TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna - July 7, 2025 - Proverbs 6:6-7 - Consider the Ant and Be Wise

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

In today’s Morning Manna, we slow down and look closely at one of God’s most underestimated teachers—the ant. Proverbs 6:6–7 reminds us that wisdom isn’t always found in impressive places; sometimes, it crawls right under our feet. The ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler, yet it models diligence, discipline, and initiative. We’ll unpack what it means to live with the kind of quiet, steady responsibility that honors God—without needing constant supervision to do what’s right.Join the leading community for Conservative Christians! https://www.FaithandValues.comYou can partner with us by visiting https://www.FaithandValues.com/donate, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!https://www.AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!https://www.amazon.com/Final-Day-Characteristics-Second-Coming/dp/0578260816/Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/final-day-10-characteristics-of-the-second-coming/id1687129858Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. https://www.sacrificingliberty.com/watchThe Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today! https://tru.news/faucielf

Good morning everybody. Welcome to morning manna for Monday and we are delighted that you're here wherever you are in the world, whatever method device platform that you're using, what time of the day it doesn't matter. You're here. That's the important thing. The body of Christ, disciples in many nations, look, we are a tribe. Isn't that what we are? We're a tribe spread across many nations. And we gather through technology to learn about our King and learn from our King. That's the purpose of morning manna for spiritual nourishment in a dying world. We all need spiritual nourishment and that's what we're doing here at morning manna. So we are studying the book of Proverbs this summer and Last week we started chapter 6. Today we're going to pick up Proverbs chapter 6 verses 6 through 11. So let's pray and Doc will read the Scriptures

and then he and I will begin our study of the word. Almighty God, our precious Heavenly Father, Father we adore you, we magnify you, we glorify you, we praise you, we worship you, for you are the only God in the universe. There's never been another God, there isn't another God now, there never will be another God. That position, that title is yours alone. And we worship you. We know who we are worshiping. You are the God of Adam. You are the God of Methuselah. You are the God of Abraham and Moses and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and John the Baptist and Peter, Paul, Luke, Mark, Paul.

We know who you are. You are the God of the prophets and the apostles. You are the God who has always existed and your son's name is Jesus Christ. He is your only begotten son, and he is the only way to you. So we pray in his name. Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit. We invite the Holy Spirit to direct and supervise and lead this Bible study class.

Teach us your word. Teach us principles of wisdom, understanding, discernment, discretion. Make us stronger disciples for your son. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. And we are continuing our study in Proverbs chapter 6. And so if you want to turn your Bibles to there today, we're going to pick back up on verse 6 of chapter 6 today, a familiar passage for many of you. The morning manna is a ministry, a faith and values fellowship

in Beaver Beach, Florida. And we're glad that you're here with us to study the Word of God together from places all over the world, Germany, Russia, Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Brazil, and all points across the U.S. and Canada. We welcome you today to this live edition of Morning Manifest. Picking back up today at verse number six of chapter six, Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideeth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Get a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man." God blessed the reading of his word today.

Like an armed man. This is going to be an interesting lesson. We start with verse six. interesting lesson. We start with verse six. Go to the ant you sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. So the opening verse today is a divine summons to humble ourselves and have intentional observation of a small creature in order to learn the principles of wisdom. We're being told, human, you could learn a lot from that little ant. This is not a passive suggestion. It's a command to take initiative. It requires the reader or the hearer of Proverbs to move toward learning with intentional desire. It instructs us to pay attention to the lowly little ant,

a creature that's often overlooked. For the purpose to demonstrate to us that divine wisdom can be revealed through even the smallest aspects of creation. What can we observe and learn from the ant? Well, the ant models a range of virtues, self-motivation, teamwork, foresight, tireless labor, without being supervised or compelled to do the work. So this command in Proverbs 6 rebukes human pride. Yes. It invites people who think themselves wise to sit at the feet of one of nature's smallest workers and learn humility.

