MAYBE TOMORROW

A Look At Slothfulness

INTRO -Sloths are very slow in their movements, when undisturbed. Reaching a tree limb, the creature advanced along it, body hanging underneath, suspended by the long claws of all four feet. So slowly did it take each step, so deliberately did it place each set of claws over the limb, that one would have thought it was stalking something rather than traveling. Because of their legendary slowness, writers have indulged in exaggerations: before they could come down from one tree and climb another, they were skin and bones, though they were fat when they started; and it took eight or nine minutes for them to move one leg forward three inches; and even in action, the second hand of watch often covers more distance! (Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations)
According to the Oxford dictionary, slothfulness is:
reluctance to work or make an effort; or just plain laziness. This is the third of the seven deadly sins and the focus for today.

I. STORIES OF SLOTHFULNESS
A. The One Talent Man - Mt 25 - from Jesus parable comes a lesson on laziness
B. The Athenians - Ac 17:21 at Mars hill Paul found these men.
C. Some Thessalonians - 2 Th 3:11- Instead of working the busybodied
D. The Unmarried Widows - 1 Tm 5:13 - Became busybodies.

II. DANGERS OF SLOTHFULNESS
A. Slothfulness Leads To Poverty
1. Pv 10:4a Poor is he who works with a negligent hand,
2. Pv 20:4 The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.
3. Pv 20:13a Do not love sleep, or you will become poor;
B. Slothfulness Leads To Deterioration
1. Pv 24:30-31 I passed by the field of the sluggard 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.
2. Ec 10:18 Through indolence the rafters sag, and through slackness the house leaks.
C. Slothfulness leads to hunger
1. Pv 19:15 Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And an idle man will suffer hunger.
2. Pv 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat.
D. Slothfulness Creates Busybodies - 2 Th3:10-11 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.
E. Slothfulness Is No Good For All
1. Pv 10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him.
2. Pv 15:19 The way of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns, But the path of the upright is a highway.
3. Pv 18:9 He also who is slack in his work Is brother to him who destroys.

CONCL. - Pv 6:6-8 Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.