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If we haven't met, I would love to meet you and go over the finer details of how to spell my last name and its origins.

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Yeah, why not?

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I'll buy you the coffee, I'll buy you the lunch, the drink, whatever it is.

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I'd just love to get to know you.

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We are in the last week of a series we've been calling Radical Effect.

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You've heard it over and over again if you've been here for more than one week.

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The radical is that first sprout of root that comes from a seed that has been planted,

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and the effect is the plant that grows from it.

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And as Christians, in the Christian faith, we believe because of what Jesus has done,

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that there is a new radical effect that is growing in us.

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The Holy Spirit is developing it and growing it within us.

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And because of that, we can resist the old and embrace the new.

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If you happen to have missed any of those weeks, you can find the sermon as just a standalone anywhere that you get your podcast.

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You can get that, or if you want to watch the full service, that is on Facebook as well as YouTube.

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But today we finish up this series with slothfulness and diligence.

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Check out this picture. This is the majestic sloth.

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It's cute, isn't it?

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I think they're cute. I don't know about you, but I think they're kind of awesome.

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Sloths sleep between 15 and 20 hours a day.

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I saw a mother look at her child just now.

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At any given time, up to 37% of the body weight and mass of a sloth is just the food that is being digested in its system.

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Because it can take up to two weeks for them to digest.

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Now you think, oh, they move so slowly.

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Well, yeah, because they've got to preserve their energy.

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It takes forever for them to digest anything that they eat.

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While they've got arms that are strong enough for climbing and swinging and hanging,

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because of the shape of their back legs, when they are on the ground, they can't actually stand on all fours.

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And their max speed is 1.2 miles per hour.

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It's even faster than that, I promise.

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I do about three miles per hour when I walk.

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So when sloths were discovered in the 1600s, you can see why they were named after the deadly sin of slothliness.

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It wasn't the other way around.

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They were named after the concept of slothfulness.

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But I'm not sure that it's actually really fair to the sloth, because there isn't really a problem with a sloth acting like a sloth.

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They are exactly as they're meant to be.

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It's how they were created or designed or developed or evolved.

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This is what a sloth is meant to be.

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The problem is when humans act like a sloth.

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The obvious joke here is this picture from 2016's Zootopia.

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Welcome to the DMV.

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My apologies to anybody that works at the DMV.

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I understand that it's a low hanging fruit kind of joke, but it gets a laugh every time.

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So we'll keep using it.

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All jokes aside, the reality is that we are all different.

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The point here isn't even really about speed or how fast someone moves or even about someone's physical ability.

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The point is that the question of are we diligent in who God has made us to be?

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Or is the root of slothfulness still slowly dragging us down?

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So with that, let's jump into the scriptures and see what we can learn.

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I'm going to be reading from Proverbs 6.

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Proverbs is generally speaking around the middle of the Bible.

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They're after the Psalms.

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If you don't have a Bible of your own, there's blue Bibles on the table.

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You're welcome to take one of those home with you or grab one from the bookshelf out in the lobby.

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Otherwise, download a Bible app from any of the digital app stores.

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And we have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention as we read the scriptures during the message.

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One of the ways we can do that is by standing with me as I read.

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If you don't prefer to stand, please just give the scriptures your full attention.

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And I thought since I gave Fire Ant such a bad rap last week,

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I would read a passage about ants this week.

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Proverbs 6, starting in verse 6.

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Go to the ant, you lazy bones.

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Consider its ways and be wise.

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Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer and gathers its sustenance and harvest.

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How long will you lie there, oh lazy bones?

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When will you rise up from your sleep?

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Little sleep, little slumber, little folding of the hands to rest.

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And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed warrior.

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Let us pray.

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God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we thank you for the scriptures.

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They have persisted throughout the millennia that we still have them to consider and to learn from.

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And I pray that whatever you have for us to learn today, I pray that it would stick,

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that it would become a part of the framework of our faith,

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that our faith would become stronger as we become more like your son Jesus.

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Amen? Amen.

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Thanks all, I can't have a seat.

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All right, so some of you are aware that today is Advancement Sunday.