The call to go. It's a it's an instruction for action. We're being told, go, get up, get up off your chair and go, go do this. It's telling us to leave behind human excuses and distractions and laziness to actively seek God's wisdom. I guess it's not a paradox because I understand it. Wisdom is a free gift. God not only is it a free gift, but God desires to give it liberally, abundantly, without measure. He desires for us to have it. Right. And he has it in such abundance that he even invested in a little ant.

invested in a little ant. Yes. And even, but even though he earnestly, I mean in his heart, God desires his sons and daughters to possess wisdom and understanding. And he makes it available to us every day and it's free. But there is one string attached. You have to seek it. He's not going to bring it to you. What this is saying is you're not gonna sit in your recliner and the Holy Spirit is gonna spoon feed wisdom to you while you eat a bag of fritos. It requires initiative, action, work.

It's free, but it requires activity to obtain what is free. And that's why most humans never obtain it. They're unwilling to exert the effort that God requires to receive the free gift. I mean, we've used this analogy before, but if I told you that, hey, in that mountain right there behind your house, there's a vast gold mine, you can have it. You got to find it, you got to dig it out.

But it's yours, it's all yours. I guarantee you. Every one of us would have pick and shovel. We'd be digging day and night to find it. Why? We know there's wealth there, and it's been given to us, and the only requirement is we have to dig it out and find it. If we're willing to do that for we have to dig it out and find it. If we're willing to do that for minerals and precious gems and precious metals, why won't we do it for the true wealth of the universe? Wisdom. Right. So, the previous chapter, chapter 5, the warning was about making rash verbal commitments that entangled you with people outside of the covenant of God. Chapter 6 says, chapter 5 was about, hey, here's how, this is what foolishness looks like.

Avoid folly, avoid foolishness. Chapter six says, wisdom is found through steady, thoughtful labor as exhibited in the behavior of ants. So the ant without speech, and apparently without reasoning, I mean, just how big is an ant's brain? So the ant testifies by its actions to the divine order that's woven in all creation. The ant is it just as wise. Yes. It didn't have to think about it. It's wiser than some people. Very wise.

So the ant's tireless labor that God designed inside the ant. He put it in one of the lowliest creatures on the planet to reflect his order, his intelligent design of the universe. Humans are endowed with reasoning and conscience. And, but humans often resist their responsibility to responsible labor. So wisdom is not locked away. It's not some abstract doctrine. It's on display in God's natural world for those who are willing to observe it and learn.

Absolutely. You know, He spoke everything into existence. He spoke it, right? Yes. And His Word itself is wisdom. And so wouldn't His Word, if He spoke it into existence, wouldn't His Word be embedded in everything around us? I mean, His Word would, you know, we look at the tree, we'd see God. We'd look at the ant, we'd see God. I just find it fascinating that we can look at any measure of creation and we cannot deny the wisdom of God. God is desiring. In fact, I look at this verse here, Rick, as a plea from the Father, Go to the ant thou sluggard.

Go! Go to the ant thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. It's a cry more than anything. It's not just, well, go to the ant. No, it's go to the ant. Even the ant understands this principle. We shouldn't be outperformed by an ant.

So I'll give you an example. I may have told this story before. I usually tell stories multiple times. I lose track of the last time I told it, but... They get better every time, though. I try to find something new to add to it. So back in 2000, somewhere at 11 or 12, we had moved to Vero Beach. We had been living in, when we came to Florida, we first lived in West Palm Beach and out in Loxahatchee.

And anyhow, we had moved to Vero Beach. And Doc, we had purchased Americana Way. And I found a house for rent out in a Verona trace which was what a mile or two away from from the office on the west side of I-95 and so anyhow we found a house for rent and we lived there for about two years. And yeah, because we bought our house in 2013. Anyhow, it was a two-story house, and I had a small office upstairs. And Doc, one day, my office, my desk was facing a window.

And one day I got up and I went down the stair steps and into the kitchen to get something, get something to drink. And as I was coming out of the kitchen to go to the, the stair steps were right at the kitchen, okay? Right. Right. And I looked down and I saw, I saw all these ants going into the trash can. And I'm like, what, what is going on here?

