Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - The Devastating Consequences of Laziness

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

"Is laziness just a bad habit, or is it a sin? In this episode, Jonny Ardavanis and Hank Bowen dig into the Book of Proverbs to unpack what the Bible really says about the sluggard — and why laziness is a character issue, not just a productivity issue.📖 Pre-order Jonny Ardavanis's new book Get to Work: Seeing Your Daily Grind as God’s Good Gift here: https://a.co/d/0aFMdjNpYou'll learn:• The 4 types of laziness: physical, mental, spiritual, and vocational• 5 traits of the "sluggard" from Proverbs 26• Why laziness and godliness are total opposites• The real cost of laziness: poverty, disgrace, fractured relationships, and lost spiritual usefulness• Practical steps to repent of and fight off lazinessWhether you're a student, parent, pastor, or professional, this conversation will challenge you to examine areas of your life where comfort has replaced diligence — and point you back to Christ's power to change.

Laisiness, as we're going to see in God's word, is not just a productivity issue. It is a character issue. And because it is a character issue, it is a spiritual issue. And I think oftentimes we don't really talk about this enough. The Bible talks about physical laziness, mental laziness, spiritual laziness, and vocational laziness. And the creation of human beings is referred to as intelligent design because we are made in the image of a God who is, what, intelligent? But sadly, those whom God has made with the ability to think and create an engineer are those who have, often become professional at binging and scrolling and shutting off their brains.

Listen, you can be a Christian and be lazy, but you cannot be a mature Christian and be lazy because laziness and godliness are antonyms. Hank, how are we doing? Doing great, Johnny. How are you? Good. Okay, so last week, we asked people to put in the comments what they do vocationally, whether that was as a mom, a plumber, engineer, mechanic, CPA.

As a part of a broader conversation on work ethic. Yeah, we're in a series and we're watching. through some of the major themes that I touch on on my upcoming book, Get to Work, which is available now. And we asked people to just say what they did. And we found a comment that gave us joy. Before you say that, you got to flash to me kind of over lunch break, just scrolling through the comments. Like, after like, after like, we have coffee roasters. We've got cloud engineers. We've got parents. We've got data scientists. We've got insect repellent experts. Okay. And amongst all of these we have.

Yeah. I want to give a shout out, which we've never done to Louis Kelly, who responded and said something along the lines of, I'm a bivocational pastor and cowboy and father of nine. I mean, that is. Louis Kelly. The manliest of my mom. You're the man. A cowboy pastor father of nine. I mean, I aspire to that level of masculinity. Yeah.

So we're in this series and we're talking about a biblical theology of work, labor, what it means to be made in the image of God. Last episode we talked about how the believer is to work with enthusiasm. They're to do what they do as unto the Lord with the level of gusto, with enjoyment, with excellence. Dorothy Sayers says that work that is truly Christian is work well done, meaning that one of the ways that we honor God and love our neighbor is, if you're a builder, build awesome homes. Do it with all of your might and also by working with integrity. Now, two questions that will set the table for us as it relates to the meal from God's word in this episode. Two questions. Number one, if God so highly values the institution of work as we've been talking about in the last few episodes,

what naturally then is going to wildly displease him? And second question would be, if work is an opportunity for us to love and serve our neighbor, what then is going to be a primary way in which we fail to live in obedience? to the second greatest commandment. Answer, laziness. Laisiness is bad, not just because it's unproductive, but because it reflects poorly

on the God who made us in his image and who calls us to represent him in our work, it poorly images a carpenter Christ who we are called to imitate. Lazziness, as we're going to see in God's word, is not just a productivity issue. It is a character issue. And because it is a character issue,

it is a spiritual issue. And I think oftentimes, we don't really talk about this enough. No, it's super relevant. I think if you haven't listened, it would be actually worth going back and listening to the prior episode when we kind of unpack

what a work ethic is and why it's so important. But as we turn to the topic of laziness, I so appreciate you couching this conversation in our love of God and our love of neighbor. Because at least for me, I would say when I think about laziness,

it's one of the sins that isn't necessarily at the forefront of my mind necessarily. You think about, like the big sins you might walk through with a buddy and ask for accountability. And laziness is often probably not on that short list, but as we're going to look for the rest of our time in this conversation, it likely ought to be.

