Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious word and turn the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 15, God willing, we'll be expounding verse 19 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 15 in verse 19.
Trying to get my notes to load.
Here it is.
That's how the message tonight is the prickly path.
The prickly path We start off with the two words of the way.
We've learned a lot about the way, haven't we, as we've been studying through Proverbs?
And remember that means a road.
It's why we call it a road way.
So when you see the word way in the book of Proverbs, or any other place in the Bible, then many, many times it's going to mean a roadway or a path.
So every day we live Since we live in in the the the um continuum of time, time, space matter.
Since we live in that continuum, then each day we live, it's marching us forward.
Time doesn't go backwards, does it?
Time goes forward.
So as time goes forward and us living in the the continuum of time, then time moves us forward.
So as we move forward in time The way or the path that we travel is uh is uh The it con the it's our direction in life and the choices that we make constitute that direction that we travel that way or road that we're on.
And there's essentially, I've told you before, there's only two religions in this world.
Only two.
You have the way that God established for us to come to Him through His Son.
And you have any other way that deviates from that.
So uh so you have Christ and not Christ You have Christ and man.
It's the same false religion, just with a different package on the outside.
But when you open it up, it's the same old thing on the inside.
And so That being the case, there's essentially only two roads or two ways that every person travels.
The way God's Word tells us to go, and the way that's contrary to God's word.
And the first way or road that Solomon's considering tonight in this verse is the way or the road, look in your text now, of the slothful man.
The slothful man.
Well, Solomon talks a lot about that in the Proverbs And as always, there's a physical application or an earthly application to what we learn in the Proverbs, and there's a heavenly, eternal, spiritual application as well.
But the Hebrew word that's translated as slothful here, we've looked at it before, but it literally means to lean idly.
To lean idly, like this.
Just kind of lean and doing nothing.
That's the slothful man.
Someone that's got that kind of attitude, that kind of action, someone who leans idly And I've told y'all before about uh when I leave work certain days of the week, I pass by this place that hands out free food to people.
And I'm always amazed at the people Who are there waiting on their free meal, waiting for those doors to open?
Do you think they're standing here like this?
No.
Like this?
No.
In fact, they're almost not standing ever standing at all They're either laying down sleeping.
They got their little blanket laid out there, either in the grass or on the front porch in front of the door.
Laying down doing nothing.
So they're either leaning on the ground, on the concrete, leaning up against a wall, leaning up against a support post uh and and either sleeping or playing on their phones usually waiting on their free meal And while in this condition, they're producing nothing for society.
Nothing for themselves.
Nothing for anybody else.
They're takers.
They're not givers.
In in this leaning idly state, they're Serving no purpose in life at all.
Nothing.
This accomplishes nothing for nobody.
Nothing.
We've seen lazy people like that.
There's a man uh that uh couple of men I've I've talked to here in the recent past that that are talking about people they know that When they get up and go to work, people that live in their homes, when they get up and go to work, the person's asleep.
When they come home, the person's asleep.
Or they're they're laying around in bed doing nothing.
And it wouldn't until it's time to eat or something like that.
Just laying around doing nothing And in Matthew chapter 20, verses 1 through 6, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms what God thinks about leaning idly.
What he thinks about the slothful man.
He says this in uh in that text, for the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder.
Which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his venue.
Now the householder here is Jesus Okay?
And and uh Jesus is likened to a lot of things in the Bible.
And here he's likened unto a householder, a master of a house.
Then he's going out early in the morning.
Notice that.
Early in the morning.
You know what you do when you go out early in the morning?
You get all the benefit of the full day when you get an early start.
We used to hear old timers say, man, you're wasting daylight, you know?
Well, Jesus doesn't waste any daylight And he went out early in the morning to do what?
To hire laborers.
What does that tell us?
Jesus not only doesn't want us wasting daylight, but he wants us working.
He wants us producing something and he was going to hire laborers into his vineyard, meaning you you he do he wants you to work for the right person doing the right kind of work, right?
And that's the spiritual application of that.
Every single one of us should be busy working for the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no time in our life I heard someone refer to it as the Moses retirement plan the other day.
Um, but uh and whatever you call it. is Moses worked until God took him home.
You know, literally, he worked until God took him home.
So did uh the the the the prophets and the apostles and all I tell you, for me, I know if God keeps letting me live, I'm not going to be standing in this pulpit forever.
I'm going to tell y'all My wife, somebody.
