The Sin of Slackness

6 · Identifies Apollos's primary spiritual gift as eloquence — skill in speech and persuasion — and establishes that he oriented this natural ability toward serving believers

In Acts 18, we see that Apollos had basically one gift. It's an oversimplification, but that one gift is found at the beginning of his story, and it would just be eloquence. What does that mean? He's just good at talking, man. Like, he could have sold cars, you know. He could have— he could have proved that Apollos was Christ, probably, right? Is good at talking. His expression of service unto the Lord was to use his eloquence, serve those whom God greatly loved.

7 · Delineates the two specific applications of Apollos's gift: teaching and nurturing believers (watering) and engaging in apologetic refutation of those who denied Jesus as the Christ

So for Paulus, this looked like talking, this looked like teaching, this looked like— he also used this rhetorical. There's two ways that we see Apollos using this rhetorical gift. The one is In 1 Corinthians, Paul says, I planted and Apollos watered. And he means that Apollos served as a teacher and caregiver to the early Christians in the Corinthian church. But then our text in Acts 18 says that he also used this talking gift to refute those who said Jesus wasn't the Christ.

8 · Applies the Apollos example to the congregation by asserting that all believers possess diverse gifts meant to be used for the same ultimate purpose: demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ

And so that's, that's just a glimpse of how you're going to wind up doing this in your life. I have a gift, many gifts, and you're going to use them to prove that Jesus is the Christ. And some of you have a gift for speaking, but some of you have a gift for serving, and some of you have a gift for giving, and so forth.

9 · Pivots from the identification of gifts to the necessity of zeal in using them, signaling the sermon's main concern: the danger of possessing gifts without the zeal to deploy them

And I exposed you last week to Romans 12 where Paul says whatever your gift is, make sure you're not lacking in zeal. That's what we're going to talk about today.

10 · Establishes the sermon's central problem: possessing gifts guarantees nothing without zeal, using a contemporary illustration of a talented athlete who squandered his potential, then returns to Acts 18:25 to show that Apollos's fervency is what prevented him from wasting his gifts

Having gifts is no assurance that they will be used. Plenty of people squander their God-given gifts. I was reminded— I won't go into it, but I was reminded of a quarterback for the Raiders who was drafted, I think, number 3 in the draft and was signed to, I think, a $98 million contract and was entirely undermotivated and was eventually let go by the team, even though to let him go meant they would have to give him $6 million. This is, this is when you know you are not a good employee. I will pay you $6 million to leave. Having gifts is no assurance that they will be used. Plenty of people squander their God-given gifts. Plenty of people fail to fan into flame the gift of God which came to them. And so what we see in Acts 18 is not only that Apollos used his gifts, but we see an explanation as to why he used his gifts. And so if you have that text open, look at 25. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though He knew only the baptism of John. Being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately. Why did Apollos wind up not squandering his gifts? He was fervent in spirit. He had zeal. His fervency caused him to avoid the common tragic condition of which we are all familiar: the wasting of a perfectly good gift.

11 · Identifies a cultural and church problem: contemporary society gives the passive a pass while harshly criticizing the zealous, a distortion the sermon seeks to correct

He was zealous, he was fervent. And the truth is, is that this issue of fervency and zeal has fallen under much, much despair and disdain, and we are absolutely guilty, as we will see in a moment, as I'll discuss later in the year. They're absolutely guilty of sometimes either being the kind of person or listening to the kind of person whose main accomplishment in life is to criticize those who accomplish things. We are, we are far more, far more permissive toward those who are passive than their passivity warrants, and far more critical of those who are zealous.

12 · Asserts the necessity of zeal and fervency as the means of deploying gifts, and contrasts people with large gifts but no zeal (who accomplish nothing) with people with small gifts and great zeal (who make much of Christ)

But zeal and fervency are necessary. They are the vehicle by which the gifts of God are transported out of one life into another. And the truth is, is that there are lots of people with way bigger gifts and no zeal who come to nothing, and there are plenty of people with a little gift and a lot of zeal who come to much. And by come to much, I mean make much of Christ.

13 · Introduces the familiar frog-in-boiling-water analogy to illustrate incrementalism and the danger of gradual spiritual decline

And so that's what we're going to talk about today— zeal or fervency. You know, we're all familiar with the, uh, kettle— the frog in the kettle analogy. This idea that if you drop a frog into a boiling pot of water, the whole thing's just gross and terrible. Why would anyone do this? If you drop a frog into a— you have to be really hungry— drop a frog into a boiling pot of water, he'll jump right out. I am actually suspicious that this is true. If you dropped me in a pot of boiling water, I think I'd go and die. But maybe that's true. I've never tried it. But then they say that the trick is incrementalism. The trick is to slowly turn up the heat, put him in water that he's comfortable with, and slowly turn up the heat, and eventually he will just make peace with the fact that he is cooking to death.

