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Season 3 Ep Ep 11- Making Art: The 7 Deadly Sins- Slothful
121 Plays2 years ago
Mentioned in this episode:
Trusting God in All the Things
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Transcript
Introduction and Mission
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Lake Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by his mission and the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
00:00:17
Speaker
Before we get started today, I want to remind you that I have a brand new devotional that just released last week called trusting God in all the things, 90 devotions for finding peace in your every day. And let me tell you a little bit about
New Devotional Announcement
00:00:34
Speaker
the devotional.
00:00:35
Speaker
Life is just a lot. Relationships are hard, responsibilities are piled high, and it seems like all the things, all the things, are distracting you from the very best thing of all. There's little time left for yourself or for connecting with Jesus. No wonder you feel anxious in your mind and hurried in your heart. You desperately long for calm amidst your clamoring duties, stacked schedule, and life's unexpected circumstances. But where do you begin?
00:01:05
Speaker
More than anything else, your heart needs a refreshing encounter with God each day. And this is where the new devotional comes in. Trusting God in all the things offers women like you a way forward so you can experience the confident calm you crave. These 90 encouraging devotions will help you face life with God's peace and renewed strength. Start your day here on these pages where you'll find the calming reassurance of God who is the only one who can be truly trusted in all the things.
00:01:34
Speaker
So that's a little bit about my new devotional with Karen Eamon. As you can see, it's about trusting God in, well, we say all the things because it's literally, we kind of talk about all the things, whether it's your health, relationships, work, parenting, whatever area you're struggling to trust God in, we address in this devotional. You can purchase a copy of trusting God in all the things on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, christianbook.com, or anywhere books are sold.
Reflection on Lent and Easter
00:02:04
Speaker
All right, so today, oh my word, I can't believe it, honey. This is it. This is the end of our Making Art series, the last of our Lenten episodes. How did we get here already? I don't know, but I do know that this week is Easter.
00:02:18
Speaker
Yes. And so that's exciting. That is because we have been talking through the seven deadly sins and it's been a lot of heart work. If you've been following with us these last several weeks, we have been exploring the seven deadly sins and why pursuing holiness or virtue actually frees us to love God and others as we should.
00:02:39
Speaker
And as we've said from the beginning, Lent is a season where we are intentionally drawing closer to Jesus to be more like Jesus. And so this series, even though it's been wonderful, it's probably been hard for some of you. And I know it's hard for me, you know, when I look at some of these areas of my life that I'm definitely struggling in. But the point is we're leading up to Easter where we celebrate, right?
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah, and we've said from the beginning that the goal, and maybe you said it already, but yeah, the goal of Lent is to emerge at Easter looking more like Jesus. And so it's a season of fasting and prayer and just deeper meditation on the life of Christ and His death, all leading up to Easter where we celebrate resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus.
Exploration of Slothfulness
00:03:25
Speaker
And so the goal is to really draw near to Jesus, to be more like Jesus.
00:03:28
Speaker
And so yeah, this is hard to believe that we're already coming to the end of this series. Hopefully it's been a great encouragement to you. So today we are going to be talking about slothfulness and that just, I don't know, just saying that kind of makes me laugh. You know what, I think every time I hear the word sloth, I think of the, you know, what was the show, what was the animated movie that was out?
00:03:51
Speaker
It's been a couple of years ago now. No, honey. I'm not good at remembering movies. I know. I'm so bad. And animated movies always, like, I have a hard time staying awake anyways for movies. The kids are always giving me a hard time. Like, I get 30 minutes into a movie and I'm out. It's true. But I remember. So animated movies are really difficult. But there's an animated movie not too long ago, within the last couple of years, and there's a sloth in it.