I mean, there was an army of ants crawling up the trash can and there was something in of ants crawling up the trash can. And there was something in there they liked, okay? And I'm baffled because we didn't have ants in our house. I'm like, where did this, how did this many ants get in our house? It's not like we were spraying for ants every day, you know? This was unusual. So I started following the ant parade,

and I'm talking, it just looks like gazillions of ants, okay? I'm following the parade, and it leaves the kitchen, it follows the base line around the kitchen wall, and it makes the turn around the corner, and it starts going up the stair steps. It's on the woodwork, on the staircase, because the steps were carpeted, but they were following the wood. And they were, so I'm watching this. And all the way up the steps, there's

thousands and thousands of ants marching. I mean, they're in a straight line. They're marching. And I'm watching, and I'm just amazed. I was observing the ant. I was truly observing the ant. So I'm just going step by step I'm how far does this go? I'm all the way up to the top of the steps

and It hasn't ended. So now they're They're moving through the carpet. Okay, and I'm watching to see where they go. Well, guess what? they went to my office and Now they're they're back on the wall, the base of the wall, and I'm watching them and they're going up the wall to the window in front of my desk. I'm like, I didn't see this. I was sitting here working and I didn't see all these ants and you know you start scratching like do it am I Am I the one attracting all these ants what's that? What is going on? So?

but it wasn't so they went up the they went up the wall and went to the window and Doc and went to the window. And Doc, somehow, some way, they found enough of an opening in that window seal to go outside. Now, mind you, I'm on the second floor. I'm on the second floor. Now I'm fascinated.

I ran down the steps, went outside, and went in front of the house and looked up at my window. And the army of ants was coming down the side of the house. And I followed them out the yard. Okay? Once I got to the street, I just said, all right, I'm done. I don't know where you guys are going

but it taught me a lesson that ants down the street from my house I don't know what yard they came from I don't know where they marched they could smell something in my trash can and they were hauling it out piece by piece okay every ant had a little piece of it that is that's an example of study the ant. Yes. Okay. If that was wisdom, they were carrying wisdom out piece by piece. Each ant had a piece of wisdom. Let's just say it was wisdom, okay? Each ant had a piece of wisdom. They were taking it somewhere to their colony to share it. Isn't that what we should be doing with the Word of God? We should be

taking it to our colony and sharing it, putting it all together. You have a piece of wisdom, I have a piece of wisdom, we put it all together. Lewis and Clark ants. Yeah, okay. Yeah Yeah, I see other people having similar stories so That's an example of observing the ant and learning from them. I was just amazed I was stunned the organization the discipline the skill the You know the organization, the discipline, the skill, the precision to carry out a task. None of those ants said, wait a minute, wait a minute, you want us to crawl up that wall?

We could fall off. You want us to go through a tiny little hole in a window and then go back down and then carry the food out and come down again? No ant said that. Right. It was a given. There's something in there we desire. And we're getting it. And nobody's going gonna stop us.

Okay, so this is a lesson for us in pursuing wisdom. Pursue it like an ant. Pursue wisdom like an ant pursues morsels of food. Then it says, so we have here, go to the. Hey, Sluggard. It is a rebuke to laziness. It's a rebuke to people who have no initiative to pursue God's wisdom. God calls people who aren't willing to search for his wisdom, he calls them sluggards, lazy. And the term is used to provoke conviction and repentance and to motivate us to action. It's direct and it's confrontational. It doesn't say the sluggard, it says you sluggard. It's a personal challenge to each of us to examine our habits and attitudes. So what is a sluggard? How would you define a sluggard, Doc? A lazy, careless person, someone who just, you know, really has no motivation at all in their life, just eat lives to eat. That's kind of how I picture it. You know, not willing to get

up and do anything not motivated to improve themselves or help anybody else or just existing. Do you know people who don't even take showers? I've been around people that are too lazy to take a shower. Too lazy for personal hygiene. It's just laziness. There's no other excuse. I don't want to hear anything else.