14 · Reverses the frog analogy to describe spiritual cooling over time, then provides Greek word study on zeal/fervency from Acts 18:25 and Romans 12:11, culminating in the assertion that zeal is fundamentally a choice rather than a feeling we wait to receive

But really, I think in discussing zeal and fervency, we should flip the analogy and have this understanding that over time our hearts grow cold, and we were once quite zealous, hopefully, at one point or another for the Lord. And through all sorts of reasons, for all sorts of reasons over time, our hearts grow cold. In fact, the word for zeal in our text, when the phrase fervent in spirit appears, it's actually one Greek idiom, uh, in the Greek that just means he had a boiling pot of a spirit. Zeal is fervor. Zelos, zeo, which means to boil. And there's another word sometimes used in the Greek, spude, which is sometimes translated as haste, or other times translated as earnestness or effort. For instance, in Jude 3, he writes, I was very eager to write to you. Now, why am I telling about those two words? Well, you have one of the most important texts when it comes to zeal is in Romans 12:11, which says Do not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit serve the Lord. Do not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in spirit. It really gets you the sense of these two words are very closely related. In fact, the word for zeal there is spude, the word for haste, and the word for fervent there is the word we would normally translate zeal. In the Greek, it's zeo, which means boil. These words are very similar. But I brought this up to you, this verse, Romans 12:11, as we swing toward Proverbs 18, because I want you to hear this verse again and make one basic conclusion. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. And that basic conclusion is this: everything about that verse The way it is written tells you that zeal and fervency are more of a choice than you are prepared to acknowledge.

15 · Corrects reductionistic theology about attitude and action by asserting that Scripture shows bidirectional causality: sometimes attitude precedes action, sometimes action precedes attitude, and oversimplification of this truth has harmed people who wait for feeling before acting

Here's the interesting thing about the way the Bible talks about the attitude and action connection. It's not simple. The Bible doesn't do it simplistically. The Bible is nuanced about this. And so there are verses— Bible's nuanced about a lot of things we try to make simple— but, but, uh, there are verses about you need— about your attitudes changing your actions, right? There are verses like that. God gave them a spirit to work would be a good one in this subject, for instance. So there are verses in which attitudes come before actions. And we are simple people, and we like bumper sticker theology. So you might have heard that and grabbed onto it, and that's your whole theology about work, is that attitudes precede actions. But there are so many other texts that say exactly the opposite, and that is, if you want to feel differently about something, do differently, in which the situation is entirely— and actions precede attitudes. We have made it really hard on a certain group of people who are very aware of their feelings to know how to change because we've only told them half the story. We've got them convinced that it is biblical to think that I must always have the attitude before I have the actions. Like, not at all. That's not— that is far too great a simplification It's much more complicated than that. Sometimes you just do what you know is right and your heart follows.

16 · Directly addresses the congregation with pastoral warmth, explaining the sermon's aim: to stoke both love for God's work and anger against the sin of passivity in order to cultivate zeal

I want you to see, before we pivot to Proverbs 18, that zeal and fervency presented here are a choice. Now, as we move into this text, I want to explain why this text is relevant for us today. Thomas Watson wrote of zeal. I'm going to post some things from Thomas Watson and Charles Hodge today, this week, on, on the subject. So I want to help you and me have zeal and fervency, embrace that as a necessary compound emotion in our heart. So I'm going to do my best to do that. Been thinking a lot about how to do that. If I could stoke your love for God's people and God's work and also stoke your anger against sin, a very particular sin, and hopefully I'm depending on the Spirit to use this to stir your zeal and fervor.

17 · Reads the primary text aloud and signals its significance by revealing it as the pastor's personal verse for the year, creating anticipation for repeated engagement with this proverb

Look at Proverbs 18:9. Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. This verse has occupied my thoughts for many weeks, and I wonder if perhaps— I know it's my verse for the year. I wonder if it perhaps it might be our verse for the year. You'll hear more about this verse. That's— I guess that's the way what I'm getting at. You'll hear more about this verse today.

