Taking Responsibility

HOST HOMES

Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.

So glad you’re here this morning!

Before we get into our passage for the day, I wanted to share something with you.

As you all know, we are very passionate about House Church here.

An astounding number, 80%, of our adults participate in a House Church each week.

It’s an amazing place to grow deeper in your faith,

and it gives you a small church community where people know you.

If you’re not in a House Church yet, get in one.

You can’t really grow spiritually without community.

Christianity is not a solo sport.

We’ve actually re-opened several groups, so there are openings on almost every night of the week now!

WE love House Church, but we need your help.

Our Church is growing so fast, that we need more people to host our House Churches.

(Host home slide)

Hosts are not the leaders, they just merely open up their homes and they’re a part of the group each week.

In fact, we need THREE more hosts.

One for a new group we’re starting in January on Wednesday Nights, and 2 for existing groups.

Did you know, that we have multiple families in our church that are hosting multiple house churches throughout the week?

That’s a strain. That’s really hard.

We’re grateful for them, but I don’t want them to do that.

Do you own a house?

Does it have rooms?

Do you have a front door?

Do you live within 15 minutes of here?

It sounds perfect. Thank you!

Seriously though, we need you.

Many of you, God has been so gracious, and He’s given you a home, and I want to encourage you to use it for ministry.

We need you.

Don’t wait for someone else to do it, they probably won’t. We need you.

If you can do this, will you tell our Welcome Table after the service? Or email our office?

Thank you so much!

TAKING RESPONSBILITY FOR OTHERS

(ways of the wise)

All right, we are continuing in our 9-week series on Proverbs 1 through 9 in the Bible where we are learning “The ways of the wise”

Let’s jump into our passage.

Proverbs 6:1-5

Page 435

We’re going to see today that the Bible has wisdom for pretty much everything.

Already in this series on Proverbs we’ve covered diverse topics like:

Gambling, who to get advice from, how to pursue wisdom, how to serve the needy, how to adultery-proof your marriage.

And today, King Solomon will be talking about the continuum of taking responsibility.

Let’s take a look now at the practical advice of chapter 6

(Proverbs 6:1-2) – NIV

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
    if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
2 you have been trapped by what you said,
    ensnared by the words of your mouth.

Our passage today is about taking responsibility.

And firstly we see a section that is:

1. A Warning About Taking Responsibility for Others

Now, if you’re not a finance person, here’s the financial arrangement Solomon is warning about:

He is warning his son against what we, today, would most likely call co-signing on a loan.

In those days, it looked like this:

Let’s say you lived in Bible times, and your friend convinces you he’s going to start a successful fishing business on the Sea of Galilee.

And he gives you an amazing pitch, but then he says, “Will you put up your house as a security?”

When he says that, he’s not asking you for an investment or a donation, but he’s saying:

I don’t have enough financial standing to get a loan (to get boats & get the business started)…and so I need you to be my security!

If the lender understands that if I can’t make the payments, they can take your house (or your money…whatever you put up as a pledge)…

Then they’ll give me the money to start the business…because they know they’ll get their money either way.

But trust me! That will never happen! I’ll make the payments!

Solomon is saying, “Don’t do that. I cannot advise you, my son, to enter into financial agreements like that”

And then he’s going to give advice to those already have done so.

In fact, look at verse 3 now

(Proverbs 6:3-5) – NIV

3 So do this, my son, to free yourself,
    since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—
    and give your neighbor no rest!
4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
    no slumber to your eyelids.
5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
    like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

(Taking Responsibility)

He’s saying if you’re signed up to make payments for someone else if they fail to make their own, get out of that deal as fast as you can.

He even goes as far as saying:

Allow yourself no sleep until you get out of it.

Why?

Well, you’re putting yourself (and thus your family, or maybe even your future family) at risk.

And God doesn’t want you to put anything at risk that you can’t afford to lose.

That’s sound financial advice.

Now, I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m a pastor, not a financial advisor…

….so I took the liberty of reaching out to a number of different financial advisors in our church this week, and I said, “Tell me what you think about this. Would you, as an expert, ever advise one of your clients to co-sign on a loan?”

Here’s what they said:

“I don’t recommend co-signing to my clients if there is any other option. It can definitely impact your credit score, and also potentially really damage a relationship if things don’t work out.”

Another said: “Co-signing comes with far more issues than solutions.”

And still another said, “If you’re going to do this, don’t do this unless you’re able and willing to pay it all off as a gift”

And that begs an interesting question because most of us are certainly less likely to want to co-sign a loan for a stranger, but what if it is a close friend, or even your own adult child struggling to get on their feet?

All I can tell you is to remember that Proverbs are principles, not absolutes that apply to every unique situation.

But they are weighty principles, full of wisdom.

