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So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Stock up and save big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories and more must haves for summer. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack, study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC and for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal college deal everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more@windows.com studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30 terms@ aka mscollegepc what's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver Podcast. I'm Bryce and today by the title of this episode, we're going to be talking about something that I think Gen Z and a lot of people are riddled with. We're going to be talking about sloth and laziness. What this looks like definitionally, what the Bible says about it and how we can overcome it. You see, sloth is extreme laziness. It's extreme laziness and passivity that comes from a lack of purpose and passion for God. Romans 12, verse 11 tells us, do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord whenever we become lazy and slothful, whether it be in day to day life, whether it be with something God's called us to do, whether it be, you know, something that is very plain and bland, good or bad, rainy or sunny day. We are lacking this zeal and passion and gratitude for the life that God has given us. And Paul says right off the bat in Romans 12, he's like, look, don't be slothful in zeal. Like, don't be lazy in your passion for me. Be fervent in spirit. Be excited about the day because there are people that didn't wake up today that you've woken up. There are people that went to bed last night and didn't wake up today. There are people that don't have the abilities and the talents that you have. There are people that don't have arms or legs or mute or deaf or whatever it may be. So many people have different things. So you should be grateful for the position that God has you and be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. Be excited about where he has you. And that excitement should lead you in obedience and servitude to the Lord. And so if we have this deep laziness and passivity because we lack care and depth and gravity for the responsibilities that God has given us, this might be a sign of sloth or laziness because we're lacking purpose and passion. You see, when we are lazy or we procrastinate or we have sloth, we are slapping God in the face for the life that he has given us. We are not grateful that we woke up today. We are not grateful for our talents. We are not grateful for the position that he's put us in, the friends that he's put in our way, whatever it may be. We are slapping him in the face and saying, I wish you gave it to someone else. That's why the parable of the talents is so interesting, because we don't talk about passivity. The last guy that was given talents, he goes and buries it out of fear. So, yeah, maybe sloth and laziness may stem from actual sadness and lack of purpose and passion. Maybe you might be lazy because you're afraid. You're afraid you're gonna misuse a gift. You're afraid you're gonna do something wrong. You're gonna make a mistake, whatever that may be. Maybe you're burying it in fear. And when we set our gifts and talents or responsibilities on the shelf out of fear or laziness, whatever it may be, we slap God in the face and say, God, I'm not grateful for the position that you've put me in. And so sloth is either two things, okay? Sloth can either be inactivity, right? Laziness, or something like that. Or it can be restless, hyperactivity. I believe that the devil can't make you sin. He'll make you busy. And he'll make you busy because you try to find satisfaction, significance and security in the things that you do. And you are on this endless loophole of whatever that looks like. But mainly, sloth and laziness comes from inactivity, lack of purpose and passion. We're going to read Proverbs and what it talks about in Proverbs 6 and Proverbs 13 and 12 and stuff like that. We're going to read about what it talks about, about laziness and sloth. But we need to understand something. Laziness. And you might be experiencing laziness because you have a lack of care for the responsibilities that God has given you. You are slothful in zeal, like Romans 12 says. Rather, you have to look at the responsibilities that God has given you, not as a burden, but as a joy, because he trusts you with a will. He trusts you with things. And we're going to talk a little bit about Sabbath and how I believe there's like this, an interesting culture around Sabbath and why I think Sabbath is so important, and some cool stories. But second, sloth can come from, like a sadness of sorrow. Come from sadness and sorrow that leads to despair. And that's why I love what Proverbs 6 talks about combating laziness. You know what it says in Proverbs 6, verse 6? It says, Go to the ant, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise. And this is what I love about about it. Verse 7. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. So not only will you lack purpose and zeal, but there will be physical repercussions for being passive, for procrastinating, for being lazy. And what I love about this passage, when it pertains to laziness and sloth, is it says, observe the ant, look at the ant, look at the life of the ant. And oftentimes, like, I'm only thinking about an ant when I need to stomp on it or squash or whatever it may be. Solomon is like, no, look at the life of an ant. It's actually super profound. You know why it's profound? Is because they don't have a queen bee telling them what to do. They don't have a general manager bossing them around. They don't have a mom or dad telling them what to do. They are motivated. They are motivated to do the work that they were designed to do. You were designed for. For work. Good work. Let our good works be shown before men so that it gives glory to our Father who is in heaven. You see our devotion to the Lord and our gratitude for responsibilities that he's given us shines that we serve a creator. It shines that we love Jesus. And when we walk out the call of God, that God has placed us in our place in our lives, or when we walk out responsibilities that he's trusted us with, or we live this thing out and we do good work, it's not for our own sake, but it's to point to someone who has given us purpose. You see, we look for purpose and destiny in sin and people and sports and so many other things that leave us hopeless. Rather than finding our purpose, identity and destiny in Jesus Christ and allowing the things that he has given us, the talents, the responsibilities, whatever it may be, we allow those things to point back to Him. Because that's what it's all about, is letting those things that he has given us point back to Him. Look at what Proverbs 13, verse 4 says about about laziness and sloth. It says, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Let's talk about this. When it comes to laziness and sloth, we oftentimes ask God to do things, and when he doesn't do them, we act like God is mean, when really you're just being lazy. The reality is, is God has given you a sound mind. God has given you a body. God has given you limbs. God has given you purpose, personality, talents, gifts, abilities and things to accomplish these goals. So you can't get mad at the Holy Spirit for not doing something that you're able to do, okay? That's like me looking at the camera and going, holy Spirit, bring that camera into my hand. It's like, why don't I just stand up and go over there and get the camera, okay? In the same way you can't get mad at the Holy Spirit for things that you are practically able to do. You're just being lazy and you're slapping God in the face and it's just the soul of the slugger craves and gets nothing. Hey, real quick, before we keep going, I have an announcement I've been really excited to make. I'm officially announcing our ministry's biggest live event ever, Open Heaven. It's happening Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 7:30pm at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. This is going to be a night centered around worship, faith and genuine community. All of us together in one room, encountering God in person. There's going to be live worship and really special moments throughout the night. Tickets are on sale right now. Head to brycecrawford.org tour or click the link in the description below to grab yours. And please only buy through my official site or that link. Do not buy from random resellers online. A lot of them are scams. I genuinely believe this is going to be a night people carry with them for a long time. I would love to see you there. All right, back to the episode. The soul of the lazy man wants everything handed to him on a silver platter, okay? And he gets nothing. You know why? Because he's not reaping the hard work that he has sown in. But what does he say? While the soul of the diligent is richly supplied? I'll give you a prime example. I. In the mornings, before 10am I have a couple things I gotta do. I gotta. I gotta walk my dog and go on a prayer walk. I gotta read my Bible in the morning and I've gotta work out. Those are my things. And the workout part is so hard for me mentally because there's so many days I don't want to wake up. Or I wake up and I'm like, man, that pillow feels a little extra comfortable. Or, man, I don't feel like working out. My body's sore or I'm tired or I didn't get enough sleep. But when I go work out, there's a couple things that happen. Spiritually, I am grateful that I honored God with my body. I'm grateful that he allowed me to wake up. I'm grateful that we have muscles and joints and the ability to go work out and sweat and put in the hard work. But physically, I find this satisfaction where I go, wow, I did something hard. This encourages me to do more hard things. The fact that I got up and conquered this thing and I was diligent, this supplies me richly and fuels me in a way where I'm motivated to serve my wife, serve my friends, serve the people that are a part of our ministry, to serve people that I've never met. All because we honor God not in laziness, but in deed, in action. We actually need to take action when it comes to the things that we have in our lives and the responsibilities that we have. Because, like I