18 · Establishes the expositional strategy: the proverb uses the familiar (the destroyer) to illuminate the unfamiliar (the slack person), and the sermon will proceed by first examining the destroyer to understand the severity of being slack

I mostly want you to see how dark of a thing it is to be unzealous, see the damage it causes, and to see the damage specifically it causes to people and to things that you actually do love. So with the remainder of our time, let's think about this verse: whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. And let's think first— this is how a proverb is often designed. It gives you the thing you're more familiar with on the back of the proverb. It's trying to teach you something new about the thing on the front end, and it gives you a thing you're more familiar with on the back end. And that's what this one's doing. So let's focus first on the one destroys.

19 · Defines the destroyer as someone with God-given power — strength, intelligence, weaponry, or tactical advantage — who abuses that power to destroy the possessions or way of life of others

The mystery The insight, the new thing to learn, is loaded on the front end. He says this kind of person, you might not realize it, is a companion to this kind of person, and you know all about this kind of person. Start thinking first about the one who destroys. Uh, we have clarity about that kind of person, about the one who destroys. And I want to break that down because it's important to see. The one who destroys has some God-given power which others do not have. Maybe he is stronger, smarter, has better weapons, has a tactical advantage. For whatever reason, God has given him some power, and he abuses that power to destroy the possessions or the way of life of another person.

20 · Illustrates the destroyer with the vivid image of an unconverted Viking using God-given seafaring abilities to raid and pillage defenseless villages, concretizing the abstract category of one who abuses power

If we think of a Viking— my ancestors, they all got saved, I mean, they're converted— if we think of a Viking in his unsaved condition, we'll have a good idea of what is meant by him who destroys in the text. And that is, think of a strongman using his God-given seafaring powers for the purpose of raiding and pillaging defenseless villages. This is what the text means by someone who destroys, person who destroys. This is someone who has power and is using it wrongly to hurt, take, manipulate, so forth.

21 · Contrasts contemporary cultural obsession with power abuse with centuries-long neglect of condemning passivity, arguing that Proverbs 18:9 exists to correct this imbalance by equating the slack person with the destroyer

Now, our society in general and the church specifically is extraordinarily focused on this issue of those who abuse power. And you can find discussion of this everywhere. But God gave us Proverbs 18:9 because what is missing in our conversation today, and what has been missing truly for centuries, is a similar disdain for those who are passive and lack zeal. And this verse is saying we all know that the one who abuses power is wrong, and so is the one who fails to use the power they have. They're the companion of the one who destroys.

22 · Uses Aristotle's observation that passivity escapes criticism to show that the problem of tolerating the slack is not new but ancient

One time Aristotle wrote— one time, a long time ago— Aristotle wrote He's not a very active writer these days. He wrote, "Criticism is something you can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing." So it's always been true, all the way back to Aristotle, that those who do nothing escape criticism that they actually deserve.

23 · Argues that passivity is tolerated only in settled, prosperous societies where infrastructure has been built by others, whereas in unsettled societies the passive are not accepted because survival depends on action

But what is interesting is that when you go through history, you will find that those who do nothing are given this pass when society has already been settled and law has been established and provision has been made and infrastructure has been built. In other words, when the grocery stores are stocked, you know, by the people who did things. Then those who do nothing not only escape scrutiny, because when everybody's hungry or insecure or unsafe, those who do nothing are not accepted in society. Those, especially not those who spend most of their heart energy criticizing those who do something. Those kinds of people are not tolerated in an unsettled, unsafe society. But when society gets to a certain point of establishment and security, the passive people are given a pass. The sluggards' sluggardliness seems not to be as urgent or acute a problem as it did when we were all trying to figure out where our food was coming from.

24 · Traces the tolerance of passivity to God's long-term blessing of civilization, then returns to the proverb's central claim: despite cultural tendencies, the slack are morally equivalent to destroyers

So because God has been good to this world for thousands and thousands of years, bringing rule of law and food production and food storage and logistics and infrastructure and law enforcement— because God has been good repeatedly for thousands of years, this pattern is well established, and Proverbs 18:9 already understands it, and that is simply this: there will be a tendency to rightly villainize, vilify the one who abuses his power. Yes and amen. But those who lack zeal, those who are slack in their work, they're the companion of the Vikings. They're the companion of abusers. They're the companion of the one. They're like them.

25 · Elevates Proverbs 18:9 to a summary statement of a Genesis-to-Revelation theme: passivity is a far greater problem than we realize, citing Adam's failure in the garden as the first instance

And this is actually, Proverbs 18:9, a summary of a biblical theme that starts in Genesis and continues all throughout the scriptures, that this lack of zeal and passivity is actually a far greater problem than we realize. Many theologians believe that the first failure in the garden was Adam's passivity. One theologian commented that in the garden scene, the devil speaks to Adam's wife more than Adam does.

