the Bible was not written to different cultures.
It was written to people as a whole.
And the sluggard doesn't have because a slugger is too busy reclining.
That's simple.
But the soul of the diligent, if you look back in your text, the slugger would rather have somebody else bear the load while the sluggard reclines.
But the soul of the diligent, you see that word diligent, underscore that word diligent, That's what the sluggard needs.
The sluggard needs diligence.
If that sluggard could just get diligence, he would get up out of that recliner and he would start taking proactive steps to get his needs met.
The Hebrew word translated diligence here, it has the idea of digging in the earth.
As an illustration of one digging to get out of life what he needs.
Diamonds, you don't wake up in the morning and stumble over a diamond walking out to your car or getting your newspaper out of your front yard.
You don't bend over because you drop your keys and see a lump of gold down there, or silver.
Those are valuable items that are deposited into the earth.
And so, when you think of it, you think of the earth and all the treasures in that earth, the oil, the resources, the precious metals and precious rare earth minerals, All of those things are in the earth, but they have to be dug out.
It takes proactive steps to go get that out and put it to use.
And so, this sense of digging here has the idea of all the potential that's available to us as people.
That's here in the earth.
And that potential doesn't fall down on your head like an apple.
You don't stumble across it, that potential.
You got to get up, do something about it on your own, and dig it out, and make it happen.
I was talking to a man a while back.
He bought his dad something.
When he was a young man, he was in high school, and he wanted to buy his dad something.
He loved his dad, and he got out, And on his own, he started thinking, "How can I get my dad this year?"
He didn't have any money.
So he bailed hay during the summer.
He said, "I bailed so many bales of hay."
He said, "I have no clue how many I did.
I worked so hard."
He said, "But I saved every bit of it and I went and I bought my dad that particular item."
And that's a man that says, "You know what?"
He looks out in that field and he sees potential.
The other fellow looks out in that field and he sees bugs and heat and sweat and all that stuff.
So he reclines.
So one man had the item, the other fellow doesn't have the item.
What was the difference?
The soul of that person.
That's all.
Their mind, their emotion, their will.
One guy had the grit, the drive and the determination and he got up and did something about it.
The other guy just says, "Well, I sure would like to get that from my dad one day.
That'd be nice."
There's a big difference.
I was driving down the road the other day to go pick up my wife and in-laws in Dallas and I saw a sluggard asking for handouts in the street.
And there was a man that felt sorry for that sluggard and he stopped and gave him a cigarette and I watched it.
Brand new cigarette.
That slugger took that cigarette, kind of drew on it, wasn't smoked yet, he just "Woo, I got me a new cigarette."
Boy, he just stumbled onto something, you know.
You see, the soul of the slugger desired the cigarette, he wanted the cigarette.
But he didn't have the cigarette.
So the good Samaritan thought he needed a cigarette.
And that's where the formula gets all messed up.
Now let's say it wasn't a cigarette that I saw him giving.
Let's say it was a Big Mac.
I've seen him giving Big Macs before.
I bet you all have too.
Maybe you've given him Big Macs.
I don't know.
I hope you don't.
But let's say it was a Big Mac.
Let's say the man goes through, sees this sluggard out there, standing on his feet, perfectly able to stand, got a healthy body, and he's capable of thinking through, "Here, I'll go do this.
I'll communicate with people."
He's able to logically think things through and get what he wants in a sense.
And so he wants food, but he doesn't have food.
And he's unwilling to go out and do what it takes to get food.
So he stands there hoping that somebody else will do what it takes to get food and then bring it to him.
And so the soul of the sluggard wants food, but he doesn't have food.
So a good Samaritan thinks he needs food.
And that's not true.
The soul of the slugger doesn't need food, he needs diligence.
He needs the drive to get up and work for what he wants.
Here's another Kingdom Truth for you tonight.
What a slugger wants is not what a slugger needs.
So Brother Richard, he needs food.
The slugger needs diligence.
If he has diligence, he'll get food.
What a slugger wants is not what a slugger needs.
We think sluggers need what they want.
But they actually need what they don't want.
And that's the drive to get up and put in a good day's work.
So, learn this truth.
This probably should have been a kingdom truth.
But learn this truth, by giving the sluggard what they want, we deprive them of what they need.
You see?
By giving the sluggard what they want, we deprive them of what they need.
Because as long as you're giving them what they want, there'll be no incentive for them to get the diligence that they really need.
Because if they get the diligence, instead of being out there talking to you, they'll be in there applying for a job, or working, doing something.
The soul of the sluggard wants and doesn't have, but the soul of the diligent wants, just like the sluggard.
But that diligent person has the drive and determination to do what it takes to fulfill his will.
And a man who has that God-ordained diligence, look back in your text as we close, shall be made fat.
Now, don't get happy if you're overweight.
It's not talking about that.
"Shall be made fat."
Say, "Brother Richard, there it is right there."
You know, when we're thinking of fatness, Fatness is used a lot in the Bible to describe blessing.
Leanness, you remember the dreams that Pharaoh had?
He had fat ears and lean ears, fat cows and lean cows.
And so, fatness in the Bible has the idea of being blessed with an abundance of what we desire, what we need from God.
And the first thing we learn from this is that God wants to abundantly bless His people.
God wants you to be fat.
Now, I'm not a prosperity preacher.
I'm not going to get up here and say, "God wants you to be rich," because that's not true.
He may want some people to be rich, but He wants all people to be fat.
He wants all people to be able to say, "God has blessed me better than I deserve.
I tell you what, God's been so good to me.
He sent His Son to die for me.
He saved me.
He's given me everlasting life.
I have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
King David said, "My cup runs over."
And by saying his cup runs over, it means he has an abundance of what he needs, or what he desires.
That's fatness.
Fatness is when you have abundance, more than what you need, you see.
And so, that translates into blessing.
And the first means of receiving God's gift of blessing comes by utilizing God's gift of working.
I'll say that again.
The first, the primary means of receiving God's gift of blessing comes by us utilizing God's gift of working.
There's a whole lot of blessings out there in the earth, but we have to get out and dig for them to get them.
We sure do.
And with that, we'll go ahead and close tonight.
And Lord willing, we'll take back up with the next verse next Wednesday.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
And Lord, I pray tonight, dear God, that you'll take this wise proverb tonight and help us to apply it to our lives.
Lord, we're not all capable of doing the same things, whether through our mental abilities, our physical abilities, our health, our age.
But Lord, we know this, as much as we can be diligent, we should be diligent.
And Father, I just pray to you, Lord God, that Lord, we will be diligent.
Lord, if we're bedfast and we can't do much, if we can do anything, we can at least be diligent to pray.
Diligent to care, diligent to encourage, diligent dear Lord God to mine your blessings that are deposited in your kingdom.
Father give us the soul of the diligent and make us Father be able to say like King David, "Our cup runs over."
We pray it in Jesus' wonderful name, Amen.
