6. Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8. yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at the harvest. 9. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—11. and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

This morning I want to talk about ants. We see ants everywhere. Especially here in Baguio I can see many ants in my room. They can come in my house from everywhere. They are so annoying me. We cannot sit and eat or drink something without having an ant crawl up our legs or bodies. Like this ants are everywhere around us.

But did you know that ants can lift 20 times their own body weight? Did you know that some ants live for about 45-60 days? Did you know that adult ants cannot chew and swallow food? Did you know that ants are very clean and neat insects? Did you know that some ants sleep 7 hours a day? Did you know that there are more than 12,000 different types of ants worldwide? Why did God tell us to consider the ways of an ant? What can we learn from these tiny creatures?

1. Ants are communal.

The word 'Communal' means living together in communities or organized groups. Likewise ants live together in organized group and we call this organized group as colony. In one colony there are basically three types of ants: queen, male and female. The job of the queen is to lay eggs. The males generally do nothing. They wander around accepting food until time comes for mating. After mating, they die. Workers are generally sterile females which means they can not have babies. Worker ants have different tasks. They are foragers, defenders, caretakers. Because ants each have a special task, they help the colony be survived by doing their tasks. Ants are sacrificing themselves for the good of the colony. When we look at ants, they don’t live for themselves. They have a very short life, but they live to help the other members of the colony. The little ants we can see easily around us are risking their lives every day. If one ant fails to do the job, that means it was killed by someone’s foot. And then another ant will take the position to continue the job. If they don’t, they know that the colony can not be survived. The worker ant has two stomachs. one for himself, and the other for storing food for the other ants. Usually soldier ants cannot feed themselves so the worker ants will feed them.

I am humbled when I think about this fact. How many of us here are able to say that we will die for the person next to us? How many will be able to say, I will take over someone’s duties in church, or at work, when the person next to us is not able to? How many of us will be able to say 'I will feed other people and not just myself?' When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he wasn't talking about just our family members. He was talking about everyone. So we can learn cooperation and sacrificing ourselves for others.

2. Ants are diligent.

We are very familiar with this idea from Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. There was a grasshopper who was very lazy. All he did was sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. There was an ant who was preparing for the winter season by collecting as much food as she could. The grasshopper saw how hard the ant worked and laughed at her. But when winter came, the grasshopper was very cold and had no food to eat. The ant was inside where it was nice and warm and had plenty to eat. The grasshopper asked the ant for some food but she refused, and the grasshopper died outside in the cold.

Because of this story, we know that ants are very diligent workers. Proverbs has important things to say about laziness. To the writer of Proverbs, a lazy person is so lazy that he will put his hand in the dish, but will not even bring his hand back up to his mouth to feed himself (Prov 19:24). People do not want to admit this, and may not even know this, but laziness is a sin in God’s eyes.

In every day life, we have to make a choice, whether we want to be diligent, or whether we want to be lazy. People who are lazy usually delay to do something. For many of us, we know the work that we have to do, but it's problem to take times in doing it. Some of us take it easy at work, because no one is watching what we are doing. A lazy person will not finish things. A lazy person never takes responsibility for his duties. If we are lazy with our responsibilities, we will also be lazy in our spiritual lives. We will say like these... 'Wait God, I’m busy. After I finish my homework, I'll read the bible. After I take the test, I'll pray more. After I finish this project at work, I'll start going to church more regularly.' So when we say about lazy... there is no enthusiasm, no joy in doing our tasks. We may think If we wait long enough, someone will help us with our task, or even do the task for us. We tell ourselves, not to work so hard. We look around and see people around us being lazy, and convince ourselves to do exactly the same thing. Why should I work so hard when I am getting paid the same amount as the other person, who does nothing?

When we work hard, it is a sign that we are being faithful to God. Prov 10:4 says that lazy hands make a man poor but diligent hands bring wealth. It is a known fact the harder you work, the more productive you will be and the more money you will earn. God will bless you for your hard work. Whatever you need to do this week, make plans and then complete them. Vs. 9 says, ‘how long will you lie there, you sluggard?’ If we are being lazy, we need to ask ourselves, ‘how long will I stay at this same point?' Sleeping means being satisfied with what I am now. No need to do more. This is just idleness or lazy.

3. Ants are persistent

Persistence takes a lot of patience, a lot of effort, and a lot of hope. In this point of view ants are very persistent. When we flick ants away, they'll come back and keep coming back. If you kill an ant, another member of the colony will come back again and again. They diligently search for food. Ants are a great example of keeping eyes fixed on the goal and not being discouraged.

God asks us to be persistent, not only in every day living, but to be persistent in the way that we seek Him. He asks us to fix our eyes upon Him and upon His goals. Though we get knocked down on the way, we need to get up again and again. There is nothing that should keep us away from our Lord, even though we are discouraged and interrupted.

Paul ask us through the book of Romans 8:35 like this... "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" And he give answer through 38-39 like this.... "38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Are we persistent in our prayer life? Do we ask God for things again and again even if it may take 10 years? Are we persistent in living a righteous life? No matter what others do, are we choosing to take a different path and live a life of integrity?

There are some people who is like grasshoppers and some people who are like ants. We may say that this is a personality difference as God created us differently, but to be honest with you, some of us are lazy, some of us are delayers, and some of us are diligent. Not because we were created in that way, but because we choose to be that way. But here is what God says to us through these verses. He says "look at the little ant and observe the way ants work, and learn something from them." Although they may be weak in our eyes, there is so much to learn from them. At least we can be better than they are... Let us pray together.

[prayer]

Heavenly Father, We thank you for this wonderful day and this congregation. You bless us and this church so much that today we may meet together in this worship place to worship you, Lord. Heavenly Father, you strengthen us with holy spirit so we may be persistent and diligent in not only our secular lives but in our spiritual lives also as the ants. So may much passion, more strong enthusiasm, and much joy be filled in our daily lives. I pray in Jesus' name. A-men.