26 · Supports the passivity-as-sin theme by showing that in Kings, bad kings are overwhelmingly condemned not for commission but omission — failing to tear down high places of false worship

My Bible read program just had me going through the books of the Kings, and you can see this, this very dynamic painted quite clearly there. There's always sort of summary statement about the king at the end of his life, and, and then it tells you to go look at another book if you want to know more. But the summary statement is always either he was a good king or he was a bad king. And if he was a bad king, it always comes down to one of two things: he did something he should not have done. That sometimes shows up. Overwhelmingly, the summary of a bad king's life is not that he did something he should not have done. But that he did not do what he should have done, namely almost always tear down those darn high places of false worship.

27 · Shows that David's adultery with Bathsheba is foreshadowed and caused by his passivity — remaining in Jerusalem when kings go to war — demonstrating that passivity is the gateway to greater sin

The story of David and Bathsheba is loaded on the front end. It's a foreshadowing. You can figure out how this story is going to go if you read just the earliest part of the story of David and Bathsheba. Because this is how it's written: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. That's— if you know, if you know, you know, right? Proverbs 18:9: If you know the danger of slovenliness, If you know the danger of passivity, you can see from the beginning that this man who has power he should be using for good is not, and it's his passivity which is getting him into trouble.

28 · Concludes the biblical-theological survey and pivots from exposition to application, signaling the sermon's move toward personal examination

So the Bible is actually full of this sort of thing, and Proverbs 18:9 is just a summary statement of it. Now we need to look at this text now. We understand the whole abuse, or the whole, the whole what the verse is getting at. Now let's apply it.

29 · Frames the application as requiring courage, contrasting brave readers who ask 'Am I this guy?' with cowardly readers who read quickly or think only of others

Slack in his work. This is the hard question that only— this is the way that brave people read their Bibles, right? Am I this guy, right? Cowards read the Bible fast, or they read the Bible thinking of someone else. But it takes a lot of courage to read Proverbs 18:9 and say, am I this guy?

30 · Begins structured application by posing the diagnostic question: What is your work? — establishing that self-examination requires clarity on the nature of one's calling

Now, if you're going to do that this morning, I'll help you kind of think through it. Uh, you might be wondering, am I this guy? Well, here's the first thing you have to know: what's your work, right? You can't, you can't measure what you don't— you can't, you can't manage what you don't measure. And like, what is your work?

31 · Reframes vocation as one project among many given by Jesus as the believer's ultimate boss, correcting the false equation of 'my work' with 'my job

Well, You probably immediately think about your vocation. But here's how a Christian thinks about their vocation. You go into a spiritual office every day, and the boss of this office is named— his name is Jesus. And he, he like comes to you throughout the week, throughout your life, and he gives you all kinds of projects to work on. A lot of you have this, understand this language. That's why I'm going here. He gives you a series of projects to work on, and some of those projects are going to require a lot of time, and some of those projects are going to require a little time. But he hands you like an envelope, like a stack of envelopes, or I guess he drops them in your Dropbox, and he says like, here's all the projects I need you to complete. And one of those projects is your— well, we'll talk about that later, but your relationships and so forth. Your vocation is just one of the projects.

32 · Asserts that Jesus provides for and pays for all the projects he assigns, and that all projects share the same purpose established at the sermon's beginning: to show Jesus as the center of all things

He has for you. It's a pretty time-consuming project, but your vocation is not your work. What Jesus bought you, and he also promised to provide for you. So the thing you do for a living is just one of the things you do for Jesus. So that's— so if you were to ask, well, what is my work? Because I need to know if I'm being slack in it. Well, it's not as simple as, you know, my job. Your job is just one project that he's calling you to manage. And by the way, the cool thing about Jesus is he pays for all the projects to be accomplished, and they all have the same aim. So even though each one's a little different, they all have the same purpose, which we got to at the beginning, which is to show that Jesus is the center of all things.

33 · Applies Ephesians 2:10 to define Christian work as the good works God prepared beforehand for believers to walk in, asking whether the listener is living with zeal to prove Jesus is the center of all things

All right. So when you read about being slack in your work, if it's not your vocation, what is it? Well, you are his workmanship, Ephesians 2:10, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Are you living your life with a zealous interest in proving Jesus is the center of all things in your whole life, in all the things you do.

