Proverbs 6: Wise Ants Lazy Fools

Of Proverbs, and we'll do a little quick review here. If you remember, the Proverbs is wisdom literature, which is important to keep in mind because when it comes to interpreting the book of Proverbs, it needs to be interpreted slightly different.

The book isn't full of commands and thou shalt nots or whatnot, but more wisdom. In other words, it's taking the theology and putting it into practical terms. How do you apply the biblical commands to life?

So that's important. The purpose of the book, obviously, is being wisdom literature, is to make one wise, and this is a kind of a working definition we have of what wisdom is. Wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill.

There are a lot of people, a lot of Christians, who are very smart biblically, but have made disaster out of their life because they didn't know how to apply the scriptures to everyday life, and the scriptures are meant to change.

You know, one of the major purposes of the Bible itself is to give us the words of wisdom that we would change and become more like our Savior. So Proverbs addresses all areas of life in a very practical manner, and this morning we're going to examine laziness, all right?

The title is Wise Ants and Lazy Fools. Foolishness, remember, in Proverbs, when Proverbs calls something or someone a fool, it's a moral assessment, not an intellectual one. It's not saying somebody isn't smart.

It's not saying that they're dumb or ignorant. What it's saying is that they are ungodly. Foolishness is said in contradiction to wisdom. So therefore, when Proverbs declares certain behavior to be foolish, it's declaring it to be sinful.

So to be called a fool by scripture is worse than if somebody were to say that you're stupid, you know, because stupidity can be overcome. Another important observation is the amount of space given to a topic is indicative of the importance of it or the urgency of it.

This is a principle that you'll see throughout scripture. The more space that is given to a topic in scripture, because remember, the Holy Spirit who has inspired scripture is really the author of the book, the whole of the Bible, uses an economy of words.

And everything that we need to know is found in the scriptures. And so whatever is there is there by divine appointment and divine inspiration. And so if you find a topic of scripture that is large, a lot of space given to it, it means it's either very, very important or there's an urgency to it.

Okay. That's why I kind of chuckle to myself I don't do it out loud much anymore because I've learned it's not that fruitful. It's not very wise to do that. But when somebody tells me, I meet a pastor and somehow the topic will come to eschatology and they say, well, I don't study eschatology because I don't think it's an important subject.

Really? About one third of the Bible is related to prophecy. So that means that you're just basically discounting one third of the Bible. It's not that important. It's extremely important. And there's an urgency there as well.

Okay. All right. So we're going to begin our study in Proverbs 6. If you remember the last month that we were looking at freeing yourself, we're looking at what does it mean to be a surety? What does it mean to be bound financially to another person?

We pick up right after that and we're looking at Proverbs 6. So I'm going to read these verses and this is just an introduction. Go to the end, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which having no chief officer or ruler prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.

How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man.

Now we could just take that those few verses and preach several sermons right here, but we're just going to look. This is our starting point to see what Proverbs has to say about laziness. And of course, I hope everybody realizes that a sluggard is somebody who is lazy.

Those six verses serve as an introduction to the proverbial wisdom concerning laziness. Laziness is a major problem in our society today and the pandemic has just exacerbated the problem. It didn't cause the problem, it just exacerbated the problem.

Employers are having difficulty getting people to go back to work. Why go back to work when you can get paid for sitting home and watching TV or playing your video games? Look at the first point that I'm going to make is that laziness is a spiritual problem.

Okay, that we should have a hint from that by the fact that it is addressed in the scriptures and especially in the book of Proverbs. And we're going to go through quite a few scriptures today, so and I'm not going to do an exposition of all of them.

We're just going to put them out to show you what the Bible says about them. The way of the sluggard is a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. Okay, Proverbs 21, 25, 26. The desire of the sluggard puts him to death for his hands refuse to work.

All day long he is craving while the righteous gives and does not hold back. Now notice that the sluggard is described in antithesis to the righteous. This is an example of antithetical parallelism. Who remembers what antithetical parallelism is?

