July 6, 2025 | Wisdom's Rhythm: Rest and Work

Wisdom's Rhythm: Rest and Work | Proverbs Part 19

Proverbs 10:4–5 A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Proverbs 13:11 Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

Proverbs 12:11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

Proverbs 12:14 From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him.

Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Proverbs 12:27 Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.

Proverbs 26:13–16 The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Proverbs 15:16–17 Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.

Proverbs 23:4–5 Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

In this sermon, Pastor Jed Gillis walks through the wisdom Proverbs offers about the rhythms of work and rest. He begins by contrasting worldly reasons for work like survival, meaning, legacy, or earning rest, with God's design for diligent and timely labor as a reflection of His image. Proverbs holds out consistent effort, skillful work, and honest labor as patterns that often lead to wealth, honor, and satisfaction. These are not guarantees, but repeated observations of how life tends to work. Rather than obsess over success or chase get-rich-quick schemes, Proverbs invites you to work faithfully with what God has given you and to rest trustfully, knowing that God is the one who ultimately provides.

Gillis also warns against the way of the sluggard, marked by fear, avoidance, and unfinished effort. Laziness is not true rest. It leads to frustration, hardship, and self-deception. True rest, by contrast, flows from trust in God. Like the Sabbath commanded to Israel, real rest is not earned by productivity but is a gift and starting point for worshipers. God's people are invited to work with diligence and integrity and to rest with joy and confidence in His provision. Because Christ has completed the ultimate work on our behalf, we are now free to labor without fear and to rest without guilt.

Transcript of Wisdom's Rhythm: Rest and Work | Proverbs Part 19

As we continue in the book of Proverbs, I wanna start with this question, why does the world tell you to work? There's a lot of reasons.

We're told we have to work in order to survive. No one's coming to save you. Food and shelter is not an entitlement. So you work just to survive.

Or our world will tell you that you work to bring meaning and purpose to otherwise pointless existence. We're told to work to leave a legacy, an impact on this world.

Maybe it's something simpler. Maybe we're just told to work to get to the weekend or work to get to retirement. We often hustle throughout our lives hoping to collapse in the hammock at the end, either of the day or the week, or of our whole lives.

The Way of the Image-Bearer

But we find that neither busy productivity nor relaxed luxury solves the problem in our hearts. Proverbs offers something better than the hustle. And better than the hammock. It offers you a life that is both fruitful and restful. It offers really the way of an image bearer.

This morning, we'll look at three different ways. Start by talking about the way of one who bears the image of God. And as we do, I want you to notice some of these passages.

Notice how the Book of Proverbs motivates you to work. See, we talked about some of the ways the world around us motivates you to work, and I think sometimes we forget that God holds before us certain motives, certain blessings. Turn to Proverbs chapter 10. We'll begin there.

How does this book motivate us? Why should we take this opportunity? Whatever that is, whatever opportunity you have, why should we take our opportunities and put effort into them?

Motivation 1: Want Wealth? Then Work Consistently.

Well, Proverbs chapter 10 and verse four and five says, A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son. He who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Sometimes I think we look for more spiritual motives than the Bible gives us. He literally starts with, you wanna be rich work. It's not actually that different. Now, we could say, I've got all kinds of theological questions going on when you say it that way, I understand. We'll talk about that. But notice the book of Proverbs never says being paid for your labor is bad. In fact, it gives you the opposite picture. The book of Proverbs says, if you work with diligence, one of the things that in the patterns of wisdom comes is wealth.

Verse four gives you a contrast. It says a slack hand leads to poverty. Now, that doesn't mean you can look at someone in poverty and say, well, they must be lazy. The Book of Job taught us that. You can't look at external circumstances and say, well, you don't have a lot, so therefore you must have been deficient in this area. You must have sinned here. You must have been lazy here. We can't do that.

But we can say, here is the pattern. And notice, he doesn't say specifically laziness. He says a slack hand. Have you ever tried to carry something heavy with someone else and they carry it heavy for a while, and then they kind of just let it tip over to the side, and then they let it tip back this way, and then they kind of let it drop a little and, and they never actually drop it. But if you're the other person helping, you're like, just stop. Just hold it stable, right? Because a slack hand is a problem. That's the picture. It's not necessarily saying laziness here, we'll get to some other proverbs that talk about that.

