OVERCOMING VICES
GRADUATION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
2 THESSALONIANS 3:6-13, 1 JOHN 2:15-17
MAY 23, 1993
In 1678, John Bunyan wrote the literary classic called Pilgrim’s Progress. The book has been translated into one hundred different languages and it has been read the world over. The book tells the story of a man named Christian who began an epic adventure, an incredible journey, as he sets forth from the City of Destruction on his way to the Celestial City or the City of Zion. The book is a religious allegory and along the way Christian encounters many struggles, many enemies that he has to seek to conquer, many vices over which he needs victory. This is true of all of us as we seek to live for Jesus Christ in this world. Life in this world is like a pilgrimage. We have many struggles. We have many enemies, many vices that we need to overcome before we can reach the gates of heaven.
Now this morning, I would like us to examine two vices that as Christians we must overcome if we are to live lives in this world pleasing to God. I believe (and I think this will come as some surprise to some of you) that these two vices are the greatest vices that we face in our Christian lives.
The first vice is laziness. If we would live a life pleasing to Jesus Christ in this world, we must overcome laziness. Now, Christian, on his pilgrimage toward the Celestial City, as he left the City of Destruction, came upon a creature called “Sloth,” and Sloth was always trying to get people to sleep a little bit more. Sloth was always trying to get people to rest a little bit longer. Sloth was always trying to get people to procrastinate. We all face this enemy called Sloth.
Now perhaps some of you have heard of the “ai” or the “unau.” The ai or the unau sound like African tribal groups but actually the ai and the unau are South American animals. They are very strange animals which live in the trees of South America. They look strange. They have no apparent ears, no apparent tails. Their noses are flat. Their teeth look like pegs. They are fairly good-sized animals, and they are very hairy, but they have the slowest rate of metabolism in the animal world. The ai and the unau sleep 20 hours every day. They sleep 20 hours a day. They’re only awake for four hours a day. During those four hours they do nothing. They just hang. They just hang from tree branches. That is all they do. They eat one meal a week and it is just a few leaves. Their metabolism is so slow it takes them a full week to digest, to metabolize, that one meal. So, during the week while they’re metabolizing that meal, they just do nothing. They just hang there from the branch. They do not even move. Then when the week is up and it’s time to eat again, they reach for the leaves and their hands are just barely moving.
You might think, “Well, some predator is going to just snatch up a creature like that,” but not so, because they’re kind of disguised. You see, they look like a bunch of dead leaves in the summertime. In the wintertime, as they sit there, they grow green algae on their side and so they look like moss-covered tree stumps. So, they are kind of safe from predators. Now, these creatures, these ai and the unau, are commonly called sloths. They are the sloth. The ai is the 3-toed sloth and the unau is the 2-toed sloth.
I want to tell you something this morning. Sloths are not slothful. Sloths are not really lazy. You see, they’re using all the energy they have. They sleep 20 hours a day because they need to sleep 20 hours day. The four hours they are awake, they look like they’ve been hit by a stun gun because they don’t have any energy to move. They are using whatever energy they have. They are being what they are made to be.
You may have heard of another little animal called the shrew. The shrew is a little tiny rodent-like animal. Some of them are so small they weigh no more than an American penny. The shrew has such a high rate of metabolism it never sleeps. The shrew is just moving all the time. Well, how did God make us? How did God make you? Most of us God made so that we need about 8 hours sleep. Some of you might need 6 hours sleep a night. Some of you might need 9 or 10 hours sleep a night, but most people need about 8 hours of sleep. The real issue is… I mean that means most of us are awake for 16 hours a day. The real issue with respect to laziness is, what do we do with that 16 hours? What do you do the 16 hours that you are awake? That determines whether you are lazy or not.
In Finland 53 years ago, a farmer died and willed his farm. He had no living relatives, so this farmer willed his farm to the devil. This was 53 years ago. I think the government in Finland today and indeed the government in most nations today would just laugh at that, but 53 years ago they took it pretty seriously. In fact, the courts in Finland decided that they were going to honor this request and they were going to let this guy’s farm go to the devil. Of course, the big question was, how were they going to do this? How do you give land to the devil? The judge decided that they could give that farm to the devil by letting it go idle. They decided they could give that farm to the devil by letting that farm go to weeds, by letting the house and the buildings just rot and by letting the soil erode. The final words of the judge were, “If we want to give this farm to the devil, the only way to do that is to just leave the farm idle.” You have heard the expression, and I’ve heard it two ways, “Idleness is the devil ‘s playground.” I have also heard, “Idleness is the devil’s workshop.” I think the meaning is the same in both of those expressions.