Because you really need to understand that if you're going to understand how Proverbs teaches. Somebody remember what is antithetical parallelism? Go ahead, Anthony. Yeah, one set in contradiction to the other.

So if you look at the sluggard, one of the ways you know that it's a spiritual problem is look at this. Way of the sluggard and what is this set in contradiction to? The upright, the moral. So being a sluggard is immoral.

It is sinful. And as any one of the ways we know that is it said, what's the opposite of being a sluggard? It's upright. Again in verse 25 of Proverbs 21, the sluggard is set in contradiction to what?

The righteous. So there you have it in clear terms to see if you want to be the opposite of a sluggard, it is to be righteous. And that's an important distinction to make. To really understand the spiritual nature of this, we need to understand something and always go back to the beginning.

Man was created to be productive. Okay. Right in the very beginning, Genesis 1, 26, and God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

I once asked a class when we after reading this, I said, what does this verse tell us? And one kid raised his hands and said that there were creeps right from the very beginning. So that's true, but it's not what we're looking for here.

Notice, let them rule. That indicates being productive. There was a function. There's a purpose. Right. Genesis 2, 15, then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it.

Again, I remember this is before the world was cursed, before sin was entered into the world. Man was put on earth to perform a function in God's plan. Okay. And we need to always keep that in mind. There are a lot of, you know, there's especially even some evangelical preachers who teach that work is the result of the fall.

That's not true. Man was created to work. Man is at his happiest when he's producing something, when there's a useful purpose. All right. During World War, well, prior to and during World War II, the United States government started a project that was called the WPA.

It was a government agency that was meant to combat unemployment. And they would give jobs. And there was this one road in particular that these men were working on. And the guys were so excited about the fact that they were back to work, they were no longer unemployed, and they were building this road.

Then it turns out somebody slipped and told them that the road wasn't going anywhere. And it was just to put people to work. And all of a sudden, the road got sloppy. It was poor workmanship and whatnot.

As long as the men believed that they were serving a purpose and doing something constructive, they could work even for a small amount of money. But it didn't make any difference to them once they realized that there was no purpose to it.

Man was created wiser than the animals. Now, you might look at me and say, well, duh. I mean, that's an obvious thing. Well, not in our society today. How is man looked at in our society? Like we're intruders into this world, and we need to just leave the animals alone and actually even emulate animal behavior.

All right. No, I'm not going to say a word. Job 35, 10 to 12. But no one says, where is God, my maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth? God has made man different than the beasts of the earth and made us wiser than the birds of the heaven.

So we are above the animals that God has created for this earth. Now, the result of the fall and the depravity that it caused, caused man to become lazy. Prior to that, man was created innocent, perfect, and was perfectly suited to accomplish the purpose that God had ordained for him.

But when the fall came, laziness came. And laziness brings with it self-deception. The lazy person doesn't think he's lazy. Okay. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.

All right. It's amazing if you ever really know somebody who is the definitive version of laziness, according to the scripture. It's amazing what comes out of their mouth. All right. Lazy people are usually good with their tongues.

We had a guy on the PD that I worked with, and we couldn't wait. We loved it when he came in late, because when he came in late, the boss would always confront him. And this guy had the most bizarre excuses.

We were amazed at the imagination this guy had. He came up with reasons for being late that we never even dreamed of. And he believed them. All right. They offer the best excuses for the behavior or the lack of it.

Now, and here's an interesting thing, and there's a little bit of irony going on here. Solomon says, Solomon writing Proverbs 6, says, even though you were created higher than the animals because of your sin, you can learn from them.

And again, don't miss the irony of the text. Man is the crown of God's creation, the only thing that's made in the image of God. And yet, because of our sin, he's told to go to the most insignificant creature, the ant, to learn something.

I mean, if you're in your home and there's an ant, what do you do? You squash them. Step on them, pick them up with a cleaning, throw them down the toilet without giving it another thought. All right.