It's saying inconsistent, inattentive, sporadic effort. It's the opposite of diligence. Diligence is attentive, steady, consistent effort. A slack hand is the opposite of that.

Notice this verse, verse four. It doesn't say anything about your job. It doesn't say what field you work in. He doesn't say the slack hand causes poverty, but diligent work as a fill in the blank with whatever job you wanna put in as a doctor, as a lawyer, as a business owner, makes rich. He doesn't say that because the more important issue in Proverbs is not your line of work. It's your strength of character.

When we talk about wisdom and we say, how does God tell us about work? And maybe some of you who are especially younger and say, I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life yet. Maybe you're older and don't know what you're gonna do with your life yet, that's okay too. But if you say, I just don't know what my career's gonna be, especially teens, if you say, I don't know what I'm gonna do, the more important issue is how you work, not what you do. The more important issue is your character. Are you diligent?

So he's, the first thing we look at, says, do you want wealth? Do you want more resources to, as we talked about two weeks ago, to enjoy from your God, to provide for yourself and others and to give, to be able to reflect the giver? Do you want that? If you want that? Well, one of the patterns he says is inconsistent effort, slack hand or laziness, he gets to that too, tends toward poverty. But the hand of the diligent brings resources.

Why Do We Have a Slack Hand?

Well, why do we, why do we have a slack hand? Why do we have distracted effort? Well, if we turn over to chapter 13, I think we'll see one of these principles that tells us at least a reason.

Wealth Gained Hastily Will Dwindle

Chapter 13 in verse 11 says, wealth gained, hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

If you go online, do you ever see any ads about wealth gained hastily all over the place, right? There's get rich quick schemes everywhere. You're told the way to flourish is to have the right one time opportunity that gives you wealth. That could be the obvious things we think of. You could talk about lottery and those kinds of things.

It could also be, here's the path I'm gonna jump from this career to a different career because that one's gonna make me all the money. It'll happen quickly. And you get there and realize there's other people who are really good in that career too. And then you try a different one in a different one, and you're always thinking, how do I quickly gain wealth versus how do I diligent consistent effort? How does that lead me towards God's path of flourishing in my life?

The world is full of get rich quick schemes. But what the Book of Proverbs tells you is that's not the pattern for human flourishing.

Motivation 2: Want to Not Bring Shame? Work at the Right Times.

So his first motive that we look at is, do you want resources? Here's a second one here. You want honor?

Again, I think sometimes we are, we're ashamed almost to use some of the motives that scripture actually holds in front of us. Did you notice back in chapter 10, second verse that we looked at? Verse five says, he who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Now it's, it's stated in the negative side. It says, don't do this because it will bring you shame. The flip side is, so work this way and, and it brings honor.

I think one of our challenges when we talk about work in our world is that the modern world is different from the ancient world.

You know, we live in a world of like 24 hour availability. Not only am are we available? Some of, you know, you send a, a text or you make a phone call and they don't return that call within, you know, three hours and you start going, oh no, what's wrong? Can you imagine being in the ancient world and thinking that way? They'd think we were crazy.

But not only do we have availability of communication, but think about the way you can work, to the point that now we have often people, they don't even go on vacation. They just take their computer, they travel somewhere else and still work. Or at least you're available to.

Now if you were a farmer, it doesn't work like that. You do whatever you want in the middle of January, you're not harvesting. You can't.

You see, this is the picture as he paints what happened in the ancient world, you have this statement. He who gathers in harvest, he gathers in summer as a prudent son, but he sleeps in harvest, is a son who brings shame. They couldn't harvest in the winter. So he says, if you want to not bring shame or to have honor, work at the right times.

But I think the hard part for us is we go, but it's always available. I can always work. Really, in some ways I think we have a, a harder time trusting because our technology gives us delusions of independence. Like, we think we can always work and we think we can always accomplish this.

