Proverbs 26:13-16

The Sluggard's Expanding Excuses

0:00 Proverbs 26, beginning with verse 13. Here's our friend again, the sluggard, who says there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the street. You see, the situation gets worse now.

0:13 He's not only out in the street, he's even in the way, the little alley that leads him to the street. His territory is getting larger now. Used to be he'd just confine himself to Main Street. Now he's going in the back alleys.

0:25 You see, the disposition of the sluggard grows on a man's mind once indulged. The sluggard says there's a lion in the way, a lion in the street. So he turns away from these imagined dangers. But now, verse 14, shows the total non-productivity of the sluggard.

The Door on its Hinges: A Picture of Non-Productivity

0:45 As the door turns upon its hinges, so does the sluggard upon his bed. As I was meditating on this passage last night, I almost took off. I took on a calculator and my yardstick or my sliding rule to measure the distance that the door into my study travels from door jam to open at 90 degrees where it stops at one of the bookcases. And I wanted to figure out how many feet the edge of that door covers in the course of a month.

1:18 I think it'd be amazing. I think how many times I go up those stairs and down those stairs in a day and the elders come up and down every Thursday and people come up and down. They come up and down every Thursday and they come up and down for counseling. Over the course of the years, the edge of that door has traveled miles.

1:32 But it ain't gone nowhere. You see, there's the picture. There's the sluggard. His bed is like the door jam and the hinges.

1:41 And his left and right side are the plates. And he just turns. One side, the other side. Turns.

1:50 He wakes up. Oh, my, I've got so much to do. I'll have a little more sleep and I'll do it better. Back to sleep he goes.

1:57 And he wakes up and says, Oh, my, I've got so... You see, he gets disturbed enough and awake enough to have to turn.

2:04 But he goes nowhere. There's the picture. Now, again, when people say the Bible doesn't have humor and irony, I don't know what Bible they're reading. As the door turns upon its hinges, there's motion and activity, but it goes nowhere.

Applying the Door Analogy to Parenting

2:17 So doth the sluggard upon his bed. Whatever his activity is, it's connected with his bed, not with his legitimacy. It's in its sphere of responsibility. And this is why you must not tolerate in your children lying around in bed.

2:35 When it's time to get up, feet on the floor. Oh, five more minutes. You're encouraging this spirit. When it's time to get out and you say, Okay, kids.

2:47 There was an old... There was an elder in a church in England.

2:51 And he had been a sergeant major in the Second World War. And he conducted his speech. And he was home. Like he were still in the military when it came to entertaining guests.

3:01 The home was always full of guests. On a given weekend, they might have 10, 15 college students there. And I'll never forget the first time I heard the terminology. At about 6.30 or quarter to 7, one Sunday morning, he went barking up and down the hallway and the various bedrooms were off the sides of the hallway. And my wife and I were in one of them. All right now, show a leg. Show a leg.

3:26 First time I'd ever heard the terminology. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked that. In other words, get your feet out from under the sheets and on the floor. All right now, show a leg.

3:43 Show a leg. Now, whatever term you use, when you bark the orders to your kids, time to get up, don't tolerate turning on the hinges. Otherwise, you're encouraging the disposition of the sluggard. But now, the next text, right in line, the sluggard buries his hand in the dish.

The Sluggard's Weariness in Basic Tasks

4:06 It wearies him to bring it again to his mouth. We saw that imagery before. We won't go over it again. It's simply a picture again of desire devoid of necessary effort.

The Sluggard's Demented Self-Conceit

4:21 But now look at verse 16. This is crucial. Add something we haven't heard before in Proverbs. The sluggard is wiser in his own.

4:30 Conceit than seven men that can render a reason or answer discreetly. You see, one of the problems with the sluggard is he is demented in his self-conceit. Everyone else can see his sluggardliness, but he has so calmed his own head that he can render all kinds of reasons. He's a rationalizer as well as a fantasizer.

5:02 And he's wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. You take seven mature, level-headed men and ask them for a reason for what they are doing or for giving an answer to something and they answer discreetly, but in his own head, he believes he's wiser. Seven wise, well-proven commodities could stand before him and lay out the case that he's a sluggard. And he has all the marks of a sluggard and he can argue the whole thing away.

Parental Warning Against Self-Justification

5:37 He's full of self-conceit. And oh, when you see in your children that tendency to begin to argue with you when you see what is patently a mark of a sluggard, don't let them argue with you. Don't let them develop the skill of debating with you about the issue. Lovingly but firmly say, Honey, you were lazy.

6:02 Sluggard, you've lost a good grade on that thing because you didn't get to it. Don't blame the teacher. Don't blame the fact that you had the flu. Blame yourself.

6:16 Don't let your children develop this horrible, wicked art of justification of themselves and self-conceit that is the mark of the sluggard.