You don't take a shower. If you don't take a shower, if you don't use deodorant, if you don't practice personal hygiene habits, you're just lazy. I don't know what else to say. three weeks and their clothing stinks? I don't want to, I'm not going to say who this was, where this was. Okay, because I don't want to give, I just want to be, so I don't give out any clues. I just, I knew I know someone who has a company and has an office and has employees.

That employee is no longer there. But that employee was very smart when it came to coding, computer coding, software coding and so forth. But he had no personal hygiene. He didn't take baths. He didn't wear clean clothes. Everything about him was actually disgusting. Disgusting in ways I don't even tell you, okay?

This is what I was told by the employer, okay? Like shocking behavior, all right? Just filthy, but extremely smart. And so the employer was caught, he had the, like what do I do? I have an employee that is very competent in the job that I hired him to do, but he's disgusting to be around. He's got body odor. His clothes stink. His car is full of trash. That person's a sluggard. I mean,

what, what excuses can you give? What explanation can you give for behavior like that? So a sluggard is not someone who occasionally rests, we all rest after working hard. We rest. There's nothing wrong with that. A slogger is someone whose lifestyle is marked by habitual procrastination, excuse-making, avoidance of responsibility. Laziness is not an inconvenience. It's a serious, listen to me, spiritual condition.

Yes. Laziness is a sin. It dishonors God and it has earthly and eternal consequences. Now this rebuke in Proverbs 6, it's not an insult, it's a loving warning from a father. Right. It's the father's way of stirring the lazy child to recognize that their stagnation, if it's not correct, it will eventually bring destruction. So the comparison to the ant only sharpens the rebuke. Yes. The slogger has every advantage. mental reasoning, a brain, right? The ability to think, to conceptualize,

to verbalize the ability to speak. The sluggard has the holy scriptures. The sluggard has opportunities. And yet the ant outperforms him. Laziness leads to poverty, material poverty. You'll never see a rich, lazy person unless it's somebody who inherited their wealth, but they will eventually lose it and they'll have nothing to pass on. Right.

They won't remain rich. That's right. But it also leads to spiritual poverty and a state of fruitlessness, spiritual fruitlessness. And what happens if you produce no fruit for the kingdom of God? The gardener, God, will prune you. And if he keeps coming back and there's never any growth never any fruit you're chopped down and thrown into the fire So a sluggard is not someone just who resists physical activity a Sluggard is somebody who also resists personal responsibility and discipline. The failure to discipline themselves

is a spiritual problem, and it's rooted in rebellion against God's divine order. It is not godly to be lazy. It's ungodly. The ant is proof that work is part of the divine order. Right. Laziness in action is a decision. It's not merely the absence of physical movement, but it's the presence of willful neglect. Yeah, that's where I, you know,

the perception of laziness is that it's just something that happens, but no, I believe laziness is that it's just something that happens. But no, I believe laziness is a willful choice. And it's rebellion. Yes. God's divine order in the universe requires productivity. Aren't we taught in modern society today here since the founding of the Great Society by President Johnson and stuff that we're to help the poor and help the impoverished, which I'm all in favor of.

Let me just say that I'm not against helping poor folks or anything like that. But Rick, you and I both know laziness is rampant throughout our society. Just it's a spiritual evil in our society. Yes, it is. We used to be known for the work ethic. Right. But now that's like a curse term. That's racism.

Oh, if you say work ethic, you're a racist. No, I'm not. The sluggard cannot hide. The sluggard must take personal responsibility for his or her choice to delay, to avoid activity. All around you right now, wherever you are, if you looked outside, you looked at the animals, they're all busy. They're all busy. They're all busy. Right now, Doc, we have a duck that has 17 ducklings. Oh, yeah, I saw your picture over the weekend.

