Keep the Ox, Clean the Crib

I'm going to take a break from Acts just for this morning. To be honest, I studied the passage we came to all week. I read a bunch of commentaries. I listened to other people preach it. I just couldn't come to a clear understanding of what God wanted to teach us in it so I'm calling a last-minute audible and I'm going to preach something else and save that message for next Sunday.

I want to preach a short message this morning from a Proverb I've preached on before. It was a proverb that they hammered into us in Bible college and it's something that I think about all the time.

We are about to get really, really busy around the church.

We are hustling to get our church fellowship hall back open. We are going to be starting up our co-op again. We are going to be having fall revival and the family picnic. We are going to be starting up master clubs again. We are going to begin working on our Christmas cantata soon We are going to be resuming the outreach efforts we started. In other words, we are going to have a lot going on. And do you know what? You probably have a lot going on outside of church too. If you have kids at home they are getting back into the schoolyear. You might have fall sports. Hunting season. Harvest. All kinds of stuff.

I have a verse from Proverbs that I think will help us through all of that. Turn with me to Proverbs 14:4.

Really short scripture this morning:

"Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox."

This is one of the strangest verses in the whole Bible. It's really weird. You can't go by context to understand it because there really isn't any. It's a Proverb that stands on it's own.

And it doesn't make sense to us. Not on it's face. So you have to know a little bit about history and the culture of the Bible to understand what this verse is saying.

I want to work backwards. Ok. So I'll explain the last part of the verse first. It says:

but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

This is a farming verse. If you were a farmer in Bible times, you had it rough. Today they have tractors and all of the implements that go with them. They have giant machines for watering the field and fertilizing. They have multi-disk plows. You can sit in your air conditioned tractor and get most of your work done. Come harvest season you can harvest amazingly well in a combine.

(Brother Harold, did I make it sound like I know anything about farming? Good.)

But if you lived before about 200 years ago - you didn't have any of that stuff. We were in Cracker Barrell with some old friends Friday and Molly was looking at the farm impliments on the wall and asking me what they do. Most of them were manual.

Regular farmers plowed their fields with hoes. They reaped with a sickle. They planted with their hands. It was backbreaking work and you barely got enough to keep your family fed.

But what if you had an ox? You could hook up a plow to an ox and the ox would do most of the dirty work. You could hook up a wagon to the ox and it could pull your stuff along side of you. You could hook a rake up to it to pull hay. This might suprise you - but I read a long article that was talking about how oxen are still used today on farms. The article was saying that if you have a small farm, an ox might be better for you than a tractor. It was really interesting. I learned that an oxen is just a cow with a job title. A cow that has been trained to do things around the farm and I learned how amazingly useful a well trained ox is to a small farmer.

And do you know that they were farming with oxen in ancient Egypt, using all kinds of impliments, 1,000 years before Proverbs was written. So that's what the last half of this verse is saying, it's saying, if you want to have a farm and get some real work done, you've got to get an ox.

Ok, now let's look at the first half. The first half says:

"Where no oxen are the crib is clean."

Ok. What does that mean?

This is where it gets a little scatological. A little gross.

The crib is the place in the barn where the oxen live. Today we'd call it a stall. And when you have an ox - suddenly you have problems. You have to feed the ox. You have to keep hay through the winter. And wort of all - you have to clean it's stall.

So if you want to have a successful farm - you have to have an ox. But if you get an ox, you have to clean it's droppings.

So what does this mean? Is this just a verse for farmers? Can we just cut this verse out of the Bible because it doesn't apply to us?

No! This verse teaches us a very powerful principle. One that applies whether you are a farmer or a coder. Whether you are a lawyer or a housewife. Whether you are a nurse or a student. No matter what God has you doing with your life - you can learn from this verse and it applies to the church too.

So what's the principle? Matthew Henry - the preacher from the 1700s, put it this way:

There can be no advantage without something which, though of little moment, will affright the indolent --Matthew Henry

Ellicot said it this way:

...labour has its disagreeable aspect, but also brings its reward, whether material prosperity (“much increase”) or a more enduring reward.

Barnes said it this way:

" Labor has its rough, unpleasant side, yet it ends in profit. "

Here's how I'm going to put it: If you want to do something worth doing - it's going to make a mess and it's going to have unpleasant or difficult parts. But if you deal with the difficulty and the mess, you have to possibility of doing something worth doing.

