Sunday 03 • 03 • 19

Good morning. The scripture reading today is from Proverbs 26:13-17.

The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road. There is a lion in the streets." As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like the one who takes a passing dog by the ears. — Proverbs 26:13-17

The next scripture reading is from Hebrews 6:9-12.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end. So that you may not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. — Hebrews 6:9-12

The word of the Lord.

Well, good morning. Just to remind you, we are doing a sermon series on the seven deadly sins. We kicked that off last week. Jeff Bradford gave us a lot to think about with regard to envy. He introduced this series, and I'm going to hit some of the highlights of his introduction just to remind you.

The seven deadly sins are not a biblical list. This is not something that we've pulled out of the Bible somewhere in Proverbs or in the gospels where Jesus says, "Hey, these are the seven deadly sins." The seven deadly sins is a list that developed over time through church history, particularly in ascetic communities where those who were very sincerely trying to live out their faith started to notice there was this list of sins that, while they weren't the worst in terms of the damage they did to the world or to others around them, were described as particularly deadly because they're kind of sneaky. They erode at your very soul. They push back against the very trajectory of faith in your life. Over time, the church has become really fascinated with these things.

Several of you this week sent me some pictorial representations of the seven deadly sins, and that was quite entertaining for me. It actually sent me on a side trail of investigation, looking up what the pictorial representations of sloth specifically are, since that's what we're looking at today. What I found was sloth was probably the hardest one to draw. All the other ones, you could look at them and immediately know what they were, but with sloth, the pictorial representations were really different. There was no specifically unifying aspect to them. There was some sense of laziness and slowness. I saw one pictorial representation where there was a T-shirt. There are T-shirts for all the seven deadly sins, in case you want to get one. The one for sloth was a picture of the animal, right? The sloth. And it said, "Sloth, the cutest of the seven deadly sins." So if you want to get that one, that might be dangerous.

The Invisible Sin

I do want to highlight that sloth is kind of the invisible member of this group. It's invisible for two reasons, I think. One reason is it's defined more by what you're not doing than by what you are doing. The other sins have very clear sinful actions that surround them. Sloth is less an action. It's more an inaction.

It's also true of sloth that the more you look for it in yourself, the more you examine yourself and try to weed it out, the harder it becomes to see. I'll explain what I mean by that in a minute.

When I was a kid, I hated horror films. I hate all horror films to this day. I like to know that the good guys are going to win at the end. I don't want to go into a movie where I'm not assured of that. The movies that were particularly disturbing to me as a kid were movies where the bad guy was invisible. You get to the end of the movie—it's a horror movie, so the bad guy wins most of the time—and because the bad guy was invisible, you wonder, "Is he here? Is he here?" Like Predator, right? He could totally disappear. You worry, are there aliens just hiding? Like ghosts. Or specifically disturbing to my kids—they ask me all the time, "Does our house have any ghosts?" I'm like, "I don't know. How do you know?"

You can't see it. Can't see a ghost. So, sloth is like that. Sloth is invisible. It's hard to see. It sneaks up on you very slowly and it sucks you in and sucks the life out of you. It's easier to see it in its manifestation.

So this is our outline for this morning. I want to look at two presenting cases of sloth to help highlight what it looks like when it plays out in your life. And then, having looked at that, I think we can start to see some shimmering outline of what it really is. So I want to look at the common roots of sloth, what it is, and then I want to talk about how the gospel frees us from sloth. And then I want to end with some application. It's pretty straightforward—kind of how all sermons go, right? Problem, gospel, solution. Yay. Worship.

So the two presenting cases of sloth, I want to call them the two Zs of sloth. Do you see what I did there? It's not often that you have alliteration in a sermon that begins with Z. So I just want you to recognize the hard work that I put into this.

The Two Zs of Sloth

The first Z of sloth is lazy. This is the most common thing that we think of when we think of sloth. In fact, in the English language, the word sloth is kind of synonymous with laziness. Let's look at our passages here. We can kind of see this very clearly. The Proverbs passage begins with these three verses.

