The Lazy Christian Series

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.”

Paul is encouraging and asking the Christians in the Ancient City of Colossae to work for God. He tells them that there is coming a day when they will be rewarded for their work and efforts to advance the Kingdom of God, but those who do wrong will be paid back for that also. Folks, a Christian must be dependable. Working heartily makes you dependable. Being active within the church makes you dependable. Being a servant and serving others makes you dependable. Like an ant, we must become dependable, especially in the faith.

2. An Ant is a Hard Worker

An ant must be a hard worker. Look at everything an ant must do. They must build the colony, find, and collect food, tend to the eggs laid by the queen ant, they have a lot of work to do. Day after day, week after week, ants must continually work hard. Like ants, we must also be hard workers both physically and spiritually. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says this:

“And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

We must all be hard workers. Not some of us. Not just the pastor. Not just the deacons. Not just the music minister or department heads, but we must all be hard workers in the faith. We are all called to spread the Gospel. Like ants, we must be hard workers. Notice how when ants work, they do not complain. They do not complain, argue, try to get someone else to do it, or just not do it, but instead they do the work and do it to the best of their ability because everyone else depends on them. The colonies' survival depends on each ant doing their job and doing it to the best of their ability. Like an ant colony, a church's survival depends on each member doing their job to the best of their ability. Without complaining. Without arguing. Without trying to pass it off to someone else. We must become hard workers in the faith. Like Moses, David, Paul, and John the Baptist. Even Jesus Himself spent His time here on Earth being a hard worker in the faith. If Jesus felt the need to do it, we should also.

3. An Ant is Cooperative

An ant must be cooperative. He must be able and willing to work together. In a colony, each ant must do their job and work with the other ants for the whole colony to prosper. The colonies' success and future are completely dependent on each ant working and working together. This goes for the same thing in a church. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 says this:

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”