Missing the Mark Series: The Sin of Laziness or Wanting the Easy Way Out

Missing the Mark Series: The Sin of Laziness or Wanting the Easy Way Out

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12 this morning. Romans chapter 12 and our text will be drawn from verse 11 this morning. We will be drawing upon that particular portion there, but I'd like to read the verses preceding it. So let's begin in verse 1, Romans chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ. And every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. Not slothful in business. Fervent in spirit. Serving the Lord.

Now let's mark our Bibles together to this portion of scripture this morning. Romans chapter 12. And let's ask the Lord to bless this portion of his word. Father, we want to pause now that we have read your word and pray, asking for the Holy Spirit's enlightening. And an illumination. Help us, Lord, to see what you're saying to us in this passage of scripture. Specifically in the portion that our hearts will focus on this morning. Help us to draw upon it in a way that will affect our living. It will affect our thinking. It will help us in the way that we see sin and truth and grace. Help us, Lord, to have a right understanding of your thoughts to us so that we might respond in a way that's pleasing to you. Bless this word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

This morning we are drawing from Romans chapter 12 and our text is found in verse 11. We read the preceding verses and I believe those verses do talk about service, pure service to the Lord and service to God. To our brothers and sisters, other members in the body of Christ. We're members one of another, it says there. We are to minister in a variety of different ways, one to another, with the gifts the Lord has bestowed upon us and gifted us with. And we do it all, are to do it all as to the Lord. The Lord's got to help our thinking, we see here. We need our thinking to be. We need our thinking to be transformed and renewed through his word so that we're not thinking our own thoughts, but we're thinking the thoughts that God would have us to think.

This is supernatural ministry. This is supernaturally empowered ministry. It's not something we can just do in the flesh. We can just do in our own strength. Well, if somebody puts their mind to it, they can do just as good as a Christian. No. You must be born again, first of all. And you must be. You must be in the vine, right? You must be one of God's children. And then you must, as one of God's children, you know, as it says here, be not conformed to this world, but instead transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can think right, you can speak right, you can act right. It's the only way you're going to be able to is by God's divine enabling.

You see, God doesn't just help us out a little bit, give us a little nudge in the right direction. No. Like we said this morning, that gratitude is because we couldn't save ourselves and we can't serve the Lord as He calls us to in His will without His divine enabling. We are absolutely dependent upon Him to enable us, not just to give us a little boost every now and then. He's not, that's not how God's grace works. No, He gives grace to the humble, doesn't He? And He resists the proud.

So here in this passage, this morning in verse 11, as I've been thinking on various ways in which we miss the mark, but how the Lord would have us to please Him and hit that mark by God's grace, God's enabling grace, we see here in verse 11 that we are not to be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Well, we can already tell right off that this is what is pleasing to the Lord, can't we? This is what will honor and please the Lord.

We've said a great deal about slothfulness in the past, but this word slothful here is an adjective in this sentence. Not slothful, not slothful in business. It means to be slow, sluggish, tardy, lazy. To be slow, something or someone that is slow, sluggish, tardy, lazy. And then we have it in the same phrase with this other word. It's told here that we are to not be slothful in something. We're not to be slothful in business. Interestingly, this word for business here is the word in the Greek that means to move quickly, to make haste. It means, it refers to an eagerness or an earnestness, a willingness or a zeal to do something.

And so, don't be sluggish and lazy in that which you need to be eager in doing. In that which you need to be eager in doing. to be fervent or you need to be eager in doing and earnest in doing. We might say that there's nowhere in scripture that we read that laziness is pleasing to God. Laziness mentally, laziness physically, you know, even laziness in our speech, every idle word, unemployed literally, words that are not employed to the glory of God that are sloppy speech, that's not pleasing to God either. And so we ought to be fervent in business, not slothful in business.

This passage, once again, is like we saw in the Sunday school hour this morning. These are not suggestions. These are not mere, you know, suggestions to us. These are imperatives that we are to take heed to, aren't they? And we know what James says about this in James 4, 7. James says, he gives us the principle anyway, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin, right? If we know to do good and we do it not, then it is to us sin. Because we didn't do what we knew to do.

