Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX .org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Speaker: Welcome to Growing in Grace. My name is Victor Morrison. I'm the senior pastor at First Baptist Church, Columbus, Texas. Glad you're listening. I would like to talk to you today about escalators. Do you believe that there are some escalators in life? I was reading the other day about an escalator that's a spiral escalator. I don't think I've ever been on a spiral escalator, but there's a spiral escalator in Shanghai in a mall there, and it's a seven -story spiral.
Speaker: escalator. Can you imagine going down, down, down like that? ah They say if that's not enough excitement for you, then you could start on the seventh floor, get off on the fifth floor, and on the fifth floor they've installed what they call a happy slide. And in 15 seconds it'll take you from the fifth floor down to the ground floor. I would say that's pretty fast. Anyway,
Speaker: I want to talk to you today about some escalators that are mentioned in Proverbs 12, 24 to 28. I was reading it the other day and I noticed, look at that, it's like up and down and up and down. Let me read those verses for you and I think you'll know what I'm talking about. It says in Proverbs 12, verse 24, the hand of the diligent will rule.
Speaker: while the slothful will be put to forced labor. Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad. One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Speaker: Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.
Speaker: Did you feel like you were going up and down? That's the way I felt. Well, anyway, these five verses sort of made me think of standing at the top of an escalator. I'm standing there and one goes up and one goes down. So I've got to decide which direction do I want my life to go. And so I was thinking, wow, it's so clear here.
Speaker: So anyway, I want to go back through these verses and try to see if we can't pull out some principles or truths that would help us no matter where we are in our lives. So I pray that this will be a blessing to you as we think these things through. Why don't we begin with verse 24.
Speaker: When I looked at this, I thought, why don't we nickname this escalator the escalator of the hand, the hands? Do you like to use your hands in your work? ah Most of us do. It says the hand of the diligent will rule while the slothful will be put to force labor. So some people don't use their hands the way others do. So I thought about this and I thought, well, you know, there's like a principle.
Speaker: of diligence will take you up to administration. You'll be put over people. You'll be responsible for more and more task and more and more people, whereas indolence will take you down under supervision. That's exactly what he's trying to say with these words, the hand of the diligent Going up, you're going to rule while the slothful would be put to forced labor. He's going to need supervision but because hes he's negligent, he's lazy, he's complacent. So I got to thinking, do we have any biblical examples of men in the past that have sort of been promoted because of their diligence?
Speaker: And yes, we certainly do. For example, I would definitely say in the Old Testament, the biblical character Joseph, it seemed like that wherever he went, they kept on saying, would you be in charge of our property? Would you be in charge of our prison? So many different opportunities.
Speaker: ah were given to Joseph because he was a man of diligence. I would say that Nehemiah, he was just the cup bearer of the king, but boy, whenever he shared his vision, the king said, why don't you go back to Jerusalem and you guys rebuild that city. And then Daniel, no doubt about him, he was definitely a man of integrity, a man of ah responsibility. You could depend on him no matter what it was you delegated to Daniel. So I would say those are at least three men, but you know no wonder Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4 verse 23 that we should keep our heart with diligence. It's something that we need to really give ourselves to. I like what Paul wrote
Speaker: in Colossians 3, 23, and 24, because he doesn't apply it to any certain occupation. He leaves it general so that these principles could apply to anywhere. And what he said was, whatever it is that you're going to do, do it heartily. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes 9, 10, which says, whatever you find to do, do it with your might. Is that how you go about life? I don't think that's how everybody goes about life.
Speaker: You know, Proverbs warns of laziness, slothfulness that can come upon a person. And I think 14 different times, you could look at Proverbs 21, 25, Proverbs 26, verse 16, there's several different warning shots that are being fired saying, take care that you do not slip down into slothfulness, but instead give yourself to diligence in whatever you're doing. So I would say if you wanna go up in life, if you wanna
Speaker: continue to be given more and more responsibility, then I would say be diligent in what you do. People notice that, but they also notice if we're complacent, if we're slothful and lazy and we don't really care about what we're doing, then we're going to need a supervisor who's going to be prodding us and saying, come on, let's get with it there, buddy. Why don't we go to a second escalator? When I looked at this one, I thought, yep, that's ah that's another good one.
Speaker: This escalator is the escalator not of the hand, but of the heart. Do you believe that there's escalators that go from our hearts? Some take us up, some take us down. Well, let's see what he says. Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down. Hey, that's the down e escalator there. You don't want to get on that one. But what is it that could bring us up? Well, he says, but a good word makes him glad.
