Okay, so “idletry” is not a word. My spell checker keeps telling me so and I cannot find it in the dictionary. But those of you who know me know that I am not shy when it comes to making up and using unwords. And though “idletry” is not a word there seems to be an awful lot of it going on in the church. And while many would take exception to being called idolators they would certainly have to admit to being “idletors.”
In the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard in Matthew 20 Jesus said that the landowner went out in the eleventh hour and asked those who stood around doing nothing, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” If you are an “idle” Christian consider that it is not because:
THERE IS NOTHING TO DO. We are called into the kingdom to be workers, not idletors! In John 4.35 Jesus asked and commands, “Do you not say, “There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” My dad used to tell me when I was a kid, “All you have to do is look around, there is always something to do.” There is a lot of work in the kingdom that needs to be done. And often times neglected work never gets done. Someone once said, “The duty of the many should not be the task of a few.”
THERE IS PLENTY OF TIME. Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). Christ knew that the time He had to accomplish the work He was sent here to do was not limitless. And He wanted us to know that we are in the same predicament. The fact is that time is running out on us. For many of us it is indeed the eleventh hour and the rest of us don’t know how much time we have left.
I often times in my life find that there is too much to do and too little time in which to
get it done. But we should not, or cannot, allow that to deter us from doing as much as
we possibly can in the time we are allotted here on earth. Time is running out on all of
us!
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city,
spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4.13-14).
THE PAY IS TOO LOW. Godliness is profitable both here on earth and in eternity. The apostle Paul was inspired to tell Timothy that, “bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4.8).
The blessings that we receive in this life as obedient, faithful, busy servants of God
make this life a joy to live. We have hope, peace, love and the fellowship and friendship
of a family that the world longs for, but never finds in the myriad of relationships and
activities that offer only false hope and an inadequate sense of security.
Besides all this we are promised a crown, a home, a reward, an inheritance, which
can only be faintly understood and communicated in human terms. In fact the Bible is
clear that the only alternative to the heavenly reward is eternal damnation.
So I ask, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” If you have never obeyed the
gospel of Jesus Christ by repenting of your sins (Acts 17.30), confessing the sweet name of Jesus as the only begotten Son of God (Matthew 10.32-33), and being baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2.38, “Why have you been standing here idle?” If you have done these things but are not faithful, “Why have you been standing here idle?” If you have not been as active (or as active as you should have been) in the labors of the kingdom, “Why have you been standing here idle?”
The declaration of Amos so long ago echoes across the fields of harvest, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6.1).
Adapted from “440 More Snappy Sermon Starters.” #155, p. 53.