Well, half-heartedness is seen in this. Don't be half-hearted. Don't be slothful in that which God calls us to be earnest in doing. I think about as a minister of the gospel, I have been given the truth that, like Paul told Timothy, that I'm not to be slothful. I wanted to just remind you of that passage in 2 Timothy 2.15. Paul told Timothy this. And you know, as a minister of the gospel, I am to set an example. This doesn't mean that only ministers are to be earnest, right? But to set the example.

2 Timothy 2.15, Paul tells Timothy there, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Well, this earnestness here is seen in this study, this diligence of study to show thyself approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth. You know, because if you don't, Timothy, if you don't give yourself holy to this, if you don't study with a heart and desire to rightly divide God's word, then what's going to happen is you're not going to rightly divide the word of God because of your laziness, because of your dependence on AI, or sermons one, two, three, or just kind of, glossing over things.

You're going, you're going, you're not going to rightly divide the word of truth unless you study to do so. It's the idea here of giving that, that earnestness, that eagerness to do something, to study it out. And so I think of what he told Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter four, verse 15. He told him here, it's very important that you rightly divide the word of truth, as he says over in 2 Timothy. But here, we can see, some of the implications of this, because in 1 Timothy 4, 15, he says this, meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.

This is to be part of your, your everyday walk, not just something that you do from time to time. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. Not only teach them, but walk in them, right? For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. We might say, sound doctrine, sound teaching matters. It matters, because if the word is not rightly divided, it matters, because if the word is not rightly divided, then there is going to be a negative impact on not only yourself, but on those that listen to you, those that hear what you say and watch what you do.

There's going to be a negative impact. And the ultimate end of that is God is not pleased with that, is He? He's not pleased with soulfulness in any of us, but it has even further reaching impacts when it's seen in those that teach. And that's why James says, Be not many masters, for we shall receive the greater condemnation. Because if we take it lightly, then others are going to take it lightly, right? Others are going to take it lightly if we don't treat it with sober mind the things that God has given to us as ministers.

This labor. This laziness. This dragging of the feet. Where does it come from? It comes from the same place that this unthankful spirit comes from we talked about this morning. This complaining. It comes from our own sinful flesh. It comes from our own heart apart from God's grace. It arises from this sinful tendency we have. This sinfulness of our own. Will. Apart from God's grace, we will do these things. We will be lazy.

You notice when they started sending out checks, you know, the economic stimulus checks, people just quit their jobs. And they thought, perhaps the government is going to take care of me. And then they didn't want to go back to work. Because the sinful flesh is lazy. It's lazy. Maybe some of us. We're brought up in more of a strict environment. And it's kind of, it's just kind of part of our nature to be diligent about certain things now because it's been so ingrained in us.

Or maybe there's certain points, and I think we can, we have four children, so we can see some tendencies there. There's certain personalities that tend to be more constructive, I guess we can say, in certain areas. And yet lazy in others. Than other siblings, perhaps. That doesn't, that does not mean that it's still not… It's still not the tendency. It's still not the proclivity of sinful man apart from God and His grace to be slothful. To be slothful.

You know, I think about the flesh being, it is like, and I think I've, we've said this before, it's like an inlet. It takes, takes, takes, takes. It wants. Give me, give me, give me, give me. Give me, give me, give me, give me. I want it for me. I want it for me. Whereas when God's grace is working in the heart of a person, and there is that trusting and obedience, we see that there is a supernatural enabling to give, give, give, give. Give. Not give so I can have a long obituary full of all the charities I've given to. That's not the kind of giving I'm talking about. Because… Just sinful flesh can do that.

But the kind of giving that truly sacrifices and says, I'm grateful to God for all He's done for me. I'll serve my brothers and sisters. I will tell the lost about the hope that we have in Christ. That kind of giving. Even if it costs me something. Even if it costs me everything in this world. I want to give because I freely received. That's the kind of, the part that God wants in us. And there is, He wants us to be zealous of these good works. He wants us to be zealous. Not lackadaisical. Not half-hearted. Not apathetic and indifferent about it. But doing it heartily. As unto the Lord.

