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[0:00] This is the evening service at Holy Trinity on the 13th of March 2005. The preacher is Paul Barker.

[0:12] His sermon is entitled From Laziness to Zeal and is based on 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 6-15.

[0:26] Well, let's pray. O God, you've caused all of Holy Scripture to be written, to correct and rebuke us, to teach us, to train us in righteousness and make us wise for salvation in Jesus Christ.

[0:47] Help us, Lord God, tonight not to be lazy before your word, but attentive to it, hearers and doers of it, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

[1:01] Well, of all the deadly sins, laziness is the easiest. Because all you have to do is nothing.

[1:15] I mean, at least for envy, you've got to be envious. For greed, you've got to be greedy. For lust, you've got to lust after something.

[1:27] But for laziness, well, you don't actually have to do anything. Nothing at all. In fact, you hardly even realise you're doing it when you're lazy. Perhaps the easiest of all sins, actually.

[1:40] Not even of the seven deadly ones only. You don't do anything at all. It's what's called a sin of omission rather than a sin of commission. There are various sins that you commit that you actually do.

[1:52] Doing it is wrong. But in laziness, it's really what you don't do. A sin of omission. Something you omit from doing. And that's easier. And like some of the other sins that we've seen in recent weeks, such as pride and envy, laziness really is a virtue in our society.

[2:13] Maybe not under that name, but in our land of advanced Australian idol, as in IDLE, the land of the long weekend.

[2:24] Where is everyone tonight? The land of the sickies, the RDOs. The land of early retirement, of desires for a holiday house, a beach life, driving around Australia endlessly.

[2:38] The society of the feet up, watching the box, whatever's on it, if anything. The land of the remote control, really. People who can't even be bothered to get up and turn their TV off.

[2:49] They have to have it in their hand. The land of relaxing, the land of endless leisure, of long beaches, and time drawn out for eternity before you with nothing to do.

[3:02] Laziness is a virtue in our society. It's a goal of our society. Idleness is an idol of our society. Laziness is an idol of our society.

[3:13] We may see that laziness, we can see fairly quickly, perhaps, is less than the ideal. But is it really such a deadly sin?

[3:25] Why is it there amongst those other deadly sins? Is it really one of the top seven of all time? Laziness? Really? Is it that bad? Well, once again, like we've seen most weeks, the book of Proverbs deals with these sins.

[3:43] The book of Proverbs is not really fundamentally a book of law, such as a book of wisdom. And thereby, it's a wise person's observation of the world which God has made.

[3:55] Not what always is the case, but what often is the case. And it's morally laden, heavily laden with moral value. It's not just an observation.

[4:07] But they are observations pointing us in the right direction and away from the wrong direction. And also, when we come to this particular sin, but so often in Proverbs the same applies for other things.

[4:21] Proverbs is full of vivid language, in a sense to shock us, to draw us to attention in effect, to see our sin, to expose ourselves before God's word.

[4:34] It's one of the functions of the book of Proverbs. So let me give you some examples of what it says about laziness. In some translations, it just says the lazy person does such and such, or probably doesn't do anything.

[4:48] Sometimes it's translated as the sluggard. Same idea. A lazy person. Chapter 21, for example, in Proverbs, we read this.

[4:58] The craving of the lazy person is fatal, for lazy hands refuse to labour. Now, like many of the Proverbs, it paints an extreme, but it does so to shock, sometimes to make us laugh, but to surprise us, to observe our own patterns, in this case, of laziness.

[5:23] And here, at least, the way the proverb is spoken, it tells us that laziness is a deadly sin. It is fatal, we're told, in that verse, chapter 21, verse 25.

[5:35] The craving of a lazy person is fatal. Why? Because lazy hands refuse to labour. And in that ancient world, without social security benefits and all that sort of stuff, if you didn't work, you didn't eat.

[5:48] You'd die. It's physically deadly to be lazy, is what that proverb is saying. So at the extreme of laziness, a person doesn't work, they don't get income, they don't get crops, they therefore don't eat, they therefore die.

[6:06] But always through the book of Proverbs, it's not just about an observation of the physical life. And indeed, through the Old Testament, this is so as well. That is, time and again in the Old Testament, the physical and the spiritual are intertwined, more than we often care to do in our own Christian lives.

[6:26] And so here, as it says, the person, in effect, who's lazy will die because they won't earn enough money or work enough to earn enough, to get enough, to eat enough. There's a spiritual component to that as well.