34 · Uses an overheard anecdote from a construction company president to illustrate that zeal is physically observable — some people walk with purpose, others don't — and this difference predicts faithfulness

I once heard the president— I overheard, I wasn't talking to this guy, but when I found out who it was, I paid— I started eavesdropping. Is the president of one of the largest construction, commercial construction companies in KC, and, uh, he was talking to some people that were also more important than me, and, uh I was over, I was eavesdropping, and he told all the guys who all own companies and who all do lots of hiring, he said, in my field, I can tell right away which guys we hire are gonna stick and which guys aren't. And he said, all I have to do is watch them walk. And they're like, what do you mean by that? And he said, some men walk with a sense of purpose And some men don't. Some men walk almost with an impatient, uh, vibe toward their own feet. You've seen this, just like, would you hurry up, feet? I got things to do, come on. And he said you can tell right away who's going to stick by the way they walk.

35 · Applies the construction president's walking metaphor to the Christian life, asking whether the listener is slacking in the 'walk' of good works Jesus has called them to, then acknowledges the need for greater practical specificity

Well, since you are called, you were created in Christ Jesus to be his workmanship to walk in his good works. The question is really, are you slacking this whole life walking out that Jesus has called you to? I realize that's not practical enough.

36 · Directly addresses a common misconception about pastoral authority, clarifying that the pastor is not the boss who assigns work but the equipper who provides tools after Jesus (the true boss) assigns the work

One thing I would like to say that just seems to be a kind of misconception that kind of uh, needs to be cleared up. You know, mostly I think it's very important to understand that the pastor is not your boss who assigns you work. I might need help with something. I am not your boss that gives you work. Jesus is your boss. He's the one who gives you work. He's the one— so So you should talk to him if you don't know what you should be doing. The pastor mostly isn't the boss. The pastor mostly manages the tool shed so that after boss Jesus gives you a job, then you come to me and say, hey, I got this job to do. I say, oh, I can help you with the tools you're going to need. I'm the equipper. Jesus is the boss.

37 · Applies pressure by asserting that if the listener doesn't know their work, discovering it is itself their work, and ignorance of calling equals slackness, making them a companion to destroyers

So if you don't know what your work is That's your work, figuring out what your work is. Because I guarantee you, you have work. The Bible says, Ephesians 2:10 says, he's already, he's already decided what your work is. So I guarantee you, if you don't know what your work is, you're being slack in it and therefore being a companion to him who destroys. Now, how do you figure out what your work actually is? Okay, let me see if I could just walk you through a very quick, uh, paradigm that may get you on your way.

38 · Establishes the foundational theological principle for discerning one's work: all Christian work is stewardship of what God has given, which requires gratitude as the prerequisite for identifying one's gifts and therefore one's calling

A first point of this paradigm would be to establish that all Christian work is mere stewardship. What do I mean by that? All we are called to do, all we can do, is steward, manage what God has freely given us. Anything you have that God didn't give you, no one else wants. The only good things you have to offer are things God gave you. All right, so step 1, you establish this idea: all Christian work is mere stewardship. We are all— all we are called to do, all we can do, is steward what God has freely given us. Therefore, all Christian work depends on gratitude, because if you don't count your blessings, you will have no clue what to do with your life. If you don't know your blessings, if you don't know what God's done for you, if you don't know the gifts— Paulus knew his gift.

39 · Acknowledges that Apollos had obvious feedback about his gift (eloquence), concedes that not everyone has such clarity, but insists the listener still has the responsibility to figure out their gifts through gratitude

Here's the thing about Paulus's gift. Well, he had a little bit of an unfair advantage. That gift, people tell you that or not. He got feedback. He knew what his gift was. You need feedback. It might not be as simple for you, you know, world's smallest violin. I'm sorry, that's just the way it is. Your gift may not have as much obvious feedback. You still need to figure this out, and it starts with being grateful.

40 · Establishes the causal link between ingratitude and uselessness: ungrateful people don't help others because they don't recognize what they have to give, whereas grateful people do

So if you are just generally an ungrateful person, you are also just generally not helping many people. But if you are generally a grateful person, you are generally helping many people. It starts because— the reason that is, is because you have to see the things God gave you to know what you have to give others.

41 · Illustrates the necessity of inventory-taking with the analogy of feeding a hungry person: you can't serve someone unless you know what you have in your refrigerator and cabinets

Suppose someone came to the door of my house and said, I'm hungry, can you make me a meal? I would be able to do that. Lisa, Lisa is really helping me with my grocery supplies right now. So I would definitely be able to feed them. But I would need to know, right? I have— yes, I have the food to feed you. I have what you need. I would have to know the contents of my refrigerator. I have to know the contents of my cabinet.