If I ever get up here and start rambling and I can't make sense anymore, someone needs to tell me to You know, go do something else.
It's time.
Your time's past, you know?
And because we don't want to do that, but I tell you what One thing about old Brother Hensley.
When Brother Hensley got out of the pulpit, and when Brother Hensley got to where, you know, he he was losing some of his mental faculties.
That man would be up here emptying trash.
He'd be up here cleaning out this flyer bed.
He'd be visiting people in the hospital.
That man worked till God took him home.
Miss Hinsley worked till God took her home.
I want to work till God takes me home.
I never want to retire on God.
If Jesus cares enough to go out early in the morning to hire labors, That shows us he cares about daylight.
But you know what?
Not only does he want us to start to serve him early in life.
If he cares about daylight, he wants to serve us until that sun goes down.
Brother, we'd just stay right there and just preach the rest of the night on that, couldn't we?
He says, and when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, that's poor inflation, said a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
We could talk on that more, but that's making them equip.
And he went out.
About the third hour, and saw others, watch this, standing idle in the marketplace.
There you go.
Look what they're doing Standing idle in the marketplace.
Man, when you're in the marketplace, you don't want to stand idle.
Marketplace is a place to be busy.
He sees them standing idle.
And said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.
What does that tell us?
Jesus wants everybody to work at his vineyard.
You don't have to worry about being unqualified. to work in Jesus' vineyard.
He'll make you qualified.
He'll take care of all the qualifications.
He just wants you to go work to do what He's gifted you to be able to do.
He says whatsoever is right.
I will give you.
He didn't say you do this and you do that.
He said, whatever's right, I'll give you.
And they went their way.
Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour.
You see that He wants all the daylight to be used for his glory.
Not just the daylight of our life, but But the the the the the time from the beginning of the earth until the very end, he wants it all to be used for his glory.
He wants us to be busy He says he went out about the sixth hour the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise, and about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle.
There he goes again, seeing more standing idle this late, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
In this parable, Jesus makes it clear that he wants people to labor in his kingdom.
And when he found these people that were wasting his time His daylight.
Standing idle, doing nothing for him, contributing nothing to his kingdom.
He had one question for those idle people.
Why stand ye here all the day idle?
And if you're not laboring for Jesus, then he has the same question for you.
Why?
Why?
I've given you the daylight.
I've given you the breath.
I'm keeping your heart beating.
I'm leaving you here on earth.
Why aren't you laboring for me?
Why are you wasting the precious time I've given you here on earth?
In our text tonight, Solomon is telling us about the great deception of idleness.
Did you know idleness is deceiving?
Idleness is very deceiving.
And here's how it deceives.
People generally don't work for one reason.
You say, well, maybe they don't work because they don't like money.
No, that's not the reason.
People who don't work, they'll take your money.
I'll tell you why people generally don't work.
They don't work to make things easy on themselves.
People, by their carnal nature, are always going to take the path of least resistance.
Whatever is easiest for them, they'd rather Stay idled, then put forth effort, because effort makes you tired.
Uh if you if you work, it means you're responsible for something.
They don't want responsibility.
That's why a lot of people church hop.
They'll go from place to place.
They don't want to settle down because if they stay someplace too long, they're afraid someone's going to ask them, hey, would you mind doing this?
Man, I tell you, when I've gone to churches over the past 30 years, I'd be like, can I do this?
Can I do this?
I'd be wanting to do something.
But a lot of people aren't like that.
And they they don't they don't want to be responsible for anything.
They want to stand idle spiritually, like those people waiting on the free meal.
They want to come hear a sermon.
But they don't want to contribute to their fellow brethren.
They don't want to labor and try to reach others for the Lord Jesus Christ out in the world to go in the world and and preach the gospel. to every creature and and uh uh but but people whether it's spiritual work, whether it's earthly physical work, they generally don't work to make things easy on themselves.
They would rather take it easy have no responsibility and have plenty of time to play.
A lot of times uh I see uh I see people who are wasting God's time doing silly things in some of these megachurches.
I saw a pastor the other day in a megachurch.
They had the stage all fixed up with his sermon series and uh big, big signs and everything.
And here he comes. driving into the church, driving up on the stage in a million-dollar sports car and getting out of that million-dollar sports car And while he was getting out, they got fog coming up on the stage.
Fog.
Like at a rock concert or something.