Speaker: So I thought, well, there it is. Anxiety will bring you down into depression, but affirmation will take you up into gladness. You know, Jesus warned us about being overly worried and stressed and burdened down by things. He warned us five times in Matthew 6, verses 25 to 34, trying to remind us that really worry, it is counterproductive. It is not productive whatsoever.
Speaker: If you want to do something with your worry that will be productive, then Paul tells us in Philippians 4, 6, and 7, don't worry about things. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known into God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So, hey, don't worry about it. Why don't you pray about it?
Speaker: And I thought about good words when it says a good word or make you glad. I want to encourage you, if you've never developed the discipline of spending time in God's word on a daily basis, I just challenge you to give it a try. See if it doesn't lift you up and perk you up. I believe that just like that up escalator, it's going to affirm you, it's going to equip you, it's going to encourage you.
Speaker: and bless you. You know scripture will definitely ah pump us up and it'll fill us with gladness. No wonder David wrote in Psalm 4 and verse 7, you put gladness in my heart. Those early Christians Whenever they first trusted Christ and began to grow in the Lord, you know what it said about their growth in grace? It said it made them glad. Check it out in Acts 2 verse 41 and There was just a gladness that seemed to just overflow in their lives.
Speaker: So I encourage you to say, what I'm not going to give my life to anxiety and let let anxiety take me further and further down into discouragement and depression, all those kind of dark things. I'm going to ask the Lord to use his word to guide me, to bless me, to affirm me, to charge me up for each new day. Why don't we go to a third escalator that I think will also help us to know the right way Especially if you have children, ah no matter what age they are, I want to encourage you to introduce them to the escalator of the huddle. The escalator of the huddle. And of course what I'm talking about are friends. You know, we need to be careful the kind of people that we hang around with on a regular basis.
Speaker: 1 Corinthians 15, 33 and 34 tells us that bad company corrupts good morals. So we have to be so careful that you know those that we spend time with are people that are going to build us up and strengthen us and not weaken us and cause us to go astray. That's what he's trying to warn us of. He said, one who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor.
Speaker: but the way of the wicked leads them astray. So if you have a lot of friends that are not trying to live for God, not living according to God's word, I'm not saying totally cut them off. No, you need to win them to Christ. But all I'm saying is we need friends who are going to be like iron sharpening iron. They help us to stay sharp in the Lord. You know, our student ministry is giving the name the 412 student ministry.
Speaker: Well, I wondered, where did that come from? It comes from 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12, where the Apostle Paul is writing to this young man named Timothy. And he's saying to him, basically, Timothy, don't let others look down on your youthfulness. Cause them to look up to your example. And he gives them about five different areas in which he could work on his example.
Speaker: But you definitely, I mean, don't you just believe that righteousness influences friends toward excellence? Whereas wickedness influences friends downward into, not excellence, downward into error. So I want to encourage you to be a friend that encourages and sharpens those that you're around. Think about Daniel chapter 3.
Speaker: You know, there were three Hebrew friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three friends were told, when the music plays, you bow down to this idol. And I believe at least one of those guys must have said, hey, I was raised that you don't worship an idol. You worship the true and the living God, and He alone you worship.
Speaker: Well, maybe whenever he made that commitment and said to his two friends, I'm not bound down to that idol. That's not the way I was raised. That's not the way we lived. And that's not the direction I want my life to go in. Well, I wonder if one of those friends said, you know what?
Speaker: because you're not going to bow down to that idol, neither am I. You've just given me the incentive that I needed to to go ahead and stand. When everybody else bows down, I'm going to stand up. And maybe the third guy said, well, if you tell two guys are not going to bow down to that old idol, neither am I. Can you see how it must have happened in real life? It's like those guys strengthened one another in the Lord. I think that's the way God would want it to be.
Speaker: You know, someone said a long time ago, show me your friends and I will show you your future. Whoa, that's a sobering thought, isn't it? You know, I think we need to teach our kids and our grandkids some of these kinds of principles that they need to be selective when it comes to the kind of people that we're going to be hanging around. You know, there's ah another verse that's found in Titus.
Speaker: Chapter 2, verses 6 through 8. I thought maybe I would share that one with you. And it's taught it's addressed to the young men. And he says um to the young men, he said, likewise, urge the younger men to be self -controlled. Show yourselves in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.