[6:37] It's not just physically wasting away the extreme of physical laziness. It is spiritual dimension as well. It is judgment from God, is what is implicit in that proverb spoken there.

[6:51] The same sort of thing we read in other parts of the Proverbs. For example, in Proverbs chapter 10, one verse says this, What a vivid simile that is.

[7:09] What's a lazy person like for their employer? Well, they probably get frustrated and they find it disagreeable. But notice, in a sense, the pain of the simile.

[7:20] Vinegar to the teeth. Oh, I mean, I use Sensodyne toothpaste because my teeth are sensitive. I don't think I'm going to drink a glass of vinegar. And smoke to the eyes. The eyes that water with pain.

[7:34] Well, that's what an employer thinks of a lazy employee. Same sort of idea as what we just saw in that other proverb in chapter 26. A person who's basically not working.

[7:44] Why should they get money in income? Similarly, we find in Proverbs chapter 19, this statement about the lazy person. Chapter 19, verse 15 says, Laziness brings on deep sleep.

[8:01] An idle person will suffer hunger. The two are not obviously related. But the lazy person desires and intends to sleep a lot.

[8:11] That is, sleep actually is the result of laziness, not necessarily, in a sense, part of the laziness. A lazy person just wants to sleep.

[8:22] And an idle person will suffer hunger because they don't work. They spend all their time sleeping, in effect, is what the proverb is saying. And we find that, time and again, this outcome of laziness is inability to work, or the unwillingness to work, and therefore not to eat.

[8:41] In chapter 12, the lazy person does not roast game. Well, you might think, oh goodness, I don't roast game. I don't think I've ever roasted game. You know, tennis balls in the oven? I'm not quite sure.

[8:53] But I guess, behind it, of course, is that the lazy person actually can't be bothered cooking something decent to eat. And so they hunger. In chapter 13, a lazy person's appetite craves, but gets nothing.

[9:09] They're hungry, they have desire, but they really can't even be bothered working to get income to get food to eat. And it's not just a picture of foolishness, although the person is portrayed, the lazy person is portrayed in those proverbs as being rather foolish and stupid.

[9:28] It's more than that. It is sinful. Now let's take another couple of proverbs about laziness. These ones have an element of humour about them.

[9:41] A sort of tragic humour portraying. It's like a cartoon, in effect. One of those cartoons you might read in The Age, although they seem to lack humour, in my opinion. But in chapter 26, verse 13, the lazy person says, There is a lion on the road.

[9:57] There is a lion in the streets. What a bizarre thing for a lazy person to say. But it's a preposterous excuse not to go out and do something.

[10:08] It's a preposterous excuse to just stay home and be idle. There's a lion on the streets. I'm not going to work today. Stupid excuse. The lazy person who is denying responsibility, really.

[10:24] The lazy person who's making up excuses so that they don't have to do anything. The next verse in the same chapter says, As a door turns on its hinges, so does a lazy person in bed.

[10:38] What a wonderful picture of laziness that is. Not just that a lazy person is in bed, or that a lazy person turns from side to side in bed, but that they're actually hinged to the bed is the implication.

[10:50] They're almost stuck in bed. We're meant to smile, and then maybe feel embarrassed, if we realise that this is us. And then it goes on, and similarly elsewhere in Proverbs, we find how much a lazy person loves sleep.

[11:08] Well, many of us do. We have to be careful. And then the Proverbs 26 goes on to say, the lazy person buries a hand in the dish, and is too tired to bring it back to the mouth.

[11:24] Not because this person has worked so hard that they are so tired, but rather the lazy person has just been described as hinged to their bed.

[11:36] They're in bed all the time, and yet they're still too tired, and so they plunge their hand into the food, but they can't even be bothered bringing the hand up to the mouth to eat.

[11:47] Now, it's a comic picture. We're meant to laugh. It's an extreme picture of laziness. It's probably, in one sense, an unrealistic picture of laziness.

[11:58] But the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to shock us, to make us laugh, to surprise us, so that somehow our defenses are pierced, and we suddenly think, hang on a minute, this is talking about me to an extent.

[12:15] I'm lazy to an extent. Maybe not that I leave my hand in the food, and I can't even get it to my mouth. But it's pointing to our hearts, exposing our own laziness.

[12:27] And again, of course, the picture of the lazy person whose hand is in the food, they can't even get it back to their mouth, shows the fatality of laziness. They're not going to eat, even if they've got food, even if somehow they've worked enough to get food, or someone's given it to them.