00:04:11
Speaker
And it's just adorable. It's cute. But there's this great scene. So that's what I think of. Anyways, I think about the sloth at the zoo, because when the kids were little, we used to go to the zoo all the time. Yeah, the Toledo Zoo. Yeah, and the sloth, it would be up on this cord thing. It'd be just hanging from there. Doing nothing. Doing nothing, exactly. So we are today, we are talking about slothfulness. So let's get going.
00:04:37
Speaker
Well, slothfulness, you know, again, it's one of those words we don't typically use very often, but put most simply, I mean, slothfulness is really just laziness. And so, you know, a definition that has been given over the years is that really slothfulness or laziness, it's this disordered inclination to apathy or laziness in fulfilling one's duties.
00:04:58
Speaker
And so I think one of the things that we ought to just point out is, well, I'll say it this way, that when we think about being slothful or being lazy, it's this tendency to cut corners. We avoid doing hard things or things that are going to cost us something. And so we tend to compromise or we take the easy path.
00:05:15
Speaker
you know, sometimes it can look like avoiding responsibility, those kinds of things. And so I think it's really important to keep in mind too, as we're looking at this particular deadly sin this week, is that slothfulness can be physical or spiritual. So we tend to think of like, you know, slothfulness or laziness as just kind of laying around on the couch.
00:05:34
Speaker
watching TV, watching Netflix and just kind of being lazy because we're tired. But you know, slothfulness can be and is both physical and spiritual. That's a really, really good point. I mean, I think honestly, I don't I don't really think about it like that. And when we think about it being spiritual,
00:05:54
Speaker
I can be so active and diligent and work hard at my job and work hard with all the things I need to do, but I can be slothful in my spiritual life. That's a really powerful thought.
00:06:10
Speaker
Well, I think, you know, Matthew seven is a great example of that. Matthew seven verses 13 through 14, you know, is that reminder that the spiritual life is hard, that it's difficult to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. I mean, to deny yourself and to follow Jesus is difficult. Matthew seven verses 13 through 14 is just one example, you know, where Jesus says, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it, but small is the gate.
00:06:36
Speaker
and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. And it's that reminder that very few take up their cross daily and follow Jesus, that that road of discipleship is a narrow road, that that gate is a small gate. And so the spiritual life can be hard. It is hard. And so it takes resisting slothfulness, cutting corners. And so we don't typically think of slothfulness in that area, but it very much could be a spiritual issue as much as a physical one.
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah, and let me read Proverbs 6 9 through 11 Because as you're saying that this is really a powerful verse when I'm thinking spiritually When I think that way Proverbs 6 9 through 11 says how long will you lie there you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
00:07:28
Speaker
Little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man And I when I think about that reminds me of the verse and of course, I can't remember The whole verse right now, but it's wake up Oh sleeper rise from the debt like that immediately I'm thinking of that verse because it's talking spiritually like wake up, right, right
00:07:53
Speaker
And this Proverbs 6, 9 through 11, when I think spiritually and I think about the poverty, obviously poverty when we're lazy physically can come upon us, but spiritual poverty is a real thing that happens in our lives when we're lazy, when we don't take the time to spend time with Jesus, when we don't open our Bible.
00:08:15
Speaker
When we don't, you know, when we don't go in and gather with people with our church community on Sunday mornings, you know, the spiritual poverty is real. And that Proverbs six or six, nine through eleven is a really powerful scripture to read with that thought in mind.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, again, you know, slothfulness can be both physical and spiritual and so you think about, you know, on the physical side or the way we tend to think of slothfulness is, yeah, just the person that won't work. They avoid responsibilities around the house. You know, something's broken and they don't do the hard work of fixing it and then pretty soon something else breaks and they don't fix that and pretty soon you get a month, two months, six months down the road and everything's falling apart. You know, those are just sort of really practical examples
00:08:58
Speaker
Whether it's within a home, with ownership of a home, or taking care of a car, or working a job. I mean, there's all sorts of examples of how laziness can really be destructive to our soul, to a marriage, to a family, within a church. All sorts of examples of really how deadly that sin can be.
