Most people work to buy food for their table. If a person gets hungry enough, some of the people who do not like to work will go to work just to eat. Hunger makes us work to satisfy that hunger.
This is just saying, Labor is hard and often grievous, but necessary, even for the lazy.
One of the most dangerous things a man can do is try to do whatever feels good to him. This is the call of the flesh. The flesh life is a life of sin and destruction.
Both the narrow gate and the wide gate are assumed to provide the entrance to God’s kingdom. Two ways are offered to people. The narrow gate is by faith, only through Christ, constricted and precise. It represents true salvation in God’s way that lead to life eternal. The wide gate includes all religions of works and self-righteousness, with no single way, but it leads to hell, not heaven.
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Sin separates us from God. Some have taken this Scripture to mean that God will not hear the prayer of the sinful man. Judge for yourselves from the following scriptures.
John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
I believe God does hear his prayers but will not answer until the sinful man repents.
God is far from the wicked because the wicked has rejected or walked away from God, not the other way around. God does answer the righteous quicker as you can read in in the next Scripture.
Godly, righteous people weigh their answers; those who are wicked do not think before speaking because they don’t care about the effects of their words. When you have something to say, think about it first. Do you carefully plan your words, or do you pour out your thoughts without concern for their impact?
We know the person who has a healthy heart is usually in rather good shape physically.
I believe this goes further than the physical and is speaking of a heart in tune with God. One of the main things mentioned in Romans 10:9-10 to be saved is to believe in the heart.
Envy and strife go hand in hand. Envy eats you up from within and will totally destroy you.
“The rottenness of the bones” speaks of suffering which is like a painful and incurable condition.
A quick temper can be like a fire out of control. It can burn us and everyone else in its path. Anger divides people. It pushes us into hasty decisions that only cause bitterness and guilt. Yet anger, in itself, is not wrong. Anger can be a legitimate reaction to injustice and sin. When you feel yourself getting angry, look for the cause. Are you reacting to an evil situation that you are going to set right? Or are you responding selfishly to a personal insult? Pray that God will help you control your quick temper, channeling your feelings into effective action and conquering selfish anger through humility and repentance.
If you were king of a great number of people, there would be more honor than to be king over just a handful of people. The king over a small group could be easily overthrown.
This is a truism stating that a king’s honor comes from the support of his people as they increase and prosper
This is speaking of the power of association which helps to shape character.
We have a tendency to become like the people we associate with. If the people you are with are arrested for a crime, you will be arrested, as well. You will be called an accomplice to the crime because you are with the criminal.
We see someone who is a companion of someone successful and that person will try hard too. I have noticed that we try harder to do just as well as the person we are with. Competition creates success.
Pastor Stan said to “Say what you mean, and mean what you say”
Pastor Stan you can change the course of your life by just speaking it.
Listen to the Sermon and let God increase your Faith.
We see here again that hard work will get you promoted, and you will rule over those who are too lazy to work. Tribute is a little like taxes. We see again that hard work pays off. Unlike the hardworking people who have charge over their work, the lazy are eventually forced to go to work for the diligent to survive.
Under Gods command 