[12:42] Again, there's fatal implications that are greater than just physical. And then the next verse, in the same sequence, in chapter 26, says the lazy person is wiser in self-esteem than seven who can answer discreetly.

[12:59] And we might think, hang on a minute, is that saying something good about a lazy person? They're wiser in self-esteem. But really what's going on there is that they are rationalizing their laziness. That's how deceived they've become.

[13:12] They are lazy to the point of finding an excuse to be lazy. They're okay in their self-esteem. They've been deceived by their sin. Is in effect the thrust of that verse in chapter 26.

[13:26] In the ancient world, as I said, they lack social security. So the slack hand causes poverty in chapter 10, summarizes in effect what's being said here about a lazy person.

[13:38] They will not get enough to eat. They will not get enough to live. It is a deadly sin. And it's not just foolishness. It's not just comic. It's not just tragic. But it is downright sinful.

[13:52] Now in a few places in Proverbs, there are descriptions where a lazy person's way or their field is described as overgrown with thorns.

[14:04] So in chapter 15, the way of the lazy person is overgrown with thorns. In chapter 24, their field is covered with thorns and with nettles. Indeed, like some of the other Proverbs we've just seen, they're actually repeated almost vivatum in other parts of the book of Proverbs.

[14:21] They don't just occur the once. So here, the thorns in the field of the lazy person. That is, they can't be bothered to till the ground. Now in a sense, it's saying the same as what we've already seen.

[14:32] They're too lazy to work and therefore get food and therefore eat and therefore they'll not eat enough and die. It's fatal. But in the description of it being overgrown with thorns, there are echoes of a statement made by God to the first people that now in the sweat of their brow, their work will be as a result of the fall and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

[14:57] Now the tilling of the ground will be infested with thorns and here are lazy people who are not working hard as humanity is meant to work hard as a result of the fall.

[15:09] Too lazy to get rid of the thorns. In chapter 20, we also read the lazy person doesn't plough in season. They might have had a spurt of energy to throw some seed around once, but even when the crops come, they can't even be bothered to harvest it.

[15:25] Again, it's a comic picture. It's hard to imagine somebody that lazy. But laziness that's become so entrenched and so habitual. As you can see, laziness is dealt with at quite some length in the book of Proverbs.

[15:41] I haven't even given you all the examples. But time and again throughout the book, the lazy person is ridiculed, but not just made to be a buffoon, but shown to be wrong in their behavior.

[15:54] Foolish in the sense of sinful is how the book of Proverbs regards wisdom and foolishness. Early on in the book of Proverbs, comes a famous command in effect.

[16:07] Go to the ant. Go to the ant. I wonder how many of you have done that lately. Gone to the ant.

[16:18] Let me read it further. Chapter 6, verse 6. Go to the ant, you lazy bones, consider its ways and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

[16:34] How long will you lie there, O lazy bones? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed warrior.

[16:52] The ant is the model of industry. The ant who doesn't need a supervisor to tell it to get about its job. The ant who works hard, survives, provides for itself, and so on.

[17:03] As so often in the book of Proverbs, there are aspects of nature that are used as illustrations for us to observe. The ridicule of those verses come on you lazy bones, you're drifting off into sleep, and what will happen is before you know it, like a robber, you'll be poor, you'll be in need because you're lazy.

[17:22] It's not just in the Old Testament that laziness is a sin either. In the New Testament, we find the same sort of thing. Idleness is condemned in 1 Timothy chapter 5, along with gossiping and being busybody.

[17:36] They usually all go together. Hebrews 6, the writer is concerned that the readers do not become sluggish, that is lazy, spiritually in that case. In essence, laziness is a wrong response to time.

[17:57] Laziness is not complete idleness. We ought not to think from the illustrations in Proverbs that a lazy person is simply somebody who never does a thing. There are plenty of lazy people who do quite a bit of things.

[18:12] Laziness is not always that extreme. A lazy person may well work hard at times, but fritter away much of their time unprofitably and uselessly.

[18:25] You see, a lazy person may go to work from 8 to 5 and may do a few things during the day but have long chats with their work colleagues, their friends on the phone, drift into computer games on the computer, take long lunches, not concentrate on the work that they're doing and then have to bring home a briefcase full of work and work till all hours of night.

[18:41] A lazy person. They might come under the guise of a person who's very busy in fact. You have to actually be careful because some people who look very busy are actually, in a sense, very busy because they're actually lazy and they take twice as long to do what they should do in half the time.

