Bible Study for July 31: Earn Money Productively

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The productivity and teamwork exemplified by ants show how we can approach our finances, says Pastor Derek Berry. YOUTUBE/Special The productivity and teamwork exemplified by ants show how we can approach our finances, says Pastor Derek Berry. YOUTUBE/Special

Proverbs 6:6-11

Derek Berry, pastor

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Hiram

There are over 11,000 different kinds of ants. They live in colonies numbering from a few to over 20 million. There are approximately one quadrillion ants in the world today.

Ants are so numerous scientists say that if all the ants in the Amazon rainforest were weighed, they would be four times more than all the other species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians living in that area, combined!

In this passage God is speaking to the sluggard – the one who is lazy, idle, careless, sticks to nothing, minds no business, and brings nothing to pass. Here we are warned about giving in to the temptation of laziness, of sleeping instead of working.

This doesn’t mean we cannot rest. But we shouldn’t rest when we should be working. If we get lazy in our work, poverty will soon set in.

We have a lot to learn from these little ants.

They work together

They work in love. They don’t fight or argue. They are helpful and help carry burdens. They help when one is injured.

They operate in harmony. One is weak, but many are strong. Each has a job, but none are more important than another. There is power in unity!

When the driver ant is on the move lions, elephants, and poisonous snakes all flee! Entire villages of people move out of their path. Some of these colonies are so large they form a front up to a mile wide and destroy everything in their path. Humans and animals stand no chance against these feared little ants!

We can be productive when we work together.

They work to a target

Ants work persistently and are impossible to stop when food is found. Just spill something sweet on the countertop and leave it there. When one ant finds it, he will return to the colony and bring hundreds with him!

What an application! When we have tasted and found what the Lord has, then we need to go back into our colony and tell the others about Him.

Ants work productively. They are an all-volunteer society, without a guide, and yet each ant works. Thousands of ants may dwell in one ant colony, but every one of them pulls his own weight!

Ants work for a purpose. What is the purpose? To store all the food they can while they can.

Grasshoppers are lazy. They make no preparations and when winter comes, they die. Ants, on the other hand, believe in winter and by instinct they prepare for it. People prepare for this life – savings, insurance, retirement.

What kind a person do you want to be? Do you want to have the work ethic of an ant or the laziness of the grasshopper?

ants, cooperation, economy, money, Sunday School, work