Yeah. And before we continue to jump into this, I want to want you to be thinking about, you know, the person that maybe is in your life that you think is lazy or your nephew in Wichita or whatever it may be or the roommate you have because everyone struggles with laziness maybe in different ways. And I'll elaborate more on that in a moment.

And again, as we continue, why is this a big deal? Well, we find these principles in scripture for us, but we have to root them in the overall story of scripture. God is a worker. God is a creator. He is a mover. He is productive.

He is a sustainer. He heals. He orchestrates. And yes, God rested. And we're going to talk about that in a couple episodes. But that was after he had completed his work. And even then, he continued to uphold all things. And he made man in his image to mirror and mimic him,

to subdue the earth, to rule over everything. God put Adam and Eve in a garden not to admire the hydrangeas but to work it. And again, that word for work in Genesis 2 is the Hebrew word Abad, which can be translated as serve, work or another way. Worship.

Because worship isn't just this peripheral pocket of our life or something we do on Sunday mornings when we sing a few songs. Everything we do in our life is an act of worship. Now, as we examine the subject, it'll be broader than simply our vocation in the workplace or maybe

at the home, but it'll also apply to our conduct relationally, familially, and corporately in the body of Christ. Now, as we look at the subject, we're going to look primarily in this episode at the Book of Proverbs. And I love the book of Proverbs, because the Bible is not just full of highbrow doctrine to be discussed. It is full of immensely practical and immensely profitable wisdom for our lives. And in this section of Scripture, Proverbs is in this section called wisdom literature, we find herself often looking at the subject of laziness. In fact, the word slug is used 14 times throughout the book of Proverbs, and in every mention, there is nothing good said about them. And even though there is, even at times in the scripture, a level of comedy

about the way that the scripture describes the lazy individual, and turning our attention to the subject, we're going to find that laziness is not a comedy. It is a tragedy. Now, as we talk about laziness, we need to understand that there are different types of laziness in our life and different manners of laziness that the scripture addresses. The Bible talks about physical laziness, mental laziness, spiritual laziness, and vocational laziness. And I just want to walk through those briefly. First of all, physical laziness. Well, and maybe as we dive into them, I think that's even a helpful place to ground it,

because there's a bunch of people who probably this is going to be challenging to that wouldn't necessarily describe themselves as lazy. But when we get a fulsome view of all that laziness entails, I can speak from my own heart. As I was looking through the notes, I was thinking like, man, that's been applicable or that's been applicable. And it's in these different domains. Again, you mentioned it, but it's just so important to think. It's not just the person who isn't working as hard as they possibly can between their nine to five working hours. It's a much broader conversation than just that reality. For sure, because you could be really spiritually disciplined and wake up and have a two-hour quiet time

and be very physically lazy. You could also be very physically disciplined and go work out for four hours and be very mentally lazy and scroll your phone every single time you're not at the gym. And so we We have to look at these things to your point comprehensively. Now regarding physical laziness, it's important to understand from the scripture that your physical life is a spiritual matter. This dualism where our souls matter and our bodies do not is nowhere found in the Bible. Right now there is a resurrected Jesus Christ in a body that reigns from heaven. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher once said, you cannot demarcate the physical from

the spiritual because in God's design we are embodied beings. that you need to understand this. And we've talked about this in previous episodes a little bit. How you steward your body, your health matters to God. Now, of course, there are people that have disabilities or diseases who are walking through a season of months, if not years, of not being able to use their body in the way that they would want or people that just had a baby. I'm not talking about that. That differs from the lazy person who doesn't steward their health in a way that honors the Lord. This is why Paul says in 1st Quarantine 6, you've been bought with a price, glorify God in your body.