The sluggard says, there is a lion in the road. There is a lion in the streets. — Proverbs 26:13

So that's the first picture of sloth. You've got this person who's in his house or her house and they're like, I can't leave because there's a lion in the road. Now, you read commentators and what they kind of say about this is that this is not a sincere concern for safety. This is an excuse. You can kind of think about it how Raleigh thinks about icy weather. Don't go out. Cold rain is coming. It might be icy. Whatever you do, stay at home. I'm kind of mocking the city of Raleigh. Sometimes, you know, there's safety concerns. Don't drive when it's icy. We struggle with that when icy weather comes. It's hard to predict the weather. But what's pictured here is not somebody who has a sincere concern for their safety. Lions typically were in the forests or in the jungles, not in the streets. So this is a person who is saying, hey, I don't want to go to work today because of some imagined danger that exists out there. So you have a person who instead of leaving the house, instead of engaging in the fullness of life, stays huddled up because of some imagined fear. That's your first picture of the lazy manifestation of sloth.

Secondly, look at verse 14.

As the door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. — Proverbs 26:14

Now, Solomon, the author of Proverbs, he's focusing in on mocking the sluggard. It starts with something somewhat reasonable—hey, there's a danger out there, so I'm not going to leave. But now it's starting to get worse. The sluggard stays in his bed. He can't be troubled to get out of the comfort of his own covers and the softness of his bed. And instead, he just kind of rolls around like a door on his hinge trying to find the most comfortable position in his bed rather than getting up, engaging in life, and going out and experiencing the fullness of it. So it's the comfort of your own bed that's incredibly lazy. But then it gets worse.

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. — Proverbs 26:15

This is the most incredible picture of laziness that you could possibly imagine. Someone has put the sluggard's hand in the dish of food. I just can't bring it to my mouth. That is the ultimate picture of laziness.

Now, to be clear, Solomon in this passage, he's writing to his sons. He's trying to discourage them from inactivity of life. And we tend to think about sloth and laziness specifically with regard to physical activities, our jobs, things of that nature. Historically though, this deadly sin is talked about in the context of our spiritual life and development. So it's not so much a deadly sin in that, you know, I don't want to get out of bed or I don't want to go to my job or I don't want to engage in the fullness of life. Although that is part of it, because there is something spiritual about the life that God has called us to, our jobs, and all of these things. But it's not just about that. It's about the spiritual engagement that God has called us to, and when sloth is applied to that, it becomes particularly deadly, says the church.

You see this more clearly in the Hebrews passage. Listen to that again.

Starting in verse 10:

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish. — Hebrews 6:10-12

The author of Hebrews has just spent the beginning of chapter six warning about falling away from the faith. Now, instead, he's saying, "Hey, I'm shifting my focus from the warning to what you're called to. You're called to work—a work that God has called you to. That's a beautiful work that you will be rewarded for. God sees your work and cares about that. You're to be earnest and diligent in this. You're not to be sluggish in exercising the outgrowth of your faith."

Now, you think about that for just a second, and this has all kinds of convicting application. Just strap in because I'm about to move from preaching to meddling. I'm coming for all of you. That's what this sermon series is designed for. Don't feel like I'm individually picking on anyone. Every single person in this room is about to feel uncomfortable.

The Work God Has Called Us To

Think about the work that God has called us to. He has called us to both conquer and subdue the earth—the creation mandate when He created us to be fruitful and multiply. There's a sense in which our job and all of our lives are a part of our calling. But He also called us to go and make disciples of all nations, preaching the gospel, to see fruit in the mission of the redemptive work of God. He's called you to see that in your own heart, to engage in personal discipleship, to thrust yourself into being transformed by the gospel more and more into the image of Christ.

That is the work that God has called us to. That's the thing that we're not supposed to be sluggish for. But yet, there's a sense in which a lot of us, well, if we're honest, we tend to be.

The Lions in the Street

Let me just mess with you a little bit. I can't tell you how often I hear from individuals in this church when we start talking about church planting: "That sounds like a really great vision, but I don't think I can go. I'm just starting to get comfortable here at this church." Pick your reason. Lots of us have different reasons. When we get called to do something hard or challenging for the kingdom of God, we start to talk about the lions that are in the street. We say, "You know, I'm just not sure it's safe."

And it's not just church planting. We can talk about how you become a witness in your workplace—sharing the gospel, the hope of the good news, this incredible message of redemption with your coworkers. That just doesn't sound safe. I'm not sure I can do that.

It also comes up when we talk about our community groups. Let's multiply our community groups. We need to grow them. We need to become two different community groups so that we can expand throughout the city of Raleigh. We can become outposts of salt and light throughout all the neighborhoods in Raleigh. "I don't know, man. I'm just starting to feel comfortable with these people. I don't want to send half of them away. These are my friends."

