Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 10, God willing we'll be expounding verse 26 tonight.
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Proverbs chapter 10 verse 26, the tile of the message is smoke gets in your eyes.
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Smoke gets in your eyes.
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In Proverbs chapter 10 verse 26 the Bible says, "As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes,
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so is the sluggard to them that send him. As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes,
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so is the sluggard to them that send him."
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In our text tonight the Holy Spirit is addressing the issue of laziness.
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In the Bible a lazy person is called a sluggard.
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In verse 26 underscore the word sluggard.
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And after you've underscored the word sluggard, draw a line out there to your margin.
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In the margin of your Bible write the words lean, L-E-A-N, lean idly.
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I-D-L-Y, lean idly.
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The Hebrew word from which the word sluggard comes, the root word, means to lean idly.
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Y'all ever seen someone, Tammy and I love watching these old westerns.
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The only thing you watch is clean.
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It has to be the old ones too. You get them too and you, they start cursing at them.
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But anyway, we know all about the black and white ones.
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People ride into town in the middle of the day, there'll be these young folks out there.
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You'll be kicked back in a chair, sitting there watching.
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Everyone's passing by, there just waiting to start trouble.
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Like who feeds these people?
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They're sitting there watching, kick back in that chair or maybe they're leaning up on a post or something like that.
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Got their legs leaning idly.
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Just kick back, leaning on something, doing nothing.
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That's a sluggard.
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Now I like to relax, I like rocking chairs, I like my recliners.
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I like all those things. There's a time to rest.
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But true rest is not idleness, it's recuperation from work.
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We're talking about someone who's idle and just leaning.
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So when you think of a sluggard, think of someone leaning back in a chair in the middle of a weekday.
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When people are working, when youngsters are busy working on their studies in school,
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when factories are building, truck drivers are shipping and retailers are selling.
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While most people are busy being productive, the sluggard is leaning back against a chair, against a wall,
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against a post, doing nothing.
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Now a sluggard would rather be leaning than working.
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I'll tell you the difference between a sluggard and a person out of work.
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You want to know the difference?
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A sluggard would rather be leaning than working.
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A person out of work would rather be working than leaning.
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There's a difference.
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There's a difference. But sluggards, they like to lean.
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God created every person in a unique way.
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Every single person in a unique and individual way so that everybody would have something special to contribute to society.
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For the better good of mankind, every person.
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By God's grace, I get to contribute to society order and the knowledge of God's word.
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Leah and Luke, they get to contribute health care to society.
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Sister Anne was a former beautician. Were you a barber beautician?
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She got to contribute personal hygiene. I think that would fall in that role to society.
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We have truck drivers that contribute the transportation of goods to society.
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Soldiers who committed, contributed safety and security to our society.
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Everybody has something to contribute to the betterment of society. Everybody does.
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See, Brother Richard, what if a person is severely disabled?
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Do they have something to contribute to society? Absolutely. Absolutely.
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Some people may not be able to do everything, but most people can do something.
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On Sunday mornings, use it as a mad rush into the Genesis to Jesus class for me.
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I grab my hat, of course. I grab my hat and it goes on my head.
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I got to grab my water. I got my bag in this hand here.
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Sometimes it may be something else that Tammy wants me to carry in if we got a luncheon or something.
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A lot of times, as I'm rushing in and my hands are full, and I come up to those double-glanced doors,
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did you know there's someone oftentimes there waiting on me to open that door for me?
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Do you know that? You know who it is? It's Hannah. It's Hannah.
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It feels so good you walk up and go, "Oh, thank God there's Hannah."
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My hands are like this right here and here she goes to open that door.
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I say, "Hannah, thank you so much," and she does what she does. She does that right there.
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Never seeing her in a bad mood.
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Did you know that Hannah is the most severely disabled person we have here in this church?
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Most severely disabled. He's pretty disabled, but she's the most.
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Brother Chris, he's disabled, but Hannah's the most.
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Did you know that every service—how many of you all saw Hannah hug me tonight?
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Did you know every service Hannah's watching for me?