42 · Applies the analogy by accusing some listeners of being slack in counting blessings, which produces a chain reaction: slackness in thanksgiving leads to slackness in work, which makes one a companion to destroyers

Some of us— be a little bit more bold— some of you, uh, are so slack in counting your blessings that you don't realize how full your cabinets are. And then it's just a long chain of blackness that starts with ingratitude. I would say to, to take to take Proverbs 18:9 and, and add to it, you know, which probably not supposed to do, but if he who is slack in his work is the companion of him who destroys, then he who is slack in his thanksgiving is a companion to he who is slack in his work. It all starts by not being a grateful person. You don't, you don't understand what you have, and therefore you don't know what you have to give.

43 · Cites Paul's prayers for the Ephesians as biblical precedent for the necessity of understanding one's spiritual resources before being able to deploy them in service

And this is why when Paul prays for the Ephesians twice In that wonderful book, it's all about praying that they understand what they have.

44 · Introduces a three-category framework for identifying gifts, beginning with internal gifts (dispositional strengths like Apollos's eloquence) and pointing back to Romans 12 for further study

Okay, so practically, how do we think through this? Let me just see if this helps you at all. I think there are at least three kinds of gifts that you have right now that I would call you to think about. The first are internal gifts, and I think these are just sort of things like we see with Apollos, where God just gave you an edge on something. You're just better at something than a lot of people. Sometimes people refer to these as dispositional gifts. It's like my disposition has this certain bend to it. And to think more about this kind of thing, you could look at the passage that we looked at last week in Romans 12. So I'm just calling you to think about this, and you need to do the work to think about it. So internal gifts, the kinds of things God gave you the ability to do.

45 · Introduces the second category: external gifts, defined as tangible resources like houses and cars that God has provided and which the believer is called to steward for service

Number 2, external gifts. God's provision comes through your work. So now I'm thinking about the stuff that's kind of in your life, the things you have, maybe, maybe things that are more tangible or at least slightly tangible. God's provision, your work, this is part of it. God gives you things your house, your car, so forth. That's part of it.

46 · Introduces health as a third external gift and uses the Septuagint's addition to Proverbs 18:9 to argue that failing to care for one's health is morally equivalent to self-destruction

Okay, here's a hard one. God gave you health. So the— there was a Greek copy of the Old Testament written around 3rd century BC. It's called the Septuagint. And when they— what they did was they went to the— and translated the Hebrew into the Greek. And, uh, they presumably did this for Hellenistic Jews living in Alexandria or Egypt at the time, something like that. Something weird happened here, and I don't— I'm not an expert on the Septuagint, but this verse, there's something weird that happens. So in Proverbs 18:9, the translation in the Greek is what I've been telling you: he who is slack in his work is companion to him who destroys. And then, like a footnote, maybe something is— for some reason, immediately below this, maybe some of you could figure this out, Immediately below this, they add this phrase: He who does not use his endeavors to heal himself is brother to him who commits suicide.

47 · Interprets the Septuagint addition as calling for stewardship of health without idolatry, framing physical self-care as preparation for service rather than self-indulgence

So when they were translating this, whoever was doing this— there's a whole story about that— they wrote, whoever's slack in his work is companion to him who destroys. And then, like footnote or something, it says He who does not use endeavors— endeavors just means effort— to heal himself is brother to him who commits suicide. What is— what are they saying there? They're basically saying God gave you the gift of health. Don't idolize it, but don't be slack in taking care of it either. And, and for each of us, that looks different. There's different challenges and so forth. But that's one of the ways you can make sure that you can serve others, believe it or not, is to take your own body seriously so that you have something that's useful to others down the road.

48 · Introduces the third category: relational gifts, defining them as people God has placed in the believer's life for varying durations, all of whom represent opportunities for work aimed at proving Jesus is the Christ

So there's these external things that God has put into your life. And then finally, there are these relational gifts. God has put people into your life, and some of them on a very long-term basis, and you should really focus a lot on them they're going to be with you for a very long time, and some on a very short-term basis, even as short as someone walking past you in the store. And each one of those represents all sorts of work to be done. There's work to be done in all of these areas, but the singular aim of all of it is to prove that Jesus is the Christ. Sometimes you're proving that to yourself, sometimes you're proving that to a fellow believer, and sometimes you're proving that to the world.

49 · Simplifies the application for those overwhelmed by the framework by giving one concrete, achievable action: pick one or two people in the church to champion behind the scenes through prayer and care

And if all of that was too complicated, here's what I would tell you to do. Find one or two people in the church and decide to be their behind-the-scenes champions. And especially think about people who someone else might not pick. And try and learn zeal in a small way where you pick somebody. It's like the Secret Santa of the Christian life, you know. You pick somebody and you just say, I am going to call, ask God to help me love this person. I want you to— Lord, please fill me with the affections of Christ for this person. You love this person perfectly. Give me affection for this person. Lord, how is this person doing today? I don't, I don't, I I don't know, but bless them, reach out to them, care for them, encourage them, help them with their sin, so on and so forth.