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That is the day where Treehouse comes to an end,

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Shed, the teen ministry, comes to an end in the Sunday morning format.

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And we acknowledge the kids that are moving from one area to another will be acknowledging those advancements.

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So while this message is for everyone, I do think that it's especially for them.

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So the first thing is this.

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I want to make sure that you know and that you understand that the Proverbs aren't saying that you should not sleep.

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You read it, if you read it, you go, oh, it's telling me if I even fold my hands,

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if I get a little extra sleep, that I'm going to be in trouble.

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That's not what it means, the Proverbs aren't telling us that we should never rest,

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but they are intentionally pointing out that some things in life are time sensitive.

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And if laziness takes hold, it will have a negative effect.

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If we stay up too late and sleep through work, we're probably going to have an issue keeping that job.

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But taking care of our bodies, getting the rest and sleep that we need is not laziness.

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I also want to make sure that we understand that slothfulness is about more than just work.

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It's about more than just a job.

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Slothfulness can find its way into any aspect of our lives.

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We become slothful socially when we neglect the relationships around us.

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We don't have to be a social butterfly, you don't have to be an extrovert, but relationships are key.

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Relationships are important.

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And if we neglect them, if we leave them to atrophy, some of them may not be strong enough

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to sustain us in the moments that we find that we need them.

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We can be slothful physically when we avoid making healthy decisions.

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I am notorious for this.

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I remember 15 years ago deciding to get life insurance and they do blood work when you get life insurance

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because they want to find out just how much should they charge you.

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Because they don't know how healthy you are or are not.

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One of the worst things that happened was that I had this blood work done for life insurance

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and it came back and I had the best numbers that you could possibly imagine.

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And it tricked me into thinking, well I've already been eating whatever I want to eat.

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And so it must mean that I can just continue on eating whatever I want to eat.

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And so I still go long stretches where I am not taking care of my body.

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Reality is that every couple years I put on and take off 30 plus pounds.

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That is not a healthy way to live.

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Then there's our intellects.

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We become slothful intellectually when we decide that we've learned enough.

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Now it's not necessarily something that any of us say out loud, right?

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We don't go around posting on Facebook going, well I'm full up.

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I've learned everything I need to know.

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But when was the last time you read a book?

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When was the last time you read a book that someone else recommended?

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Or heard something that you didn't understand and you looked it up?

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Or had someone, had something that you believed challenged and left your mind open enough,

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long enough to find out why you disagree with the person that has challenged you?

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Emotionally we become slothful when we suspend development and avoid processing experiences.

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So much of life, especially if you're young, but this is for the adults as well, so much

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of life just happens to us guys.

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It's just constantly happening to us.

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When we do not stop and process any of this life that is happening to us, our emotions,

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our emotional ability to relate to life begins to atrophy.

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I'm not currently seeing a therapist, but this last year I did 10 sessions with a grief

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therapist to process things that happened years ago.

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Working on our emotions matters.

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When we don't, it affects our ability to interact with those emotions in the moment and with

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the emotions of those that are around us.

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Of course, all of these, the social, the physical, the intellectual, and the emotional, they

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all affect the spiritual.

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The truth is that most of us are probably slothful in at least one of these areas.

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When we find that out, maybe today is the moment that you're realizing how slothful

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you are about any one of these things.

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When we find that out, one of the greatest temptations that we have and that I want to

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encourage us to avoid is trading in laziness for drivenness.

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One of the most natural things to do is trade the idea that I've become slothful or lazy

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for the idea that now I must be driven.

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Because being driven can be just as unhealthy as laziness because drivenness will trade

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atrophy for burnout.

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15 years ago, I worked at a church in Georgia that valued drive in its staff above most

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other things.

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And yes, there is such a thing as unhealthy spiritual drive.

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We were having a staff meeting one day when the lead pastor told us that if all of us,

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each of us, individually wasn't praying for our church every single day, we didn't belong

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on that team.

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Some of us don't pray for our children every day, and that's okay.

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Now I didn't get up and leave, but the reality was that I was not praying at that church

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every single day, and that did not mean that I was unhealthy.

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This pastor would say things like, we should be willing to do anything short of sin to

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grow the church.