We need to understand that Satan is not lazy. The devil is not slothful. Satan is very industrious. He has some very industrious followers, but Satan wants his enemies to be lazy. Satan wants his enemies to be slothful. Satan wants you as a Christian to be very lazy. When we come to the Bible, we see that God hates laziness. When we come to the pages of scripture, we see that God just blasts this sin. God really hates sloth.
In the early church, they identified seven deadly sins. They identified laziness as one of the seven deadly sins, and in most lists of the early church, they identified sloth or laziness—I know this is perhaps hard for our generation to understand—as the most deadly sin. Does that surprise you?
In the Bible we see strong language. The Apostle Paul makes an incredible statement. Paul says, “If anyone will not work, let them not eat.” That is a strong statement “If anyone will not work, let them not eat.” Now he does not say, “If anyone cannot work…” He says, “If anyone will not work, let them not eat.” Paul speaks of those people who are “ergazomai peri ergazomai,” Greek words meaning “working around working.” Have you ever met people like that? Working around working? He talks about people who are living in mere idleness. He warns the Christian community to not have anything to do with them, to warn them. Now those are strong words.
Personally, I doubt if there are many people in this room—perhaps no people in this room—who are lazy with respect to their careers or jobs. Most of us are willing to do work at a job. If you do not have a job right now, it is probably not because you’re lazy, you’re just between jobs or you’re searching to find a job. But God wants us to understand that laziness goes way beyond our jobs and careers. Most of us are selectively lazy. We’re not willing to use our energy to do some of the things that God wants us to do. We might work hard at work, but we’re lazy in other ways. That is why laziness is such a deadly sin. It is such a strong enemy that we have to fight.
You see, you cannot be lazy and have a good marriage. It takes work to have a good marriage. All worthwhile relationships take work. Why is it that so many moms and dads are not good parents? Sometimes it is just laziness. It takes a lot of energy to be a good dad. It takes a lot of energy to be a good mom. You see, laziness just kills parenting.
Why is it that so many churches have a hard time finding Christians who are willing to teach Sunday School? Why is that? I think the primary problem is laziness. Why is it that so many Christians do not spend time in prayer? Why is that? Again, I think for many of us the problem is just laziness. Do you remember how Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He went to the cross? He asked His disciples to pray with Him. When Jesus was done praying, He found them asleep. He said, “Could you not tarry one hour? Could you not pray one hour?” They were sleepy, but the real problem was laziness. It really is a problem that just kills ministry in the church.
Why is it that so many Christians are not really able to articulate a rational apologetic for the doctrines they hold? Why is it that so many Christians are not really able to articulate a rational apologetic for the morals and ethics they believe in? Again, I think it is primarily laziness. I think we’re too lazy to study to show ourselves approved, to really study the pages of scripture, to know what we believe and why we believe it.
Most importantly, why is it that we Christians are not as loving as we need to be? I think the problem in the Christian community today is that all of us at times are just too lazy to love. You see, the biblical word for love, the primary biblical word for love is the word “agape.” It’s different from all of the other words for love in the Greek language. All the other words for love in the Greek language are words that are rooted in the emotions. They’re rooted in feelings, but the Bible chooses this word agape as our model for love because the word agape is not really a word that is rooted in the emotions. It is not rooted in the feelings. It’s rooted in the will. The love that God commands you to practice, you can will to practice. That love is not rooted in your emotions or feelings. It is rooted in the will. You can choose; you can decide to love another person. You can will, you choose to bless another person. You can will, you can choose to seek to help or serve another human being.
Why do we not do it? Why do we not love like we are meant to love? I think oftentimes the problem is simply laziness. So, as we live life in this world and as we live through the years looking forward to the Celestial City, we have this great enemy, this enemy called Sloth… this enemy called laziness.
I know that every day I need to ask myself, “Is there any area of my life where I am being lazy? Is there any area of my life where I’m not doing what God wants me to do because I’m just lazy?” I think it’s a struggle that we have to enter into every single day.