But just to give one example, have you ever had a task you you wanted to accomplish and you just waited long enough in the day and you get to a certain point and you say, no matter how much I want to do this, I'm falling asleep. Just a practical, on a daily basis, you say, if I'm have to get this task done, I'd better do it before I'm too exhausted to think straight. Do the work at the right time.

So the way of the image bearer of the one who reflects God by working is to say, diligent consistent effort at the right times.

Motivation 3: Want Bread? Work Your Land.

Turn over to chapter 12 and verse 11. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lack sense.

Whoever works his land, it doesn't say whoever works everybody else's land. It doesn't say, whoever puts together a massive investing corporation to gather everyone else's land and then works it.

It says, what opportunities has God given you? If you want to have enough, if you want to be satisfied with good things, if you wanna have enough pursue, here's the opportunities God has given and here's how I'm going to work that land.

Now that might be literally land, that might be your week, your hours. That might be your relationships with people. That might be managing your store. That might be keeping your home. Take the opportunities God has given you, and reflect him with diligence, working at the right times, and trust God provides.

Motivation 4: Want Honor? Be Good at What You Do.

So if you want wealth, pursue diligence. If you want honor work at the right time. If you want honor, here's another thing.

Proverbs chapter 22 verse 29. Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will not stand before kings or he will stand before kings. Excuse me. He will not stand before obscure men.

If you want honor, be good at what you do. And you know it's interesting. It doesn't even matter what it is. We live in this world where you can go online and watch videos of people who are amazing at all kinds of things. And it draws our attention, doesn't it?

Find yourself watching video of a guy laying brick. You ever done that? I've done it. He's incredible at it. He's so fast. He gets done with the wall that he did in, you know, a fraction of the time it would take me, and it looks far better than I could possibly have done if I spent all day on it.

Why are we drawn to that kind of thing? Probably none of us go, I really wanna be a professional brick layer when I grow up. Probably not. But why are we drawn to it? Because when there's skill in work, when there's diligence that has been put in and someone's skillful in their work, we're fascinated by it.

You, I could name example after example. We could talk about musicians like, Yo-Yo Ma or Mozart. Say they were skillful in their work, we're fascinated by it. We could talk about people, we can see online now there's a, there's a guy who has this like photographic memory of the globe seen through Google Maps. I don't know all of how it works. I just know there's a game that you can go on. They'll show you a picture and you guess where it is. And it's amazing the things he knows.

I'm fascinated by it. Why? Because he's put diligent effort into something and he's good at it. There's an honor. We give an honor towards that.

Even if you say, I never want to do that in my life, there's still a certain sense of honor that says, man, there's effort here that has been put forward. Magnus Carlson's one, one of the best chess players in the world right now, if you hear him talk about playing chess, somebody said, you know, how did you learn all this stuff? He's like, well, chess has been my job. He would spend eight hours a day looking at chess patterns, playing through old chess games, not playing chess, playing chess games that had already been played so that he would recognize the patterns.

Now, you may say, I hate chess. I don't want to ever be caught dead in front of a chess board. But there's still an amazement when you go look at the diligent effort. There's an honor. Look at the diligence this guy has put in, and he can crush all, most, he'd kill all of us in chess. He can crush most of the people in the world in chess. Why? Because there's diligent, consistent, steady effort, and we honor it. We say that's impressive.

When we see an actor who's a skilled actor. I ran across an article this past week about, uh, the guy who played Vizzini from the Princess Bride, right? And if, if I were to ask you what's his most famous quote, we would all say inconceivable. Right?

The interesting story goes, he spent hours, hours recording himself saying one word. Saying it in all these different ways because he wanted to say, how can I do this in the best way so that it communicates he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, he's arrogant, he's smug. I wanted to have this sing song feel. He tried it fast, he tried it slow. He tried it all these different ways. Probably not fun when he was doing it.

But you all knew which word. Because when we see diligent effort towards something, even like saying the word inconceivable, there's an honor. We go, that's, that's cool. That's impressive.

And we could do this for, these are some famous examples. I, I thought of one when I was in Argentina on a mission trip. We were walking through this marketplace and this guy had these like metal cups and you'd come along and he would say, Hey, do you wanna buy it? And if you did, he'd put your initials or something else on there. The way he put it on there was he had a little punch and a hammer, and he'd go.