So if you’re going to not take this advice, you’re going to want to deeply pray about it, and seek Godly advice from Godly people.

We’ll come back to this later……

PLAN AHEAD

Let’s keep reading

(Proverbs 6:6-8) – NIV

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

Okay here the passage is now talking about the other end of the “Continuum of Taking Responsibility”

1. A Warning About Taking Responsibility for Others

2. An Encouragement About Taking Responsibility for Yourself

Solomon says, “If you’re lazy, a procrastinator, or a sluggard,” (which is a word we need to bring back)

He says, “Look at the ant!”

You came to church thinking you were going to learn from a pastor, but we are learning from an ant today!

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

The ant stores up provisions ahead of time.

And they bring in the food when it’s time

So especially to those of you in the room, in college, or in your twenties, I would ask you: Have you truly sat down to make a plan for what you want to do with your life.

Because you can blink, and you’re 30.

Time goes fast.

James chapter 4 says your life is a mist…it appears for a little while and then it vanishes.

It’s quick.

If you haven’t started to take responsibility yet for this life God gave you, today is the day.

It’s on you…not on someone else.

That’s what Solomon is saying about the ant.

He says, “The ant has no commander…

…”it doesn’t have a boss that’s going to fire them for not working, or a parent that’s going to ground them for not doing their chores…

…they just…start planning and working

So, where are you going?

What’s the plan?

How has God gifted you?

It’s time to start setting at least a general direction for your life.

You’re not going to move without a direction.

GET OUT OF BED

But for a lot of us, talk like that starts to overwhelm us.

The question: “What are you going to do with your life?” doesn’t really feel like a freeing question to a lot of people

It feels overwhelming.

It makes us just want to throw the covers back over our head…

…but we see this if we keep reading:

(Proverbs 6:9-11) – NIV

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.

And here we see a second lesson we need to learn from the ant, and it’s:

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

#2: Get out of bed

Sometimes (and some days!) getting out of bed is half the battle

But the sluggard, the lazy, Solomon says, they keep saying (verse 10), a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest (…yawn…)…back to scrolling…little streaming…back to gaming…back to bed!

And you can go on and on like that…(sleeping through life)…for years……

By the way…did you know that ants take a lot of naps?

Go ahead and guess (shout it out) how many naps a day do you think the average ant takes?

250!!

But, the ant is not a mascot for the lazy, but for the efficient, the diligent.

The average ant nap lasts for 1 minute and 9 seconds.

Now that’s a power nap!

And then they get right back to work!

But sleep, for so many of us, is just escapism.

It’s a refusal to get up and face the world…or face our family…or face our problems.

We want to just sleep it away.

But you can’t.

So tomorrow, I have a goal for you to set: “Don’t hit snooze”

Some of you just went, “Pastor, that’s the hardest word you’ve ever given to me”

But I want you to say: “I’m learning from the ant.”

“I’ve had enough sleep.

“Today, I’m going to face the day.

“I’m getting out of bed, and God is going to help me get back to it!”

IT’S HARD WORK, NOT TALENT

Let me show you another lesson from the ant, that you need to know if you’re going to walk in the ways of the wise.

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

#2: Get out of bed

#3: It’s about hard work, not talent

Notice Solomon doesn’t say, “Look at the bear, or look at the lion!”

He says, “Look at the ant!”

It’s not just about your raw strength, or natural abilities, you have to work hard if you want to see change, or you want to see success.

Now, sidenote: If you haven’t read much of “the wisdom literature section of the Bible,” (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and so on) verses like this (or even messages like this) may surprise you.

Most of us are more used to the New Testament letters that say things like, “I can do all this….THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH!”

So it feels weird, almost wrong to our Christian ears, to talk about these verses that say “hard work pays off”

And yet, remember, the purpose of Proverbs 1-9 is to outline for you “the ways of the wise”

And there is indeed great wisdom in “hard work” & “responsibility”

And listen, any kind of change that happens in your life (let’s not over-spiritualize this) it’s going to be a combination of God moving…and you working!

Even thinking about something as Spiritual as Reading the Bible every day?

It’s not like, “God lifts you out of bed, and opens the Bible on your lap and reads it out loud to you”

No, you gotta not hit snooze and get yourself out of bed.

It takes hard work. It takes discipline.

We call them Spiritual Disciplines for a reason.

And I’m not sure we actually get this “3rd Lesson From the Ant” in American culture.

We’re obsessed (especially Millennials and those in Gen Z) with personality tests, and we all feel we’re special because, well, “I’m an Enneagram 1 (not a 2 or 3, I’m #1)!” “I’m an ESTJ!”

And I’m sure your personality is great (congratulations), and yes God has indeed gifted you in specific ways, but He gifted you to USE your gifts not just feel good that you have them.