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When I walk in, she runs over and she gives me a hug. She does.
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Hannah doesn't have as much to give as some people, but Hannah gives what she has.
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Remember the widow's might? She didn't have as much to give as some people,
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but she gave what she had and Jesus said, "In the eyes of God, she gave more than everybody."
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She gives me a hug. Every service in her hugs give me joy, encouragement,
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and believe it or not, they actually help relieve my stress. That's the truth.
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Does that happen for you? It does. They actually help relieve my stress.
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Here I am, this big strong fella, and here's this little girl, and she can help take my stress away.
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It's really amazing. Everyone should contribute according to the ability that God's given them.
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When you're working, according to your ability, it's a beautiful thing.
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Everybody has something to contribute, and Hannah gives what she has.
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She's doing the job that God gave her to do, contributing to the betterment of mankind.
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When you work according to your ability, you become a pillar that holds society up.
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Society has to have structure. Society is just as much part of God's creation
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as the molecules and water and in man and woman.
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The order of society is just as much a part of God's creation.
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You watch how the people early on in the book of Genesis, they start having children,
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they'll go off and they'll build cities. That's just the way God put it in them.
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Society has to have that order, it has to have that structure, and to have that structure,
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people have to be contributing to that society, what God gave them to contribute,
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and then it forms that structure, they become pillars in society that hold society up.
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When you don't work according to your ability, you're not a pillar that holds society up,
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you're a slugger that's leaning on a pillar. That's what you become.
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And when you lean on something, when you lean on something,
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your weight's on that thing you're leaning on, you become a burden on what you're leaning on,
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a burden. If Hannah and Jeremy can contribute, you can contribute.
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Anybody can contribute. You're watching online tonight and you think,
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"Man, I'm severely disabled." You can contribute. You sure can.
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Find ways that God has given you to be useful. To be useful.
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Man, I tell you, I was at the emergency room in Jacksonville, Texas when I was a trooper one time.
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I was investigating an accident. I pulled up there outside,
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and here's this helicopter coming into the helipad, and there's this man out there.
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He's doing this right here. It looks like in the Air Force you know how to do this right here,
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and he's coming down, he's coming down, he's got the helipad,
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and he's doing these incredible hand signals to this helicopter.
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I'm thinking, "Man, that guy's good." Then I started thinking, "Wait a second.
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I've seen this helicopter land here many times. I've never seen anyone out giving these signals.
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These blades are coming down and everything, and here he is right underneath that helicopter."
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I started looking a little bit closer. It was a local crazy guy in town.
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Everybody knew him. The guy was mentally off, but you know what?
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He looked good out there, and I know that helicopter pilot's thinking,
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"Guy, you need to get out of the way. These blades are going to get you."
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But you know what? He was trying to help.
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He saw what he felt was a need, and here he was in his weakness trying to meet that need.
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A lot of times, you know, if the Bible says we're to bear one another's burdens
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and so fulfill the law of Christ, when we're weak, someone's got to bear some of our load.
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Just all there is to it.
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But you know what you can do if you're having to lean on someone to help bear your load?
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You can put yourself in a position to help bear some of their load, too.
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My wife does not have a job outside the home.
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I provide by the grace of God all the financing, all the work to pay the bills.
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She's leaning on me for every bill, every bit of medicine, every doctor's bill,
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every time we fly her to Indiana, she's leaning entirely on me to foot the bill.
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But you know what? She's not a sluggard leaning on a pillar.
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She's more like a Godwire that's helping to stabilize that pillar so he can keep holding things up.
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I come home, I don't even think about what I'm going to eat.
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There's going to be, when I get home, my wife's going to be clean, have a smile on her face,
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ready to hug me when I walk through the door, and have supper on, ready to go.
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All there is to it. In any errands that need to be done, whether at church or home or whatever, it's going to get done.
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It runs interference for me. I couldn't do it all without her, I couldn't do it.
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And if you're in a position where you're leaning heavily on someone, extraordinarily heavy on someone,
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instead of just being a burden on that person, try to be a Godwire, too.
