The Hardworking and the Lazy

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Well, everyone, good morning. Good to be with you guys. Happy Labor Day weekend. It’s awesome to be celebrating the weekend with you. And so thank you for including us in your plans. And if you’re watching online, thank you guys also for tuning in, whether you’re at a campsite or on a boat. Good to be with you guys as well. Thank you for being a part of worship. I can’t wait to be back with you here. Have a safe weekend and drive home safely. Yeah, actually Labor Day, this holiday that started during the industrial revolution where everyone’s working too hard and being overworked and it’s a federal holiday, we need to take breaks and we need to rest. And Labor Day, and now it means something like we go golfing and buy mattresses and don’t wear white after today. But it’s still at its core, it’s this idea.

We get it. It’s a day I’m supposed to rest and a weekend I’m supposed to rest and just relax and be with the people who are important to me. And that’s a perfect backdrop for what we’re talking about today as we end our series. We’re ending the series, guys.

TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE

ABOUT THIS SERIES

This has been a really fun series for me, this “Two Types of People” series. We’ve been going through the wisdom of Solomon. And in this series, we’ve been taking and learning wisdom for life according to the ancient proverbs of this king named Solomon who the Bible calls the wisest man who ever lived. I’ll be honest, I’m actually surprised by how practical and insightful and how much I can feel people leaning into the topics we’ve talked about as we’ve talked about. Because Solomon, by the way, the two types of people, he compares person A with person B, this or that.

And that’s kind of his Proverbs style. And we’ve looked at the wise and the foolish, the proud and the humble, the patient and the quick-tempered. Yeah, the wicked and righteous. And it’s just been so practical for life.

ABOUT THIS WEEK

And we wrap it up today with this guilt trip, a little bit on a Labor Day weekend, though, of talking about the hardworking and the lazy.

THE HARD-WORKING AND THE LAZY

And I’m not trying to make you feel guilty for grilling or golfing today or whatever it is you’re doing, but Solomon actually has a really interesting take on hardworking and lazy that I want to get to you today. But before I can even get to it and before we can even talk about it, we kind of have to acknowledge that these are charged words. When I say these words, you have some type of reaction to them. There’s a lot of baggage associated with these words because of whatever culture you came from.

A lot of times, we think of culture as music, food, and art, and all that kind of stuff and that’s a part of culture, but culture is also like how much do you value time? What kind of value do you place on relationships? What is your culture’s value of delayed gratification or instant gratification? What is your culture’s value of all sorts of different factors, including work? Every culture has a value of work. After World War II, during the reconstruction of Western Europe, Germany cleaned up all of the rubble from World War II much faster than France did because Germans and French people have different cultural values of this thing called work. It’s not a right or a wrong thing, it’s just a thing. And one of the primary agents or vehicles of passing down culture is family and your family has a view of this thing called work and rest.

My dad is 78 and refuses to retire. He will not retire. You don’t need to look at him. I get it. Some of us have a hard time saying no when opportunity presents itself. My mom was an RN and I have distinct memories of her coming home from a night shift, waking me up to go to school, packing my lunch for me. And then I’d go to school and I’d come home and she had cleaned the house and done my laundry while I was at school. And I’m like, “Mom, when do you sleep? You’re amazing.” And she got that from her parents. Her parents were dairy farmers. I have distinct memories of my grandpa bragging that he milked the cows even on Christmas morning, that even on Christmas, you got to milk the cows. You never get a day off. And there was just this badge of honor he had with how hard he worked.

But then I met other friends of mine who had a different cultural view of work where they were like, “Oh, it’s nine to five and I just Dolly Parton, clock in, clock out, I’m done.” Nine to five. Or work is a four letter word and it was just this thing that you did that interrupted your real life, your leisure or your weekends. And you were just, everybody’s working for the weekend. We just want to get out of work. Work is this four letter word that it’s the office space saying I’ll do just enough work to not get fired. Or I have other friends who their family history is they were forced to work and so freedom and to not work was the ultimate goal. You have a relationship with work and rest. So before I can even talk about work and rest and what Solomon says about it and the wisdom of Solomon towards work and rest, we got to figure out where your starting framework is.