Furthermore, Matthew Henry once said that bodily ease is the sad occasion for many spiritual diseases, meaning what? Often, not always, slothfulness and one area of our life ripples over into other areas of our life, which is important why we look at these things individually and then comprehensively. And it's so important that we actually start there because in many ways it's we never want to disjoint and jump to application, but that's just an incredibly applicable place to start of we think about some of these topics as like diseases of the mind or I need to capture

my thoughts more proactively and oftentimes we can fall into like you wouldn't think I'm falling into a dualistic mindset but in reality it is super easy to totally neglect the physical side of the equation and then we're surprised that our minds don't necessarily follow for sure second of all mental laziness here we live in an environment that is addicted to entertainment and the creation of human beings is referred to as intelligent design because we are made in the image of of a God who is, what, intelligent? But sadly, those whom God has made with the ability to think and create an engineer are those

who have often become professional at binging and scrolling and shutting off their brains. Now, let's ask the question, is relaxation wrong? No. Is watching a movie wrong? No. Is watching so much TV or scrolling our phones so much that we sedate our brains and waste our time

and forfeit usefulness for Christ? Is that wrong? Well, the answer from Scripture is that yes. that is a vile, wicked, and ungodly sin. Now, I know that might seem alarming, but that's just what we see when we look to the scripture. Christians do not check their brains at the door when they come to Jesus. They steward their brains, and they fight off mental laziness.

And sadly, and I have to check my own heart in this, there are many today who know more about the horrors of Hollywood than they do about what's true in God's Word. And there are many that do a better job of keeping up with the Kardashians than with keeping up with what's happening in the world in which we live, culture in which we're supposed to reach with the truth of Jesus Christ. And Jesus tells us to be, as his followers, shrewd as serpents. But that will not happen if we are mentally lazy as sloths.

Now, even going along with this idea, what's at stake if we are mentally lazy? Well, the great Puritan John Owen gives us the answer. He says, slothful and lazy souls never obtain one view of the glory of Christ, meaning that those who do not exercise their minds cannot possibly possess deep thoughts about God and consequently can never have a deep and profound understanding of his love because that's what faith is. It's essentially thinking. And so there is a component where you can be physically disciplined,

but mentally lazy and not using our minds in a way that honors the Lord. And I think it's particularly acute in the day in which we live because, as you mentioned, we're in an entertainment saturated environment constantly. And we have digital devices constantly trying to claim our attention. And so oftentimes I think this is maybe the easy. pitfall to kind of slide backwards into where almost if you're sitting in neutral you're going to end up in reverse in this regard if you're not proactively seeking to kind of mentally engage but keep going for sure third here would just be spiritual laziness the spiritually lazy person says that it is

too hard to read their Bible in the morning so they say they'll read it at night but at night they're too tired so they stay up and watch a show which perpetuates their inability to wake up early and dive into God's word listen you can be a Christian and be lazy but you cannot be mature Christian and be lazy because laziness and godliness are antonyms. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ by very definition means to be a worker, a student, a learner. And as A.W. Pink one said, no verse of scripture yields its meaning to a lazy person, meaning that the treasures within the Word of God, as Proverbs refers to them, are only available to treasure hunters and picking up the armor of God, fighting the flesh, fleeing temptation,

and evangelizing the loss, employing your spiritual gift and making no provision for the flesh, can only be done by those who fight off spiritual laziness. And I think even when I say this, there may be like a little bit of a concern. Is this legalism? Totally.

No, no, it's not legalism to heed the warnings in Scripture. That's wisdom. Yes, we need God's power. Yes, we need the spirit of God. And no, we're not earning our favor with God. It's not legalism to say, man, we need to be careful of these things.

It's legalism to say, because I'm spiritually disciplined, I'm right with Jesus Christ. But to look at the scripture and say, man, we need to be conscientious that we are engaging our minds and engaging our hearts to set these priorities before us. That's not legalism. That's wisdom. Now, as we continue, as it relates to vocational laziness, and again, that's whatever you do. Mom, plumber, student, law school.

