Proverbs 24:30-34, 26:13-16, 6:9-11, Ecclesiastes 10:18
Physical laziness is very bad, but spiritual laziness is worse. Just as someone who is physically lazy may not make any progress, the man who is spiritually lazy is a time bomb waiting to explode.
Proverbs 24:30-34 (KJV) says: “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.”
We see the tragedy of laziness in the scriptures we just read. The enemy will take over your camp if you are lazy. Not only that, if you sleep too much, the Bible calls you a lazy man or woman, and that excessive sleep will only bring poverty.
Proverbs 26:13-16 (KJV) says, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”
Again, we see the tragedy of laziness. The lazy man is afraid to take any risk. They give all sorts of excuses and complaints. You may say it is fear, but the Bible calls it laziness. Fear is a form of laziness.
Proverbs 6:9-11 (KJV) says, “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.”
A repeated passage in the Bible, so you can know the importance of it.
Ecclesiastes 10:18 (KJV) says, “By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.”
Things will go rotten physically and spiritually when there is laziness.
Laziness is actually a department in the spiritual realm where you have wasters. It is a wasting spirit.
WHAT IS LAZINESS?
Unwillingness to take action.
To be dormant.
To be drowsy.
To be dull.
To be idle.
To be sluggish.
Dilly dallying.
Killing time.
Resting when you are not tired.
Resistance to work.
Disliking hard work.
Liking easy things.
To put goals down without any willingness to carry it out.
Slow growth.
Failure to make effort.
That spirit that says ‘tomorrow’, that keeps whispering ‘later’.
Unfortunately, if you do not arrest this spirit, it will make the goals, dreams and visions of a man end up in the dustbin of life.
A lot of believers are spiritually lazy. Too lazy to pray by themselves, too lazy to read the Bible by themselves, and too lazy to go into spiritual exercises that will give them fire and power.
Laziness is a very bad thing because when it is in the camp of somebody, a person may even be priding himself in it.
Laziness is when you are getting used to a less demanding lifestyle, so you have put on the shoes of procrastination, and your anthem is “I will do it tomorrow”. When they say, “Read the Bible through,” your reply is, “Next year.” They tell you “Fast”, and you say, “I will do it next year.” They say, “Pray in the night”; you say, “I will do it tomorrow.”
That is why the Bible calls it a waster. It is a complete waster.
There is a type of laziness we call “laziness of procrastination”. You just postpone and keep pushing it forward.
Laziness of doubting your capability. You think, “Can I do this?”
Laziness of inactivity. You just do not want to do anything. A waster. That is why that spirit is called a waster.
Laziness of putting in great effort into useless assignments. They put great work into nonsense.
There is laziness of the mind. You do not want to do any thinking, any reasoning, or any tasking of your brain. They say, “Learn this” or “learn that”; you say, “I am too old to learn this.”
Laziness of lazy bodies.
A lazy man is a dead man that is yet to be buried. I want you to understand that no one can climb any mountain by just looking at it. It is not possible. You must make an effort. The vehicle of failure travels fast on the road of laziness. Spiritual laziness is a disaster.
When somebody is spiritually lazy, he has deep distaste for the things of God which masquerades as laziness.
When the lazy man begins to pray, all of a sudden, his mind begins to wander. He cannot really concentrate to do hard praying. The enemy, in his own clever way, has adopted clever tactics adaptable to all personality types.
If we begin to carry out an inventory this morning, and I ask, “When last did you do an effective quiet time?”, you will realise that a lot of people do not take their quiet time seriously.
When you do not do any meaningful quiet time before God, it is laziness which will lead to wastage later. You want to do business, but you did not even bother to prayerfully investigate it. You want to sell something, but you do not even prayerfully research if that is what you should do. It is laziness. So one of the greatest impediments to spiritual growth is laziness. You are too lazy to pray, too lazy to tarry, too lazy to study the Bible, and too lazy to read spiritual books.
When a person does very little spiritually and puts very little effort towards spiritual growth, it is laziness. And this is why I am bringing this to your attention this morning, and you can see the way the Bible describes it. The great tragedy of it is the way this laziness has killed so many lives. Some people are too lazy to memorise any scripture or do any fast, too lazy to do any spiritual activity, and that is a great tragedy. The tragedy of it is this: the lazy man or woman will never experience the raw power of God.
One of the greatest prophets who has visited this country is Prophet Omotola. His friend and he were praying for power for months, and the Lord saw them and answered their prayers. He told them, “On so-so date, meet me in so-so place. When you meet me, I will soak you under the anointing.” That day came; Omotola came out and began to walk to the place. It was a far place. That day, a very terrible rain started. Omotola cut palm fronds to use as an umbrella and kept moving.
But when the other fellow saw rain, he said, “Ah! God will understand why I cannot move out today,” and he went back home. So only Omotola went there. As a result, the portion meant for two people; only he got it. If you read the Bible very well, all those men of God who moved mountains were very busy when God found them.
