Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious word and turn to the book of Proverbs please.
Proverbs chapter 12.
Proverbs chapter 12.
God willing we'll be expounding verse 27 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27.
The title of the message tonight is "Precious Substance."
I absolutely loved my study in God's Word here.
It's such a simple text, but it's so deep and profound.
It's got a precious nugget of truth in there, and I just pray we'll hang on to it.
It'll shape young people's minds and help the old alike.
And our text tonight, our wise Creator is teaching us about, if you look in your text now, the slothful man.
The slothful man.
The Hebrew word "remiah" translated "slothful" here, it has two meanings.
Two meanings.
The first means to be slothful.
The second means treachery or deceit.
Treachery or deceit.
Slothful, deceitful, treacherous.
That's the idea behind Remi-ah.
Now we have to ask ourselves tonight, what's the connection between slothful, deceitful and treacherous?
I mean, they're all bad qualities to have in life, but they're all different things.
So why do they share the same word?
Fascinatingly, the word "remiol" comes from a Hebrew root word that means "to shoot," as in "to shoot the enemy," like with an arrow or a dart.
And so, I love studying the history of words called etymology, because it gives a rich understanding to what those words mean.
I love word history.
I've always been fascinated with it.
And to understand what the slothful man is, we need to understand that Remyah is based on the idea, once again, of shooting someone, and thus harming someone and causing them to fall.
Shooting someone and thus harming them and causing them to fall.
So now maybe you can see why remiolle means deceit or treachery.
Because when people commit treachery, they use deceit to betray someone.
That's treachery.
They use deceit to betray someone and thus harm someone.
They shoot their treacherous lies at their country, at their fellow man, at their business partner, whomever, and they cause them to fall.
Now, understanding that's what "Rim Yahu" means. to shoot at an enemy, at someone who's trusting you, and you betray them, and you cause them to fall through deception.
Think then how foolish the slothful man is.
You see, the slothful man doesn't shoot at his enemy, he shoots at himself.
The slothful man, by his laziness, He betrays not his enemy, he betrays his wife, he betrays his children, he betrays his loved ones, his extended family, because they are the ones who are harmed and fall on account of his laziness.
While the slothful man is taking it easy, oftentimes he has friends and family members who are working harder than him to pay their bills and to save for the future, and then, but not planning for the future, the slothful man, he runs into hard times just like everybody else.
Someone said, "Well, he fell on hard times."
Everybody falls on hard times.
We all live in the same world.
Different times, I understand, and we don't all get hit with the same blows, but there's always trouble coming down the road for somebody.
And not planning for the future and working quite so hard when he falls on hard times, then you know what he does?
He goes to the people who've been working hard for help.
Now he's been enjoying himself and relaxing and not working quite so hard, and they've been working harder, and now he goes to them and they've been saving up for their hard times, and now he goes to them and now he becomes a financial to his loved ones because he's a slothful man.
A man I used to work with, he had some family members who always felt sorry for another family member, one particular fellow, because he always had financial trouble.
The family seemed okay, though, with my co-worker paying for the things that he shouldn't have to when the other family member didn't have the money.
But my co-worker rightly commented one day to his family.
He said, "That man is the same age I am, and he can get up and go to work every day just like me."
You know?
Ouch!
That hurts to hear sometimes, but it's true.
Slothful people may love their family.
I'm not saying that.
The Bible doesn't say that.
But they're betraying their family when they unrighteously depend on them due to their laziness.
If you can work a little harder to save for your future, but you choose to take the easy way out in your younger life, then that stress of having little to live on when you're older is going to shoot at you and your wife in time to come.
You will endure that stress.
But there's more that meets the eye when it comes to the slothful man.
Because you may say, "Well, you know, I know someone, he works really hard or she works really hard.
Some of the hardest working folks I know, but they have financial trouble and they can't seem to, you know, they always seem to be struggling along with finances.
But they're hard workers.
Well, there's more to being a hard worker than just being a hard worker.
There's more to being slothful than what meets the eye.
For concerning the slothful man, the Bible now continues to say that if you look back your text, "He roasteth not that which he took in hunting."
I absolutely love this verse.
"He roasteth not that which he took in hunting."
This is not a culinary verse.
This is not trying to teach us about cooking.
There is a fundamental financial principle that God is teaching us here.
This is a fascinating statement because it tells us a lot about the slothful man.