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You know, the Godwire attaches to the pole.
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If you remove that pole, that wire just, whack, just fall right down.
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But you know what? It helps hold that pole up, too.
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And find ways that you can contribute to lighten the load on the people you're leaning on.
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Because if you don't, you know what can happen?
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That pillar can collapse beneath your weight one day.
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I think there's a lot of children who have leaned so heavily upon their poor old mothers.
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Living at home when they're in their forties.
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I remember going to Kauffman County one day, I had a fugitive I was looking for.
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And I pull up, and there's this woman at the door, an older woman.
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I said, "Ma'am, I'm looking for so-and-so." I said his name.
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I didn't let her know I was a policeman. I was undercover.
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And here he comes to the door, living with dear old mom.
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No job and no good.
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And when he came to the door, I had verified who he was.
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I shook his hand, and then I told him he was under arrest.
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Told him who I was.
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Put him in my vehicle, and here comes that old woman outside. Her heart is broken.
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I rode down the window where he was on his side, and she said,
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"You told me you weren't going to do anything anymore, son."
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He says, "Well, I don't know what this is about, Mama."
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She goes, "Yeah, yeah, you can just see it. She's heard it so many times."
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I felt sorry for that woman, breaking her heart.
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And I believe people like him lean so heavy upon their parents sometimes.
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I believe they bring them to an early grave. I do.
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And then what happens to those people?
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When you lean on something, you're a burden to the object you're leaning on.
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Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight. Here's a kingdom truth.
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You are either contributing to society, or you're a burden on those who do.
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You are either contributing to society, or you are a burden on those who do.
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Everybody needs purpose.
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If you don't have purpose, you're just existing.
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But everybody needs to be contributing something.
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If all you can do, if you're bedridden...
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Tammy and I were speaking to a man...
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Well, actually, I was speaking to him at first.
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It was a retired pastor/evangelist.
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Eighty years old, and he's in very poor health.
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He's homebound. When he talks, drool comes out of his mouth.
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He said, "If I were to try to ever preach again, I'd need a bath towel to finish preaching."
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That's how bad he was. I felt sorry for him.
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He's got some special kind of dementia.
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But you know what? I started talking to that old man,
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because I knew him when he was a young, powerful preacher.
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I started talking to him. As I was talking, I called him up and said, "Brother Bob,
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you know who this is? This is Richard Fulton. You remember me?"
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He said, "I remember you."
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He said, "Just this week, I was asking my wife,
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'Honey, you remember that young highway patrolman in Jacksonville,
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whatever happened to him?'"
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He said, "I've prayed for you. I've prayed that God would bless you far beyond your expectations."
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Then he started praising God and talking about the gospel and the cross.
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The next thing you know, man, we're shouting and praising God together.
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Then he just felt led to pray.
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He prayed the most beautiful prayer, asking God to bless me and my life and my ministry.
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Do you know what he was doing? He was praying for you, the people being ministered to.
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Here he is, slobber coming out of his mouth, confined to a wheelchair,
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can't remember things from day to day, and he's still serving God,
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still serving you from the confinement of his chair.
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He's moving heaven and earth by the grace of God through his prayers.
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All you can contribute, you can always pray.
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If you can't do anything else, you can pray.
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I am convinced that God in the ministry that he's given me,
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I am convinced that it is the prayers of weak people that have made me strong in the grace of God.
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I'm convinced of it.
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A conscientious person doesn't want to be a burden.
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A conscientious person wants to pull their own weight and be a blessing to people.
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But a slugger, they don't mind being a burden at all.
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A slugger has no ambition to work.
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In fact, a slugger does have ambition, though.
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They have ambition to not work.
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They will go out of their way.
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They will work harder sometimes trying to keep from working than working.
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Instead of looking for work, they look for a way to get out of it.
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For this reason, the Bible says, look back in verse 26,
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that a slugger is what?
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As vinegar to the teeth.
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Now vinegar is acidic.
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And on our teeth, we have this delicate enamel.
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This delicate enamel.
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The vinegar is acid. If it rests on that enamel, it's going to eat it up.