Now there is another great enemy that we struggle with in life. This other enemy is called lust. Now perhaps you’re sitting there this morning and thinking, “Well, I don’t really have a problem with lust.” But I think if you understand what the Bible means by lust, then you’d have to conclude we’re all struggling with lust. We all struggle with lust, and we can’t live the kind of life the Lord wants us to live in this world unless we deal with this problem of lust.
You see, Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress meets this very strange man who has three daughters. One daughter is called the “Lust of the Flesh” and the other daughter is called the “Lust of the Eyes.” The third daughter is called the “Pride of Life.” This father, this strange father is looking for men to marry his three daughters. He invites men to marry all three of them. Of course, that is how it is with lust. Whatever lust you have you tend to be married to it. That is the problem with lust.
Now, on January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill on the American River in northern California. That began the great California gold rush. The following year, 1849, 49ers came from all over the country to California in their quest for gold. Three years after Sutter’s Mill, in the year 1851, there was the great Australian gold rush and gold was discovered in the southeast portion of Australia in the area of New South Wales and in the region of Victoria. People from all over the world came to Australia and they formed this gold mining town of Eureka. It just sprang up overnight.
Eureka means, “I found it.” That is what people all over the world were hoping would happen is that when they got down to Australia, they would find gold. Incredibly, the population of the continent of Australia increased 300% in nine years following the discovery of gold in New South Wales.
In 1859 gold was discovered right here in Cherry Creek in Denver, Colorado. People from the east began to flood west to Colorado. The people came in covered wagons with “Pikes Peak or Bust!” written on those covered wagons. They sought gold. The town of Denver just became a city almost overnight. In one year, 100,000 people came looking for gold in the region of Denver, Colorado.
In 1886 there was the great African gold rush. Gold was discovered in South Africa in the region of Witwatersrand. The gold field in Witwatersrand was so vast it created the town of Johannesburg in South Africa as people came looking for gold there. The Witwatersrand gold field remains to this day the greatest gold field in the world. In fact, today one-third of the gold produced on the planet is produced by that Witwatersrand gold field in South Africa.
Of course, in 1896 there was the Canadian gold rush as gold was discovered in the Klondike. People came up to the Yukon Territory of Canada near the area of Rabbit Creek where gold was discovered. The town of Dawson City increased by 30,000 people in one year. Of course, in 1898, there was the Alaskan gold rush. In the city of Nome, gold was discovered on the beach at Nome, Alaska. That little dinky town suddenly had 10,000 people living in it. That’s how it has been throughout history.
You see, when gold has been discovered, there has been a great gold rush, a great lust for gold. But when you read the history books, when you study history, you see what that lust for gold did to people. Millions of people through various discoveries of gold through the centuries and through the ages millions of people have been involved. Most of those people have had their lives ruined. Most of the people never found gold. They left their families. They left their children. They left their jobs, their careers. They left everything and they never even found gold. They just wasted their years.
When you study the pages of history, you see that so many of those who did find gold… it still destroyed their lives and they never found happiness. I think one of the problems with lust today… most people when they think of lust think of improper sexual behavior, and that is a small part of lust. That is a portion of what the Bible refers to when it refers to lust, but lust doesn’t simply refer to improper sexual behavior. The Greek word used in the Bible for lust is the word “epithumia.” The word “epithumia” refers to “excessive desire” or “improper desire” in any area. In the Bible, this word “epithumia” is sometimes used to refer to an improper desire or an excessive desire for pleasure, hedonism.
Sometimes in the Bible, the word lust, the word epithumia, is used to refer to an excessive desire or an improper desire for material things—materialism. Sometimes in the Bible this word lust refers to power and improper and excessive desire for power.
In our passage of scripture for today, the Apostle John said, “Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in Him. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. The world passes away and the desires of it.” Hedonism, materialism, ascensionism—lust for power, lust for pleasure, lust for material things. Of course, we need to understand as Christians, when we come to the Bible, that desire in and of itself is not wrong. As we come to scripture, we see that the real issue is stewardship—that all of the material universe belongs to God. All power belongs to God. Truly, all pleasure even belongs to God. All we can ever do… We were never meant to possess these things. We were never meant to pursue these things in and of themselves. We were simply meant to use these things as good stewards. Our stewardship will one day be evaluated.