Yeah, cowboy. I want to lay out five features of the lazy man or woman. and we're going to walk primarily here, at least initially, through Proverbs 26. Five features of the lazy individual. First of all, the lazy person makes excuses. In Proverbs 2613, we read, A lazy one says there is a lion on the road, and a lion is in the public square.

Now, I don't know if you know much about lions. This is one of those verses. Occasionally you come to Bible verses where if you're kind of just like a perfunctory reading and you're not treasure hunting to your point, you're like, whoa, whoa, what did I just read? So can you unpack that for us? Well, do lions hang out in the open square? No.

No, how does a lion hunt in the thicket? They're not in the open. They're not just walking through the street. What's the point of the verse when Proverbs says that a lion is on the road? A lion is in the public square. That's what the lazy person says here. Well, what's the point? The point is that the lazy person comes up with whatever excuse necessary to justify their laziness.

Spurgeon says, laziness is a great lion maker. He who does little dreams much, meaning that the lazy individual can't, He can't do his job, his schooling, or perform his commitments, so he makes up excuses. I can't go to work, I can't get it done. I can't complete my commitments. Why? Because there's a lion in the square. And not only that, in the open streets as well, meaning that there's not only one lion,

there's two lions. And the commentators refer to this as this reality that difficulties are doubling and the challenges are compounding. And I like what Derek Kidner says. He says, the lazy person that the scripture speaks of is no freak. He is an ordinary man who has made too many excuses, too many refauses, and too many postponements. I can't get it done. There's a lion. They come up with something big that justifies their inactivity. And terrifyingly, they begin to believe their own lie, which tells you

what, according to the scripture. Well, laziness is diluting. Proverbs 1519 says, the way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway. What does it mean that there's a hedge of thorns? The way of the lazy man is a hedge of thorns. It just means this. Every difficulty or challenge in their path serves as an excuse for an action. I can't go forward why there's a hedge of thorns. Okay, so secondly here. Well, and real quickly on that point, it only continues to compound. And so those thorns are only going to grow if neglected, as opposed to the diligent who has highway because of frequent use. And you get used to looking for those excuses. Totally. This is one, I guess, again, challenging for me, is it's easy to, they're in my mind's

There's a couple of people that come to mind of it's like, oh, yeah, this characterizes that person. Like there's always an excuse for why it wasn't done on time. There's always a reason why they could have been X, Y, Z, but it didn't happen for them. But to your earlier point, thinking about it in my own life, there's 10,000 tiny examples that come to mind for me of like, wait, am I falling prey into the exact same habit again? That it's a good thing to be on guard with. Sure. Now, the next verse, the proverb continues to talk about laziness in 2640. we read, as the door turns on its hinges, so does a lazy one on his bed.

Now, what does a hinge do? Turns, back and forth, baby. Makes a lot of noise, a lot of motion, and goes absolutely nowhere. After finding the lazy individual making up excuses in verse 13, in verse 14, we find him in his happy place, his bed. As the door turns on its hinges, so does a lazy one on his bed, like a fan oscillating. back and forth, back and forth. This is the lazy person who's kind of just wrapping themselves in the blankets, shielding themselves from the sun, hit the snooze bar, burrow themselves once again.

Now, I think sometimes we often say that the lazy person lacks drive. But when you look to the Bible, that can be any further from the truth, because a lazy person doesn't lack drive. They have an intense drive, an intense craving for what? To be comfortable. They love to be comfortable. They love to be at ease. Proverbs 13, 14, says,

the soul of the lazy man desires and he has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich, meaning that the soul of the lazy man, he has desires. What does he want? He wants to be comfortable. Now, again, is it bad to relax? No. No, but the lazy individual loves to relax.

He craves relaxation. He wants everything in his life to be easy, but everything good in life is on the other side of hard. And I think sometimes, you know, you jump in here, I think sometimes people often confuse God's will for their life with whatever option before them is the easiest. But biblically speaking, God leads us along challenging and difficult roads, but the lazy individual here, he wants his life to be comfortable.