Are you starting to feel messed with? It's worse, right? Let's just go down the list in Proverbs.

The Sluggard in Proverbs

As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard turn on his bed. — Proverbs 26:14

Some of us, we have trouble even just showing up, getting out of bed and coming and engaging. How many of you have been coming to this church for years—years—and have yet to take a step towards membership? How many of you go to community group every week and have yet to make a leap of faith in terms of being transparent with those in your group and sharing some of the things that you struggle with? How many of you on Sunday mornings wake up and go, "I don't know about church today. Going about once a month is just fine"?

And it gets even worse if we keep going.

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. — Proverbs 26:15

God has given us in His word and in fellowship with believers a rich banquet of grace that is designed to nourish our souls. But if you think about it, there's probably a sense in which you feel like that applies to you. My hand is in the dish. I have God's word. We have more copies, more translations, more ways to access God's word now. We do CBR in this church. We'll give you a Bible if you want one. You can find like 500 of them online at any moment with your cellphone. It's there. But how many of us have our hands buried in the dish and just can't seem to bring it to our mouth? The banquet is right in front of us, but we can't do it.

You know, the heart of the problem here is selfish indulgence, and all of us have this to some degree or another.

Just in case you're wondering, I don't just feel this way about you in terms of seeing sluggishness in this church. I see it in my own heart, in my own life. It is something that is incredibly shameful to me when I think about how literally I read God's word just for myself. It's like my job, right? So it's kind of built into my life. A lot of times, I read God's word for you but I rarely find that I do it for myself. I can't be troubled to feed myself. I can't be troubled to bring my hand to the dish and you know why? It's because I want to watch a Netflix show or the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film that's coming out next week. I don't have time for that. I want to play some sort of trivial game on my phone rather than open up the Bible app and spend some time reading it.

There's a self-indulgence. There's a sense in which at times, if I'm honest—and I think if you're honest—that the mission, the wonderful mission that God has called us to, this beautiful work of redemption that He's doing in the world, somehow becomes less appealing to us than the mission of our own entertainment, our own self-indulgence. And we lose the beauty and love for what God has called us into.

Do you sometimes feel like when you think about your Christian life, "What's the point? It's just a gray, dull series of events that I'm supposed to do and it never produces anything. I might as well just focus on myself." If you ever feel like that, then sloth in its invisible, camouflaged way is starting to seep into your heart and it has its tentacles wrapped around you.

The Paradox of Busy Sloth

But it gets worse. The second Z of sloth is busy. So, lazy and busy—and perhaps you're surprised by that. You might think, "Well, isn't busyness kind of like the opposite of sloth?" And again, if we just look at the English language and the definition of sloth, how we use that as a synonym for laziness, and we think about the animal that moves really slowly—how could busyness be sloth? Well, let me show you.

Let's look at our passage. Verses sixteen and seventeen of Proverbs have this kind of peculiar shift, right? There's a progression to thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. It's just more and more lazy, but then verse 16: the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. In verse 17:

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. — Proverbs 26:17

Now, if we were just preaching this text, there would be all kinds of applications that we could talk about. There's all kinds of different directions that we could go. But here's what I want you to see today: the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven other people. Essentially, there's a sense of self-importance that's attached to sloth, right? Where it's like seven other people—and seven is a symbolic number that means just about everybody, the general consensus of everybody who speaks sensibly—and you as the sloth, the sluggard, would say, "Hey, I'm wiser in my own eyes than all of you."

And then you've got these people who are having an argument. They're having an argument, and you know what? I've got to be involved because I'm the smartest guy in the room. I have no business in this affair, but I'm going to involve myself because I'm that smart. I'm that incredible.

And the spiritual nature of this, again, looking at the Hebrews passage, there is a lot of talk about work, but there's also talk about faith and patience and inheritance and promises. There's a very clear sense in this passage in Hebrews where it's just not all about your work. It's about what God is doing through other people.

And here's the thing, here's the rub, right? Sloth can take the form of self-importance in which you become so involved in the mission, you're so engaged in that, you start to think that it's necessary for you to become involved.

Listen to this quote from Frederick Buechner about sloth:

Sloth is not to be confused with laziness. A lazy man, a man who sits around and watches the grass grow, may be a man at peace. His sun-drenched, bumble-bee dreaming may be the prelude to action or itself an act worth the acting. A slothful man, on the other hand, may be a very busy person. He is a man who goes through the motions, who flies on automatic pilot, like a man with a bad head cold. He has mostly lost his sense of taste and smell. He knows something's wrong with him but not wrong enough to do anything about it. Other people come and go but through glazed eyes, he hardly notices them. He is letting things run their course. He is getting through his life.

