SERIES: Deep Relationships in a Digital World — Proverbs
TEXT: Proverbs 6:6-11; 26:13-16
MESSAGE: “Healthy Habits For Everyday Life”
“One of the great uses of [social media] will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” — John Piper
“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.” — Jim Cohn
TEXT: Proverbs 6:6-11; 26:13-16
Q: What can we learn from today’s text about forming healthy habits? It’s when we…(1. Observe God’s Creation 2. Seize the Moment 3. Check the Mirror)
1. Observe God’s creation (6:6-8)
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”
“Ant is singular in the Hebrew, but it is to be taken in a collective sense. The author is advising the learner to watch not one single ant, but a colony of ants at work.” — William Reyburn
“The purpose in using three terms is apparently to emphasize that the ants, in the teacher’s view, do not require an elaborate system of control. One translation can be…Ants don’t have leaders.” — William Reyburn
2. Seize the moment (6:9-11)
“How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”
“I got my diagnosis in mid-December,… I was incredibly blessed to be quickly at peace. I kept hearing the Pauline phrase, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Death is terrible. We should never sugarcoat it. It is not how things are meant to be. But it is great that death can be called the final enemy. It’s an enemy, but it’s a final enemy, and there will then be no more tears. I believe in the Resurrection, and I believe in a restoration of this world…I don’t feel ready. But to whom would I go?…[Jesus] says: You can’t keep the children from me. And we’re told that we get to approach the Almighty, we get to approach the divine and call him Daddy, Abba, Father? That’s pretty glorious. And I know that that’s what I need.” — Ben Sasse
“Instead of changelessness, there is something better: a dynamic, divine purpose, with its beginning and end. Instead of frozen perfection there is the kaleidoscope movement of innumerable processes, each with its own character and its period of blossoming and ripening, beautiful in its time and contributing to the overall masterpiece which is the work of One Creator.” — Derek Kidner
“The wise man will learn while there is time. He knows that the sluggard is no freak, but, as often as not, an ordinary man who has made too many excuses, too many refusals, and too many postponements. It has all been as imperceptible and as pleasant as falling asleep.” — Derek Kidner
3. Check the mirror (26:13-16)
“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’ 14 As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. 15 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. 16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.”
“A Mirror of Sluggards” (26:13–16), is connected with “A Mirror of Fools” (vv. 1–12)…“A Mirror of Sluggards” (26:13–16) is one of three poems on the sluggard (6:6–11; 24:30–34).” — Bruce Waltke
“…the sluggard will be the last to see his own features here, for he has no idea that he is lazy: he is not a shirker but a ‘realist’; not self-indulgent but ‘below his best in the morning’ (14); his inertia is ‘an objection to being hustled’; his mental indolence a fine’ sticking to his guns.” — Derek Kidner
TAKEAWAYS: By God’s grace, examine your habits and ask…
- Is there a habit I need to start or stop?
- Is there something I need to finish?
- Is there something I need to face?
GOSPEL: We began by talking about time: “I don’t have time.” “Let me see if I have time.”
Jesus says, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” — Matthew 26:41