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It's going to cause tooth decay and pain and all these things.
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And in this passage, the slugger is being likened to vinegar,
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and the teeth that the vinegar is on is being likened to a person who sends the slugger out to run an errand for him.
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Sends the slugger out on a mission.
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As vinegar to the teeth, look now toward the end of the verse,
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so is the slugger to them that send him.
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Not only is the slugger like vinegar to the teeth,
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but a slugger, the Bible says, is also like smoke to the eyes.
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Solomon said, they are as vinegar to the teeth.
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Look back in your text, and as smoke to the eyes.
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You've been around a campfire.
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Everything's going great.
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And then suddenly the wind changes.
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I don't know what it is, but the wind will change wherever I'm at, around that campfire.
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It will find me.
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And have you ever had smoke get in your eyes?
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Man, that smoke gets in your eyes.
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You do this right here, and all your eyes start watering and everything.
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That's no fun.
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That's what a slugger's like, though, to the people who sends that slugger out on an errand.
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So in this passage we have vinegar and we have smoke.
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That's the slugger.
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And in this passage we have teeth and eyes.
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That's the person who sends the slugger out to do a job.
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And the teeth and the eyes, they have something in common.
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The teeth have that enamel that's vulnerable.
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It's not like the porcelain on a toilet.
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And then the eyes, it's tender.
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It's very vulnerable, very sensitive things.
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You go out weed eating, you don't put, you know, shin protectors on.
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Or I need to put my elbow pads on.
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Or a helmet on.
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But you better put some eye protection on.
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It's vulnerable.
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It's a weak part of our body.
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That's very precious to us.
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With your teeth, you get in the boxing ring, or you don't play, do something like that.
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Or MMA or whatever.
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You're not going to put a helmet on, but you better put the mouth guard on and protect those teeth.
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They're vulnerable.
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And see, as the eyes and the teeth are vulnerable members of our body,
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when someone sends that sluggard out, they're having to depend on that sluggard to get the job done.
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And if you're depending on someone to get a job done for you, you're vulnerable,
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because you're not doing it yourself.
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Just like the eyes, just like the teeth.
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A sluggard is to the vulnerable person, the dependent person, what acid and smoke are to the teeth and eyes.
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As our eyes and teeth are vulnerable members of our body,
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so are people when they must depend on someone to get the job done.
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Solomon said a sluggard is like smoke and vinegar to them that send him.
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And if you're sending that person, that means that person is not around you.
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They're not having that direct supervision.
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You're not standing over that person.
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The person sent out to do a job, and the fact that the sluggard is sent out
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means the sluggard has left the presence of the person who sent him.
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He's acting in an unsupervised capacity.
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Being placed in a position of trust.
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And that's very important.
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That's when the sluggard, when you depend on the sluggard, when you lean on the sluggard,
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when you lean on the leaner, that's when they become smoke to your eyes and vinegar to your teeth.
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There are two kinds of people you can send out to do a job.
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Those who will find a way to get the job done, and those who will find a reason why they couldn't get it done.
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It's the two kinds of people.
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If you've ever supervised people before, there are certain people you know you can send out to do the job,
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and there are certain people you know they're just not going to get it done.
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And every one of us have been in the position, whether we supervise or whether it's just part of life,
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we've been in the position where we've had to depend on someone to do something very important for us.
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And it feels so good when you know that you've left a job in capable hands.
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You know that as long as their heart keeps beating, and they're alive and physically able, that job's going to get done.
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You just don't worry about it.
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It feels good. It's a great sigh of relief too.
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When that person reports back to you that the job's been accomplished.
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:12,000
If you are ever placed in a position of trust, someone goes out of town, they ask you to feed their dog.
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Make sure the dog gets fed.
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Ask you to water the trees. Make sure the trees get watered.
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They send you out on a job to get a job done.
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Make sure before you come back, that job gets done.
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Don't find a reason why it can't get done. If there's an obstacle, find a way to get around it and find a way to get that job done.
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:43,000
And be the kind of person that reports back good news. Got it done. Mission accomplished.