[18:59] So laziness isn't just somebody who does sit at home and lie on their bed hinged to it, literally. A lazy person may well fritter away much of their time so that the rest of their time is all sort of fallen about trying to catch up and do the things that they haven't done in the time that they should have done.

[19:16] It also applies to ministers. One of our difficulties as a minister is that we're prone to be up half the night on a Saturday night finishing our sermons. Sometimes that's because we're lazy during the week and we never get organised in time and prepare well.

[19:31] Laziness is a wrong response to time. And like the other deadly sins that we've seen in recent weeks, the last couple of months, laziness derives from a sinful heart that places the self on the throne.

[19:44] I am in charge here. I am God here. And time is my commodity. And I'm in charge of time. Is what a sinful person actually thinks.

[19:57] It's the wrong response to time. So the corresponding virtue from laziness is not to be a workaholic, to work 24 hours a day, to sleep minus one hour a day or something like that as a sort of extreme Margaret Thatcher.

[20:13] Rather, the right, the corresponding virtue to laziness is making a right use of time. Knowing what time is and applying yourself to it appropriately, rightly and wisely.

[20:28] You see, time in scripture is not a commodity that we're free to use of or dispose of at our convenience or for our comfort. Time, rather, is something governed by God of which you and I have equal measure.

[20:41] Day by day, that is. So some biblical ideas, then, about responding rightly to time seems to be important if we're going to correct bad habits of laziness.

[20:53] The first point to make is that we have responsibility to both work and rest. Six days shall you labour and do all you have to do and on the seventh day you shall not work, you shall rest.

[21:07] One of the ten commandments. In one sense, going back to the original creation. There's argument about how that might apply for Christians and probably not legalistically and probably not on the sort of Friday sunset to Saturday sunset Sabbath day either.

[21:25] But there does seem to be a pattern by which this world is created where wisely we work six days and rest on a seventh. Now for some people to take a day's rest out of seven is quite a challenge.

[21:40] For other people to take only a day's rest out of seven is also quite a challenge. For our society is in a sense geared up at least for paid work more or less for five days a week not six.

[21:52] We're placed in the world to work. Work is not actually the result of the fall of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but even in Genesis 1 before we get Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden described humanity is created to have dominion over this world to till it and look after it.

[22:10] Work it in effect. It becomes hard work after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden the thorns and thistles in the ground and so on. Hard work is valued in the book of Proverbs as I've shown by some negative examples about the lazy person and for an employee that means hard work for your employer's sake and so on.

[22:34] Hard work is right but it's not a slavery to work it's not an endless 168 hours a week of work. There is indeed a day of rest rightly for recreation for refreshment and so on.

[22:50] A foretaste of heavenly rest indeed is how it's frequently portrayed. And whilst we avoid the Sabbatarianism of Sabbatarian legalism nonetheless a day's rest each week ought to be part of our cycle.

[23:07] A second point is that our time is to be used purposefully because one of the things that is consistent in the scriptures about God in relationship to time is that he is full of purpose about time and expects us to use time purposefully.

[23:24] That is not that there is just sort of endless days stretching out in front of us for idleness and lack of purpose but rather time is always purposeful or purposefully to be used or applied to in the scriptures.

[23:40] So there are purposes for work. We don't just work for work's sake. For example and this is only some examples not a complete scenario of work we are to work to provide for ourself and for our family those who depend upon us 1 Timothy 5 for example we are to work so that we are not a burden to other people in this passage in 2 Thessalonians 3 that is made clear we are to work to share with the needy in Ephesians 4 we are to work to support Christian ministry in Philippians 3 and 4 so it's not just hard work for the sake of hard work and for the sake of being busy rather we are to work purposefully for a number of results the care of other people the care of the needy the support of Christian ministry and our care for ourself and so on similarly our rest is to be purposeful it's not just put your feet up for a day and do nothing necessarily the purposes of rest include physical re-strengthening re-creation of your physical body after six days of labour refreshment there is a place there for relationships of building relationships with family and other

[24:49] Christian brothers and sisters as well as the gathering of God's people to praise his name hear his word and so on now in all of that it's not just you work endlessly for six days and then stop and you have one complete day of rest there are times of rest and refreshment and sleep of course on each day but all of those things are to be purposeful not just sort of there because they're there so even in rest there's no real excuse for just killing time wasting time time's not there to be wasted if it's time for rest then rest it's not actually wasting time there's no place then for the idle chat for gossip for so much of what is just fruitless unproductive and trivial and nonsensical in our society and in our lives that sometimes takes up part of our work time sometimes part of our rest time frishing away our lives and trivialities is how many of us in our modern and fairly wealthy society actually spend our days like sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives drifting away bit by bit c.s.