So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take like 30 seconds, each of you guys take a turn, but what was your family’s view of work and rest? Because that’s our starting point. So turn to the person next to you or if you’re not sitting with someone, find someone around you or behind you and answer that question. What was your family’s view of work and rest? Go.

And if you’re watching online, you guys can turn to the people around you as well and answer that question or type it in the chat. Type it in the chat. Okay.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAMILY’S ATTITUDE ABOUT WORK AND REST?

Got some industrious folks over here. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Work, work, work. Yeah. Anyone have a family who, I mean, just kind of quick show of hands, but anyone have a family who work was like the goal? It’s what you did. It was the highest value like work. Anyone have a family who work was kind of a byword? It was just kind of a necessary thing, but you couldn’t wait to be done with it? Yep. Okay. Right? So there it is. I can’t just start talking about it because that had an influence on you. And whatever your view of work and rest is, that you inherited from the culture that you were raised in, we’re going to talk a little bit about work and rest today.

And my hope is that maybe at least you can think differently about it, but even maybe redeem your idea of work and rest. And I hope that you walk out of here thinking differently, not just about Labor Day, but just the whole idea of work and rest. And so just to give you at least some new thoughts to consider, Solomon has his own attitude of work and rest.

SOLOMAN ON WORK AND REST

He’s a Jewish guy, so that’s kind of his framework, but some of these words to you and your culture or your idea of work, it might sound a little bit like harsh, a little bit like he’s not very understanding and he’s kind of a workaholic.

So, for instance, in Proverbs 10: four, he says, “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.”

Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth

   Proverbs 10:4

So here you see that AB contrast, right? And this is one of those proverbs like we’ve seen in other weeks

“Do this, this will happen, do that, that’ll happen. If you work hard, you’ll have wealth. If you’re lazy, you’ll come to poverty. “Also, he’s writing this as a king, so he’s thinking about subjects, right? So not only will you come to poverty or riches based upon your work ethic, but so will the kingdom. We’re kind of in this together.

A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

   Proverbs 13:4

Or in Proverbs 13: four, he says: “A slugger’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.“

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- 11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity lake an armed man.

        Proverbs 6

And this one is one that you kind of have to sit with a little bit, but he’s basically saying there is a type of rest that is not restful and there’s a type of work that is also not very fulfilling. And that work and rest, and we see it here, are kind of in relationship with each other, but there is a rest that is restless. You ever sit down and you, okay, yesterday, Saturday, you’re like,” I can finally watch college football and I’m going to watch four games back to back to back to back to back. “And you sit there and you’re watching four games, you’re drinking soda or manned sodas and you’re eating pizza and you get done with the end of it and you’re like,” Why don’t I feel very rested?

I’ve laid on the couch all day. Why don’t I feel rested? It can’t just be because Western Michigan beat Michigan.

“They did. They did. “That game was over, y’all. That game was over.” And then you storm the field after you beat Western Michigan. Anyway, okay. What was I saying? Oh yeah. So you’re laying there back to back to back and you’re still tired after all of that football and all you did is rest. And why am I still tired? Or you ever doom scroll on a phone and you look up and you’re like, “I’ve been doing this for two hours. Oh my goodness. How am I still feeling restless? I’ve been sitting around and I haven’t done anything, but I’m not rested.” On the flip side, you guys ever had, you did landscaping or something or you did some kind of house project. It was a lot of manual labor and you got done and it was a good tired. You ever felt the good tired?

And then you lay down in a bed and you’re just like, “Oh.” And it’s so restful because there’s a relationship that Solomon is referring to between work and rest. And rest can be a tyrant. It’s never enough. It’s never enough. You can always buy more golf clubs. You can always buy more yarn or whatever it is for crocheting and you’re quilting. There’s always more that you can do to rest. If rest is the be all end all, well then it’s never enough.