And here we are, these thinking intellectuals and, you know, have accomplished so much. All right. And yet Solomon says, you need to learn. Don't squash that thing. You should learn from them. All right.

There's irony built into that. And by the way, God uses irony and sarcasm better than anybody. That's correct. It's God given. You'll never hear me say the devil made me do it. All right. So that indicates the extent of the fall and the depravity of man where we're told instead of thinking for ourselves because our intellect has been compromised by depravity, we're told, look at the ant.

The ant is, in some respects, smarter than you are. So the lazy person is told to learn from the ant. That laziness is a spiritual problem and not merely a behavior problem is demonstrated by Paul's words to Timothy.

And these are very revealing. First Timothy 5 .8. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Notice what it says.

If you're lazy and you're not providing for your, and this is geared specifically to men. All right. If you're not providing for your own household, you've denied the faith and you're worse than an unbeliever.

Why would he say that you're worse than an unbeliever? Yeah. I believe the reason he says worse than an unbeliever is because when a believer doesn't do the things he's supposed to, especially something as basic as providing for his household, he brings shame on the kingdom of God.

Remember what Paul in a different context says, you know, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Different context, but I think the principle holds. So laziness is foolishness.

And remember foolishness is a moral declaration, not an intellectual one. Therefore foolishness is sin. So to be called a fool biblically is to be called a sinner. I'm going to just go through some of the texts and we're going to go through these rather quickly to show how does the Bible describe this sluggard.

Some of these, and here's where you're going to see some of the biblical irony and sarcasm come in. He sleeps too much. How long will you lie down, old sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

Verse 10, this is Proverbs 6 and 9 and 10. Verse 10 is definitely meant to be sarcastic. You know, you could read it, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. It's meant to jab you a little bit.

Proverbs 19, 15, laziness casts into a deep sleep and an idle man will suffer hunger. We're going to get a little bit later to some of the consequences of laziness, but right now just look at the description of the sluggard.

He sleeps too much. Proverbs 20, 13, do not love sleep lest you become poor. Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with food. Proverbs 26, 14, as the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed.

Just think of that, the door, the door, and that's what the sluggard does. Told you there's sarcasm in here. He doesn't like work. Proverbs 12, 24, the hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor.

Interesting, what the idle person hates the most is what he will be forced to do by not doing what he should be doing in the first place. Proverbs 21, 25, the desire of the sluggard puts him to death for his hands refuse to work.

Proverbs 10, 4, poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He doesn't prepare in advance. You know what I think of when I think of this, you know, the sluggard hating work?

Anybody remember a TV show going back to the 50s called The Lives and Loves of Dovey Gillis? Maynard G. Krebs. Maynard G. Krebs was the first, quote, beatnik, which were the forerunners of the hippies to be on a TV show, and one of his cardinal things was he hated to work, you know, and as soon as anybody mentioned work, he'd go, work, and it became a running theme throughout the, by the way, I'm not recommending that you watch The Many Lives and Loves of Dovey Gillis.

It was not a very godly show. I don't know why my parents let me watch it, but, oh, it was terrible. In retrospect, it was terrible, yeah. The devil made me do it. No, I'm only kidding. Proverbs 10, 5, he who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.

Proverbs 24, 20, verse 4, the slugger does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing. He doesn't take care of what he has. Proverbs 24, verse 30, I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense, and behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles, its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

Yes? It's interesting to see how,.

You know, it's with regards to what they had to do at the time, and that's also pointing towards evangelism, and how we should go out when the fields are ripe for the harvest, right? So there's a spiritual connotation in an agricultural sense that we need to be doing.

To build the kingdom of God here on earth. Yeah, absolutely, and if you look at the wording, thistles, nettles, where does that come from? Where does that come in? That's right, goes right back to the curse.

Whenever you see that type of language, there's a practical, and again, Proverbs is specifically meant to be a practical book, but there's always a spiritual principle behind it. You can't divorce the two.