First thing we learned about the slothful man, the slothful man went hunting.
Isn't that right?
The slothful man went hunting.
He got out, and understand this about the slothful man, this is God's concept of the slothful man in this verse.
When we think of a slothful man, we think of someone laying around in bed all day with a remote control, playing on the game boy.
But that's not God's picture of the slothful man here in Proverbs.
This guy got up early in the morning.
Do you ever deer hunt brother Billy?
You got too much time.
You got to work don't you?
You got to work.
Any of you deer hunting here?
You get up early or late to go?
Early.
Early.
The man's getting up early in the morning and he's getting out and he's doing what it takes to put meat on the table.
That's God's picture of a sawful man here.
Early riser, getting out and doing what it takes to put meat on the table.
And listen, this proverb wasn't written this week.
It was written thousands of years ago.
This may come as a shock, but they didn't have ATVs back then.
They didn't have hunting blinds with heaters in them, propane heaters.
They didn't have pickup trucks.
They didn't even have deer rifles.
They had to make their own arrows and bows.
And if you shot one with a bow and arrow, you're probably going to track that rascal for a while too and drag it back.
There was a lot more work involved in hunting back then than there is today.
So if you were to see the slothful man get up early in the morning, if you were to see him beforehand fashioning his arrows, filling his quiver, heading out into the field, shooting and tracking a deer, he might seem like a hard-working fellow to you.
And for me to call him a slothful man, you might say, Why, he's one of the hardest working people I know.
But the Bible says that he took the initiative to go hunting, and he was successful in the hunt.
He brought the food home.
And putting that into modern words, we could say he got up early.
He went to work.
He earned a living.
He brought a check home to the family.
The ancient man takes home a deer, the modern man takes home a check.
That'll catch you up with the proverb tonight where we are.
The problem is the slothful man doesn't roast what he takes.
He doesn't roast what he takes.
Here's a Kingdom Truth for you tonight.
Providing for one's house consists of taking and roasting.
Providing for one's house consists of taking and roasting.
What is taking?
Taking is acquiring substance.
I go to work, I acquire a paycheck.
I go into the field, I acquire game.
Taking is acquiring substance.
What is roasting?
Roasting is managing that substance.
It's managing that substance once it's taken.
So taking is acquiring substance, roasting is managing substance.
It does little good to take home a check if you fail to manage what you take.
Managing your substance is just as important as earning it.
Managing your substance is just as important as earning it.
It's all part of the job.
It does no good to put in the work, to put in that work necessary to get a deer, if you don't put in the work necessary to butcher and roast it.
And there are all kinds of applications that can be made from this.
But to put it succinctly for us tonight, man must follow through with his work in order to benefit from it.
Man must follow through with his work in order to benefit from it.
You ever seen people that didn't follow through with their work?
Man must follow through with his work in order to benefit from it.
Here's the Kingdom Truth for you tonight.
Unmanaged substance is wasted labor.
Unmanaged substance is wasted labor.
Labor.
Suppose a man starts a project, and he never finishes that project.
He goes out, he earns the money, he buys the lumber, or whatever metal, or whatever he's using.
He gets all the stuff there.
He starts a project, and then he never finishes that project.
That's all the same as taking game and not roasting it.
The labor and the money he invested is in vain until that is followed through.
Suppose a woman works and saves her money and buys a treadmill.
Then she hangs clothes on it.
Her labor and substance is in vain.
I mean, there's the treadmill.
That treadmill represents hours of her getting up, going to work, or saving whatever budget that she has, if she's like me and my wife, I give her a monthly budget, and I go do the work, and she does the domestic work.
So, it's all the same, that treadmill represents labor, getting up, getting dressed, going to work, saving, bringing home the money, acquiring the substance, and not following through.
So that treadmill is what?
It's all that time, the hours of getting up and working, it's wasted.
It's benefiting nobody.
Nobody.
In both cases, whether it's the man and his project, or the woman and her treadmill, the people fail to follow through with their labor.
Starting a project can be fun.
A lot of people start projects.
But finishing it takes commitment.
It takes following through.
Buying a treadmill is a whole lot easier than using it.
Bagging a deer and getting your picture taken with those horns is a lot more fun than butchering and cooking it.
But unmanaged substance is wasted labor. by not following through, the unused and unmanaged substance of the slothful man becomes his wasted labor."