I could have spent all day, it wouldn't have looked that good. Every little spot was about the same distance apart. His handwriting that way looks better than my handwriting with a pen. Nobody's paying him millions of dollars, but there's a skill there that everybody who saw went, wow. There's an honor to working like that as people made in the image of God.

Humans are capable of pretty incredible stuff and God, in his wisdom, has given us these privileges. We can organize our whole being around worship towards him, and we can, we misuse it often, but we can use our mind, our will and our emotions, our body, everything, to pursue something that's beyond us. Humans are capable of that, and when we see it, we say there's honor there. That's amazing.

We get this privilege to reflect our God by creating, not from nothing but creating by producing something, by working.

Motivation 5: Want to Be Satisfied? Enjoy the Fruit of Your Work

So if you want riches, diligent work. If you want honor, be skillful at your work. Pursue consistent effort in it.

How about go to chapter 12. If you want to be satisfied and not just satisfied with anything but satisfied with good things, look at verse 14. From the fruit of his mouth, a man is satisfied with good and the work of a man's hand comes back to him.

From the things you say and the work you do, the pattern is if you pursue good things, you find satisfaction.

Look at verse 24 of the same chapter. Do you want to lead? The hand of the diligent will rule while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Proverbs holds these patterns before us. This is the way we've looked at 'em through the book. There are certain patterns in God's world. It's not a matter of did you do these things and therefore earn God's blessing.

That's not the point. There's certain patterns that say, if you want your life to flourish, if you want your work to flourish, this is the way you should pursue it.

Jesus did come, like we sang earlier, like we talked earlier, Jesus, the Lamb came to save your soul, but he also came to redeem your Mondays. He also came to do something with your work. And he came to do it in a way that would honor you.

As I've gone through Proverbs, I've been amazed by the goodness of our God. Think about last week if you were here. Pastor Isaias reminded us God is a God who loves for his children to enjoy his creation. He likes to give joy. That's the kind of God he is.

Two weeks ago we talked about money and said, God gives you resources so that you can reflect him as a provider. So that you can enjoy his good gifts and so that you can reflect him by giving.

God is so good to want us to enjoy things and then give us the ability to reflect him. But not only does he give us resources so that we can reflect him. Even the way he gives them to us, which is often normally through our work, is an honor for us.

He doesn't just say, I'm gonna drop all these things out of the sky for you. He says, you get to reflect me by working and creating and producing. It's an honor for us that we get to reflect the divine worker by having meaningful work.

And God, in his goodness has not left us blindly to do the things I listed at first: to work to survive, to work just for the weekend, to work for retirement, to work to create meaning.

No God, God did not leave us to blindly do that. He said, if you wanna flourish in your work, here's the patterns. Pursue steady, consistent effort. Pursue little by little growth. Work at the right time. And be as skilled as you can be.

It's not complicated, but that doesn't mean it's not hard. This is the way of the image bearer. The one who says, God worked, so I want to work like him.

The Way of the Sluggard

Well, what about a second way? There's the way of the sluggard. If the way of the image bearer draws us and we say, that's impressive, the way of the sluggard should repel us.

Turn to chapter 10 in verse 26.

The Sluggard Irritates the People Around Them

First thing we'll see about the sluggard is that they irritate people around them. Chapter 10, verse 26 says Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. So is the sluggard to those who send him.

When someone relies on a lazy person, it's irritating. It's frustrating because they're not dependable.

Have you ever sat around a fire and felt like the smoke chased you? Right? You sit on one side, the smoke comes, you sit on the other side, the smoke comes. You finally give up and go inside. Right, because your eyes hurt. That's the point. It's irritating. You think just give me someone dependable. If you've ever managed someone who was lazy, you know that feeling. The way of the sluggard irritates those around it.

The Sluggard Makes Their Own Life Harder

Second thing, if you go to chapter 15. Not only does it irritate those around it, the way of the sluggard is hard for that person.

Look at verse 19. The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.

If you've ever tried to go through thickly packed woods. My house, we have some, we've gotten rid of some of 'em, they're still there. You have some thorns that are, you know, nice big thorns. You try to go through those places, you'll decide to turn around very quickly. That's because the way of the sluggard not only irritates those around you, it's hard and painful for you.