00:09:19
Speaker
Um, and as we've been talking about too, it's a spiritual, um, there's a spiritual laziness too.
Easter as a Time of Diligence
00:09:23
Speaker
Um, you know, it was funny cause when we were, you know, doing the schedule for this, um, you know, I, I thought, Oh no, like this is the week of Easter. Like what a strange.
00:09:32
Speaker
way to end the series. I just thought, well, it's kind of a disconnect, like we're doing slothfulness on the week of Eastern, yet the more I thought about that, the more I thought, but the cross is a classic example of Jesus not skirting his responsibility, of not cutting the corn. In fact, the great temptation in Matthew 4 that Satan comes and one of the temptations there,
00:09:53
Speaker
is for Jesus just to do that, to cut corners and to not go to the cross. And so as I was thinking more about it, I'm like, you know, it is quite fitting actually that we're ending this series, the week of Easter, talking about slothfulness. You know, Mark chapter four is a good example of that. It's in, you know, in the gospel of Luke, the gospel of Matthew as well. But Mark chapter 14, verses 32 through 35 and then 37 through 41 is the story of,
00:10:20
Speaker
of Jesus going to Gethsemane. Let me just read a couple of those verses. It says that they went to a place called Gethsemane and Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray. And he took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He said to them, stay here and keep watch. In other words, don't fall asleep.
00:10:43
Speaker
don't get lazy and verse 35 says going a little further he fell to the ground and he prayed that if it was possible that the hour might pass from him and then he returned to his disciples and he found them sleeping he found them slothful he found them lazy tired that they were not being diligent spiritually Simon he said to Peter are you asleep couldn't you keep watch for one hour watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation the spirit is willing
00:11:10
Speaker
But the flesh is weak. And then verse 39 and 40, once more, he went away and he prayed the same thing. And when he came back, he again found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him in returning a third time. Verse 41. Are you sleeping and resting enough? The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. And so you see this great contrast in the life of the disciples.
00:11:34
Speaker
Peter, James and John and the person and the work of Jesus, they fall asleep. They are not diligent. They are not watchful. And yet Jesus goes into the garden of Gethsemane and his closest friends, his companions, they fall asleep. And yet he's diligent. And you think about, of course, the next verses is the description of him going to the cross and saying, Father, if this cup can be, you know, if you can pat, you know,
00:12:00
Speaker
There's another way, but if not, not my will, but your will be done. And so Jesus shows great diligence to be obedient to the heart of the Father, not to cut corners, not to compromise, not to be lazy spiritually, not to be slothful, but to be diligent and obedient. And it's a great contrast really between what it looks like to walk in diligence and faithfulness, do hard things versus being slothful or lazy.
00:12:22
Speaker
And you know as frustrating as it is when I when I'm you know read about the disciples and you're like come on like he needed you what were you doing you know obviously it's a picture so many times of us and I think it's actually an encouragement to me because I'm like that those were the disciples.
00:12:41
Speaker
You know, and they were they were struggling. And I think that that's where we need to learn. This isn't something that you just you deal with it and you never deal with it again. I think this is a lifelong struggle. This is attention always. We're never going to be perfect in this. But I think this is one of those things that when you recognize slothfulness for what it is, it's something that when it creeps into your life, you see it and you're like, wait a minute.
00:13:08
Speaker
You know what I mean? And you can actually change habits or things to not be slothful. So let's talk about, okay, so the vice, because we always talk about the vice and the virtue.
00:13:19
Speaker
This is your favorite part. This is my favorite part. It feels so like organized and I like things organized. Well, because I always, because you see the opposite here and I think it's a really, always a really powerful picture. So there's the vice is slothfulness and that, and then there's the opposite of that, which is the virtue, which is diligence. And so how do we deal with slothfulness in our life?