Moses was busy tending the sheep in the desert when God found him. Gideon was busy in the winepress when God found him. Elisha was very busy on his father’s farm when God found him.
The Tragedy Of Laziness.
God will not use the lazy man or the lazy woman. The enemy will defeat us easily if we are spiritually lazy. Laziness is a big sin. It is such a dangerous sin that it can cause a lot of tragedy.
It makes a man miss his destiny by procrastination. Sometimes he will not start any project; sometimes he will agree to start but start putting it off, and little by little, they surrender, and very quickly it becomes a defeat. He never gets going. People like that never develop a sense of urgency about life. They just keep pushing it forward until that time goes.
May that not be your lot, in the name of Jesus.The lazy man has a lot of unfinished projects all around. He starts many things halfway. They are quick to start new ones and refuse to stick to a task until it is done. It is a tragedy.
The lazy man will be creating excuses for not joining fellowship or Bible study.
Lazy people do not contribute anything positively to anybody’s life. It is therefore a tragedy when you marry a lazy man or woman. The whole family will suffer because one partner is lazy. And this is a very, very serious matter.
The lazy man is a helpless man. Any small hardship, he turns back. He says there is a lion on the streets, and so he will not go out.
A lazy man is unteachable. He feels he knows everything.
To crown it all, a lazy man is forever a servant to others.
A lazy man is doomed to poverty as far as heaven is concerned. That laziness will trap him in the bottom place of life.
WHAT TO DO.
The first thing to do is to recognise that that laziness is a sin.
Decide to come to terms with yourself and confront your laziness. Confront your laziness and do not pamper it.
Counter laziness with aggression. It is, in fact, not a bad idea if you decide to do a 3-day dry fast to combat laziness.
Learn the principle of diligence and hard work.
Learn the discipline of waking up early. So discipline really is the key. There is no easy way to learn discipline. Discipline is tough. You have to be hard on yourself. You have to begin now. Discipline only begins now.
All the good things that laziness has stolen from you, you shall repossess them in the name of Jesus.
Many have become addicted to television, watching all sorts, which does not favour them in any way. The Bible says in Romans 12:11 – not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the lord. So make up your mind here this morning.
Examine your quiet time. Are you really doing it well? Do you take quality time to wait upon the Lord?
Examine your family altar. Is there any prayer altar in your family?
Examine your Bible reading. Can you really say you are a Bible addict? The Bible says that the Word should be like honey in your mouth. Is it really like honey in your mouth?
Examine your Bible memorisation. Do you really memorise scriptures, or is it the same thing that you know you are just repeating?
Examine your witnessing. When last did you really walk up to somebody and preach the gospel to the person? Is there anybody in this church that you can confidently say you converted and now the person is a Christian? Are you witnessing to people outside?
Examine your fasting life. Are you really a devoted faster?
Examine the way you spend your time. Do some calculations.
Examine how much time you spend for God, how much time you spend on yourself, and how much time you spend on things that are useless that have no effect.
How can you spend one hour in the bathroom and not spend ten minutes in your quiet time?
How can you spend thirty minutes talking to your friend but cannot spend thirty minutes talking to God? The Bible groups all these under serious laziness. In our church many years back, during the search of the scriptures, we were studying the book of Acts, and for those of you who are good Bible readers, Acts is a very exciting book. Something is happening in every chapter. If churches of these days are like that, we will have no space to put people.
After searching the scriptures, questions came. One man was asking our pastor, “Sir, all these things we have been reading in the book of Acts, you are the pastor here. Why is it that these things are not happening here? Why? All these miracles recorded here – why are they not happening now? Pastor, let us do something about it.” The pastor said, “Brother, stand. Do not sit yet. Let me ask you a question. For how many days were the disciples in the upper room before power fell?” The man replied, “Ten days”.
The pastor then said, “I challenge you: let you and I go on ten days of dry fasting, and let us see whether those miracles that are happening will not start to happen.” When the brother heard ten days dry fast, he sat down. He said, “Pastor, just because I want power does not mean I should die. Here was a man who was too lazy to help, too lazy to intercede, too lazy to assist, but very quick to criticise.
PRAYER POINTS.
✓✓ Powers spying on my time to disgrace me, you are liars; die, in the name of Jesus.
✓✓ Opportunity wasters, I am not your candidate; die, in the name of Jesus.
- Wasting powers of laziness in my life, die, in the name of Jesus. (a sevenfold amen).
- Blood of Jesus (seven times), arise for me, in the name of Jesus.
- Powers stealing my glory, die, in the name of Jesus.
- Arrows fired against my star, backfire in the name of Jesus.
- Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Arise, lift me up, in the name of Jesus.
- Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Arise, promote me by fire, in the name of Jesus.
- Every good thing that I have lost this year, I repossess them by fire, in the name of Jesus.
- Testimony robbers, breakthrough robbers, progress robbers, I am not your candidate; die, in the name of Jesus.