And when he sees a challenge in his path, he thinks, no, that must not be what God has for me. Yeah, totally. And again, it's super easy to overcorrect and fall into any pitfall. Going even back to the legalism point, it's not that we aren't completely dependent on his grace. We would affirm that reality. the truth is we're also called into a war into which you'd participate.

And we would never think of like the imagery of battle as a place of permanent relaxation or comfort. Exactly. And one of the things that we'll see as we look to the book of Proverbs is that in the end, the easy life that the sluggard pursues ends up being very costly. And some writers refer to this as the soft choice where after opportunity after opportunity and day after day and the end result of, of loving ease is a wasted life. Now, third here, the lazy person in the next verse doesn't finish what they've started. Do you have 2615? Yeah, the sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too weary to return it to his mouth.

Now, are you familiar with the national holiday that takes place on January 12th? January 12th? National Quitters Day. Oh, of course I wouldn't be familiar with it. 12 days after people have made their New Year's resolutions. it's over and obviously there's you know we've all we've all done that to a degree but proverbs often speaks to the reality that the lazy person who may sprint out of the gates is too lazy to finish that's what we just read in verse 15 the lazy person likes the idea

of completing hard tasks starts them but never finishes them diet to diet book to book bible reading plan the bible reading plan it doesn't matter what it is the lazy person doesn't finish what they've started and it could be distraction it could be diversion but the bible warns against someone proverbs 2615 does warns against someone who is always beginning something and never completing it i've got nothing at you in that regard i want to read for you proverbs 1227 it says the lazy does not roast any game but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt meaning that the lazy person stops short of what is actually necessary to provide him with any sustenance from the game the lazy person says here, does not roast any game. Now, I'm not much of a hunter, but I ask my friend Ty,

who is a hunter, what's involved in the process between killing an animal and the actual consumption of that animal? Here's what Ty said. He says, the process between killing an animal and having it as a meal involves several important steps to ensure the meat is safe and properly prepared for consumption. The first step is field dressing, which involves removing the entrails and other internal organs from the animal as soon as possible to reduce spoilage. The next step is proper cooling, either through hanging the animal in a cool place or a refrigerator, as to slow down the growth of bacteria. Once the meat has been chilled, it must be cleaned and processed, which often involves

removing the skin, bones, and any remaining fat. Finally, the meat must be cooked to a safe temperature to kill any harmful bacteria and parasites that may be present. Throughout this process, it is important to maintain the highest levels of hygiene to ensure that the meat is safe to eat and free from any contaminants. Now the lazy person thinks about all that And does not roast his prey Neither does he cut it

Got it drain it and carry it back home He's too lazy to cook his own food And the story of scripture is And especially here in the book of Proverbs Written by the wisest man right In the Old Testament Give me wisdom Many of these

Because of this man's laziness He's gonna die Now I know that sounds serious But that's just what the Bible says Proverbs 2125 says the desire of the sluggard puts him to death for his hands refuse to work. Now, that sounds serious. It sounds alarming.

What's so bad about this? But I think we need to interpret this through the scripture. And rather than maybe our cultural lens by which we kind of justify this as like a, as you said, a respectable sin. Well, and I think that point is one of those where if you were reading this at a different time, where literally your only way to eat was to roast the game from where. from which you've provided. It's real in a very different way. 100%.

Whereas in our context, it's so easy to actually be long. I'll be fine. Totally. Because the reality is, I have not eaten anything. I have roasted personally in field dressed. My brother-in-laws are going to be ashamed of me when I admit this.

No, but true. And it's this hunter, gatherer. Trader Joe's treasure hunter. No. But in all seriousness, that doesn't, what's so preeminently clear when you think about it, is it still true in today's context? You're just delaying the death process, but someone who is lazy is being robbed of the vitality of life, even though it might not be a physical, like, weak, long death of starvation.