Whatever we do. You know, whether it be ministering as we would see in that passage there. Or whether it, whether it be ministering, or whether it be exhorting, or whether it be giving, or whether it be prophesying. Whatever the gift may be, to do it as unto the Lord. But the flesh says, what's in it for me? What's easy? What's the easy way? You know, and I, can I also get a side of, everybody admires me for being lazy as well while I'm being lazy? That's the flesh.

Some people today, you that work, in the workplace, you probably, you know, at least a lot of workplaces, people now, a lot of times they look like, you ought to be glad I showed up. You know, you ought to be glad I just made it here. In body, you know, to say nothing of actually getting the work done. The Bible tells us the sluggard is full of excuses. Full of excuses. As Christians, we ought to realize there's no excuse. Other than our own sin and disobedience to God that we miss the mark. There's no excuse.

The excuses that we make are just covering, if we make them, are covering for the fact that we did not humble ourselves and ask God to help us. And ask God, if I'm a Christian today, that I did not, I did not, I did not seek God in prayer and ask Him to help because He will help me. He will enable me to do what is right. But the sluggard makes many excuses. Proverbs 13, 4 says, the soul of the sluggard desireth. You know, I'd really like to live a better Christian life. I'd really like to, I'd really like to be a better husband. I'd really like to be a better wife. Maybe someday.

You know, the soul of the sluggard, he desires. But what does it say in there? And hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. It's all of grace that we are what we are, but Paul would say that he strived according to God's working which worked in him mightily. There must be earnestness. There must be, there must be some desire or pursuit on our part. There must be some pursuit on our part. If God is going to do what he says he's going to do for us, we must want it. We must desire it. We must covet the best gifts earnestly. Isn't that what the scripture says? Covet earnestly. There must be this desire.

Well, as Christians, when we get up in the morning, when we get up in the morning, there must be this gratitude of, and humility, and not this spirit of entitlement. Well, what am I going to get out today? I hope somebody notices me. I hope somebody talks to me, calls me, writes me, whatever the case may be. Not that attitude. No, it should be the spirit of, thank God, I have another day to live. I have another opportunity to serve him. Everything that I, with everything that I've received, I want the Lord to use me as a channel of blessing in some way today. I want the Lord to help me to minister to some other today.

Well, you can see how the world will fall for the deceptions of the Antichrist, the lie. Because people are very easily enslaved and ensnared by their own lust, aren't they? By their own desire to take, take, take the handout. To take, take, take whatever's being given. Whatever the latest thing is, you know. We just give you this freebie. You do what we say. Well, that's the opposite of the Christian, isn't it? That's to be, the opposite of us. We are to be fervent in spirit, it says here.

I think about the woman, the woman, the virtuous woman, and how it says of her. Let's look over there in Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. What is, there's something, there's a lot of things said about her, but here's something specific that stands out in Proverbs 31, verse 27. It says there that she looketh well to the ways of her household. And eateth not the bread of idleness. You know what this is the exact opposite of? Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah. They were full of bread and idleness, weren't they? But the woman that fears the Lord, it says, does not eat the bread of idleness.

The woman that fears the Lord will be greatly praised, but she doesn't seek the praise. She fears the Lord. And we see that as it says here in this verse, it tells us of this woman that she is looking well. She looketh well to the ways of her household. She's diligent. She's diligent to, with the things that are under her stewardship. The things that are in her lap. The things that God has given for her to do, she does them well. She is not slothful in business. But instead she is, we might say, fervent in spirit.

Remember that passage? Whether therefore, 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Do all to the glory of God. If it's worth doing, it must be done well. It must be done with all of the heart. We've talked about before the Protestant work ethic. That's based on a lot of the truths we glean from Scripture, aren't they? Isn't it? The Protestant work ethic. We're just stewards of these things. We're going to do it with all of our might to the glory of God. Not simply with eye service as men-pleasers because the boss is looking or because, you know, I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to get caught. No, I want to do it fervent in spirit serving the Lord. I want to fervently do this.