Speaker: so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us." That's definitely what happened to Daniel, wasn't it? They tried to find something, but his life was so exemplary, they couldn't find anything. And I wonder if maybe he had inspired those other three young guys that were able to say, you can throw us in the fiery furnace for not bowing down to that idol if you want to, but we're not bowing down.
Speaker: We're going to serve the Lord and honor Him and worship Him in Him only. You know, Proverbs 1320 has both of them included here. It says, if you want to be wise, then you got to walk with the wise. But if you want to walk with fools, then you're going to be destroyed. How how much clearer could it be? Well, let's move to the fourth escalator. We've noticed the escalator of the hand, the escalator of the heart and the escalator of the huddle.
Speaker: But let's go to a fourth one, the escalator of the harvest. You know, verse 27 kind of speaks in something that many men, perhaps even some women, have experienced where you go out into the woods and you shoot a deer. You kill while game. It says, whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. I couldn't help but think,
Speaker: What have I done with all that I've been given in my life? You know, God, sometimes He just opens the windows of heaven and He blesses us with goodness. He gives us so many different kinds of blessings. Not all financial, but just good things. So the question is, what am I doing with the harvest that I have?
Speaker: Am I like the man that goes hunting? He shoots a deer and then he just leaves it out there in the forest. He doesn't think, oh, you know what? I don't believe I want to field dress this deer. I don't want to go to the trouble of taking it back home and washing it off and then having to cut up the meat, package it, put it in the freezer and so forth. I believe I'll just you know drive through a fast food restaurant and I'll get something quick. Isn't that wasteful?
Speaker: You know, that's what I think about when I think about this escalator. Negligence brings us down into further and further wastefulness of what we have in life. But what about persistence? Persistence is what brings you up.
Speaker: to greater resourcefulness, to where you're using your talents and your abilities to open new doors and accomplish more things. I think we find this all through the Scriptures. I would say definitely in Galatians 6 .9 when it says, don't be weary in well -doing, for in due time you will reap if you do not quit, if you don't give up.
Speaker: You know, I was thinking about how can we make the most of every single day? Have you ever thought of your time that you are given every new day that you wake up? It's like you have a harvest of time. So what will you do to maximize your time and invest your time?
Speaker: May I give you six simple things that could make a big difference in you ah becoming a person of resourcefulness? Let me share these with you. How about creating a to -do list so that you write down, let's say at the beginning of the week, on Monday morning, you make a list.
Speaker: of all the things that you would like to do that week. But then out of that to -do list, you look over those and you begin to prioritize them. Maybe some are more pressing because they're gonna be, let's say one thing is due ah later that week, perhaps even later that day. But then the others, some of the others on the list, well, they're not even due for a month from now or two months from now. So you may wanna prioritize in terms of those things that are coming up really soon.
Speaker: But the fact is, we can't just be sort of reactionary, where we only react to every day's phone calls and everything that happens, all the different knocks on the door and so forth. Maybe we need to say, look, I have an important list of things that I need to do. That's exactly what Nehemiah said.
Speaker: You know, they tried to get Nehemiah, I think it was Nehemiah 6 or maybe Nehemiah chapter 4, where he was invited, come out and talk to us. But they were the enemy. They were trying to distract him. And he said, you know what? I'm doing a good work here and I cannot come down. And so he had prioritized his task. Have you?
Speaker: The other thing to think about is scheduling those tasks. Like I was referring to earlier, we need to look over the list and say these are priority things, so I'm going to have to block off this afternoon. I'm going to have to block off tomorrow or maybe the rest of my week in order to finish this project.
Speaker: but I would say the fourth one because we live in the real world that's full of all kind of stimuli both good bad and ugly is we we definitely need to build into our plan that we're ah working on in life flexibility we need to be flexible.
Speaker: Because when your wife needs you, when your children need you, when there's some kind of an emergency situation that you know you have what's going to help the person to to get help in their life, you're you're going to have to say, OK, I'm going to make an exception to my plan because I don't need to be legalistic in this plan. I just need the tracks, like a train that I'm going to use to go down this track.
Speaker: If you have trouble knowing where to start, may I just recommend a fifth thing? How about starting with something small? Maybe there's some projects that are so big that, I mean, you look at some things and you can knock them out in maybe three minutes, maybe five minutes or 10 minutes. Why not get a momentum started by simply saying, I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna do this and this, because all three of those things, I'll have those done in 20 minutes.