That's a hard-working duck there. Yes. I don't care who you are. He's been bringing them over to our house and I this year I am I'm being very I'm being very hard nosed towards the ducks. I'm saying girl you need to teach those little ducklings how to feed themselves. I'm not buying corn every weekend. They're not going to survive if I feed them all the time. You need to teach them how to eat. So I'm refusing to. They're cute. I really want to go

get the corn and lay it out for them. But that's hurting them, isn't it? They need to learn to eat bugs. And so you look in my yard and you see, you see birds picking up bugs. You see squirrels finding nuts. They're all busy. Why? They wanna eat. If they were like humans, they'd be just laying around in their nests waiting on food to come

to them. God designed the natural order to be productive. And so humans are required to be productive. Yet, at the same time, we get into the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus said, Don't worry about what you're going to eat. Look at the birds. God feeds them every day. See, there's no conflict there. A bird doesn't worry, what am I going to eat in August?

Yeah. The bird's not thinking about that. Why? Because today is July, okay? July 7th. The bird is thinking, today, it doesn't have a calendar, but I'm gonna eat today. And the bird doesn't have to think about, will any food be available?

The bird just instinctively knows there's gonna be food. Right. But the bird is active. There's no conflict in the Sermon on the Mount and Proverbs. So telling the slugger to look at the ant makes clear that responsibility is inescapable. If the ant can obey its divine nature, divinely created nature, the ant is not divine, I don't mean it like that, the ant has a divinely created nature. If the

ant can obey its nature created by God, then humans have no excuse for ignoring God's call to diligence. Right. Okay, verse three, or no, verse three, third segment of verse six. Consider her ways. Yeah, consider her ways and be wise. We're still talking about the ant.

So this part of verse six turns from rebuke to instruction. It's pointing us toward wisdom through active observation and transformation of our ways. Consider. Ponder. Hmm. Consider. Think. Reflect. reflect, study, evaluate. It's not just a passing glance, but it's a deliberate meditative analysis of the ant's behavior and its way of thinking and organization. Consider. Sit down there for a moment and think about that ant

the ants ways what are the ants ways initiative teamwork obviously there's long-term planning, self-motivation, all without external pressure. Doc, I know in your younger days you were a beekeeper. Yes. And my son Jeremy is a beekeeper. And wow, he has taught me a lot about bees. I never stopped to consider the ways of bees. Oh man bees, they're amazing. Doc, I, they're, well you know more about bees than I do, but we could talk for an hour or two about bees. Yes. They are amazing. One of the most fascinating things about bees to me is they communicate two ways by how fast they beat their wings and dancing. And I think that I think we can learn something from the bee.

We need more dancing in our lives. But bees are absolutely fascinating, just like thing. I mean, but bees, if you observe them and the way they operate and the way they're organized and how diligent they are. And I mean, it really is how they care for one another. The distance that they will fly to to find pollen and bring it back. Yes. The order, the precision, the timing, the communication as you talked about with you know the way they wiggle and dance and they they talk to each other and they have it's like they have an internal calendar right it's just the magnificence of God the creator yes and what he's saying in these proverbs is, study the creatures I made.

Because you could go on besides, you know, study the ant, you can study the bees. There's a lot of animals we could study that have astounding behavioral traits. I call Fudge my compassion trainer. Is that what he does? He's my compassion trainer. He loves me no matter what. I could be mad or happy or sad. I could be constipated.

It doesn't matter for Fudge. He just excited to see me. He just wants to hang out and sit with me and not do anything. I said, well, that's perfect. He didn't ask for anything in return, but I give it anyway. But Doc, that's God's divine order. But Doc, that's God's divine order. Yes. God made dogs to be loving. I mean, they're just a loving creature. Not only are we to consider her ways, but we are to be wise. Be wise. Be wise implies there's got to be

change in the way you think. Right. Don't just think about it, but let's have some action as a result of it. Get something out of it. Get something out of it. Yeah. If you're going to study an ant, make sure you implement what you learn. So wisdom is not gained by observation alone, but also by applying what has been learned to how we live. You have to implement it. It can't just be head knowledge. It's got to get down into our heart. It's got to motivate our hands and our feet and our mouth.