Yes, Jerry? Yes, sure, yeah, part of the curse is that, you know, what's going to happen? You're going to plant corn and thorns and thistles are going to come up, you know? Ground doesn't cooperate with you anymore.

He rationalizes his laziness. The slugger does not plow after the autumn, and literally, that means the cold weather, all right? So he begs during the harvest and has nothing. What does he do if he has nothing?

He just begs. The slugger says, there's a lion outside. I shall be slain in the streets. Now, that is one of the most sarcastic verses in all of scripture. What does the slugger say? He will make up the most bizarre and outrageous excuse as to why he should not go out and work, all right?

It's a lie. I could be eaten by a lion if I go out there. It's meant to be laughed at, and by the way, that appears twice. Proverbs 26, 13 says exactly the same thing. Proverbs 26, 16, the slugger is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.

You're going to see some of these verses used for more than one of the principles. That one we've already seen, but what does the slugger do? He can, they can be so adept at explaining to you why they didn't do what they're supposed to do, and what's interesting, and one of the things I've noticed being a supervisor of men over the years is that the slugger expends more energy getting out of work than if he just did the work in the first place, and it's ironic, and they don't see it.

They think they're always putting one over on you, and then there's just some further descriptions before we move on. Proverbs 12, 27, a slothful man does not roast his prey, but the precious possession of a man is diligence.

Slothful man, a slugger, doesn't even cook his meat. The slugger buries his hand into the dish, and he will not even bring it back to his mouth. He's hungry, and he's so lazy that, you know, now again, is this an actual reality?

No, this is hyperbole meant to prove the point. It's talking about the heart of the slugger. He's so lazy that, you know, he can't even, he doesn't even want to expend the effort to bring his mouth, his hand up to eat his meat, all right?

You can see how you've got to be careful, especially in Proverbs, being overly literal, okay? It's meant to use all of these figures of speech. There's more figures of speech in Proverbs, probably on a par with the prophetic literature, using symbols and figures of speech like hyperbole, etc., okay?

Proverbs 26, 15, the slugger buries his hand in the dish. He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again. You know what I think of when I, every time I read this verse? The guys that go to the ballgames with the helmet on, with the two beer cans and straws.

They're so lazy, they just want the beer, but they don't even want to, you know, bring it up to their mouth. Everybody's seen those hats, right? Yeah. In the sluggard store, it's right up. Next thing we're going to move to is the consequences of laziness.

First is poverty and hunger. Proverbs 6, 11, and your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man. Notice, notice the violence, an armed man. What does an armed man do? He steals from you, and that's what laziness will do.

It will actually steal from you. Proverbs 10, 4, poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Proverbs 19, 15, laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger.

So yeah, you have poverty and hunger. Do not love sleep lest you become poor. Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food. Do you see the number of verses throughout, scattered throughout Proverbs that deal with this?

Remember the point I made at the beginning, when you see a preponderance or how many verses deal with one particular topic, there's an urgency, there's an importance to that topic. So what do we see? What are the consequences?

Poverty, three verses there mention poverty, and one verse mentions hunger, poverty and hunger. Constant dissatisfaction and covetousness. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.

Proverbs 21, 25 to 26, the desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work. All day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back. Notice, what is one of the principles or the descriptions of the sluggard?

He craves. He's got desires. He's not happy with what he's got, but he's not willing to work for it. Desire, craving, you see that. A state of uselessness and embarrassment. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him.

I know it's become very popular to drink vinegar, but I don't care how often you drink it, it's not like drinking a fine wine, okay? And vinegar to the teeth, you know, it's repulsive. You know, I understand people who force it down because there's health benefits to it.

I actually take my side of vinegar and little gummies, and it's much, much better that way. So vinegar to the teeth, smoke to the eyes. What's worse than getting smoke in your eyes? All right, uselessness, embarrassment.