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, again, I think going back, not to sound like a broken record, but one of the things we've been talking about throughout this entire series is just this idea of clothing ourself in righteousness and holiness so that we can give ourself the best or give God the best of who we are, give others the best of who we are. And obviously, when we have that character of being lazy, of being slothful, we're not giving the best of God.
00:14:11
Speaker
because we're cutting corners and we're not giving the best of who we are to other people. We're being slothful in our responsibilities, we're cutting corners, we're compromising. And so as we said from the very beginning, this idea of clothing ourselves in Christ-likeness, walking in righteousness or holiness,
00:14:28
Speaker
is meant to enable us, empower us by the Holy Spirit to give the best of who we are, to love as we should, to be free to love as God desires for us. And so I think one of the first steps for us is what we've been talking about is just understanding the difference between slothfulness and diligence. And so just understanding first and foremost what diligence is.
00:14:48
Speaker
And so you think about, you know, I always think about 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, you know, as Paul was writing to that church, and he's really rebuking some within that church for their slothfulness. And here it's relating to physical work and not providing, but 2 Thessalonians chapter 3,
00:15:06
Speaker
verses 10 through 12. Paul writes, for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule. The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat. We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. You know, they're not doing what they should. They're skirting their responsibilities. It's causing conflict or disruption.
00:15:24
Speaker
He goes on and says, they are not busy. They are busy bodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And so you just think, here's Paul writing to this church, this group of Christians that are living in community with one another.
00:15:44
Speaker
And he's rebuking some within that church for their slothfulness and how it become disruptive relationally and that it was causing problems. And so he's telling them, listen, the answer is to be like Jesus and to be diligent, to be faithful. And those of you that are idle, that are sitting around not doing anything, you don't eat. And so it's just a really interesting command that Paul gives to that particular group of Christians.
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, well, what's interesting here too, though, is I think we can get a little bit confused and think that slothfulness is, we can't be still or we're being slothful. And it's interesting here because he specifically says they are not busy, they are busy bodies, so clearly they're doing something, right?
00:16:31
Speaker
And so being diligent doesn't mean that you, it's like in my mind, I automatically think you are active all the time. You never stop. And that's not what that means. That's not the healthy answer either. No. And sometimes being diligent in our spiritual life looks like sitting and being still and meditating on God's word and praying for an hour or whatever that is, going for a walk, taking time for things that might seem
00:17:00
Speaker
like you're being slothful. I think in our culture we have a little bit mixed up, and we can bring that into our relationship with the Lord and just our understanding of slothfulness. Well, I think it's important to remember, too, that you always want to, as you're reading Scripture, you want to interpret Scripture without other Scripture and look at the whole counsel of God.
00:17:20
Speaker
And so it's really important.
Balancing Work and Rest
00:17:22
Speaker
There are going to be people who really struggle with slothfulness, not just spiritually, but physically. They're going to struggle to work hard to follow the responsibilities or fulfill the responsibilities that they have. And that might be a struggle for some, but there are going to be a lot of people who struggle in the other area.
00:17:42
Speaker
that they are they're workaholics and they don't know how to slow down they don't know how to take a break and so when you again you think about the biblical principle of Sabbath rest and and you know again from the very beginning of Jenna you know the book of the Bible the very beginning
00:17:56
Speaker
From the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, you see that rhythm of working, but then also rest, of being diligent, of working, but also resting. And so for some, maybe they're listening and their struggle isn't so much working hard, but they're working too much.