You have heard many stewardship messages. You know how God owns all things. He owns your money. He owns your home. He owns everything in the world. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. You know that. You know that what you have materially has simply been entrusted to you as a steward. One day your stewardship will be evaluated. Perhaps you did not know that that is also true of power. Even power belongs to God. God is omnipotent. God has all power. Jesus said, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” God has power, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were never meant to own power, but sometimes God trusts us with some measure of power. The real issue is how we use that power. That is an issue of stewardship.
The same is true of pleasure. The Bible says, “In God’s presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The real issue with respect to pleasure is stewardship. Are we using pleasure properly or improperly? Are we using pleasure in accordance with God’s will in life? If it is outside of God’s will, it is excessive. It is improper.
Now as we conclude, I want to share one very important biblical truth with you. There is only one desire that can never be excessive. There is only one desire in this world that you can never have too much of, and that is your desire for God—your desire to love God, your desire to know God, your desire to serve God. That desire is the only desire that cannot be excessive. The Bible says, and this is the first commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all of your mind.” You see, the Bible does not say that about yourself. The Bible does not say, “Love yourself with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.” It does not even say it about your neighbor. The Bible does not say, “Love your neighbor with all your strength, with all your soul….” The Bible does not say, “Love your wife with all your strength, with all your soul ….” Or your children. The only desire that can never be excessive is your desire for God—to know God, to love God, to serve God. If any other desire takes God’s place, it is lust.
When I graduated from high school, and I went to college. That first year in college, my freshman year, I remember it was kind of a strange year. I was a little bit hesitant. I didn’t know what to expect. I guess I was a little fearful as I went away to college. There in college I made a lot of friends. The freshman year was kind of a male bonding year. It was sort of a strange year where the guys just kind of hung out together. We did not do a lot of dating. We just kind of went out. We did a lot of dumb stuff. Most of it was relatively innocent but kind of dumb stuff. We became just kind of good friends.
Then in my sophomore year and my junior year, my friends began to date and to go out quite a bit. I didn’t do a lot of dating in my sophomore and junior year because I’d really been burned by a girlfriend in high school. I think I was kind of afraid to date, afraid I might be burned again. By my senior year in college, almost all of my friends were either engaged or married. By my senior year all of my buddies were engaged or married. I felt kind of alone. I remember I would call them, like at midnight or at 1:00 in the morning, saying, “Let’s go out.” I didn’t have a clue that that was a problem. The amazing thing is that oftentimes they would go. They would go at 1:00 in the morning. They would get in trouble.
At the end of my senior year, I graduated from college. During my senior year, I began to just date with a panic. I decided I really did want a girlfriend. In fact, I really wanted to be married. I just began to take out everyone I thought was cute. I thought a lot of girls were cute. I would go out with two different girls every weekend through my senior year, and nothing worked out. Either I didn’t really like them, or they didn’t like me, or I didn’t know whether they liked me. I did not know how to ask because I was afraid. After my senior year, I did a fifth year, a teaching credential, and took some graduate classes in psychology, but I was miserable. It seemed like none of my desires in life were coming true, none of them. I really felt like a failure. I certainly felt alone.
I remember one key moment in my life. It was in the wintertime, and I was walking on the beach, South Beach in Santa Barbara. I was all alone because there is no one on the beach in the wintertime. I was just walking alone. I began to cry, and I began to pray. I really had not prayed earnestly in many years. I began to pray. I remember saying to the Lord, “Lord…” I recommitted my life to the Lord. I said, “Lord, I can live without a wife. I can live without a girlfriend. I can’t live without You.” I said, “I will be single the rest of my life if you want me to be single. I will go where You want me to go. I’ll do what you want me to do.” I knew in my heart that I meant it. I really meant it.
In the weeks that followed that I was just flooded with this desire to know the Lord better, to love Him more. I was just flooded with this desire to serve Him. That is what led me to seminary and that’s what led me into the ministry. I’ve been in the ministry 22 years now. Through the years I’ve learned that that desire, that desire to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, that desire to seek first love for Him, service of Him… I have to fight for that desire every day. I realize that now because there are other desires that kind of creep in. There are other desires that surface. If ever I find any desire greater than my desire to love Him, greater than my desire to serve Him, greater than my desire to know Him, then that’s lust. That is lust and it is wrong. God wants us to know as we live life in this world, there are these two great enemies we need to constantly struggle with. One enemy is laziness. The other is lust. Let’s close with a word of prayer.