The dangerous sloth is that we could become so caught up in what we're doing and the importance of our work that we become distanced and distracted to the point of being disconnected from everyone and even from God. Let me describe for you what this world looks like in the life of the church, in the spiritual realm.

It can start to look like you've gotta be involved in everything. Those of you who are part of the 20%—you know what I mean? The 20% of people who do 80% of the work. You know who you are. You're here, and you felt like I was giving you a pass when I was coming at the 80%, but now I'm coming for you, 20%. You are so involved in different things that you've started to think that you're necessary, that this isn't something that God's doing, this is something that you're doing. You've become so self-important that you start to look around this church at those 80% and you're kind of like, "Well, God certainly isn't going to use them. So I guess I better get going."

What happens to you over time is maybe that initially was well-intentioned and it was an act of love and devotion to Christ, your involvement in the church. But over time, the work that you're doing starts to feel like slavery. You start to become glazed and disconnected from all of the other people that you're supposedly serving. All you're doing is building up a kingdom of self-importance by talking about how you're the only one in the room that can lead the community group the right way.

There was a study I was reading in a book called Union in Christ—a great book, you should read it—that talked about an interesting study. For the last thirty years, somebody has been sneakily giving college students a survey as they enter into college, and that survey was actually the narcissistic personality inventory. They didn't tell them that. It just seemed like a random group of questions—things like, "If I ran the world, it would be a better place. True or false?" Bunch of questions like that, that get at their sense of importance. And you know what they found over the last thirty years? Narcissism is on the rise. It's seen a 30% increase over the last thirty years in terms of how these college students have answered.

There's a sense in which a lot of us get into our work, we get into the work that God has called us to, and it becomes so vast and so expansive that we get to the end of the day and often feel like, "Man, I just don't have time for everything. I don't have time for my family. I don't have time to spend time in God's word. What I need is like a fifteen-minute TED Talk, right? I need a podcast. I need something super digestible, super short. I don't need a thirty to forty-minute sermon on Sunday—sorry. I need something digestible, short, because I have more important things to do. The last thing that I need to do is spend time in prayer because, guess what? Prayer doesn't really do anything. Really, what matters is what I'm doing."

And suddenly, there's a lack of love in what you're doing because it's really all about you. The busy sloths slowly but surely start to think that instead of being in relationship with a loving God and called to a relationship with a beautifully redeemed group of people called the church, they are God. That everything that they do is what ultimately matters and God needs to get with the program. Why isn't He moving fast enough? Why aren't His people being transformed quickly?

They lose, as Hebrews says, the faith and patience and waiting to inherit the promises. — Hebrews

The Root of Sloth

So those are two very stark, different manifestations of sloth. Hopefully that helps us get at the common root of sloth. I said that the English word for sloth is commonly defined and used as a synonym for laziness, but the Latin word for sloth literally means "without care" or "without love." Sloth is at its roots a self-centered apathy that develops over time. It's an absence not of activity, as we tend to think of it, but an absence of love.

Think about it, right? The lazy sloth—the lazier and lazier you get, the more sloth takes hold of your heart, the more your world just becomes a small, little, gray existence, an island unto yourself where you can't leave your bed, you can't nourish yourself, and you have no purpose or calling in life. Your world is small, tiny, gray, miserable.

And if you're a busy sloth, you get so caught up in your work and the activity and the inertia of it. You're just doing the motions. You're going through it day to day, and it's not an act of love or joy. It's acts of slavery.

You are a slave and you're slave to your own view that you are god and what happens is essentially your world becomes grayer and smaller and more miserable. The sloth at his heart root is drained of love. There's no passion in the sloth's life anymore. And that is the root of it.

For the lazy sloth, it becomes this: I'm the only mission. I don't care about anybody else. Can't be bothered to do anything for anyone else. I'm the mission, my comfort.

For the busy sloth, the mission is only mine. I don't care about anybody else. And at the root is the I don't care about anybody else.

So I don't want to stop there because right now we all feel guilty and horrible and that's not what the gospel does with us. Let's look at the gospel for all sloths, lazy or busy.