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Man, that leaves a lot of gray area, doesn't it?

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The reality was that he was driving us to results.

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So when we left Georgia and we moved back to Colorado Springs and I was hired at New

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Life Church, I had to learn what to do with that drive.

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Because New Life Church in Colorado Springs was 20 times the size of the church I was

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working at in Georgia.

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Imagine how much drive I thought I was going to have to have in order to keep up with that.

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I remember meeting with Garvin McCarroll, the senior executive pastor, and of course

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I wanted to impress him, right?

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And I remember I was sitting at his desk in his office and I remember telling him, I said,

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I just want you to know that I'm really working on my drive.

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I said this.

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I'm really working on developing my drive, how driven I am.

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And he said, Greg, he corrected me in the most kind way.

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He said, Greg, I want you to learn the difference between being driven and being diligent.

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That piece of wisdom in large part has affected the kind of pastor that you have received.

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That piece of wisdom is one of the reasons that we as a church have as one of our three

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things rest.

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That piece of wisdom probably saved me.

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Because what I learned is that drive will empty your tank perpetually, continually,

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incessantly, demandingly, empty your tank over and over again and no matter how much

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you think you are filling it, it will never feel full.

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But diligence understands seasons.

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It understands stretches.

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Drive will sacrifice your health and your relationships for results.

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Diligence says that your health and relationships are part of what it means to succeed.

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Hear me.

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Diligence tells you that your health and your relationships are part of what it means

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to succeed.

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Because drive will only measure results.

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How many miles have you gone?

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But diligence will focus on faithfulness.

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How consistent is your heart?

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This past week I had a lovely moment where I was sitting on the couch and we were watching

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a television show that mentioned the dad working and one of my kids just looked at me and said,

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dad I'm so glad you have the kind of job that lets you be at home.

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But the reality is that I have the kind of job that a lot of pastors use as a reason

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to not be home.

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Because they are driven.

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Whatever job that you as a young person find yourself growing up and taking on, whatever

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vocation, whatever calling you take on, it does not matter what it is, there will be

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people in that field that will use it as an excuse to not be connected with other human

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beings.

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To not be connected to God, to not be connected with a community, with their own family.

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And you have to decide now.

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When you're 10, when you're 12, when you're 15, when you're 18, that no matter what you

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do with this life, that your job will not become your life.

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Because drive will always, always need more from you.

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Drive will never be satisfied with the next promotion.

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Drive will never be satisfied with your raise.

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Drive will never be satisfied with the number of hours that you worked.

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But diligence will understand that there is daily bread.

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And that the Lord is the one that will supply all of your needs all along the way.

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And so while this is for everybody, it's especially for the young.

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Floth will not serve you, but neither will drive.

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Diligence and faithfulness are key to a healthy life.

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So as I close, I'll just tell you one last thing.

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Last month I was meeting with a young man that's going through college and he's talking

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about greatness.

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And I just told him, I said, if there is one idea, if there's one lie that I could snatch

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from the minds of the young, it's that you have to be great.

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I told him, and I'm telling you, God is not calling you to greatness.

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This world does not need more greatness.

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This world needs more beauty.

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Because God did not create you to be great.

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God created you already good.

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God created you beautiful.

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And if you can look at each day of your life, each class, each interaction, each teacher,

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each day at work, each field trip, each whatever it is you fill in the blank and replace that

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idea in your head that I need to make this as great as possible.

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And just think that you are already beautiful because of who God created you to be.

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And that all you need to do is add a little bit of your beauty to whatever you have stepped

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into.

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Because you will never fully reach the kind of greatness that this world tells you that

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you need to reach.

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But you are already beautiful.

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And that beauty goes with you everywhere that you go.

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It is already with you.

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And man, I don't know.

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At my age, I'm not very old, 46.

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But I don't spend much time looking back going, I wish I'd been greater.

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I look back and I remember the moments of beauty.

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Because that moment in the office with Garvin McKerrow was not a moment of greatness.

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It was a moment of beauty.

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He was offering me an out, reminding me that even the Lord is working with diligence in

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my heart.

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There is nothing more beautiful than the work that the Lord is doing in each of you.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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Let's turn to the table.