It's interesting. This word fervent is a word that literally means to be hot or to boil. To be hot or to boil. As it pertains to water, it would be like a rolling boil in water. Or, I understand that if it was referring to heat, it would be glowing, metal glowing with heat like a blacksmith could work with. The heat is, or the metal is heated up to a point that it can be malleable and used, shaped into something. The Greek word, we get even the word zeal from, ultimately, from this word. But, you think about a, you know, boiling water. This is not boiling out of control, but it's accomplishing. If you boil water, you're usually boiling it for some purpose. Well, you're going to use that water, that boiling water to clean something or you're going to use that boiling water to accomplish something. Of course, larger scale, when you get to the point of steam, you might, in the old days, have a steam engine that's going to, you know, the steam and the heat is going to propel that train down the tracks. There's many applications we can think of with that. Just like we can think of good uses for fire versus arsonist type uses of fire.

But, this word, fervent in spirit means that we do not approach life as if it's a drudgery. Service to the Lord is not a drudgery and a drag. Well, I've got to do this. You know, we've talked about even coming to church. May the Lord help us. We don't just come to church out of tradition, right? You can do certain things. You can read your Bible just because well, it's just a traditional thing I do. But, we need to be fervent in spirit when we read the Bible. We need to be fervent in our spirit when we're praying to the Lord. This is not just charismatism or being charismatic, no. But, it is a it reveals a earnest desire for God to get the glory through this and for others to be edified through it.

I think about what we read when we were going through 1 John chapter 5, 1 John and we were in chapter 5 and verse 3 there's that very good, very very good to recall often verse not that all of them aren't, but this one I have brought back to the Lord has brought it back to my mind I believe a number of times, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous. His commandments are not heavy and burdensome. They're not something, some heavy weight that we've got to carry around because we've got to do it because the boss is looking kind of attitude. They're not grievous. Unless we're resisting God's will in our lives, unless we say I want to do what I want to do. Yeah, they become a burden to us if we don't want, we just say I want to do what I want to do. That's what the sinful flesh says,

but I thought of the words of I read a while back from Horatius Bonar. He said tis not for man to trifle life is brief. And sin is here. Our age is but the falling of a leaf, a dropping tear. We have not time to sport away the hours. All must be earnest in a world like ours. All must be earnest in a world like ours. Is that not true? Is that not true in the world we live in

and yet have you ever seen more distractions, more distractions, diversions? There is always, always, always, always some, you could stay you could stay engaged in sports 24-7 if you wanted to. You can stay engaged in, I'm not saying the sports in itself, in and of itself are evil. I'm not saying that. But anything can be taken to taken to a controlling point where it is an idol in our lives. And there are so many, possible idols out there that could just consume the life. And that's not, people are earnest about many of those things, but that's not what we are to be earnest about. And that's not what we are to be fervent about in our spirit. But we are to be fervent in serving the Lord.

We notice that Paul in Colossians chapter 2, if you look over there with me, Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 12. In verse number 12, Colossians 2 verse number 12, he says that we are buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Well, we've been we were dead in our sins, but we've been buried with Christ in baptism and as it says here, by faith we've been raised from the dead. And we have now been quickened together with Christ. Having been forgiven of all trespasses. We're sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's our standing. That's our position in Christ. And now we are called to set our affection. We read that first verse this morning in that passage, be not conformed to this world. But we're to set our affection on things above. Not on things on the earth. Our our our We're to set our affection on things above. Our thinking. Our our energies are to be set toward those things which are above. Those things which are pleasing to God.

How many times have we missed the mark of what God wants in this particular truth? How many times have we been lazy because about the things we ought to be earnest about because we said, my will. I want to do my will. I want to do what feels good to me. I want to do what pleases me. And we might not have said, you know, necessarily thought in our minds, I'm raising my fist to God, but in so many ways we are saying no to Him. I want to do what I want to do. I want to think about this situation the way I want to think about it. But instead, we are, we are called here to serve the Lord. We are not our own. We have been raised to walk in newness of life, the Scripture says. We were the servants of sin, the slaves of sin. What fruit had we then in those things where we are now ashamed being made dead to sin. We are now made alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we are, we are called the servants of Christ. We need to live as those that are alive from the dead, that we should no longer serve sin, but we should serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want us to see, even as we think back to the Sunday school hour this morning, can you not, can you, can't you see, can't we see in this, this, this humble, gratitude for all that God has done for us, should propel and should, should feed this thankful heart that now earnestly wants to serve the Lord. Not out of compulsion, but out of, out of just a humble, a humbled gratitude and desire. Lord, thank you. We observe the Lord's Supper just this past, week. And in that, we did it in remembrance of what our Lord has done for us. My body, I've broken for you, was broken for you. My blood was shed on that cross for your missing the mark. For, for your missing the mark. And yet, we've now, we've now been set in heavenly places in Christ. It's just a matter of time before we're, the Lord either calls us home in death or comes back for us in the rapture. It's just a matter of time.