Proverbs 18, 9, he also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys. Isn't that interesting? A brother, a kin of the same ilk as the person who destroys. Proverbs 10, 5, he who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.

Brings embarrassment. When somebody is lazy, they bring embarrassment to their family. They're in for a tough life. The way of the sluggard is a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway, a hedge of thorns.

And you imagine you're walking down a path and there's thorns all around it. That's describing the path of the person who is a sluggard. The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to force labor.

Doesn't bode well for the lazy person. So then what's the remedy for laziness? It's a few things. First, recognition that laziness is sin. So, you know, what's the number one excuse for sinful behavior in our day?

That's just the way I'm made. It's just the way I am. I can't change it. It's not me. It's not my fault, right? You have to recognize that laziness is sin, but that's good news. If laziness is sin, there's a remedy for sin, all right?

Need to recognize that laziness is rebellion against God because it's God's plan for man to work. If you're not working, you're acting in contradiction to God's plan. It is man's sinful desire to be lazy.

Remember, it came with the result of the fall. Laziness is just another manifestation of the self. I don't feel like doing something, so I'm just not going to do it. So the sluggard must repent. Develop a teachable spirit.

And what's the first thing we can do with a teachable spirit? Learn from the ant. So that is a scriptural command, go to the ant. Proverbs is not full of commands, but there's one of them, go to the ant.

Learn from her, consider her ways, and be wise. In fact, just in these couple of verses, I'm not going to do an exposition of them, but there's three lessons just in those three short verses. One, they're industrious.

Two, they're self-disciplined. And four, they plan ahead, they prepare for, well, you even know that if you've seen the movie, A Bug's Life. Still developing a teachable spirit, learn from the scriptures, learn from godly examples, parents, church members, history.

I put history in there because we have, there are great biographies of men of the past and learn from them. You know, we are so blessed to living in our society today with what we have available at our disposal.

I mean, we've got a library back here that a lot of churches would be jealous to have, and there's, it's not all just theology books and whatnot, but there's great biographies of Christian men and women from the past, and we can learn from them.

Develop a biblical worldview. I'm not going to expound on this too much because we've had whole bible studies on what does it mean to have a biblical worldview. Man was, in this case, man was created to be productive, man was created to exercise dominion, all right?

Man is supposed to work in order to benefit others. I love this verse in Ephesians. Let him who steals, steal no longer, but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.

Notice, rather let him labor. There is a command, and it's good. The work is good. And why should we work? Well, not only that you can provide for your own family, but there you have something to share.

One of the things that I've noticed, especially in this church, this is a very generous church when it comes to giving, which is a good manifestation of the spiritual condition of the church, and I've actually heard somebody say that, oh, I got a raise, or I got more money coming in.

That enables me to help out. I can tithe better, and I can actually give to this person, help that person. That's a tremendous attitude to have, is when it's not just, I'm making more money. That's great, not because I need more money necessarily, even if you do, but I can now share.

I have resources that I can help other people. It's loving the Lord your God, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Developing a biblical world. Biblical teaching is consequence-oriented. We must always keep this in mind, and a lot of this is missed in the mainstream evangelical church today.

Consider the consequences of laziness. We've just gone through a smattering of verses today, but what are the consequences of laziness? Hard life, tough, shame, uselessness, covetousness. It leads to all kinds of other things.

Second Thessalonians 3 .10, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either. What would happen if the government took that kind of attitude?

I think we'd see unemployment drop to probably zero. I just wanted to close one last time. Let's just read this again. I see I have to change the slide. It should be conclusion, not introduction. Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways, and be wise, which having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest.

How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands to rest. Your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man.

That's an apt introduction and a conclusion to the subject of sluggardness and laziness. Yes, Jerry. Yeah, I think that's absolutely part of it. Sure. This is why it's so important. One of the things that we try to do in this church, you'll hear us talk constantly about developing a biblical worldview.