For sure. And I think this is the Bible's way, in God's way, through the power of a spirit of saying, hey, laziness is significant, right? If the Bible says the desire of the sluggard puts him to death for his hands refused to work, That's God's way of saying, this is no trivial matter. Now, Alexander Strauch conveys this truth, and he said, more important than money in a wallet, if you have children, young children, or whatever, however old they are, he says, more important than money in a wallet is diligence in a man's heart,

and other than the fear of the Lord, he says, there may be nothing more important that you could ever teach your children than to teach them diligence. Forceder, the lazy person is self-deceived. The following verse, we're still in Proverbs 26, verse 16. Can you read that for us? verse 16. Yeah. It says the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can respond with a discrete answer. Seven is the number of completeness. So here it could be a thousand men. It wouldn't

matter that no man and no amount of men could possibly change the lazy individual's mind. Why? Well, because here in Proverbs 26, the lazy man or woman has a higher regard for their own opinion than all of the wisdom in the world. It says here a lazy one is wiser in his own eyes than seven people who can give a discrete answer, meaning seven people come to you with wisdom. And a lazy person? No, they're wise in their own eyes. They're ingenious. This is scary.

At justifying their own laziness and they know how to work the system. I'm working hard. I'm working smart, not hard. And what's interesting about the lazy person that is self-deceived is that the scripture here says they also tend to speak a big game. Proverbs 1423 says this of laziness. There's profit and all hard work. but endless talk leads only to poverty,

meaning that the lazy person is consistently talking about what they are going to accomplish. And you won't really meet a successful person often that needs to convince you they are one, right? But the lazy person in Proverbs 14 is a talker. I have this mental image of on Saturday mornings growing up outside Chicago in the fall. we would occasionally get woken up to my dad shouting,

it's time to rake. And so we had not like a huge property, but we had a bunch of these really old mature trees. And inevitably, by like 9.30, 10 a.m., been out there a few hours and we're raking and we're raking. And all of a sudden, we'd kind of slow down. You start talking. And then I'd hear my dad shouting from the porch,

keep moving. But it's this reality of the talking starts and it's directly inversely correlated with how much. much output is being put out there. And maybe on a more serious note, what strikes me hearing you list through all these realities of laziness is whether it's a idol of comfort or making excuses, all of these different realities are coming from a disordered priority of we're placing something else at the focal point of our lives, or whether it's even self-delusion, putting ourselves at the center, as opposed to keeping our focus centered on Christ and then him prioritizing

all the efforts with which we find our hands. Yeah, and it's a failure to understand our identity as an image bear. You know, like it goes back to, hey, we've been given one life, and I'll talk about this more in a moment. But yeah, like, this is, it's a serious thing when you look to the scripture. And I think as you look at life through the lens of the gospel, it becomes even more serious on the other side of Proverbs. I think that you think, oh, this is the Old Testament.

No, because of what Jesus has done for us, and that he reaffirms so many things and said, you've been given one life, all of these things become not less serious. but more serious. Now, the question is, what do you have to do to be lazy? The answer is nothing. It's a default position, and the longer it is indulged, the longer it is increased, and the harder it is to conquer. You don't have to seek it out. No, and the fifth year, the lazy person needs to be prodded. In Proverbs 6, there's this scene, go to the end, O Sluggard, observe her ways and be wise,

which having no chief officer or ruler prepares her food in the summer and gathers supervision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, oh, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And then it says here, your poverty will come upon you like a vagabond. That is an armed robber and your need like an armed man. I don't know if everybody knows this about Tennessee, which is where we live. You know, sometimes people don't know. We're in Franklin, Tennessee. There are ant hills everywhere. And one thing is certain. Ants do not need anyone to bark orders. It is a flurry of activity. they are stewarding the opportunities

and the time before them because the future is unknown. And here, Proverbs 6 says, go to the aunt, you sluggard. Observe the activity of the aunt, who's not made in the image of God, who's not going to give an account to God for the way they steward their life and their time, and they're moving.

I can't tell you how many times growing up, I would hear my dad say, Johnny, never let the grass grow under your feet. What he meant by that is Johnny never be so idle, so sedentary, so sluggish, that the grass just literally grows while you're standing there. And he also told me consistently, take initiative, go be a go-getter, grab life by the horns. Like, go work hard. Don't have, and then I want you to jump in.

