Get Some Ants In Your Pants

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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Pastor James May

GET SOME ANTS IN YOUR PANTS

Proverbs 6:6-11, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man."

It is always reassuring to see how our God can take even the smallest creatures of creation to teach us a lesson in his provision and in our role in making provision for ourselves and working in the Kingdom of God. As we go about our daily lives we often overlook some very powerful lessons that can be learned from God’s creation. One such incident is found in this passage from the Book of Proverbs.

It would serve us well to examine the habits of the ants and see what we can learn from them. After all, the Word of God tells us to “go to the ant”, in other words go check them out. See what they do and how they do it and learn all you can because even though they may be among the smallest insects on earth, they have learned to build colonies, build “cities” if you will, under the earth and have survived since the creation by doing the things that come to them by instinct.

How many of you would like to prosper like the ants? It’s nearly impossible to stop them from spreading all over your lawn. They are always at every picnic, even when they don’t get an engraved invitation. They are some of the most industrious creatures on earth!

Have you ever seen a lazy ant? I’ve never seen a live ant just standing still, lying around on the sofa, watching TV, or just doing nothing. There are no “couch potato” ants. They are constantly moving. No moss is growing under their feet. They carry not only their own share of the load but many have been known to carry as much as 100 times their own body weight with relative ease.

Oh that we could find enough Christians who were just willing to shoulder their part of the load, much less carry the load for 100 other Christians. There are a few of these kinds of workers in the church, but very few.

I do know that there is a lot of “couch potato” Christians. I dare say that very few, if any, of us don’t have a little bit of a lazy streak from time to time. We can call it burn out, we can call it “charging our batteries” or whatever we like but the truth is that we just have to have our times to kick back and do nothing.

One thing that we all must realize is that God did not create us to just sit around doing nothing. We were created to work, to build, to grow and to continually learn to work and build more.

God set an example for us when he began the Bible by saying that he worked to create all things and then rested from his work on the seventh day. Work and industriousness is the very character and nature of God.

Most of us wake up in the morning and say, “Oh no, it’s morning!” What we should say is “thank God for another day to do his work”. Work is a blessing, not a curse. After all what could we accomplish without putting forth some effort? Every good thing in life requires work and effort. It can even be said that most of us are known by the “work” we do. Some of you are secretaries, some are accountants, some are construction workers, some are electricians, some are students, some are homemakers, some are electronics technicians, computer repair people, or programmers, and the list goes on and on. There are a lot of people who don’t know your name but they identify you by what you do as work.