A biblical worldview means you have to have a biblical view of the origin of this world. How did this world come into existence? Because if you don't understand the origin and whatnot, how are you going to understand the purpose for this world?

Then you have to understand, how are things going to end? And of course, in this church, you know, it's very simple. What's the end? We win, okay? The middle is where we all live, all right? And understanding the beginning and where we're going, we can work towards that and understand that there is purpose to our life, and we don't have to actually even experience the end to be a part of that and see it.

That's what we're studying in Hebrews 11. When we get down a little bit further in Hebrews 11, we'll see that all of these men, none of them saw the promise. They saw it from afar, all right? And they were looking for the better country, you know, the one whose architect is God, whose builder and maker is God.

So if you don't have the right biblical worldview, it's easy for even a Christian to get disillusioned in this world. The major eschatological system in the United States, well, in the whole world of evangelical Christianity, is one of defeat.

We're working, but don't work too hard because you're not going to make any progress in this world, not until Jesus returns, all right? It's not the message of scripture. Yes, Mike. Yeah. No, you're right.

You know, Spurgeon had a great analogy in one of his sermons. He described advancing the kingdom like the building of a coral reef, you know? He says the coral comes and they live for a short period of time, and then they die and they become part of the reef, and it builds and builds and builds.

He says most of those coral will never see the surface, but he says, but that doesn't mean it's not going to happen one day, and one day what happens? The coral reef comes up, and next thing you know, you've got an island, you know?

And again, using nature as an example, we may not, I mean, we look around our world today, and we're all dismayed. We're talking about how ludicrous the thinking of man has gotten, you know? A Supreme Court nominee says she can't define what a woman is, you know?

I mean, we look at it as how in the world can we ever think that we're going to have any real impact on this world? Well, there's only one way, and that's when you look at the scripture. If you look at this world, you would have to say that all is lost, but when you see the scripture, what is Jesus' promise?

That he is waiting until all his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. It's going to happen. Yes, Chris? Well, if you're a believer, I mean, you're put on, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

How do you do that? Well, part of that is some sort of physical occupation to take care of your family, because that's equated with being godly. So, I don't think you can separate. One of the things, I'm going to be sitting on an ordination council a week from today at Harborview Church, and one of the things that we ask pastors to do, prospective pastors, is to write out a paper and give a description of your calling to ministry.

One of the things every ordination council wants to see is do you know and how do you know that you were called to be a pastor? And we look at it as a calling. And I'm all for that. I think we need to do that.

But I think we need to do that even in quote, what we would call a secular job, which I don't even like to use that term. If you're called as a believer to, whether it be a UPS driver, be a police officer, selling insurance, being a contractor, that is your calling and it's part of who you are and how God is going to advance the kingdom using you there.

And this whole idea of separating the sacred and the secular, it's detrimental to the advancing of the kingdom of God, you know, because where God is going to use you, where he has called you. And that's why, you know, when we take jobs, we should look at it in terms of how am I going to advance the kingdom of God doing what I'm doing, all right?

And I think it's perfect. I don't look at somebody who says, quote, I'm in full-time Christian work. Wait, are you a believer? Yeah, well then I don't care where you are, you're in full-time Christian work.

And I think that's an unfortunate distinction. Every man sitting in this room should be able to say, this is my calling, this is the occupation God has called me to, and he's using this to advance the kingdom of God, any other.

And if you look at it that way, you'll find that you'll be a lot less dissatisfied with your job. I'm doing this, whatever you do, do unto the glory of God, do to the best of your ability. And if you understand that this is where God has called you, then that'll take away all the griping and complaining.

Okay, let's close with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word, especially this book of Proverbs, Father, which contains so much wisdom. We thank you, Father, that you have given us this to answer these questions of life, to understand that everything that we do in our daily lives is to give glory to you.

And we ask that you would help us to take these principles of wisdom and apply them to our lives, that we would truly be wise, not in our own eyes, but in the eyes of scripture. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.