50 · Signals the sermon's climax by promising to show how Jesus himself thinks about the dynamics of Proverbs 18:9 in John 10

I want to conclude this by showing you Proverbs 18:9 according to Jesus. So turn with me to John 10, verse 10. Proverbs 18:9 according to Jesus. We see the dynamics of Proverbs 18:9 playing out in the perfect mind of Jesus in John 10:10.

51 · Reads John 10:10-13 aloud, establishing the Good Shepherd passage as Jesus's own commentary on the themes of Proverbs 18:9 — the destroyer (thief/wolf), the true shepherd (Jesus), and the passive hired hand

All right, ready for the biggest punch? The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

52 · Connects John 10:10 to Proverbs 18:9 by identifying the thief in Jesus's parable as the destroyer in the proverb, establishing that slackness allies the believer with a real cosmic enemy

How is this Proverbs 18:9 and the perfect mind of Jesus? Number 1, look at verse 10 in John 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. Here's why we should be way harder on the slacker. Because he is not just the companion of a one who destroys. There is one who destroys. John 10:10. And he who is slack in his work is a companion to the one who destroys.

53 · Distills the sermon's central question from the convergence of Proverbs 18:9 and John 10:10: there are only two forces in the world (life-giving and destroying), and the challenge is determining which one you are allied with through your actions or inactions

John 10:10 tells us there are two forces in the world, and one of them is aimed at giving people life and giving them abundant life, and the other is aimed at taking, taking, taking, stealing, killing, and destroying. And the challenge of Proverbs 18:19 and John 10:10 is whose companion are you really?

54 · Corrects worldly thinking by insisting the passage is not about active abuse but passive failure — the hired hand who flees is on the wolf's payroll not through commission but omission, making sins of passivity companionship with the devil

Now, if you use the world's lens You're going to say, well, am I— am I— do I use my power to hurt people? Then I must be for Jesus. Wrong. This passage is not about people who use their power to abuse people. This is a passage about passive people who don't use their power, and they're the ones who are working. It's as if the wolf has these people on their payroll. Not because they're going out and committing many sins of commission, but because they are regularly, unrepentantly practicing many sins of omission. These are not people doing what they should not do. These are people not doing what they should do. And they have become companions of the one who steals, kills, and destroys.

55 · Explains that passivity allies with the destroyer because withdrawal gives the wolf free rein, then paints a vivid two-scene narrative: Vikings approaching by sea intercut with villagers who could be preparing but are instead lazy and self-indulgent

Why? Why are they companion of the one who steals, kills, and destroys? Because in this story, in John 10:10, this person's withdrawal, their sinking away, it gives the one who seeks to destroy free rein. See, our story of Viking villainy at the beginning of this, of the sermon, ought to be rounded out a bit according to Proverbs 18:9. And we could tell the story maybe in two parts running parallel to each other or something. And the one is these big, bad, mean Vikings who use their power to destroy, and then, and they're, and they're on their way to this village where everybody's happy and they live by the sea and everybody's got a little paunch full of fish. So we're watching these Vikings making their way across the sea to steal, kill, and destroy. But let's— every other scene cut to the lazy man who could be out practicing his sword. To the self-indulgent woman who could be building a wall.

56 · Delivers the sermon's emotional and moral climax: the villains are on both sides, passivity in the village is moral equivalence to Viking aggression, and slackness causes real suffering to people the listener would love if they knew them

And let's be clear that in this story, the villains are on both sides. The companions to the Vikings actually live in the village, and they're the ones who are slack in their work. And because they are slack in their work, the wolf snatches them and scatters them. And I said at the beginning, I want to stir up your hatred of a particular sin— sin being slackness, passivity— but I also want to stir up your love. And I want you to, I want you to understand, when you are slack, people— I believe you actually do suffer. Or people I believe you actually would love if you knew them suffer.