But the opposite is the path of the upright. The one who is rightly related to God in their work specifically, is a level highway. It's easy to walk that path. You say it doesn't feel easy, right? Proverbs is telling you that's, that's the problem. Sometimes the path that feels easy right now lands you in a bunch of thorns. And the path where you say, I've gotta keep walking. Yes, you do, but it's a flat path all the way to where you want to go.

Why Are We Tempted to Take the Way of the Sluggard?

So if that's true, if the sluggard irritates those around them and the sluggard makes life difficult for themselves, why on earth do we do it? Let's look at a couple verses in chapter 26. Why are we tempted to take the way of the sluggard?

And I, I phrased it that way on purpose from chapter 15. It's not so much saying there's like a category of people in this room who are sluggards and lazy and no hope for you and the rest of us are fine. That that would defeat the whole point of Proverbs. The point is there's a path. There's a way. Which path are you walking in the way of the sluggard? If you go to chapter 26, starting in verse 13, notice what this tells us about the sluggard.

The sluggard or the lazy person says there's a lion in the road. There's a lion in the streets. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

The Sluggard is Motivated by Fear

So if before we said, here's a fairly simple summary of the way of the image bearer. Pursue steady effort little by little growth. Work at the right time and be as skilled as you can be. Here's the justifications why we're tempted to go the path of the sluggard. First from verse 13, fear. We're afraid there's a lion out there.

Now if, if there was actually a lion in the parking lot, I don't think we'd all go to our cars the same way. Right. That's the whole point. The sluggard is saying, look, this is dangerous. If you risk this, if you put in some serious effort, if you pursue this investment or this business mood, you might lose it all.

There's a lion in the streets. Don't go out there. Don't go harvest in harvest time. There's a lion somewhere out there.

You see, there's fear, which drives 'em to say, this is why I can't pursue steady, consistent effort little by little growth and skill. Either I might be hurt, I might fail. There's all kinds of fears that can keep us from diligent effort.

The Sluggard Restlessly Avoids Life

Verse 14, like a door turns on its hinges by nature. By nature. The sluggard hides in his bed. I want you to notice something.

I think sometimes we get confused and we think that there's a path of work and there's a path of rest, and laziness is the path of rest. That's not what laziness is. In fact, the last time you laid on your bed and kept turning over and over and over, was that the most restful experience you've had?

No. No. 'cause what he's describing is somebody who's in bed, but it's not rest. He's describing restlessness, actually. By nature, it's restless avoidance. I'm not getting up and doing that. I'm just gonna hide, and then I'm gonna hide again, and I'm gonna hide again.

The sluggard's afraid and likes to point out all those fears so everybody knows why they're not working. The sluggard by nature, restlessly avoids things in.

The Sluggard Doesn't Follow Through

Verse 15. The sluggard doesn't even meet their own needs. It's a funny picture if it weren't so true at times. The picture is he's sitting there, he is hungry, he reaches, he gets the food and he goes, oh, I'm too tired to even put the food in my mouth.

Go, but you're hungry. Yeah, but I'm too tired.

It doesn't make any sense. But that is the way of the sluggard. The sluggard might do some work. Notice he did put his hand out there.

I don't know where the food came from. But if you turn over to chapter 12, we get a hint as to how this pattern works. Fair warning, I think this is like the most convicting verse in all of Proverbs, chapter 12, verse 27 says, whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth.

In other words the slothful person here is described as somebody who grabs their, you know, bow and arrow, 'cause we didn't have Food City at the time. Grabs their bow and arrow goes and tracks down whatever animal they're hunting. Finally, kills it. Drags it all the way back to camp. That's a whole lot of hard work, right? And then won't cook it. They don't go all the way and finish the job so that what they're doing is actually useful.

In other words, it's possible to be slothful and still do a lot of work. There's a whole lot of work, but it doesn't bring it to the point that it's actually helpful. When we said in, in chapter 26, verse 15, when he reaches out to grab the food, maybe somebody else put the food on the table, but maybe not.