And then Solomon has like this, and he doesn’t do this very often in Proverbs, but he kind of does this description. And we heard two of them in our reading a moment ago talking about restful and the hardworking and the diligent and the lazy and the sluggard. And he says this, he does it one more time and he makes this comparison. I like this one because it gives us another application to make, but he says, “Go to the ant, you sluggard.” By the way, that word sluggard, I want to reclaim that word. That’s a good word. I don’t know if the word slug comes from sluggard. Someone looked that up on their phone while you’re sitting here. You can tell me afterwards. Consider its ways and be wise. The ant has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers his food at harvest.

And then he continues, “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to the rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief in scarcity like an armed man.” Solomon’s looking at these ants working and he sees something and he notices something in their work and their rest. And there’s this sense of, and this Jewish framework of purpose.

PURPOSE

Work and rest are related to purpose, the purpose the ant was made. And this is where if I’m going to make an application about work and rest and what this means for you, we’ve got to take in the bigger context. Again, the cultural view Solomon and the framework that Solomon is working within is that he’s Jewish. It’s this Jewish understanding of work and rest. And to talk about that, I’ve got to give you a brief and complicated history of work and rest in Jewish culture and in scripture because work, if you go back to the very, very, very, very, very, very beginning, work is a part of creation.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WORK AND REST

It’s very early on. God makes the heavens and the earth is what it says, right? God makes the heaven and earth and it’s the work of his hands. And then take a look at what it says. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he, say it, rested from all the, say it, work of creating that he had done. God rested from the work.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

          Genesis 2

God didn’t rest because he was tired, my friends. God rested because he wanted to enjoy the work of his hands. He wanted to take time to enjoy what he had made. And the rhythm he establishes is six days and one day of rest, six days of work and then one day to enjoy the six days of labor.

And it’s this rhythm that is established, but he also wants to enjoy the work of his hands with Adam and Eve.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

     Genesis 2:15

And then in Genesis two, verse 15, it says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” You guys, this is before sin entered the world. They are working in the garden of Eden. Heaven is not an eternal vacation. Sorry. Paradise is not a perpetual party. Hate to burst your bubble. Some of you guys thought that you worked and you’re retired and you’re never going to work a day in your life. I got news for you. You’re going to get to heaven, you’re going to have a job to do. There’s work waiting for you in paradise because it’s good. It’s good. And there will be work and rest even in heaven because that’s what we see in the Garden of Eden, but it’s so, so important to keep in mind because this is the ideal that gets corrupted.

And you turn the page, chapter three, Adam and Eve sin, and what falls under the curse of sin?

17 …Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground…

          Genesis 3

Not just Adam and Eve, but all creation and work specifically because God tells Adam, “Curse it is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you’ll eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat food until you return to the ground.” You still got to work, Adam. You got to work hard, but now it’s hard work. And work is cursed. That’s why you curse on your way to work. But the work falls under the curse of sin.

The story’s not done. Like we heard this summer, the people of Israel eventually end up in Egypt in slavery. And why does God rescue them? Because he hears their cry for their painful toil. As we heard in Exodus chapter one, the Egyptians made their lives bitter with harsh labor and brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields and all their harsh labor, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. So God is recognizing that the sin that has fallen on the people of Israel is this perpetual work. Pharaoh is a tyrant. Work, work, work, make more bricks, work, work. It’s never enough. So God rescues them from slavery, but not from work. He brings them in out of Egypt and before they enter the promised land, they take a detour and they stop at Mount Sinai. He gives them the 10 commandments. This is how we do life.

This is our new value system, people of Israel. And what’s one of the commandments? It’s about work. And he says, remember the Sabbath day. The seventh day, the literal word is rest, cease, stop. Remember the day of rest by keeping it holy. Set it apart in your lives every six days. Set apart the seventh day as a holy day, a day of rest. For six days, you shall labor. You shall. It’s not like you’re rescued from slavery and there’s no more work. No, no, no. I’m trying to restore you to a picture of Eden where there’s six days of work and one day of rest. You can’t have all rest. That’s a tyrants. That’s slavery. It’s never enough. And you can’t have all work. That also is slavery. It’s never enough. No guys, it’s this tandem. It’s this relationship, this rhythm between work and rest that I have designed for you.

