NO MORE EXCUSES

Proverbs 20:4 (KJV)

The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

In my position people ask me for advice, counsel, on a number of topics.

·   I think I can give some good counsel

·   I think the best counsel I can give is just Bible truth and

·   I think God has blessed me with some ideas that have worked pretty well in my own life.

But I’ll tell you what happens most often when people come to me for counsel.

Most often people give excuses why they can’t follow my advice.

Here’s the thing about that – I have no ammunition against excuses.

I can’t tell you whether your excuse is a justifiable one or not.

I just know this – I know that most of us build up excuses for why we can’t do or be or behave in the manner that is best for us.

The sluggard, the lazy person, always has what he thinks are justifiable excuses for not getting out to make a living.

And the motto I want to propose to each of us –

·   If it is financial

·   If it is it work related

·   If it is in our relationships

Let’s make the motto for the day, “No more excuses.”

Proverbs gives us, I think, three kinds of excuses that the sluggard makes for himself.

There is

*I. THE EXCUSE OF DISCOMFORT

Proverbs 20:4 (KJV)

The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

It’s been cold this week.

Cold enough that the thing that seemed most comfortable to do would have been to crank up the heater and stay in bed an hour or two longer.

And I could have done that almost every day this week if I had wanted.

All I would have had to do is choose not to ride my bicycle.

I can remember when I started getting serious about exercising.

I started in February and didn’t make much of a thing about it for a couple of months.

By May I was riding 15 miles or so pretty consistently and felt confident enough to tell a few people what I was doing.

At some point I remember Brother Harper asking me, “Are you going to keep raining when it’s raining?”

The truth is, there is always a comfort related excuse for not riding:

·   It’s too cold or

·   It’s too wet or

·   It’s too hot or

·   It’s too windy

I came home one day from a summer time ride when it was nearly 100 degrees. My neighbors were just getting ready to leave that morning.

They were shocked that I was out on such a hot day. They were worried about me getting heat stroke!

·   If it’s not heat stroke it’s frostbite and

·   If it’s not frostbite, its congestion and

·   It’s its not congestion, it’s exhaustion

I am far from being much of an example, but I can tell you this, if you let discomfort be an excuse in your life, you will never run out of excuses!

At some point, if you want to change your life you have to say, “No more excuses.”

And be uncomfortable for a while.

There is next

*II. THE EXCUSE OF DANGER

Proverbs 22:13 (KJV)

The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

I do not really want to put myself up as an example but once again, my bicycle serves right here.

One of the reasons I thought I might be able to ride the bicycle is because the county had just completed building sidewalks all around our home.

I figured I could ride two or three miles easy on all those sidewalks (and I figured that would be more than enough miles for me.)

Before, I was flat afraid to ride my bicycle in all the traffic.

The first two months I stayed on those sidewalks almost all of the time.

After a little bit I saw some dangers riding on the sidewalks too. Cars are much more likely to not see you on a sidewalk than in the road and, on a bicycle you are going so much faster than a pedestrian that, if a car suddenly pulls onto across the sidewalk, you probably won’t be able to stop in time.

It took me nearly a year to work up the courage, even to ride in the designated bicycle lanes.

It was only after riding with Brother Jantz once and then Mark Gray once that I began to think it was doable.

To this day I have cyclist friends who tell me they would not ride in the bicycle lane on Pacific.

But statistics say that I am just as likely to die in a car wreck as I am in a bicycle wreck on the roadways – yet people are afraid to bicycle while they would not give driving a car a second thought.

It’s just an excuse.

You know, everything is dangerous.

·   Every sort of job has some inherent dangers

·   Most kinds of food can be dangerous to our health if we eat too much

·   Breathing air can have pollutants that could eventually kill us

·   Do you know how many people die in their sleep every day? Even that is dangerous!

If we are going to obey the Bible and if we are going to improve our lives we are going to have to make up our minds, No More Excuses.

Lastly there is

*III. THE EXCUSE OF ARROGANCE

Proverbs 26:13-16 (KJV)

The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets.

As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.

The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.

The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.

This is the guy whose excuse is his excuse.

He thinks his excuse is the exception to the “no more excuses” motto.

·   It doesn’t matter how many people tell him it is just an excuse

·   It doesn’t matter how well reasoned the arguments are that he should quit the excuse

His excuse is the excuse to beat all excuses.

He can, in his mind, justify keeping his excuse because nobody understands like he does how good his excuse is.

If you are not where you want to be spiritually, I can tell you how to fix it….

Find your excuses for being where you are – and get rid of them.