Often the difference between success and failure is something as simple as hard work.

I remember, when I was a senior in High School, it was announced that I would be one of our valedictorians of our class.

And one of my classmates, pulled me aside in science later that day, and no joke, he said, “Just so you know, you may get good grades, but I’m smarter than you”

And I remember thinking, “Well, this is awkward”

But honestly, I didn’t disagree with what he said.

I actually tied with 4 other kids, and I always felt like I was the dumbest of the valedictorians, but I worked the hardest

And I’ve thought about that awkward interaction several times over the years.

And I think we have to move past this kind of thinking in America where we say we are special SIMPLY because we have a certain talent.

That’s great that you have that.

But at the end of the day,…if you’re not going to do the hard work to get out in the real world and put it to use, then you’re taking God’s talent, as Matthew 25 days, and burying it.

STOP TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU WILL DO, AND START DOING SOMETHING

Let me give you another lesson from our friend the ant.

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

#2: Get out of bed

#3: It’s about hard work, not talent

#4: Stop talking about what you will do, and start doing something

Solomon doesn’t say, “Look at the Philosopher, look at the thinker! Look at the one with all the ideas! He says, “Look at the ant. The doer!”

In fact, look at Proverbs 14

(Proverbs 14:23) – NIV

All hard work brings a profit,
    but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

#2: Get out of bed

#3: It’s about hard work, not talent

#4: Stop talking about what you will do, and start doing something

This is also a cultural problem for us.

We love talking about what we’re going to do!

We’ve done, I don’t know, 150 interviews it feels like in the last few years as our church continues to exponentially grow, and we’re hiring staff constantly…

But I remember, after one interview a few years ago, Rachel Cheney, who is our Executive Director here and one of the sharpest leaders I’ve ever worked with, pointed this out to me.

We had just interviewed someone for a position, and while we were debriefing about it, I said, “He seems like he has good vision. He had an idea of what he would want to do with the ministry.”

And she said, “David, everybody nowadays is a “visionary”

“Anybody can share their opinion on how they think things should be, but that doesn’t mean they’ve ever actually done anything”

So don’t trick yourself into thinking that you’re going in the right direction just because you’re talking about it.

If you want to see real change in your relationships, or at work, or at home, you have to stop talking about it, and start doing something about it.

And it doesn’t have to be massive.

START SMALL

In fact, I think this is a 5th reason Solomon uses the ant as an example.

Lessons from the Ant:

#1: Plan ahead

#2: Get out of bed

#3: It’s about hard work, not talent

#4: Stop talking about what you will do, and start doing something

#5: Start small

Too many of us don’t get off the couch to share our faith, or out of bed to pray in the morning, or online to apply for a job because it all seems too big…too intimidating for us.

But be like the ant: Start Small.

For example:

If you’ve been feeling like God’s nudging you to go back to school, tonight, spend 30 minutes researching schools.

If you’ve been feeling like you need to start your own business, text a friend this afternoon who’s done it and invite them out to lunch.

If you’ve been feeling like it’s time to put more effort into your marriage, walk down to our library after the service and get a book on marriage.

Just start.

(Proverbs 13:4) - NIV

A sluggard’s appetite is never filled,
    but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

if you stay in bed…

If you can’t off your phone…

…and you can’t stop gaming…

And your ideas are never put to action…

…your appetite will never be filled.

God has gifted you to do something…not just to be entertained by something.

So to take an action step.

And it can be small.

Let me explain what I mean by showing you a clip from a commencement speech at the University of Texas…given by Retired US Navy Admiral, William McRaven

(MakeYourBed Video).

(Taking Responsibility)

By the way: the #1 comment on this YouTube video is:

“What a speech! I just made the bed, and I’m in a hotel!”

And here is where it all comes together:

Think about how the lessons from the ant connect to even where we started with Solomon’s advice about loans and finances

Solomon is saying this:

If you continue to take too much responsibility for other people, they will never learn responsibility for themselves.

This is especially true as a parent.

As one of our financial planners said to me this week: “Often the best thing for your young adult child is not for you to cosign on a loan, but for them to learn to find a cheaper car, or for them to learn about delayed gratification, or for them to learn to save for longer.”

That is the best way you can serve your child.

You need to pull away so they can learn from the ant…even if they have to learn it the hard way.

And if you’re on that other side of that “taking responsibility continuum,” and it’s you that needs to start taking more responsibility in your life, to start learning from the ant…today is the day to start.

Today, make that appointment to meet with a financial planner

Today, start treading the Bible again.

Today, make a doctor’s appointment , even if it’s for the first time in 10 years

Or even just start with making your bed.

Learn from the Ant & Trust the ways of the Wise.

Let me pray.