57 · Applies the Good Shepherd parable by identifying the hired hand's flight as rooted in self-interest rather than love for the sheep, arguing that the appearance of the wolf reveals who truly loves the flock and who merely serves themselves

This is aimed to stir up your love for sheep and anger at the wolf and anger at the times when you, not through action but through inaction, ally yourself with the wolf. There is no such thing as inconsequential laziness. There is no such thing as inconsequential selfishness. People need you. You are needed. Your work matters. These people that ran— the hired hand ran because their interaction with the flock These people ran because their interaction with the flock was secretly all about their own self-interests. The hired hand in this story is looking at things through the lens of what he has to gain, of what's in it for him, and he had no inherent love for the sheep. And the only way this was revealed was the appearance of the wolf. We don't like it when the wolf appears. One thing the wolf does, it shows us who really loves chicken.

58 · Turns from condemnation to grace by pointing to John 10:11 and acknowledging that everyone in the room has been slack and allied with the destroyer, but Jesus's self-sacrifice is the only hope for forgiveness

In a wolfless world, you can't tell the difference between the true shepherds and the false shepherds. But Jesus laid down his life. Verse 11: I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Uh, if that verse wasn't there, we would all be toast. This sermon would roast toast and tosses into Gehenna ASAP. Everybody in this room has been guilty and possibly is currently guilty of being a companion to him who destroys. And some of us in this room are even guilty of committing that great sin and criticizing those who are trying.

59 · Establishes the universal guilt — all have been slack in their original work to glorify God and have turned gifts inward — but points to Jesus's death as the means of forgiveness for this companionship with the devil

So like, we're all, we're all double damned. We were created to glorify God. That was our original work, to rule and subdue. That command has never been rescinded. And all of us, because of sin, have been slack in this work. And all of us have taken God's gifts time and time again and turned them inward. Some of us have been slack when we really do know better, and some of us have been slack and not even realized it. So Jesus laying down his life is key because it means you and I can be forgiven for our companionship with the devil, and that companionship comes so easy.

60 · Calls for immediate response by citing Revelation 3's command to the lukewarm Laodiceans — be zealous and repent — urging the listener not to delay but to act now on the conviction the sermon has produced

So if this is where you find yourself, if this is kind of, you know, burning a bit, here's, here's what I would point you to. There's another boiling pot story, so to speak, in the Bible, and it's in the Book of Revelation in chapter 3. And this is what God tells a bunch of people whose pots had stopped boiling, the Laodiceans. He says, be zealous and repent and do the works you did at first. So Jesus has made it possible for you to be forgiven, and he's made it possible for you to be zealous and repent. But don't, don't, don't, don't squander the gift of God's word today by just saying, well, I'll think about this later. Be zealous and repent.

61 · Introduces the paradoxical image of Jesus as shepherd-lamb (strength and sacrifice in right proportion) and establishes that Christ's work aims not only to forgive but to transform believers into shepherd-lambs who serve with fearless generosity

But more than forgive you and make repentance possible, he has laid down his life to make all of the sheep more like shepherds. See, Jesus was the original shepherd lamb. What is a shepherd lamb? Well, Jesus is described as both, right? He's described as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He describes as the shepherd. What's a shepherd lamb? It's someone who has strength and sacrifice in all the right proportions. That's what he wants you to be. He wants you to use the authority and the power and the gifting and the resources that he's given you in a way that is fearless and generous and reliant on him to vindicate you.

62 · Transitions into communion by reading John 10:14-18 and declaring that communion is the believer's account balance check — a reminder of vast resources

For communion, I just want to read to you beginning in verse 10 of John— beginning in verse 14 of John 10, where Jesus continues: I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one Shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I might take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up from him— to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. One final thing Jesus has bought for you as you celebrate this, which is essentially Communion is to the Christian life what checking your account balance is to Jeff Bezos. You know, that's what this is. He's given you everything. There's nothing— he has not withheld anything. You are rich. And as you partake in communion, I want to see one other blessing that he has provided for you in this text. Jesus says, I have the authority to lay it down— he's talking about his life— and I have the authority to take it up again. And Jesus has made that true for you too. Here's the amazing thing: you can lay down your life in service, you can die to self in service, and after the battle you will rise again. Jesus has bought you resurrection. Jesus has bought you new life after self-sacrifice. Jesus has bought you exponentializing glory from a small little seed that falls into the ground and die. So you don't need to be afraid of zeal. The end of that exertion, there will always be glory.

63 · Closing prayer asking God to move the sermon from heart conviction to hand action, to grant grace for obedience, and to help the congregation see the incredible riches provided through Christ, especially as they are reminded in communion

Let's pray. God, we pray that you would send your word into our hearts and then make it work into our hands. Give us the grace to obey your word today, and give us grace, Lord, to see incredible riches you provided for us Your word says that he who did not spare his own son but freely gave him, how will he not also freely give us all things? And that's what this table should talk to us about today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.