The Gospel Speaks to All Sloths

Look at the beginning of Hebrews 6:9.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things. Things that belong to salvation. — Hebrews 6:9

Really? Sure? I look at myself. I look at us as a church but the author of Hebrews can say, I'm sure of something better. Why? Because of the work of the gospel in you. Things that belong to salvation. You have been saved and so therefore sloth has no hold on you.

Now here's how that applies. For the lazy sloth, I think this is typically how this gets applied in your heads. Those of you who are lazy sloths like me, think about it this way, right? We tend to think about the gospel applied to us is, you know what? Jesus came and he suffered. He lived a perfect life. He did all this work. He was incarnated. He did everything for us. So guess what? We can rest. We can relax. We don't have to work because he's done all the work for us. Which is a half gospel. It's true. It's true and it's beautiful truth. Don't let go of that but the other part of the gospel—it's not just justification, it's also sanctification.

The gospel is Jesus died and rose and had victory over death and then sends his Holy Spirit into you. To change you, to transform you, to make you more and more into his image. And what that means, lazy sloths, is that we are invited and empowered into the grand mission of God.

Our world is not a gray existence that merely consists of moving from show to show to show on Netflix. There is a grand purpose that God has destined you for that he is sure of your achievement of because he sent his Holy Spirit. He's become one with you and he has swept you up into his work and this is not like him saying, hey, you know what? I'm done with the redemption of the world. It's now up to you. That's not what's happening.

What's happening is essentially it's like the picture of the dad or the mom who brings their kid to work. Katie recently took Josie to work—she works for Glaxo Smith Klein. Josie loved it. She felt so important, right? She was a part of what mommy's doing. Mommy's the real worker in the family. She works a high-powered job, makes lots of money, right? She's awesome. I get to go with mom and do work and I'm a part of it. That's what God invites us to.

It would be easier for him to do this apart from us. Do you understand that? It would be so much easier. He could snap his fingers and he could do it but you know what? You're his kids and he wants you to come to work with him. He wants to involve you and he sends his spirit so that you can do it.

And you know what's great about that? Is that sometimes you get the experience and the joy of shakily, nervously talking to your coworker about Jesus and the amazing gospel that you have and the Holy Spirit works in that person's life and they become Christ and you get to see them be saved and you get to rejoice. And it's because God invited you into his work.

You get to start with a church plant that was like 30 people huddled in a room going, are we going to survive? And you get to see it grow and develop and plant off daughter churches and make an impact in the city in ways that you never could have imagined. You get to struggle with sin and you get to fight against it as hard as it is and sometimes you slowly start to see it release its hold on your heart because you're actually engaged with it and you're pushing back against it because you have the Holy Spirit that's doing that.

Do you really want to just toss and turn in your bed? Or do you want to get involved in that? God wants to invite you. He's empowered you to be involved in that and that is the gospel. It's not that you have to do it. It's that you get to do it.

And for you busy sloths, the gospel is this: God doesn't need you. God does not need you. You are not a slave to the tasks that you feel like he's called you to.

You know, a very good friend of mine once preached a sermon that changed my life. It was on Mary and Martha and he said at one point in the sermon—and he's preached it here twice, so maybe you've heard this.

He said, if you get to the end of your day and you feel like you don't have time to do all of the things that God's called you to, maybe you need to think about whether or not he's called you to all of them. Maybe you're involving yourself in other people's quarrels. Maybe you're doing things that are none of your business. Maybe you need to have a bigger vision for what God could do through other people. Maybe you need to be rejoicing and thankful about what he is doing in other people all around you. Maybe you need to spend some time thinking about that and looking at that and rejoicing over it.

Praise the Lord. I didn't have to do this because the Holy Spirit worked in this other person and I see it. God is at work. And it's not my timeline, it's his, but I trust him. It's not up to you, Busy Sloths. You're not God and that's good news. God is God and he's way better than you. And he's working through all the different people around you.

Points of Application

Alright, let's wrap this up. Some suggested points of application. Number one, for those of you who are lazy sloths, here's something to do: just do it. Just do it.

Now, I'm familiar that a lot of us talk about the importance of our heart and heart change and how just going through motions and doing good things just for the sake of doing good things isn't necessarily a good thing. And we really like the idea of our hearts being changed and out of our hearts being changed, action coming out of a heart that has been transformed by the gospel. I don't want to minimize that at all. That's so important to understand. But some of us are just kind of sitting around with our hands in the dish waiting for our hearts to change. And it's true also that sometimes God changes our hearts through experiences.