Speaker: That might give you the excitement as you are checking those things off. Whereas before, you don't even have a list. You don't have a priorities. You don't have schedules. You're not in the place where you can be flexible because you're always behind and things are choking you all the time. So why don't you try starting with some of the smaller things and work up toward those larger things. And then the last thing I guess would be, think about the reward.
Speaker: Think about the reward when you turn in a project to your boss and it's early. What about that? Wouldn't that be exciting? I believe there are little rewards in life for those who are diligent, for those who say, you know what, I want to be persistent and I want to be resourceful.
Speaker: I don't want to be wasteful with my time. I don't want to be wasteful with my talent. I don't want to be wasteful in my treasure. I want to really make a difference. So think about the difference that your life is going to make if you order that world and get it moving in the right direction. I would call it, well, let's call it an escalator.
Speaker: Let's call it the escalator of harvest, where you're going to use the harvest you have, and you're going to go up, further and further in life, rather than wasting that harvest and going down. And then, I guarantee you, you'll regret it one day. Well, let's look at the last verse, and let me give you one final ah ah escalator, and that is the escalator toward heaven. You know, the escalator toward heaven makes me think of this verse when it says, in the path of righteousness is life. And in its pathway, there is no death. Wow. So I can take the escalator that goes down to spiritual death and separation from God in a place called hell,
Speaker: Or I can enjoy fellowship with God and go up into abundant eternal life and enjoy being in heaven with the Father and His Son and others that have trusted Christ through the years. So what I'd like to say in this choice, it comes down to this one simple thing. What do you believe about Jesus Christ? Belief in Christ brings you up to eternal life, up to life.
Speaker: unbelief toward Christ brings you down into death. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. He knew that everyone's not going to choose the right gate. Everyone is not going to choose the right um direction in their life. He says, enter by the narrow gate.
Speaker: For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few." Can't you see kind of what he's saying there about, hey, we need to be careful that we're taking that up escalator of saying, I put my faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Speaker: One of the best passages you'll ever read is Romans chapter 3 verses 20 through 26. It's just awesome because it it reminds us that by works of the law,
Speaker: No one is going to be accepted into God's family. No one's going to heaven. No one will be saved. But it's through the righteousness of Christ, by having our faith in His perfect blood that He laid down and spilled for us on the cross, that's what is going to make such an incredible difference in our eternity.
Speaker: So it all hinges on that one thing. What have you decided about Jesus Christ? Oh, listen, I encourage you to put your faith and your trust in the work of Christ, because if you do, you're going to be on that up escalator. You'll be on the up escalator even in life, I believe, because you'll have the joy of the Holy Spirit. You'll have God giving you strength.
Speaker: and victory over temptations that used to wreck and destroy your life. There's so many wonderful things. Will you never have trought trials and tribulations? I'm sorry, I can't promise you that. Even if you trust Christ, you may have some hard times.
Speaker: But you see, the difference is God will use the hard times to build character, and you'll learn lessons during those difficult times. And will everyone like you? Will you be everyone's hero? Well, I can't promise that either, because those in the Bible, sometimes those who live for Christ, they were persecuted. Some of them were even put to death. So I can't promise you that everyone will just think you're the greatest.
Speaker: But I am saying your life will count. Your life will make a difference. You will be on the right escalator that's taking you up. And hopefully others are going to follow your example and they're going to say, hey, I want to go up. So I encourage you to.
Speaker: to think about things and to say, Lord, I want to be a finisher. I was looking through some quotes that I thought I remembered, and I want to end with these. They're kind of random, but there's some of these escalators they refer to a little more than others. so But here's one, you can't finish what you don't start, and you should never start.
Speaker: what you are not committed to finish. Let me say it again. You can't finish what you don't start, and you should never start what you're not committed to finish. Another man wrote this, many will start fast.
Speaker: Few will finish strong. Listen, I want you to keep growing in grace. I want you to finish strong. I believe that Jesus Christ is worthy of our very, very best. He's worthy of us pursuing excellence.
Speaker: excellence in our growth, excellence in our service, excellence in whatever career you're in, excellence in our relationships, excellence in our attitudes. And so let these escalators lead you up, up, up in your walk with Christ.
Speaker: as you continue to grow in grace. Aren't you glad that it's based on grace? I am. Why don't we pray and give thanks to the Lord. Lord, I'm so thankful for friends that listen in when we have growing in grace. I pray you bless them today, help them to keep moving up, help them make wise decisions in their life. I pray, especially in these five areas that we discussed that they would make the right choice.
Speaker: Bless them and show them your goodness as they go through their week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Speaker: This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas.