[26:05] lewis in the screw tape letters where he imagines a senior devil writing to a junior devil about how to tempt christian people away from god in one of his letters in the screw tape letters shows that part of the devil's ploy is to draw us to waste time into kicking up our heels into idle reveries and dreams and drumming our fingers and playing cards and all that sort of thing because as he says the safest road to hell is the gentle one the soft one underfoot the one that's easy and carefree that we don't actually notice where we're heading and as the well known saying says the devil makes work for idle hands so our time is to be used purposely both in work and in rest but a third perspective and perhaps in some ways this challenges even more that sinful view that I'm in charge that I'm on the throne and time is my commodity we are to have a godly perspective of eternity of time that it's not endless stretching out before us like a beach because as the

[27:18] New Testament makes very clear but there are many echoes or rather anticipations of this even in the Old Testament as well the day of the Lord is coming soon time is not an endless commodity for us to fritter away one of the purposes of writing this second letter to the Thessalonians not all that long probably after Paul was in Thessalonica was to counter their wrong application of the imminent coming of Jesus for it's Christian teaching consistently in the New Testament that after his exaltation to heaven after his resurrection Jesus is coming soon one day at a day that we do not know and will not know until it occurs it may well happen in thousands or millions of years well beyond our lifetime on earth but it may well happen tonight and don't be fooled by those who say a whole lot more has got to happen yet we're not even in the end days not at all the scriptures of the New Testament make it clear we are in the end days and Jesus could come at any time we are to be alert on edge at attention attentive and eager and awaiting the imminent return of

[28:29] Jesus Christ to this world now for some of the Thessalonians when they heard that Jesus was coming and coming soon they thought well let's put our feet up let's pretend we're in a doctor's surgery you've always got to wait in doctor's surgeries it's a mindless thing to do you sit up and you look at stupid glossy magazines that are about six years out of date and you suddenly realise after thinking oh I didn't know that that person was going out with that person and you realise that it was 1983 or something like that endless waiting that's just idle and sort of drumming your fingers watching the minute hand go around the clock in the waiting room that's not that's what the Thessalonians were doing being idle waiting for Jesus return not a bit of it says Paul this passage is exhorting us not to be idle but to work hard because Jesus is coming soon so remember what he says in this passage we command you beloved in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from believers who are living in idleness that is Christians who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they receive from us for you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us we were not idle when we were with you and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it but with toil and labour that means hard work and sweat we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you this was not because we do not have that right but in order to give you an example to imitate that is it is for all Christians to work hard because Jesus is coming soon for even when we were with you we gave you this command anyone unwilling to work should not eat for we hear that some of you are living in idleness mere busybodies not doing any work now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord

[30:14] Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living work hard because Jesus is coming soon there is an urgency about time in God's perspective the sinful perspective that puts self on the throne thinks time is my commodity I've got as much of it as I like not so Jesus is coming soon or to put it in another way using a parable of Jesus fool do you not know that tonight your soul is called for the same sort of idea and don't think it's just in this passage of two Thessalonians that we find such urgency and zeal all through the New Testament two Thessalonians three as I've said the context is of the Lord's return therefore be zealous and work hard in Hebrews 10 we're to gather together not neglecting to meet together to build each other up all the more as you see the day approaching 1 Corinthians 15 after a long chapter talking about the implications of the resurrection and the return of

[31:17] Jesus and the transformation that awaits us when he returns therefore we're told be zealous and do good works Jesus' parables are many that talk about being watchful and alert for you know not the day nor the hour like a thief in the night when he will return Romans 12 do not lag in zeal be ardent in spirit Colossians chapter 3 a passage that we looked at part of last week or the week before whenever it was the context is a future inheritance there hear what the writer says about slaves which we could to some extent transfer readily to employees slaves obey your earthly masters in everything not only while being watched and in order to please them but wholeheartedly fearing the Lord whatever your task put yourselves into it as done for the Lord and not for your master since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you see the future looking nature of that an inheritance that is coming as your reward therefore talking about