I remember when I got that first job, and we mentioned the story of when I started working in a restaurant when I was 16. Declined from subway, but keep trying. He said, Johnny, don't make anyone have to tell you to work hard. You know, like don't have to be prodded. Don't have to be someone that constantly needs to be kicked to get going. Well, and this is the same. My dad growing up, it was always if you're going over to someone's house, ask how you can be helpful.

Take initiative. After the meal, pick up the dishes. You don't have to be asked to do it. You just go do it. And I think the encouraging part I would want to call out for people is, yeah, that's great that Scott Ardivannis or Jimbo and we're saying those things when we were little boys. And I pray my son Hayes does the same thing. But also, it's not like those are good ideal.

pulled out of thin air. They're coming from Proverbs 6, 6, as we just look at. It's the scripture. And wherever you lack that in your earthly father, you can look to the Word of God, who gives us that instruction. And if you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit. You say, God impress these truths upon my heart

and the way that they are intended to. Now, what's the cost of being lazy? I wrote down a few things, and we don't need to belabor this too long. Well, it says in scripture, poverty is a cost of being lazy. Proverbs 20, verse 4. The slugger does not plow after the autumn.

So he begs during the harvest and has nothing, meaning that if you don't work, you won't make money and you will be poor. Okay, that's just basic. Paul says in second, for it's overcomplicated. Yes, Paul says in Second Thessalonians three, for even when we are with you, we command you do this. If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

So poverty is a cost of being lazy. Disgrace is in Proverbs 10, 5, Proverbs 1224. It's disgrace. You're going to bring shame upon yourself if you're lazy. Frustration would be a third one. Proverbs 1026 says, and again, these are so, there's so many verses on this on the subject of laziness. It says in Proverbs 1026, like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who sent him. I remember at Hume Lake, we used to have a big bomb fire and it would get so big sometimes that it would just sear my contact.

You know, the smoke would get in my eyes and it is unbelievable. You know, it's so frustrating. And the scripture says, like, smoke to the eyes is the lazy person to those who sent him. You will frustrate your spouse, your children, your bosses, your coworkers. It'll be like the scripture says, vinegar to the teeth when you aren't proactive. Well, and I wanted to call that reality out to the forefront because the first two you mentioned, disgrace and poverty, it's like, yeah, that's born by you primarily. But don't miss the boat here.

Poverty isn't only unhelpful for you and putting you in a negative place. It's also cascading consequences onto those around you. Yeah, and that leads us to the fourth one. That what's the cost of being lazy? Well, it fractures relationships. In Proverbs 189, we read, one who is slack in his work is brother to the one who destroys. What does that mean? Well, if you're slack in your work, it says, it's basically, it uses the same word for

prodigal, meaning that you will destroy relationships. You cannot love your neighbor if you are a lazy neighbor. Why? Because relationships take hard work. There is no such thing as a guy who has deep relationships that isn't a proactive pursuer of people. And no one stumbles into deep relationships. They are fought for, they are worked for.

And furthermore, believers are to work hard, not just to care for yourself, but to care for other people who cannot work for themselves, meaning that you're loving your neighbor by working hard. And this even goes along with Romans 12. We're to work and to seek the well-being of those around us. one of the fifth things that we forfeit. And maybe real quickly, just on that point, it's just so important that healthy families,

healthy churches, it's easy to fall, I feel like I keep saying this, but it's true. It's easy to fall on the spectrum of viewing it too independently. Like, well, because I'm going to stand before the cross someday, it's really just between me and him. There's an element to which, obviously, yes, your salvation is between you and the Lord. So an unhealthy view is too independent. On the flip side, it would be too unhealthy for people who are too codependent, but a healthy family, a healthy church is healthily interdependent. And so this laziness in infests and starts to fray and break so many of the people around you,

which is where you started with, this isn't only an affront to God, but it gets in the way of loving our neighbors, the second great command. Absolutely. It's a great point. Yeah, the fifth thing here that you forfeit is spiritual usefulness. I think burnout is a real thing. I think you can not rest in a way that honors God and depletes your soul. I also know that on the other side of that, Paul describes a Christian life as a boxer, a soldier, a farmer, a runner.