Can I just sort of talk at you for a little bit? Do you know what I'm sick of? Do nothing people. Our society is eat up with do nothing people. We've got a generation of people that expect to be able to make a living and play video games for 6 hours a day. We've got people that want to stay in their pajamas until 4 in the afternoon. We've got a whole host of people who are little snowflakes who never want to be outside of their comfort zone. They just want to stay in their air conditioned comfort and read their entertainment magazines and eat their fast food. They expect the best things in life to be just given to them without them ever having to really work at them.

It's a cancer. It's a cancer on society.

Do something! Find something worth fighting for. Worth working for. And do it. Swim against the current a little bit.

You can break a sweat. It doesn't hurt. You can wake up early. You can stay up late. You can spend yourself at something worthwhile.

When I was a schoolteacher I used to read my students this book about a real life sailor named Nathaniel Bowditch. Nathaniel Bowditch had a motto. The motto was "Sail by ash breeze." In other words, when the wind isn't blowing and filling your sails, take out your oars (they were made of ash wood) and make your own wind.

Our society needs more people who are willing to sail by ash breeze.

Kids. Teenagers. You find out what God wants you to do in this life and you give everything you have on it. If God wants you to be a lawyer - you be the best lawyer you can possibly be for the glory of God. If God wants you to work a job - you work hard at constantly getting better. You take the talents that God has given you and you give God back what He gave with interest.

Don't just float with the current. Any dead fish can do that. You swim against the stream.

If you are going to do something worth doing there are going to be parts of it - like cleaning up the ox stall - that totally stink. Do it anyways.

Now, let me try to give you some kind of an outline so I don't just rant for the next 15 minutes. I've got four points. Each applies to our personal lives as well as to church so I'll make application in each area.

The first point is:

1. If it's worth doing, it's going to bring a mess. If you have oxen - you are going to have oxen dung in the barn. You can't have one without the other. They go together. They are two sides of the same coin.

So it is in life - if it's worth doing - it's often going to make a mess.

If you want a living example of that go to the fellowship hall right now. Talk about a mess. We've got paint dust covering the floor. Chairs and tables moved all over the place. We have one of our sunday school classes meeting in the nursery. The nursery!

It looks better now than it did at the beginning. We had ceiling tiles everywhere. Piles of metal. It was a mess.

But do you know what - there is no way to get that fellowship hall looking nice than by making a mess.

Some of you hate this. You just want everything left the way it is. The way it's always been. If anything changes at all you pitch a fit. You get your whine on.

If you want to have an ox, if you want to have progress, you are going to have a mess.

We like things just so. Nice and neat and tidy. Put in nice little rows in the middle of our comfort zone - but nothing happens without messing that up.

We talk about wanting to see people saved and join the church. Do you know that when that happens - it always brings a mess. People bring their problems with them. They bring their past. They bring their scars and their tattoos and their culture and their bad habits.

It's just like when a new baby is born. So much potential. So many diapers.

Some of you would never say this - but you don't want to change spiritual diapers. You just want to leave things the way they are.

Let me move on to the second point...

2. If it's worth doing, it's probably going to bring difficulty. Look. Oxen need to be fed. They need to be trained. You have to yoke them up with another oxen for years before they are really useful. They bring with them a host of difficulty.

And so does anything else worth doing. It comes with difficulty.

Want to plant a garden - you are going to have to pull the weeds. Want a clean orderly house - you have to do the dishes and run the vaccuum. Want to raise godly kids - you are going to have to throw your heart and your time into that. It's going to take putting your hobbies on hold for awhile. Want to start a business - you are going to have to wade through all kinds of problems. Want to be a doctor - you are going to have to clean the crib of years of homework and study and discipline.

In the church - if we want to start a new ministry their is going to be difficulty.

Whatever it is, if it's worht doing, it's going to have some degree of difficulty.

Thomas Edison said

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Edison

You have the opportunity to do amazing things for God, but it's going to involve rolling up your sleeves and getting out of your comfort zone.

A guy named Alex Harris said this:

“Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.” --Alex Harris

If it's worth doing, it's going to have messes and it's going to have difficulty.

So the third point is:

3. If we run from the mess and the difficulty, we won't accomplish much. The ancient farmer could have said "I don't like shoveling ox poop so I'm not going to have an ox."