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:50,000
When you're counting on a slugger to get the job done, they give you some kind of flimsy excuse as why they didn't get it done.
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That report comes back to you like smoke in your eyes.
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,000
It enters your mouth like vinegar to your teeth. It's tough to swallow.
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:08,000
As vinegar and smoke, the Bible says, look back in your text, so is the slugger to them that send him.
00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:15,000
You know what the saddest part is?
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The saddest part is the only way a slugger can exist is if he depends on people who are not like him.
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That's the only way a slugger can exist is if they are depending on someone that's not like them.
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:33,000
If every slugger suddenly dropped off the face of the earth tonight, then the hardworking people would suddenly have a whole lot less work to do for a whole lot more out of the work they've done.
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:48,000
Society would be far better off if all the sluggers were suddenly gone. It would be better off without them.
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:56,000
On the other hand, if every dependable hardworking person suddenly dropped off the face of the earth, then society would fall apart and the sluggers would perish without them.
00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:11,000
That's the fact.
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:12,000
The only way a slugger can exist is if he depends on people who are not like him, but nobody can depend on the slugger.
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:24,000
On my way home from work during the week, I routinely see sluggers that are sitting outside a building where they serve free meals.
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:31,000
They'll be laying out in the lawn, leaning on the grass, leaning on the post, leaning on the building.
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:39,000
They're not there to volunteer, help cook or clean, or see what they can do to make the mission run better.
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:47,000
They're just waiting on their free meal.
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,000
The only way they can show up at a certain time like that and know that there's going to be a hot meal waiting on them on that day of the week at that time is because they're depending on people who are not sluggers like them.
00:27:49,000 --> 00:28:02,000
This not only applies in society, but it applies in the workplace and it applies in the family as well.
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:09,000
All over this world, there are parents who, if one of their adult kids were to call them needing something, that parent would drop what they're doing and they would not rest until they meet that child's needs, the adult child.
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:24,000
The child calls their parents because they know they can depend on their parents to get the job done.
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:31,000
But sadly, if the parent calls that child, they may not receive the same benefit from their children.
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:38,000
It's kind of a one-way street a lot of times.
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000
If they ask the adult child to do something for them, they might apathetically say, "Well, I'll do my best. I'll try my best."
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:50,000
And the parent knows in their heart that their child's not dependable and it's a good chance it won't get done.
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:57,000
Listen, when people depend on you, they are in a vulnerable position.
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:02,000
And you don't need to be smoking their eyes.
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:05,000
You don't need to be acid on their teeth.
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,000
Don't be the person who looks for a reason to not get the job done.
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:12,000
Be the person that finds a way to get it done.
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000
I know people right now that I would never want to depend on anything for.
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:22,000
But I know people right now that I would have complete confidence that if I put something in their hands, they would do their best to get the job done.
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:31,000
My wife is one of those people.
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,000
Rick Lasky up there in the sound room is one of those people.
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,000
His wife, Glinda, is one of those people.
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,000
My parents are those kind of people.
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,000
Brother Sheppard is one of those people.
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,000
Karen Hensley, who just stepped out to the back, is one of those people.
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:52,000
Larry and Sherry Colvin and many other people in this church are those kind of people.
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:59,000
And I thank God for people we can depend on in our lives to be there and to get the job done.
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:05,000
Smoke irritates and acid corrodes.
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:10,000
But how pleasant are the people we can depend on?
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000
And may God help us to be pleasant to the people who depend on us.
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,000
Well, that will go ahead and close tonight.
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,000
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,000
We thank you for its practicality.
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,000
We thank you, Father, for taking your word tonight and like a knife, Lord, piercing deep into our hearts,
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:36,000
touching on a Christian attribute that is often overlooked and that is us needing to be dependable for the people who are vulnerable.
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:50,000
And God, I pray you'll help us to do that because, Lord, when it came down to it,
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:58,000
you and your Son were dependable for sinners like us who were vulnerable.
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:06,000
In Jesus' precious name, may we do the same. Amen.
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:11,000