Work and rest. Work. And then the Sabbath day is a day of rest.

What’s super interesting, this is cool. This is the first time in scripture it uses a different word for work. It’s this word Avad, means to work, but God chooses this word for a reason. This is so cool because it’s the same word in Hebrew for work as it is for worship.

GOD REDEEMS YOUR

WORK AND REST

AS WORSHIP

He wants to redeem your work and rest and return it to worship. God redeems work and rest for worship, that you are worshiping God with how you work. You are worshiping God with how you rest and some relationship. But the long and complicated history of work with Judaism and scripture is not finished because the people of Israel hear this and they’re like, okay, remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy and work. And when Jesus steps on the scene, Jews had so completely missed the boat and distorted the idea of work and rest.

They were following the law to the letter, I mean, just down to the final, the smallest stroke, but they missed it and missed the forest for the trees because they made rest into a work and they believed that how they worked earned their righteousness with God. Two things that he needed to correct. So when Jesus steps on the scene, he corrects it and he’s like, guys, guys, guys, guys, rest, rest, rest is for you. And he says, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Rest was made for man. Man wasn’t made for rest. And then the son of man is Lord even over the Sabbath. So he tries to reclaim rest and then God has to reclaim work as well. So after the death and resurrection of Jesus, we get letters from the apostle Paul and these words are going to be familiar to us, but it’s interesting to read them through this lens because Paul would say things like, it is by grace you’ve been saved. It’s God’s gift through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, not by what you do. What you do doesn’t make you righteous. You’re righteous and it changes what you do. But God makes you righteous, not the work that you do. The work that you do doesn’t bring you value. The work that you do doesn’t give you an identity.

He gives you an identity. He gives you value. He gives you his grace and it changes the way you work.

And so he redeems once again the view of work and rest. And people are like, okay, so now what do I do? And that’s where I love these words from the Apostle Paul. He says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. What started happening is people started coming to the faith. The church started growing. Christianity exploded and people like Roman soldiers became followers of Jesus or people like fishermen became followers of Jesus or people who were slaves became followers of Jesus. And they’re like, wait, what do I do now? Now that I’m a Christian, do I have to stop and be a missionary? Do I have to stop and be a pastor? Is that what it means to work for the Lord? And Paul’s like, no, no, no, no, no guys. Whatever position you were in when you were called into the kingdom, keep doing that.

And that word call, by the way, that’s the word vocation. The word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, meaning the vocals or the voice. Quite literally, what you do, the role you are doing is the role God has called you to do. It is the voice, the still small voice that has called you to do that thing. You are summoned by the king for this service. So this means whatever you do, whatever position you were in, great, do that work. But now it’s redeemed as worship. And after you work, rest and redeem that rests for worship. This means if you’re a stay at home mom, that is your summons from the king. God has called you for that high and honorable position of raising your children. This is your calling from God. And you can do it for your husband. You can do it for your kids.

No, no, no. But he wants you to elevate the reason that you do it now is for the Lord. And that makes you an excellent mother. It makes you an excellent wife. It makes you excellent at what you do because you’re doing it for the king.

You were a dentist when you were called. You worked at Duncan, you worked at Denzel, you work at Kellogg’s, you work at Lakeview. Okay. When God called you, God has called you to that role. Live out that role with the utmost because you’re doing it for the Lord, for the king. And it makes you an excellent worker and it’s the way you worship him. And then rest for the Lord as well. You can work for the shareholders. You can work for your bank account. You can work for retirement. They’re terrible slave masters. They’ll always ask for more, but now you do it for the Lord and it changes why and how you do the work that you are called to do.

And this understanding of work and rest is what Solomon is speaking to. It’s what scripture reveals and it’s what changes the way you think about work and rest. I know some of you hate your job. I get it. I know some of you find your identity as a workaholic and find your identity in your job. I know some of you are just slaves to rest and luxury and comfort and ease. And God wants to today, if any of that applies to you, redeem work and rest for you and elevate it for what it really was originally meant to be and designed to be.

Worship for him and with him.