Look back in your text, "But the substance of a diligent man is precious."
The substance of a diligent man is precious.
The diligent man follows through with his labor.
He's not going to let that go to waste.
He worked hard for that.
That's the way he sees it.
The diligent man sticks with his task to the end.
If you're going to start a project, finish it.
Because the diligent man considers his substance to be precious.
Because he knows he worked hard for what he has, he doesn't want to see it go to waste.
His paycheck and his labor is precious to him, meaning it's valuable to him.
That means something.
So he's going to not only take it home, but he's going to roast every bit that he takes.
Does that make sense?
He's not only going to take it home, but he's going to roast or put to use every bit that he takes.
He doesn't want a single dollar to go to waste.
You can be the hardest working person in town, but if you waste your substance, then you're no different than the laziest person in town.
You hear that?
You can be the hard...
In fact, I would rather be the laziest person in town than the hardest working person who wastes his substance.
At least I'm not tired.
You know?
But the outcome is no different.
You work, you blow it, you don't manage it, and then it's gone.
And those people live from paycheck to paycheck to paycheck.
And I know that some people can live paycheck to paycheck and manage very well.
But people who blow their money rarely ever save their money.
But you have to make sure that you roast everything you take home, or it's wasteful and it's a sin.
We work for a purpose, but if our purpose is not accomplished, then our labor is in vain.
So here's what we learned tonight.
This is the golden nugget in all of this.
In our proverb tonight, we learn that managing is just as important as earning.
Managing is just as important as earning.
Roasting is just as important as taking and slaying that deer.
The truth is, if we work harder at managing...
Kids, don't let this go past you.
If you're handling money, don't let this go past you.
If we work harder at managing our substance, then we won't have to work as hard at earning our substance.
I'll repeat that again.
If we would start working harder at managing what we make, We wouldn't have to be working as hard to make something to manage.
And suddenly that opens up a whole new concept for labor.
Because we tend to think, okay, we grow up and we tend to think, "All right, I need to put in this many hours or complete this many jobs at so much per job, however, whatever our job is." and that will convert into this much cash.
And if I put in more hours, or I do complete more tasks, and build more customers, and/or make more sales, and I sacrifice a little bit, and I work a little longer, work a little harder, then I'll have more.
But if you're taking home a hundred percent, and you're roasting 50 to 75 percent, you could actually start working less, taking the stress out of your body and taking the time away from your family.
You could start working less on the front end, and then manage a hundred percent of that on the back end.
And you know where you manage the back end at?
You know where you do the roasting at?
You do the hunting in the field, you do the roasting at the house.
Now, I don't know about you, you know what a lot of people do today?
They do their hunting at the house.
They work from home.
Hey, and that's great if you can do that.
But a lot of America can't do that, and a lot of America is getting away from that right now.
But you do the hunting in the field.
You do the roasting at the house, so you could actually spend less time in the field, and more time at the house, if you learn to be a better roaster.
You won't have to be quite as vigorous as a taker.
Does that make sense?
So, we need to concentrate not just on going out and working and putting in the time, But concentrate on, "Okay, once that money goes to the bank, or once I have purchased something, you know, how do I make what I have last?
How do I make my food go further?
How do I make the substance I have at home go further?
How do I repurpose lumber?
How do I repurpose this or that, versus throwing something away and just going out and buying something else?"
When you're just doing that, if you can repurpose something, your substance isn't precious to you.
Because you're taking that substance, and when you put it out in the trash, you know what you're doing?
You're taking your hunting out in the field, and you're throwing it away.
Where if you can use that, and not have to buy something else, then you're roasting at home, as saving you from having to hunt out there.
It's just a brilliant principle that's laid out for us here in God's Word.
It's just there for the taking.
It's absolutely marvelous.
But managing is just as important as earning.
And if we work harder at managing our substance, then we won't have to work as hard at earning our substance.
If you'll work harder at making your dollars go further, then you'll have to work less at making more dollars.
And with that, we'll go ahead and close.
Father, thank you for teaching us, Father, the principle of true labor.
Not just the labor to gather, but the labor to store, the labor to keep, the labor to let, Father, our substance, Father, endure.
Father, help us, Lord, to be better at roasting.
Help us to learn the principles of it.
Give us wisdom so we can be better managers at home of the substance You've given us.
In Jesus' precious name, Amen.