And you just think the people ate and they drank and they rose up to play.
It brings me back to what happened there when they left Egypt coming out. of uh coming out of Egypt there in Mount Sinai.
That's what the Bible said they did.
They they ate, they drank, and they rose up to play.
And that's what people would rather do.
But the deception is this.
Solomon is letting us know that taking it easy doesn't make the road easier.
We'll say that again.
Taking it easy doesn't make the road any easier.
It actually makes it more difficult to travel.
Taking it easy doesn't make an easy life.
Burn that into your conscience.
On the contrary, Solomon said, the way of the slothful man, look back in your text, is an hedge It's a hedge.
Now, you know what a hedge is?
Well, I mean, we've trimmed hedges.
If you're going to walk down a road, you're not going to want the road to be filled full of hedges.
Especially when it's this kind of hedge.
I mean I've walked a lot of roads in my life.
I don't want a hedge, especially one that's a hedge, look back in your text, of thorns You don't want a hedge.
Boy, those uh holly shrubs.
You remember those?
Those used to be real popular around houses, keep burgers from Coming through the windows and whatnot.
But uh there's all kinds.
This this here is thorns, and it's talking about a hedge of thorns and a A hedge is something that entwines the person who's trying to walk through it.
And you sure don't want to be entwined with a hedge of thorns.
When I was a young highway patrol trooper, I stopped a drunk driver out on a country road one night and uh when and when I did the sobriety test on him and everything and finally he realized I'm about to get arrested And so realizing he was about to get arrested, he took off running, trying to get away.
But just like his choice to drink and drive, His choice for the the the pathway that he uh tried to escape on was not a wise one.
Because he ran from me as hard as he could, as fast as he could, right into a hedge of thorns.
I'm telling you right into a hedge of thorn.
It was a thicket, man.
It would have got that ram for sure.
That ram would have been caught in the thicket by his horns for sure in this.
And uh He just ran right through there.
And he stuck.
Now he's stuck.
And I started going after him and I realized this is a hedge of thorns.
Or I think I call I think it I probably call it a briar patch, you know.
It's the same thing.
And uh I sure didn't want to go in there after him.
Well he couldn't go any further.
He was entwined by those thorns.
And so he had to find him another path to escape and ended up doing just as bad as that one.
He tripped in a hole.
Bless his heart.
How can I finish the story real quick?
I promise it won't take long.
I never told him.
The man asked me not to tell.
When that man tripped and he fell and he landed on his face There was another man come out of a house nearby, jumped on top of him, and helped me handcuff him.
That man was The drunk driver's brother.
He said, please, please don't tell him it was me.
I said, I won't tell him.
I never did.
But uh contrary. to what a slothful person thinks.
The easy life makes a prickly life every time.
The easy life will make a harder life every time.
During the summer, between church work and secular work, I have very little time for yard work.
But I've learned, because if if I do to church and work and sometimes on Saturdays, I it it just especially if it rains and you can't mow that Saturday and then it just keeps going.
I've learned that it's much easier to cut the grass more often Than it is to cut it less often.
It's much easier to just maintain the grass than it is to work less and let it grow up and turn into a mess.
It's easier for me to work more than less.
You see how that works?
That's not just for your yard That applies in almost every instance in life.
It's actually easier to work consistently more then sporadically less.
Last week I had two different people call the church Asking for us to buy them a motel room for the night.
Two different people.
One man said, uh um, yeah, sir, I I'm sitting I'm sitting out here in the Walmart parking lot right now He said, I'd like to um meet you in person about a particular matter, if you don't mind.
And when they when they won't tell you what they want, you can almost always know right then they won't they want money.
I said, well, sir, what's what's the matter about?
Well, he wanted a hotel room for the night.
And I tell you what, it must be difficult.
No, I did not go meet him at Walmart.
But it must be difficult to not have a safe clean bed to sleep in at night.
I'm glad I have a safe, clean bed to sleep in at night.
But in case anyone out there is wondering, or anyone out there on the internet's wondering tonight, if you happen to be listening.
And if you happen to be thinking about asking me to buy you a hotel room like this man, here's a piece of advice.
Now you think about it You think about that man.
You will have a much greater chance of having a roof over your head by working inside Walmart in the store. than sitting outside Walmart in the parking lot.
That's not rocket science But as clear and simple as that is for us to understand, people would rather lean idle.
Because it seems like it's so much easier to do this.
