Sermons

As a teenager I wanted to be a recording engineer or an evangelist. I know bizzare!
Now I want to continue to be a passionate follower of Jesus, husband to a great wife, dad to 3 kids and a leader of a growing church that is making a difference locally and globally

Who do you want to be?

Today we are going to meet 3 people you don’t want to be in Proverbs 6

Ensnared v1-5
The ensnared starts off as someone who has been trapped by their mouth, in this passage in a particular way.
“put up security for a neighbour”, “shaken hands in pledge for a stranger”
What that means is someone who has guaranteed someone else’s loan, mortgage or debt. You have secured a debt that is not yours. The bank wouldn’t loan to Mr X because they were too much of a risk and Mr x has come to you and asked for help and you have put your name and your house on their debt. Oops. That’s foolish. If the bank thinks they are too much of a risk why don’t you?
The ensnared has got themselves in what could be a huge financial pickle for one of these reasons
i) You are a fool – you don’t understand the risk. It’s just signing a piece of paper. They’ll be good for it.
ii) You are nice – you want to help. In the book of Proverbs God says don’t do it 5 times! ###. You may think you are loving your neighbour, but you are not helping them to borrow responsibly and if it goes pear shaped there will be big issues and you will likely stop being mr Nice guy!
iii) You are proud – you want to be the big shot saviour.

It’ll be a nightmare. You are ensnared, trapped by it and could loose big. One of the experts on the book of Proverbs (he was the lead translator for the NIV) is a guy called Dr Bruce Waltke and he told the story of co-signing a car loan for a single mum. He then found she didn’t realise you had to make payments on a loan! Oops!
So Solomon tells us if we are in this situation…

• Free yourself
• Go to the point of exhaustion
• Give them no rest!
• Allow no sleep to your eyes
• Free yourself.

If you ever seen a bird trapped in a nest – flapping like mad to get out – that’s how important it is to get out of co-signing or securing someone else’s loan or debt.

There are better biblical ways to help
Shakespeare was wrong – neither a lender or a borrower be is not the best way! His sentiment of not loosing a friend over it is right.
The principle is to not do what you can’t afford! Don’t put your own house at risk.
In the OT Ex22:15 the Law talks about interest free loans to the poor and every 7 years all debt was cancelled anyway. Jesus talks of lending without expecting repayment.
Generosity! Be generous. But don’t be a fool putting your home at risk for someone else’s debts.

The second person you don’t want to be is The Lazy v6-11
Solomon calls him the sluggard – like a slug – slow and slimy. Nowadays – we talk of the couch potato. Someone who is more happy to sit on the couch then get up and go for it. Often the most critical – the armchair philosopher/critic/activist or warrior. But not doing anything themselves.
Solomon is frank – some great humility is needed here. If you are a slug stop quoting and commenting foolishness on social media and go outside and look at the ant.
Who wants to look at an ant? Well you should!

Ants you will see are self-motivated v7 no commander or ruler. They get on with it
The prepare for the future, storing for the lean months.
And they work hard – they can lift 50 times their weight – I’m pretty sure I can’t bench press 50kilos let alone 50x my weight!
Sluggards like to sleep – folding of the hands for a snooze. Little by little getting more and more lazy until Boom. Poverty comes.

Laziness leads to poverty. Proverbs is not telling us the poor are lazy. Far from it. But being lazy will lead to poverty.
Jesus had the perfect work/rest balance and he was poor. He voluntarily gave up the riches of heaven, embraced poverty so that we can be rich in Him. So poverty is not because of laziness. But laziness will lead to poverty.

Work has great dignity – The apostle Paul urges us to live quiet lives and work and those that refuse to work shouldn’t get to eat!

The third person we don’t want to be is the scoundrel v12-19
The NIV has troublemaker – in the Hebrew the word beliyal which in the New Testament is a name for Satan. so this is not who we want to be. Probably thinking I’m not a scoundrel or troublemaker in our own definition. But let’s take a look
speak badly, wink, signal with their feet, motioned with their finger. These are things people do when they are showing contempt for a person speaking. Rolled eyes, tapping the forehead.
God hates that – stirs up conflict in the community.

Then we get that phrase you often get in the OT six things… seven. The double list. These are things that God hates, that God finds abominable. When you get a six and seven or a four and five – it is a signal that the last one is the key one, the one that sums up the list.
God hates people who stir up conflict in community. Scoundrels are stirrers who stop unity and forward motion, who love to stir up conflict.
Ouch.

When you look at the titles of the three people we don’t want to be – the ensnared, the lazy and the scoundrel. That’s us outside of the gospel.
Before meeting Christ we were enslaved, ensnared by sin. Some desperately try to get out of it with good deeds, not realising that even our best deeds are like spraying cologne on a corpse. We line up our good deeds against perfection and find, pah! they are not good enough.
Most don’t try to do anything about it – we are lazy.
And I doubt anyone has never done anything listed under the category of scoundrel in today’s passage!

We need Jesus! We need his work on our behalf. He paid our debt off. If you haven’t done so already you ca turn to Him and believe in his death and resurrection for you.
We get freed! Freed from the ensaring of sin. Free to soar like a bird. We get to do good works to be a blessing that sluggards can’t be bothered to do and we get to be part of a wonderful community – called the church!

Perhaps you need to turn to Jesus today.
Maybe you need to commit to keep following Him empowered by the Holy Spirit.

How will you Connect with God this week
Is there anything you need to Obey today – get out of foolish loan co-signings, stop rolling your eyes in meetings…
Who can you share God’s love with this week
And who can you teach this message too?
Take a moment to count the COST today!