And I also remember Paul's words where he says that his entire life in 2 Timothy 4,6, is being poured out like a drink offering, meaning that when he got, he was trying, he was limping to the finish line. And so I think there is, and we're going to talk about rest, because it's a biblical reality, right? But if you want to be useful for the kingdom of God, if you want to herald his word and serve people and advance the gospel, you cannot be lazy. Jesus says in Luke 16, he who is faithful with very little will also be faithful in much. Now, let's just get to like the what now.

Like let's say someone's convicted. And everybody is going to be convicted in different ways. To be clear, there should be varying levels of conviction personally regardless. Yeah. And it's not like I've arrived at anything here. It's like no one. And I remember I heard Paul Twist one time say like, hey, no one's under the conviction. of the Spirit of God more than the person's studying to preach.

Like, it's like, you're not like, oh, I've arrived, so I'm qualified to teach in the passage. It's like, God, wherever there's dissonance between what I'm reading and my life I'm living, align me to my heart, right? So what now? Well, I think you repent. Laziness is a sin. Like, it's a sin that needs to be repented of.

Yeah, and like every other sin. Yeah, like every other sin. So repent. Ask God, forgive me. I confess this to you. I need help. Change my heart. Two, heed God's warnings.

Paul says one of the priorities of the pastor. and 1st, Thessalonians 514, is to warn the idol. You know, it's so funny that, like, this, you know, the subject itself may be alarming. But Paul says one of the responsibilities of the pastor is to warn idle people, admonish them, like, hey, you can't live this way. This is dangerous.

Three. And real quick on there, that's just actually, when I think about laziness, it's not necessary that I would think about being coachable or being teachable, like you say. And that's actually a very helpful diagnostic question to be asking in one's mind. to the extent that you're thinking like, oh, well, this doesn't really apply to me.

You're probably not this far in the episode. But for folks who are thinking, man, like, does this apply to me? That's actually a very healthy place to be coming to the scriptures. Yeah, no, that's correct. Three, I think you study the sluggard and pursue wisdom. In Proverbs 24, we read, I pass by the field of the sluggard, verse 30, and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense. And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles.

its surface was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down and he said when I saw it I reflected upon it I looked and I received instruction a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest then your poverty will come upon you as a robber

and your want like an armed man so you reflect and go okay there is a cost here then additionally you seek some godly counsel and I've already mentioned this some of you weren't raised in homes that taught you how to work hard so some of you didn't have a god Godly Father. So you go to the Word of God and you ask your Heavenly Father, you know, fill me with your

spirit. And I think being prayerful of this, you going, hey, this is a matter of, I think, holiness, right? So like God is, God's commandments, Margaret Clarkson says, are his enablings. So if he tells you to work hard and if he tells you to fight off laziness, then if you're a believer, you have the power of the Holy Spirit to enable you to do just that. And then there's some practical things. You get rid of things that cause you to waste your time and your brain. because our lives are filled with distraction and diversion and temptation. And the sluggard's favorite day is what? Tomorrow.

And so beginning with today, you begin to take inventory of the things in your life that contribute to physical, mental, spiritual, or vocational laziness, and say, okay, I need accountability here. I need godly people in my life. And I need the power of Jesus working in and through me, knowing that apart from him, I can do nothing, including fight off laziness. Well, this has been a super, super helpful study, Jenny.

There's a bunch of things in here that I'm going to be reflecting on in the days ahead. And for folks that are listening in, sincerely, we appreciate to the extent to which you engage with this content. We say it maybe not as frequently as we should, but to the extent you would like, comment or subscribe, I really enjoy reading the comments.

And so maybe as a little nugget for those who've made it this far, if there's anything that stuck out to you, particularly from this episode, that maybe spoke to you in this time. We'd love to hear about it, and we'll be looking in the day's head. Yeah, thanks, Hank. Thanks, Johnny.