[32:17] Jesus return work hard be full of zeal in recent weeks we've seen that part of the corrective to any of these sins is to have your sights or eyes fixed on heavenly things look up to the things above not the things of earth and part of that is the anticipation of Jesus return he is coming and coming soon so the key to us using our time aright is to anticipate the return of Jesus daily time is short you see it's not endless before us and therefore all the more do we have to use our time purposely that we apply ourselves to what really matters and not to the trivialities and banalities that our TV our radio stations our newspapers our society is so engrossed with it doesn't mean be workaholics and it doesn't mean be lazy but it means that we work and rest rightly in balance purposely zealously as we await the return of

[33:28] Jesus so for those of you who are students studying at school or at university use your time well probably of all groups of people here you're the people least likely to use your time well I don't say that out of criticism but out of personal experience from my university degree when I didn't go to the third of my lectures I slept through the other third and I didn't pay attention in the other third study hard use your time well be disciplined with your time but for those of you who work in whatever your job is paid or unpaid work hard discipline yourselves in your time ensure in your work that you spend enough time with your family your children your spouse ensure that you spend enough time reading the bible and praying and in your church commitments and so on and don't use work as an excuse and especially if in your laziness you fritter away hours at work so that you have to work longer hours at the cost of other things in your Christian life make sure that your time is used right that there is a deep priority to your bible reading to your prayer and to your church life for if you're not organising your time well enough to be in church every week then you're actually being lazy and irresponsible with parts of your time to your own cost and to the cost of other brothers and sisters too assess your wasted time keep a record of your time you may well find it shocks you you may well think I work fairly hard actually

[35:09] I don't think I need to do this sort of exercise write down how you spend your day what's the wasted time in it the idleness as you sit on a bus going to work or on a train what do you do when you're sitting waiting for a doctor's appointment or something else do you use that time well do you pray or read the bible do you take a book with you to read something edifying or useful or do you just sort of drift off count up the minutes that you spend playing endless computer games count up the amount of time you spend reading stupid trivial magazines the time you watch TV not even watching programs that you deliberately set out to watch for a particular reason but just because you can't be bothered getting out of the chair count up the time that you spend window shopping without any desire or attempt to buy anything or for any need or whatever count up all the unproductive the fruitless activity it won't last when Jesus returns it's nothing it'll be a shock the amount of time we waste use your time well don't try and deceive others by looking busy when you're not but God knows our hearts very well and then having assessed it repent turn away from that practice be disciplined change yourselves become zealous rather than lazy we'll talk more about repentance last week but in each of these sermons we've talked a little bit about some part of the cocktail of remedy to sin there's the power of the death of

[36:48] Jesus not only to forgive but to die or kill off sin within the power of the resurrection to transform our lives we saw last week in particular the power of God's spirit applying God's powerful word to change us from within we've seen that on other weeks as well here now setting our sights on the things above anticipating the Lord's return is in fact a remedy not only for laziness but for parts of the other indeed all of the other sins as well all of those things are part of the cocktail so you need to come back from the previous weeks and apply all of those aspects as we deal with laziness in our life and turn it into zeal the return of Jesus is in a sense the defining point in the Christian's perception of time being ready for his return means that we'll apply ourselves to his priorities and to not what is useless fruitless trivial and wasteful it means that we'll apply ourselves to the things that last to apply ourselves to God's will to God's people to our spiritual life as well we'll be zealous for the time is short on Tuesday a week and a half ago I was a person who happened to be visiting my father in hospital in

[38:14] Geelong and it just happened to be at the time when his oncologist came and his wife was there as well and he told the three of us that the news now was not good that after four to five years of all sorts of treatments some desperate treatments to try and combat the progress of prostate cancer metastasized in bones the cancer's now in the liver and there's not long to go my father perhaps has a month at the most after some tears my father and his wife that evening talked about the fact that now finally that sentence they'd been fearing and waiting for had come dad doesn't know quite how short his time is but on Friday we didn't think he'd make it till tonight his view so long as we have a laugh each day isn't that a wasted life a life that doesn't know of

[39:28] Jesus or his return a life that doesn't really know of the priorities of God a life that was lived really thinking that time was at his disposal when it's not his time is short maybe shorter than ours but our time is short too and if the sum total of our life is well at least if I have a laugh a day we've wasted and lazed away our life surely zealous for the return of Jesus zealous to be ready to meet Jesus when we die Paul says to the Thessalonians in the passage that we heard read we hear that some of you are living in idleness mere busybodies not doing any work such persons we command and exhort in the Lord

[40:43]  Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living brothers and sisters do not be weary in doing what is right as as as as as and as SPEAKER MIKE to the tod was very easily tooduuda