But when it comes time to sleep and have a place to lay your head at night.
It doesn't get easy then.
Maybe when the weather's good, it's a lot easier.
But when it's hot, when it's cold, then all that idling that you did is going to make a hedge of thorns for you to travel in.
At first the road of idleness has seemed so much more smooth, the road of idleness seems so much more pleasant, but after a while you're going to run into a hedge of thorns Which is what most of those people that call are in.
Sitting idle doesn't pay the bills Sitting idle doesn't put a roof over your head.
Sitting idle doesn't give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
And I I've heard of Uh I've heard um many, I've I've listed a lot of older people in my years.
Um some that uh seemed old to me, but when the closer I get they I realize they really weren't that old uh when I've heard them, but I've heard a lot of able-bodied older people, able-bodied senior citizens complain about how hard it is to live on Social Security alone.
And when I hear them complain about how hard it is to live on, I'm talking about able-bodied senior citizens When I hear them talk about how hard it is to live on Social Security alone, I think to myself, then why are you living on Social Security alone?
If it's that difficult.
Do you know why when they're saying it's so hard to live on a fixed income?
Well then unfix it.
Unfix it.
You know, if if uh if uh uh you know you you're you're having as soon as you retire and you get a pension, if you quit working, you're on a fixed income.
But all you have to do is start working and suddenly you're not on a fixed income.
It's that simple.
But but I I think why are you living on social security alone?
You see, when you're in when you're 62 Or for some people it's maybe it was sixty.
But you know you can start drawing uh you know if you was born at my my time, you can start drawing at sixty-two and when when you're sixty-two it seems like a a great idea.
If you you know you have no other savings in life, no other source of income coming in anywhere, it may seem like a great idea to stop working when you're 62 and and live off Social Security alone.
But if you're in a hedge of thorns now and you're finding it difficult to live off Social Security alone, then why aren't you at least working part-time now?
I don't get it.
I really don't understand it.
But I've seen people complain like that.
They have no trouble getting around.
And last night, it was last night.
Tammy and I had the privilege of voting, and uh and my parents happened to come in to vote at the same time.
And so it was it was really nice.
And so I thought, well, instead of me driving home, because Tammy was in a different vehicle and my parents in a different vehicle, I thought instead of driving home, I'll wait for them to finish voting.
So I sat down And I told this pole worker, there's a, he looked like he was, y'all say early 80s, the pole worker you think I was talking to?
It looked like he was in his early 80s, and and uh I said, hey I'm just gonna hang out with you and while while I'm waiting on my family to finish uh voting.
So he pulled up a chair next to me and boy we're I I made a friend.
He was a really, really nice fellow.
And uh And I enjoyed it so much.
And, you know, he was getting paid $12 an hour.
To work the polls.
That's how much they pay in Henderson County, by the way.
If you ever want to work a poll, $12 an hour.
Gotta be $18.
You want to go work a poll?
$12 an hour.
His wife was there with him.
Now they're bringing home $24 an hour And he said, you know, I really like coming up here.
He said, to me, I get camaraderie.
I'm here with the community, you know, and uh and it was it was really nice.
And I watched the man, I want to tell you, I could have done his job.
Because all he had to do was when someone walked in, he just had to stand up, say, uh go right around this corner, make sure you have your IDs ready and your cell phones on silent, please.
That's it.
Twelve bucks an hour.
Then sit back down.
And rest till the next person comes in.
But you know, at 80-something years old After enjoying a roughly eight-hour shift, he and his wife were going to bring home roughly $200 or so in their pockets that they would not have had.
Had they just wrung their hands and sit at the house and say, oh, we're on a fixed income.
Well, they fixed it for themselves if they were in that position.
If you're disabled, that's a different thing But if God still gives you the ability to get up and move and go, the way of the slothful is a hedge of thorns.
Look back in your text and we'll finish up and go home.
But the way of the righteous is made plain.
It's made plain.
Now notice it says comparing slothfulness to righteousness.
You see that?
Do you know what we learned from that?
We learned that slothfulness is unrighteous, and righteousness is not being slothful.
So it is a righteous thing to God to not lean idly, but to be producing. at every stage of your life producing something for the kingdom of God.
If you got enough money, then produce for the kingdom.
Be out like my mom and like Miss Ann's going to do tomorrow.
Be out and put books out or or or or or or go visit the sick In your church, we we've got some people that uh in our church that write notes cards to people who are sick or who they haven't seen in church in a while and they'll mail them to them.