Maybe the sluggard did all the work to get the food on the table and then says, yes, I'm starving. No, I'm too tired to eat. The sluggard won't even follow through and reflect God all the way to saying, I'm gonna enjoy and provide through this. It's the way of the sluggard.

The Sluggard is Wise in His Own Eyes

And he does all of this really because of verse 16, back in chapter 26, because he's wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Here's all the reasons why I'm smarter than everyone else by avoiding this work. Have you interacted with people like that? They'll tell you, here's all the reasons I'm smarter than everybody else. You're like, I think you should just get to work, man.

I asked if you'd interacted with them 'cause, you know, it's harder to say, have you ever been that person? But we have sometimes.

This is the way of the sluggard. He's afraid. He's restlessly avoiding things. He won't even meet his own needs, won't follow through to make it useful at least. And he thinks too highly of his own wisdom.

But as we said, laziness is not rest. The sluggard is restless, but he refuses responsibility.

The Way of the Sabbath

So I said two ways so far, the way of the image bearer. And the way of the sluggard.

Wanna talk about one more way. We'll call it the way of the Sabbath. Really, it's part of being an image bearer, because we image God by working like he did for six days. We image God by resting like he did for one. We have the honor of being a productive image bearer, but we also have the honor of being a restful image bearer.

Now as New Testament Christians, we don't have to follow the letter of the Mosaic law, but the same God who gave that law is still the same God. And we are still finite humans, just like the ones he gave that law to.

So if we were to conclude that God, out of goodness to the people of Israel said, here's a practice of the Sabbath, we would be foolish to then turn around and say, we need no rest. We're just gonna work all the time. We'll be fine.

Responsible Rythms of Rest and Work

So think about in the Old Testament, why was the Sabbath given? It was given so that the people of Israel would have responsible rhythms of rest and work. They'd have responsible rhythms of rest, trust, and worship and work. Both of those are important.

The Sabbath meant. Think about it this way. The Sabbath for Israel meant you are not supposed to spend a hundred percent of your energy and effort and resources toward productivity.

In the middle of harvest, right? We said he sleeps in harvest? In the middle of harvest, at that moment, God's people were supposed to not go out on the Sabbath and harvest. They were supposed to say, I trust God to provide. While the plants are growing, while the fruit looks a little bit ripe, and Monday might be a problem, they were supposed to look and say, I trust God and I'm going to rest.

We Need Rest to Practice Trust

We need these kinds of rhythms because of two big pieces. One, you are limited and you do need rest. God never slumbers nor sleeps. Our bodies have to rest. Maybe more importantly, we need these rhythms because we're not God. So we need to trust. We need to remember that God accomplishes more while I sleep and while I rest than I accomplish while I'm awake.

Go to chapter 15. There's not a lot said in Proverbs about Sabbath specifically, but remember this was given to Israel. Solomon was writing this as the King of Israel. He knew about the Sabbath. It was in that context. We get to chapter 15, verse 16 and 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatten ox and hatred with it.

It says, look, don't pursue work at all costs. Don't pursue productivity at all costs. Don't pursue riches at all costs. There are things that are better.

Turn over to chapter 23 verse four and five. Do not toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone. For suddenly it sprouts wings flying like an eagle toward heaven.

If you thought that was just a modern feeling that your money flies away, it's not right. In the same book, the same book told us earlier, oh, the way of the diligent leads to riches and honor. In the same book, don't toil to acquire wealth. Don't be consumed with getting wealth. We need rhythms. We need rhythms of both, trust and work of rest and work.

Do You Really, Truly Rest?

So I want to ask you, do you really rest? Do you rest like the sluggard who turns back and forth on his bed? Or do you really rest? There's a kind of false rest that is just like soul sickness or decay in disguise.

Maybe you've been here, you work hard all day, emotionally, physically, mentally, a lot of different ways, but you work hard all day and then you just collapse. You scroll, you binge, you check out, and you don't feel renewed. And you don't feel restored. You really feel more tired.

That's not rest.

That's because real rest is not escape. Real rest is trust and delight. Rest for your soul is not escape. Rest for your soul is trust in God and delight in him and his good gifts. That's what real rest is. So do you rest because you accomplish the tasks for the day or do you rest because God is king?