We must follow our Lord Jesus Christ's example. What did he do? He said, we must work while it is day. I must work while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work. The night comes when, when our opportunity, our window of opportunity will be gone to serve the Lord on this earth. Yes, the scripture talks about his servant shall serve him even in heaven. But there are, I wonder if, I wonder if our opportunities for service there will be affected by how we serve here. By how we live for the Lord here on this earth. What, you know, will there be given more opportunities to those? I don't know. I'm not saying that that's definite. But I, I just wonder.

I think about that woman. That woman that wiped the Lord's hair with her feet, to whom much is forgiven much is loved. It was not that the Lord had not forgiven us all of grave sins and missing the mark, but but she realized her earnest desire her, her fervent spirit was moved and and motivated by by the deep gratitude and humility she had before the Lord. The sight of her sin and yet the fact that now look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. That's like the woman at the well. Come, see a man that told me all that ever I did. I imagine she was excited when she said that. I imagine she was fervent in spirit when she went into town and it got people up off of their all of their seats and they went out and they wanted to find out what this was about. The miracle of a change that's been to be seen in a redeemed soul.

Well we ought to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Whatever we do we need to do it as unto the Lord. Not to be seen of men. Not to what we're doing in serving the Lord is not accruing merit before him. No, it is a response to his unmerited favor toward us. Is it not? Is it not? A response to his undeserved grace. Well, if I think the picture is clear here in this passage this morning. If we do not have the appreciation we ought to have for all that the Lord's done for us we will be soft. We'll be lazy. We will not be about the Lord's business. We'll drag our feet. We'll go through motions. But it will not be in our heart as it ought to be. It will not be as it ought to be in our heart.

May God help us to hate in ourselves we certainly hate it in others don't we? Hate in ourselves slothfulness. May God help us to hate the laziness of mind. That would keep us from meditating on the Lord. I was speaking with a brother this week and he said the more I he said when you get into God's words and you put your ankles in it's like I want to get up to my knees in it then. I want to get up to my waist in it. I want to get further into it. He said it's a sad thing that you know even the years that have been wasted in not having that desire. Having that earnestness. Fervent kind of desire for God and His word and for serving Him. And I just thought about that of how true it is.

How true it is when one of the most effective tools the devil can tempt us with is just to keep us busy, busy, busy with many things and we say well I got this and I got that to do. The good ground is those having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit. That's what God wants. God wants us to be fervent in our spirits serving Him. In the things that He's already revealed to us. He wants us to meditate on His word day and night so we might be a fruitful tree. Bringing forth fruit in season.

And yet what does the devil keep doing? He feeds. I don't want to just blame it all on the devil but He is the God of this world. He feeds men. He keeps them slaves to their own desires. Doesn't He? He feeds them with you know here's another convenience. Here's something that you don't even have to lift a finger. And it's a prison of one's own making. May we not be caught up in all of that.

You know we use this world but we better not abuse it the scripture says. Not abuse it. Let's be careful. Walk circumspectly and be careful to give. I've heard some of the older saints say that and we'll be careful to give thee the glory. Careful. May we be careful to give, to serve the Lord in what we do. Not being lazy. Not reverting back to the old lazy ways of the flesh. But being earnest in business. Being not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord.

Let's pray. Father thank you for these moments we've had in your word. I know from my own personal life the tendencies and the proclivities Lord to go to be spiritually mentally, physically lazy slothful. Lord deliver us from our own our own tendencies Lord. Our own sinful ways that we might we might truly prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God in our lives. As living sacrifices. Help us to do that Lord in our as we respond to thee in our day by day walk. May there be this burning desire Lord that we would not be we would hate that laziness. Hate that slothfulness. As David would say if there be any wicked way in me. Well that's part of that wicked way. And lead me in the way everlasting. We pray these things. We ask them in Jesus name. Amen.