It's got to come out of us. Be wise. I'll just study wisdom, but be wise. See the Christian faith is not about doing, it's about being. Too much emphasis is put on doing and not enough emphasis on being. Be righteous, okay? Be kind, be generous, be So, consider her ways and be wise. This now transforms the ant from an example to a mentor. Be mentored by an ant. Let the ant teach you discipline and perseverance and alignment with the divine order of the universe.

What happened in the Garden of Eden? We all will say, well, sin. What was sin? It was a rupture in the divine order. Right. Jesus Christ, why did he come to earth? Yes, we know he came to forgive sins, but for what purpose? To restore the divine order.

The second coming of Christ will permanently restore the divine order. And those people, those humans who align themselves with the divine order during their lifetime will be entered into that eternal divine order. If you're cross ways with the ways of God, you're not going to be in the divine order. God is just, He's chilled, He's cool, He's at peace, He's tranquil. There's divine order in heaven. There's no, not one person, not one angel, there's nothing in heaven that's contrary to the divine order. Right. And he likes it that way. Amen. If nothing else to teach us that God is absolutely sovereign. Wow, yes.

Everywhere. Where can I go to escape God? Can I make my bed in hell? Can I go to the highest heights? No, there's no way. God's evidence of His hand work is even in the ant. So, Doc, if there is perfect divine order in heaven, Jesus taught us the Lord's prayer, Let thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What is done in heaven? His will is done with divine order. So we are to pray that divine order is to be done on earth just like it's done all the time in heaven. And somehow we're involved in that process. Yes. Your responsibility, my responsibility, every saint, our responsibility is to bring a little bit more divine order into the world today. Just do something that brings divine order into this broken world. But there has to be submission to the plan, to the will of God. And if there are places in our own lives

that are out of order, then we have reduced our ability to bring divine order into the world. So our first responsibility is take care of those things. But studying the ant leads to transformation. The person who looks long and hard and honestly at the ant's behavior cannot remain unchanged without choosing folly. Those are the choices, wisdom or folly. So the sluggard requires external motivation, a boss.

Get up, Get moving. Go take a shower. Put on some clean clothes. Go clean your car out. Go wash your car. But you don't have to do that to an ant. What's that? But you don't have to do that to an ant. You don't have to do that to an ant, though. No. Verse seven, hey, having no guide, overseer, ruler. No one had to tell an ant, you know, you better go get some of that donut

that Rick threw in the trash. That's right. And they said, when that ant woke up in the morning, I don't even know if ants sleep or not, that's what gets me. I don't know, do they sleep? I don't know. I think they probably do. When?

Have you ever seen a sleeping ant? But when they get up in the morning, the first thing you see, you know what? I don't know why, but I gotta go check Rick's trash can for a donut. Yeah. I'm on my way. I'm taking some friends with me.

Yeah, there's a piece of a Krispy Kreme donut in that trash can. I'm going to try to do verse 7. I spent 50 minutes on verse 6. Which, having no guide, overseer or ruler? So now verse seven introduces this surprising truth that the ant operates without a leader or supervisor, a boss. Nobody is over the ant. The ant does not wait for commands or motivation or encouragement.

The ant is self-disciplined, self-motivated, self-encouraged. The ant is driven, self-driven. There's some internal sense of duty inside that tiny little ant's brain that guides the ant's behavior. The ant doesn't have the fear of discipline. It doesn't have the hope of reward. It just knows it's supposed to be responsible. The responsibility and motivation is cultivated within the ant.

It's not imposed on the ant from some force outside the ant world. So we're told to consider the contrast. If a tiny creature lacking reason and soul can be this discipline, how much more should people endowed by God with a conscience, given the opportunity to gather all the wisdom we can get and handle? How much more should we live responsibly, productively, without the need to be constantly pushed. I will tell you as an employer, what's the number one? In the top list of attributes of an employer is looking for

and an employee, self-initiative. Over the years, I've had employees who were good employees did what I told them to do, but took no self-initiative other than carry out the specific instructions I gave them. So I spent most of my time always thinking, I gotta get more work to these people because if I don't give them more responsibilities, instructions, they won't do anything today.