Have you ever signed up to go to a party and you get to the end of the week and you're just kind of like, "I don't know if I can go to this party. I don't know if I want to go," but you signed the Evite and they ordered food and stuff, so I guess I'll go. And you drag yourself to the party and you're feeling like, "I hate all of these people for inviting me to this party." And then you get in there and you start mixing it up with people and you start talking to them and you realize, "Hey, these aren't trying to ruin my life. They actually care about me and they want to celebrate with me and this is actually kind of cool and this is kind of what I needed." And by the end of the party, you're like, "Man, I'm so glad we came. Honey, that was great that you signed us up for that Evite. You're so awesome. I love you."

Right? Some of you need to try something. You need to go. You need to do it. There are so many different opportunities to serve. Stephanie Massey is begging for people to take a risk with our children. The lions in the streets. Give it a shot, man. We had some friends over last night and I was telling them they were talking about parenting. Everybody thinks we're great at parenting because we have five kids, so that means we must know something. Let me tell you, it doesn't. I told them, I said, "You know, parenting and prayer are kind of synonyms." But do it. Jump in. See what God's going to do because he's going to do something and by the end of it, your heart's going to change.

Busy Sloths, find someone who you think will do a terrible job at some of the things you're doing and ask them to do it. It'd be an exercise in trusting the work of the Holy Spirit in someone other than you and that will be amazing. Here's what you'll find: God really doesn't want to do as much as he's doing through you anymore because you think you're doing it. What he wants is someone who is weak, who is horrible, and he wants to work through them, because that's where his glory is made manifest.

And God has given you relationships with all sorts of people who you think will do a terrible job, who are actually just reasonable people who are waiting for an opportunity. And you need to release your grasp of your kingdom and allow someone else to try something and just wait and look and prepare to be amazed at how God will transform someone and use them through that. The Bible calls it discipleship and it's kind of something that is a big deal in the New Testament.

Think about somebody. Pour into them. Preach the gospel to them. Encourage them. Say, "Hey, God's called you to this. You can do it. You can do it, right?" Come on. Come with me. "Oh, man. That was awful but God's going to use that. He's using it in my heart and he's using it in your heart and he's going to use it all of us together. Somehow, God is working. I'm not God and I'm glad. What a beautiful thing."

And finally, a point of application for all of us sloths: Look at Jesus. Spend some time looking at him.

Let me tell you what that'll feel like if you're a lazy sloth. If you're a lazy sloth, that's going to feel like a lot of work. Because your hands in the dish, come on. Gotta look at Jesus, really? Look at Jesus. Spend some time in his word. Spend some time meditating. Spend some time praying because here's what happens. If Jesus really will change your heart, he'll transform you. He is so incredibly beautiful that if you invite him into your gray little island of self importance or self existence, he's going to blow it up, man. Things are going to start turning back to color. You're going to find that there's a big, huge world waiting for you out there that you just can't wait to get involved in.

Because he's involved, because he's that beautiful, because he's that incredible, because he is in and of himself, love. And when you're apathetic, that's what you need. You need to be filled with love and as you gaze upon him and you see his love for you, his love kind of encompassed in the beauty that is the trinity, it will blow your mind and it will explode your world in a big bang of purpose and beauty and life.

And for you busy sloths, looking at Jesus, that's going to feel incredibly inefficient. Prayer, that doesn't do anything. We don't need to spend time in prayer. We need an action plan, right? It will slow you down and help you to start to see that you're not the biggest and best and coolest thing going on in the universe. And because it's not all on you, the chains that you feel by your constant demands of activity and busyness and self importance will start to loosen and fall off. Again, the gray slave world that you live in will explode in beauty and life and flowers will bloom and your life will start to be a musical and you'll actually come to church and sing these songs that we sing and actually mean some of the stuff we're saying.

You'll rejoice because it won't feel like you're celebrating you. You're celebrating Christ and all that he is doing in you and through you but also through his church all around the world and the redemption that he's working in this world is something that is worth celebrating. Way more than the silly little stuff that you're doing.

So, spend some time looking at him. You want to combat sloth? Sloth will melt away even in its invisible, sneaky forms and all of its tentacles wrapped around your heart, strangling you when the light of the gospel shines on it, you will start to see it as its ugly, hideous self, start to lose its grasp on you. It will slide off of your heart and you will enter into a joyous, full existence which is what we are called to, brothers and sisters in Christ.

Sloth has nothing on Jesus. So, look at him. That's the end of the sermon. So, I guess I'm supposed to say in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.