Those are two very different reasons. Do you rest because you've worked hard all week? You say, I've done enough. I just can't do anymore. I'm gonna rest or do you rest? Because God, your king and maker loves you and he's trustworthy.

Those are two very different motives for rest. So do you really rest or do you just avoid something?

We're good at avoiding things. We're good at avoiding doing something difficult. We're good at avoiding, admitting we don't know what to do. We're good at avoiding something because we're afraid we'll fail. We're good at avoiding something because we're afraid we might be shamed.

That could be the work of your job that you get paid for. That could be the work of all kinds of other work that you might do at your house or with your family. That could be the work of your spiritual formation, your growth. See, these same things drive us to be lazy about walking with God. But Peter says, make every effort to add to your faith, all this list of things to grow in the fruit of your faith. Make every effort to do that. Do you really rest in trust and delight in God, or do you just avoid something?

Take those fears and take them to Jesus. The absolute worst application you could hear from what I'm saying today, feel guilty about not accomplishing more and just go work harder. Please don't hear that as the application from today.

Instead say, what is it that keeps me from resting? Whether I'm laying on my couch or whether I'm accomplishing something, what keeps me from rest in my soul? Take those fears, take those to Jesus.

Reflect God in Your Rest and Your Work

Turn over to chapter three. Chapter three and verse 21. My son do not lose sight of these. Keep sound wisdom and discretion and they will be life for your soul, an adornment for your neck. Here's the rest that you can have through wisdom, then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

See, in our culture. Rest is often seen as the reward for success. I was successful in my life, now I can rest in retirement. I was successful all week, I can rest on the weekend. In the gospel that's not how it works. Rest isn't the reward for success. It's the starting point.

You rest in your God and what he has done so that you can reflect him with peace and not fear. You reflect him by working and being productive and working your field and gathering in harvest. You also reflect him by intentionally saying, I trust my king and I'm gonna rest.

Do you see the beauty in God's wisdom? You can lay your head down at night, not because you have done it all, but because Jesus has. And because he said, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

So if you're here today and you say, I'm a pretty driven person, I accomplish a whole lot of stuff. I wanna ask you, do you have rest in your soul? If not, what are you trying to prove and who are you trying to prove it to?

If that's you, I would say intentionally pursue rhythms of work and rest. Intentionally say, I am not going to spend a hundred percent of my energy for productivity because I need to spend some of it in intentional trust. That's what the Sabbath was about.

Maybe you're not driven. Maybe you'd say I'm kind of more drifting through life. My question for you is, what are you avoiding? If that's you, start small. Set a, set a goal you can achieve in wisdom and say, I'm gonna pursue this in trusting God. I want to have diligence in my life. Steady effort for little by little growth.

But for all of us, our rest is not in accomplishing our to-do list. Even if you could do it, it won't give you rest in your soul. So instead, turn to the one you're supposed to reflect and trust him that he has made you free. This is not about getting a better work ethic for yourself. It's about the fact that there is a better worker, Jesus, who worked perfectly for us. He was always fruitful in his labor, and yet he went off and slept.

He was unhurried. When people in the crowds try to grab him, Jesus, Jesus, he's not frantic going, I've gotta accomplish these other things. He was unhurried, unafraid, and he cried it is finished, the final work is done.

So now we are free to work without fear and we are free to rest without guilt. That's the peace that God offers his people. We are free to work without fear and we're free to rest without guilt. We're free to work joyfully for the one who worked for us and says, come and rest.

If you feel like you're working to be seen or to prove something even to yourself, this can be your work that you get paid for. This can be your spiritual life. If you say, I'm working to be godly so that people will see it, or so I prove it to someone or I prove it to myself, Jesus's invitation to you is not work harder. It's come and rest, all you who labor and are heavy laden.

And because he gives you rest in your soul, you work to reflect and enjoy your God and you rest to remind yourself that God can and must be trusted.

Let's take a moment and respond in prayer. I invite you just to take the truth of God's word to him. Ask him to work the way of the diligent in your soul. Ask him to help you turn from the way of the sluggard, and rest in what God has given you.