I mean, in a sense, they did the things I asked them to do, no question about it. But they didn't do anything beyond what I asked them to do. They had no self-initiative, no internal motivation. Well, now I'm working double time. I got to do my own work, but I've got to think for others. And if you have three, four, five, six people like that on your staff, it'll wear you out. There are supervisors and business owners right now in this class going, uh-huh, uh-huh, tell them, Rick, tell them. It wears the business owner or executive or super, it just wears them out because you've got to think for other employees.

It's not that they disobey. Not that at all. They, but they only do the things they're told to do. Doc, I learned this lesson many, many years ago. This is back in the 80s. So this happened at CBN when I was a marketing manager, CBN at the CBN cable network became the family channel. And I reported directly to a vice president of marketing. And I had just come from a job where the general manager was a micromanager. Right. I mean, you couldn't,

you weren't allowed to think on your own. He had to micromanage everything, okay? And you just, you know, you learned that, oh wow, I can get in trouble for initiative. I can only do the things he says, okay. It was not a good relationship to work under somebody like that, all right, obsessed with controlling everything. Okay, so I went to, I moved to Virginia Beach

and I was working for CBN and I had this wonderful vice president, still have very, very good memories of him and working there in that environment. And I would go into his office, you know, I'm a new employee and I would go into his office and say, Mr. So-and-so, may I do this? I've got this idea. I'd like to do this, okay? And I'd get his approval. Doc, one day, he did this kindly and graciously, and he said, hey, Rick, let me tell you my rule here. You do not have to come in here and get my

permission to do these things. We hired you because we have confidence that you know what you're doing. And and that you know things that we don't know. That's the reason we hired you that you have an experience and an insight in particular areas of our operation that we don't have it and we hired you for that purpose. So here's my rule. If you don't see a red light from me,

the light is always green. I said, what? He said, don't come back in here again and ask our employees to be self-motivated, to take initiative. That's the way a thriving organization works. That they turn loose people within boundaries, within guidelines, obviously. But the employer desires people who take initiative. If you don't have any work, if things have slowed down, find something to do. Just find something to do.

Jesus is coming, look busy. Yes. You know, don't just be sitting there. Do something. Take the trash out. Do something. Wash the windows and do something. Take initiative. For me, the way when I was young and employed in private sector, I always felt, Doc doc I didn't have I

Didn't have the college education. I didn't have the degrees that there were other people who were who had advantages over me But my attitude was I'll work them I'll just outwork them." And so I was always busy, always. I took on assignments in companies that I wasn't paid to do. Guess what? this guy, this guy is working hard. He takes initiative. If you're doing three jobs and you're only paid for one, I know, see, a lot of people say,

well, I'm not gonna do three jobs, I've only paid for one. Well, if you wanna keep your job, if you wanna be promoted, yeah, that's the way it works. I've had employees say, well, I've given assignments to employees and they said, well, that's not what I was hired to do. And I'm like, are you serious?

My eyes are like flipping around. I'm like, did you just say that? Seriously, you just said that to me? I wasn't hired to do that work. And I would respond, you're right, you weren't. You were expected to do this on your own. Yes. So, I could do a whole, I could do a podcast every week about what employers see from their perspective.

The Word of God is telling you, learn from the ant. If you want to prosper, if you want to succeed, you want to be blessed, learn from the ant. And what are we learning from the ant? The ant works without supervision. Having no guide, having no- Overseer. Overseer. No boss. The ant does not need applause, pressure. The ant does not need applause, pressure. The ant just works because it's the ant's natural obedience to the design, the creative,

divine design. So the ant's behavior exposes the sluggard's excuse-making. The sluggard blames others. The ant proves that wisdom doesn't need constant supervision. Laziness is not a lack of leadership, it's a failure of character. So it doesn't need an overseer. I'm running over the time limit, okay? Segment two doesn't need an overseer. An overseer represents someone who watches over the progress, corrects errors, ensures