said again, and I'm going to keep repeating myself, but it's important that we notice this. Notice this. Whenever we are lazy, we slap God in the face with a lack of gratitude. Now, there's a difference between rest and laziness, and we'll get there in a second. What does Proverbs 26 say in verse 13? The sluggard says, there's a line in the road, there's a line in the streets. And as the door turns on its hinges, so does the slugger on his bed. You know what the lazy man does? He goes, there's responsibilities to be done. I'll do them later we want to talk about laziness, but we don't want to talk about procrastination. Procrastination stems and breeds and fuels off of laziness and it comes back and bites you in the tail. But let's talk about rest. You see, Sabbath is important. Selah. You see these breaks in the Psalms? Selah. Selah just means to rest. Break Sabbath. What does that look like? Sometimes Christians can take Sabbath culture and create laziness out of Sabbath culture. So you go, I need to rest. I need rest. I need rest. I need rest. Yes, we do. The reason why I love the Sabbath so much is we take a Sabbath. My Sabbath's personally. Sundays, I go to the local church, I spend time with my wife, I spend time with life giving friends. That's not just reading your Bible. And I don't do any work. I don't get on my phone much. And I rest. And that rest. The Lord created the earth in six days, created the universe in six days. And what did he do? He rested on the seventh day. You see, Sabbath was designed for mankind, not for us to legalistically approach the Sabbath. Sabbath was made for us. We do need rest. In fact, the Sabbath day of rest fuels the other six days of work. I was really thinking about this. Today is Tuesday. On Monday, yesterday I was thinking, man, I'm so glad I Sabbathed yesterday, because for me, it's uncomfortable. I'm from the South, I like to work hard. I like to, you know, go the extra mile. It's just that, that's just what I like to do. And so sometimes I can laugh, I can like ignore the Sabbath, but I've been trying to make a consistent habit of not ignoring the Sabbath. And I was like, man, God, I'm so glad that I Sabbathed on Sunday. Even though it feels uncomfortable to my flesh, because I feel sharper, I feel ready. I'm excited, I'm pumped about the week. I feel fuel. I feel like I actually have fuel in my tank to accomplish the things that you have trusted me with. But when we take the Sabbath to go, yeah, you know, I need more than just one Sabbath. I need to like, you know, rest. And I need to do that. We create a culture of laziness and then we create a culture of passivity. Passivity isn't Sabbath, it's sin. Laziness isn't a label for Sabbath, isn't a label for laziness. It's sin. Passivity isn't Sabbath, it's sin. And in fact, I don't Want to. I love what Tim Tebow says about this because he has a great balance and he has great stuff on Sabbath and hard work. He says, I don't want to get to heaven well rested. And what he means by that and what I mean by that is I don't want to get to heaven and go, yeah, God, I was more focused on just not using and not taking responsibility for the things that you've trusted me with and not using the gifts that you've given me for your glory. I just, just felt like chilling. It's like, no, I don't want to get to heaven well rested in the sense that, yes, I want to find consistent rhythms of Sabbath in my life and in your life. I want you to find the same that fuel you. And I want to use the moments that I have with my breath and ability and actions and strength physically, emotionally and spiritually. Talents, gifts, responsibilities for his glory, expand his kingdom, make impact for the kingdom of heaven, whatever it may be. And the reality is, if you sit back, God will use someone else. And in my mind and in my heart, I'm like, man God, I want you to use all of us. Use me, use you, use whoever you are watching or listening to this. We should desire for God to use us. And he wants to use us. But we have to be willing and able vessels to do so. Let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for our bodies, we thank you for our minds, we thank you for our souls, we thank you for will. God, we thank you for your overall will for every believer, but your specific will for each individual watching or listening in this God, would you just give us passion and zeal for you? We don't want to be lazy in your zeal. We don't want to be slothful in your zeal. Like Paul writes in Romans 12, we want to be fervent in spirit, excited about the responsibility and talents you've given us to serve you, God. And we want to use it for your glory, not for ourself. We don't want to build our kingdom, we want to build your kingdom. We want to grow your kingdom. And we know God, we're not doing you a favor. You don't need us, you want us. And that's the beauty of using our actions, talents, bodies and gifts for your glory. So God, we love you. We rebuke any laziness in Jesus name God, would you give us discipline and strategy, surround us with godly friendships that would challenge us to continue to walk out not laziness but activity to not live in passivity. 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