00:18:14
Speaker
And so they're incredibly diligent, but they don't know how to slow down and they don't know how to rest. And so I always need to be careful, you know, here when we're thinking about this virtue or this vice and virtue to keep those things in balance as well. And remember that there are going to be some who don't struggle with slothfulness. They actually struggle in the other direction. Yeah. And that's kind of what I meant too, when I said this is always, this is going to be attention always, no matter what way you
Personal Struggles with Slothfulness
00:18:40
Speaker
struggle. Cause for me, I struggle,
00:18:42
Speaker
to stop and so actually I could have a tendency towards spiritual slothfulness because I don't want to take the time to be still. I mean I'm just being really honest here because I think you have to look at your own personal life and see what area is it that I have the tendency to be slothful in. We all will have a tendency in one way or another and then we learn to be diligent in that spot.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think another thing that's really important to think about as we're talking about diligence is I think this is really important because I think that diligence as it relates to our relationship with God, if we're not careful, can become cold and rigid. It's really important for us to remember that
00:19:28
Speaker
The motivation for us to be diligent in our relationship with God and to do all things as if we're serving the Lord is to keep in mind that really we want all of our life to be a response to God's love. Otherwise, I think our diligence can become very cold or just rigid obedience. And so I think that's another really important thing to keep in mind as we're thinking about
00:19:52
Speaker
resisting the vice of slothfulness, but walking in diligence. You know, maybe said another way, it's to keep in mind, you know, what Jesus has accomplished for us, his diligence on the cross, his faithfulness. And to say to him, you know, especially in times of struggle or trial, or, you know, we're walking through some kind of suffering difficult season is to remember to say to Jesus often, if you love me in your suffering, then I will love you in mine.
00:20:19
Speaker
And I think that that's a really important, you know, you think about what it takes sometimes to keep following Jesus, to keep honoring Him, to keep working hard when you don't feel good, to be diligent even in those dark seasons or circumstances. It's to look to the cross often.
00:20:35
Speaker
And go, wait, Jesus did this for me. He loved me when it was difficult. And he and he was obedient. He was diligent. He was faithful. He didn't cut corners. And so in a response to how you loved me, Jesus, in a response to your love that you've demonstrated on the cross, I want to love you back in the midst of my struggle, in the midst of my suffering, in the midst of my difficult season or circumstances, I think those can all be great reminders and even motivations for how to walk in diligence, how to clothe yourself with that virtue.
00:21:04
Speaker
and avoid the vice of slothfulness. And what a perfect reminder as we close and we're headed into Easter. Right. Yeah. I mean, just that Jesus didn't cut corners, thankfully. And I love what you drew out of that passage with the disciples and how you saw, how does this even fit in the slothfulness
00:21:27
Speaker
And yet, you know, you tied it into Easter so beautifully because we see his diligence was really a gift to us. And the new life that came out of that, right? I mean, the resurrection life. And so I think, you know, even that we could draw an application from. So often we quit when it's hard. We quit too soon. We quit in the dip. And Jesus didn't do that. You know, he was faithful to the end. And we see how God
00:21:55
Speaker
how he treats his kids and he treats them the way that he treats his son. He raises them to new life, whether in this life or the life to come. And so there's great life, there's great fruit that comes through Jesus's diligence and his obedience, his unwillingness to quit when it got hard. We're the recipient of his diligence. That's the good news. That's the gospel that Jesus loved us unto death. He was obedient unto death for our sake. And God the Father raised him to new life and he's poured out his spirit in us and he's raising us to new life as well.
00:22:25
Speaker
And that's the encouragement as we head into Easter. Let's keep pursuing Jesus. Let's keep walking closely with him. Let's keep our eyes on him and let's keep asking him to give us more in more of the abundant life that he promised us. And there's so much more life that he wants to give us. And so that's our prayers we head into Easter. God, we want more of you. And may that be all of our prayer.
00:22:48
Speaker
That's so good and just such a great way to end this series making art. We're so grateful you've joined us for this series. If you haven't had a chance, we really encourage you to go back and listen to the past episodes through this series making art.
Closing and Social Connection
00:23:04
Speaker
It's been just a really, really powerful series as we head towards Easter.
00:23:09
Speaker
Well friends, we want to get to know you. If we haven't met yet, be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook and say hi on there. Also, don't forget everything we talked about will be at rootlegfaith.com forward slash podcast. And hey, we hope you have the best Easter and we will chat soon.