YOUR WORK AND REST

So, this poses really two questions. I’m going to answer it in generalities, but you have to fill in the blanks of what this means for you specifically. So I’ll speak about what this means generally and then you can make the connections. First question, how does it change the way you work if it’s for the Lord? How does it change the way you work like if you’re retired, work for you means helping raise the grandkids. Work for you means serving your neighbor and volunteering in more roles. Okay. How does it change the way you work if it’s for the Lord? If you’re a dentist and you feel cavities, how does that change if you do it for the Lord?

What I think is that just recognizing it’s for the Lord makes you work harder. I think Christians should be the hardest workers. We should. We’re doing it for our God who laid down his life for us. And this is what he asks me to do. Okay. We should just be just so willing to go the extra mile, show up early, stay late. We should be hard workers. And I think we should be excellent workers at what we do because what we’re doing is an offering to our king. It should have down to the meticulous detail, just be thorough in its excellence. And I think as workers, we should be so joyful. I think we should be working with gratitude and love.

And I think also it changes the way we give, right? Because now I’m thinking about giving as because I’m working for the Lord and I have my increase. Well, this is a portion that belongs to you, God. I’m giving, it’s for you. I did it for you. Here you And it changes even the way I think about my offering. That’s what I think it means to work for the Lord. Personally, I think if we really understood this and grasped this as Christians, I think people would love to see on our resume that we’re a Christian because we’d be the best workers. They’d say things like, “He is not only the most incredible salesman, but we’ll catch him wiping down the counter in the workroom.” He’s just so servant-hearted all the time. He’s great at sales, but then he’ll wipe down the counter in the workroom and we love him for it.

They’d say things like, “She is a wizard at Excel spreadsheets. Her formulas are so just perfect and thorough and concise, but we also love just talking to her about life because she cares for us and she’s got such great counsel for us. She’s such a good listener to me when I have a problem.” That’s what it means to work for the Lord.

And I don’t know what that means for you specifically. You have to translate that to your setting, your season of life, your calling from God to the role that you have, your vocare vocation, but it’s worship. It’s worship as much as it’s work. And the second question then, how does it change the way you rest if it’s for the Lord? I’m not trying to make you feel guilty for boating at Labor Day. Enjoy, but just rest with the Lord. It changes the way you rest because it suddenly has this sense of purpose, relationship to work and my calling, but now I can rest and I rest to be with God, to enjoy the work of his hands and the work of my hands, the fruits of our labor, to connect with God’s people and God’s presence and God’s house. It’s not a day to escape and vacate.

By the word vacation literally is the same word as evacuation. I’m not evacuating from reality. I want to be in this reality with God. It’s okay to go on vacation. It’s fine, but recognize it for what it is.

So that’s what it means to rest with the Lord is to dwell with him and be with him. I don’t know what that means for you specifically, but here’s how you find out. Work and rest, what this means for you specifically. And you get to find out. Watch what changes this week when you work for the Lord and whatever you do, folding laundry, crunching numbers, making sales, fixing cars in the auto body shop, whatever it is you do. Just this week, work for the Lord as a fun experiment. Just work for him. Worship him with what you do. See how it changes you as a worker. And then come back next week. Rest with him, with us. Enjoy his presence. Receive his gifts that he gives. Rest in who he made you to be. Rest free from worry that you’re not going to have enough knowing he’s going to give you your daily bread.

And just see how it changes the way you rest. I’m excited for you to find out. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for all you’ve done for us. And we ask for your forgiveness, God, for our misunderstanding of work and rest. Some of us have worked so much, we’ve made an identity out of it. We don’t know how to rest. Some of us have hated this calling of work that you call us to. Some of us have rested too much and we’ve fallen into laziness. So God, just help us find the right balance, that six to one work to rest balance in our lives, but not just work and rest, balance for balance sake, God, so we can worship you rightly. Would you show each one of us what it means to work for you, God, in the role that you’ve called us to do? And would you show each one of us what it means to rest for you, to rest with you God, in the way that you’ve allowed us to rest and let our work and our rest be full, abundant, and meaningful, filled with purpose.

I love you so much, God. And it’s your name we pray. Amen.