O.k. That's fine. But you aren't going to have much of a farm either.

That's what most people do. They run from difficulty and because they run from difficulty they never see much in the way of results.

If you are out on the prairie with a herd of cows on one side of you and a herd of buffalo on the other, and it starts to storm, you'll notice something interesting. When it starts to storm - cows always run away from the storm. It's hard wired into them. But when it starts to storm near buffalo - they always run toward the storm.

Now, here is what's interesting. Because cows aren't very fast - they never outrun the storm. They end up running with the storm and staying under the storm cloud longer. Buffaloe aren't too fast either, but because they are running toward the storm, the storm is going one way and they are going the other and they spend as little time under the storm as possible.

Don't be a cow. Don't run away from difficulty. Run away from messes. When you run away from stuff and choose the path of least resistance - it always causes a bigger mess later. You never get the great results of the guy who stuck with it.

Don't make excuses.

Remember the parable of the talents. One guy got 5 talents, one guy got 3, one guy got one. Then the master went away and told them to invest it. Well, the guy with 3 and the guy with 5 doubled the masters money - but the guy with one buried it and made excuses. How did that work out for him?

Listen church - one day we will stand before God and give account. All those excuses you tell yourself - do you really think God is going to listen to them? Do you think he'll be impressed with them? Or do you think he'll say "you slothful and wicked servant?"

Do you want to be able to give Him what He deserves - or do you want to give Him excuses?

One more point and I'll close:

4. If we accept the difficulty and the mess, and push through them, we can accomplish much. If you were a farmer with sense you would say "Do you know what, I want to be able to farm 30 acres instead of just 2, I don't want to break my back, so that's worth cleaning out a stall every now and then."

Embrace the difficulty. Embrace the mess. Deal with it. Keep trying and much increase will come.

I remember in the 90's, I had an uncle that was into bodybuilding and he used to wear a t-shirt all the time that said "no pain, no gain." That's a principle of life. That's what this verse is teaching us. If you want the gain - you have to deal with the pain.

I think of my generation. So many young people just expect to have all that their parents had and they don't stop to think about all of the sacrifices their parents made to afford that house or to go on that vacation. If you want to succeed in what God has called you to do - it's going to take some serious rolling up the sleeves and just dealing with it.

Now, listen church, this message isn't very "spiritual." At least not in one sense. It's a practical message that could be applied to anybody - whether they are Christians or not.

But it's a Bible message. Honestly - it's the message some of you need to hear. Some of you would see so many of the problems you are dealing with melt away if you just determined you were going to keep the ox and clean the crib in your personal life. Some of you need to work harder. To save more. To get out of your comfort zone. God has great things for your life - don't settle for the easy things.

Some of you need to determine that you are going to start serving the Lord more. I'll be honest - there are people in our church who never do any kind of service. You have no ministry. You can make whatever excuse you want but it comes down to you don't want to clean the crib. You don't want to sign up to help in Patch clubs because you'd have to give up Thursday evenings. You don't want to join the choir because someone will start missing you if you don't show up on Sunday Evening.

Some of you are going to lose your kids. You'll make every excuse in the book. But God knows you just didn't want to clean the crib. You made excuses. You ran from pain. You'll get pain later on.

This is a tough message. It's an odd message. But it's a necessary one.

Turn with me to one more passage and we'll close. I want to close on an encouraging note. Turn with me to Galatians 6. Look at verse 9.

This morning I've been telling you that if you run from difficulty and always try to stay in your comfort zone - you aren't going to do anything worth doing. There is a flip side to that. And that's this. Look at verse 9:

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. --Galatians 6:9

If you keep plugging away at what God has given you to do. If you keep cleaning that crib and working that ox. You will reap.

So what has God been speaking to you about this morning? What is that next step of service or sacrifice that God wants you to take but you've been making excuses?

Is there some change you need to make in your home life?

Is there some habit you've run away from you need to start up?

Is there some place of service you know God is moving you towards that you've been running away from?

Keep the ox and clean the crib.

"Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox."

Let me close by saying one more thing. Maybe you are in here and you've never been saved. You've never accepted Christ's free gift of Salvation. It's a free gift for you. But it wasn't a free gift for Him. In order to offer you Salvation He came and lived the perfect life you can't live and took the wrath of God on the cross.