productivity. But the ant thrives without oversight. You know, ants really are fascinating creatures. Have you ever seen an ant get together with a whole bunch of other ants and carry off like a centipede or worm? Yes. You know, what pick it up? Yeah, one of those ants said, hey, let's carry the centipede

off back to the back to the hive or whatever they call it, the ant mound or whatever it is. Let's take, let's all get together here and carry off this centipede. And you'll see this, all these ants together, carrying off this centipede, you know, taking it back to the mound. And you're like, who is organizing this? Who's in charge? Who's the boss? Who's the one that says, all right, everybody left at the same time. You know, but somehow or other they are managed not only to act individually, but also to act as a group too, without any overseer, ruler or guide, nobody

standing over them with a whip, no one over there with a clipboard. Nothing. So imagine a group of humans picking up an elephant or a giraffe or a rhinoceros. Hey, we're going to carry this rhino back to the house. Ants do this all the time. I saw a video over the weekend. You know, it was a I don't know what city was in but a utility technician for the electric company opened a door at the base of a street light post. There's a little trap door at the bottom where the, you know, to get to the wire.

There's like a bushel basket of nuts came out. Oh, not a bushel. I mean, it was like the entire light pole was full of nuts. Yeah. Squirrels had been using that light pole as a silo. I mean, it just kept coming out and they opened the door just kept pouring out pouring out and you're just like going and yet and yet doc on that same street. There were humans holding signs begging for money. Go figure. You got humans standing on the sidewalk begging and around them are squirrels gathering nuts and filling up a street light pole with food. Oh Lord, I don't know what he thinks when he sees humans.

So the overseer is teaching us that faithful work does not require being constantly watched. It rebukes this just enough mentality of just working enough when a supervisor is passing through. The ant doesn't need a reminder, doesn't need threats, doesn't need rewards. The ant just works. But you see, God's eyes are constantly watching us. Look, I got a lot of faults, I got a lot of things,

and people called me a lot of names and whatever, but I'll tell you something, nobody's called me lazy. I've never been called lazy. That's a tag I won't let anybody put on me. I'm just the opposite. I got to stop, slow down. So the ant has a work ethic. But the sluggard requires

constant monitoring and motivation. The sluggard won't even take a shower. Or ruler. So now ruler, I'm sorry, I'm going to wrap it up here because of the time. A ruler implies ultimate authority, the one who commands, the one who enforces, the one who governs. In a corporation, it would be the CEO, the president, or the chairman of the board.

That's the ultimate authority. Doesn't have a ruler. doesn't have an ultimate authority. Why? Because self-governance has been embedded in the creature by God in the perfect design. So if the ant can fulfill her purpose without a ruler, why do humans made in the image and likeness of God, the creator need to be forced to be responsible?

It's an insult to the creator that you have to be forced to be responsible. It's an insult to the creator that you have to be forced to be responsible. It's an insult to the creator that you have to be motivated to work. I wonder how many people are saying, I wouldn't, I don't think I'd ever wanna work for Rick. I'm not that bad. It's a lot better than it sounds really. I seek self motivated employees. That's what I'm looking for. I don't want robots.

Robots do what they're programmed to do. So, diligence comes from internal resolve. Responsibility is not imposed. It's inherited through creation. Responsibility is not imposed. It's inherited through creation. All right, I'm going to stop there. We'll pick up tomorrow at verse 8. All right. Well, we appreciate you joining us today as we start off a brand new week here on Morning Manna. And we encourage you to share this Morning Manna with friends here, both on the Faith and Values platform at faithandvalues.com. But we're also sharing this on various social media platforms such as Rumble, X, Facebook, and others. And so, YouTube, TikTok.

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join us again tomorrow for the Tuesday edition of Morning Manna. Did you learn something today? I bet you'll learn even more tomorrow. God bless you. We love you. And we'll see you on the Tuesday edition of Morning Manna. God bless you. We love you and we'll see you on the Tuesday edition of Morning Manna. God bless you.