And I've heard back from those folks that received the cards and they were so thankful.
There's ways you can help minister to the body of Christ.
Things that you'll be good at that other people aren't good at.
But it righteousness is not idleness.
Righteousness is in to be industrious.
It's making the time that God's given you count for the kingdom.
And also, so you won't be in need, but you'll have to give to others who need it, especially the kingdom of God.
It says the way of the righteous is made plain.
Now that word plain does not mean obvious.
It does not mean obvious.
Sometimes plain can mean obvious.
Sometimes plain can mean um.
Unobstructed.
You ever heard the Great Plains?
Right?
Now Would you call, would you call going to the uh the Ozark Mountains?
Would you look and say, boy, listen look at those plains, would you?
You wouldn't say that.
Why?
Because there's big obstructions But if it's flat, then the road, the way is what?
It's plane.
So we call it a plane.
And so it says here That the way of the righteous is made plain.
It's not plain.
Look what it says.
It doesn't say the way of the righteous is plain.
It says the way of the righteous is made plain.
And that word plain or made plain, that Hebrew word literally means To raise up.
And in this context, it means this right here.
Let's say that we're walking down a road and there's a big rock right here.
Or there's a big briar patch or something like this.
And I've been down and I pick that rock up and I chunk it over there.
Or I get me a shovel.
And I pull up that briar patch by the root and I throw it over there.
Now what I'm doing is removing the obstructions through my industrious labor.
And I'm making my way plain.
In other words, by working hard, I'm making it easier on myself.
And that's that's the mindset that God's trying to get into our hearts here in the Bible.
Isaiah chapter 57 verse 14.
Isaiah 57 verse 14 says that those who trust in the Lord, quote, shall say, Cast ye up Cast ye up, prepare the way, that's the road, take up the stumbling block out of the way, the road of my people.
So in that text They're preparing a way.
They're paving a road.
And how are they removing stumbling blocks?
How are they removing. . . stones and things for people to trip over by casting them up.
He says, cast ye up, cast ye up.
That's the same word in Proverbs that's translated, made plain.
The way of the righteous cast up.
It prepares the road and chunks those obstacles out of the way.
So be industrious.
Get ahead of the problems.
When we work, when we're not idle, we're casting up, we're taking away, and we're removing the stumbling blocks out of the road that we're traveling on every time we go to work.
We're removing the hedge of thorns and other obstacles that otherwise would stand in our way of doing things for the Lord or or or being able to pay our bills had we not worked to remove them.
And this doesn't simply go again for finances, this goes for anything in our lives where we should have the drive and the foresight to work ahead of time to prevent problems. that may lie ahead for us rather than sit around and do nothing about them and wait on those problems to come and then when they do come We either complain about them or blame them on someone else.
I I I I prophesied this week at work, not literally prophesied, but I said this week at work.
I've been haven't y'all been paying attention to the riots there in France, in Italy?
Pay close attention, because that's what they want to do here.
And I was watching those rights and I was talking to the fellows at work.
Because there's a lot of pressure on Macron.
I said, you watch.
I bet he'll find some way to blame Donald Trump for those riots The very next day.
That's exactly what he did.
That's exactly what he did.
Never mind.
That you allow all these people to come in here who want to destroy you And you do nothing about it.
You know what he you know what Macron has now?
You know what France has now?
They have a hedge of thorns.
Because they did nothing about it when they could have.
And taking the lazy way out, I said it doesn't just go for finance, it goes for anything.
Taking the lazy way out and not tackling something ahead of time, they now have a head of thorns.
I'll close with this.
Kicking a can down the road doesn't clear the roadway.
It just makes the can get bigger by the mile.
And that we'll go ahead and close.
Thank you, Lord, for such a uh clear teaching in your word, Lord, that your your scriptures, Father, Lord, it they they always paint for us such a A true and vivid picture, Father, of what real life is.
Thank you, Lord, that we don't have some kind of mystical uh pie in the sky scriptures to read, Lord, we have the real rubber meet the road facts from our God.
Thank you for speaking to us truth and not sugarcoating anything, Lord.
Thank you for giving us wisdom in your word And we pray, Father God, will apply this to each of our hearts.
We pray once again for every prayer request mentioned tonight and for every single person here and watching online tonight for your great blessings to be upon them.
In Jesus wonderful name we pray, Amen.
