Proverbs 10:26,  As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

What does vinegar do to the teeth?  What does smoke do to the eyes?

Whatever they do, so does the sluggard to them that send him.

There is no doubt that smoke irritates the eyes.

It causes the eyes to smart and it prevents clear and distinct vision.

Whenever you are around smoke the first thought that comes as that smoke enters the eyes is to get away from that smoke as fast as you can.

Smoke in the eyes brings disorientation and can even cause you to lose your balance and fall.

It is extremely irritating to the eyes and the body is so designed to be completely intolerant of it.

No one, absolutely no one can build up a tolerance of heavy smoke.

The body is not designed to do that.

What about vinegar?

Now vinegar is fine in its place.

It does a good job of flavoring foods and pickling cucumbers to make pickles.

But vinegar in the mouth is in the wrong place.

It should not be in there. The mouth is extremely intolerant of vinegar.

I have never tasted pure vinegar until I tasted it to get a better understanding of this proverb.

What is vinegar to the teeth?

Well you will soon learn about vinegar to the teeth by just taking a mouthful of vinegar, as I did.

I guarantee that your mouth will not tolerate vinegar.

Your mouth will be rebellious and erupt that vinegar quickly and expel it from your sight.

A volcano will take place on your face!

Your teeth will not be happy either as they will feel like they are getting soft.

They immediately start to pickle.

The acidity of vinegar causes an unpleasant and bitter taste.

It causes pain to the teeth and it starts softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone and impairs the texture of the teeth.

Given enough time the vinegar would bring the teeth to a condition useless for chewing!

Smoke and vinegar in the wrong place can not be tolerated.

Smoke and vinegar in the wrong place is extremely irritating

And so is a sluggard to them that send him.

God wants us to know his heart about faithlessness.

So he paints this picture of common ordinary things of life that are extremely irritating and compares those things to one who is not faithful.

We do not tolerate smoke in the eyes or vinegar against the teeth and neither should we tolerate faithlessness.

Picture a servant being sent on a mission.

He is expected to carry out that mission but he is a sluggard.

He is not dependable.

He is a continual aggravation and a loss to those who employ him.

He is like the servant who was given one talent, according to his several ability.

His master knew that he had the ability to do something with the talent otherwise he wouldn't have given him the talent.

The master does not waste talents.

But this servant was afraid to fail and blamed his fear on the master.

I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strowed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

What was the master's reaction?

Why the master was intolerant of that servant.

His intolerance was such that he was shocked by one who would not do what was expected.

His shock turned to anger that met the qualifications of:

Ephesians 4:26,  Be ye angry, and sin not:

He was extremely irritated at the servant.

I mean extremely irritated that the servant brought him no profit!

He was much more irritated than we would be because he fully expected that servant to bring him a profit instead of burying that talent for many months.

He was as irritated as if he had gargled his teeth with vinegar or had opened his eyes to heavy smoke.

Did he give that slothful servant another chance?

Did he try to make excuses for him?

Did he look into his background and consider from where he came?

No, because he did that before he gave him the one talent.

He wouldn't have given him the one talent if he did not think he was able to increase that talent and bring in a profit.

No, this experience revealed to the master that his servant was slothful and the master was intolerant of sloth.

Therefore he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who was faithful and he ordered that unprofitable servant to be cast into outer darkness.

There was weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The weeping was the servant who was cast into outer darkness blinded by the smoke of sloth.

But the gnashing of teeth was probably by the master who would not put up with an irritation of one so faithless.

The master would not permit the vinegar and the smoke of sloth to be around him.

He was intolerant of sloth, intolerant of faithlessness!

This is good intolerance, this is Biblical intolerance, this is holy intolerance, because each of us has been given a talent to use to bring a profit to the master.

We ought to be intolerant of anything that keeps us or other servants of God from doing that.

It is this intolerance that ought to move us to do something for God and to be a profitable servant not one who is a sluggard to them that send him.

We are to be the faithful messenger of Proverbs 25:13,  As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

God is looking for those on whom he can depend, those who are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

That is the kind of servant that refreshes the soul of his master.

Given at a Teacher Training Session

Proverbs 10:26,  As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

What is vinegar to the teeth? What is smoke to the eyes?

This proverb tells us that whatever they are, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

Now its interesting that the Lord gives us comparisons in the proverbs because he knows the limitations of our language in conveying what he truly means.

He wants us to know exactly how he feels about something so he uses comparisons to teach us.

No one doubts that smoke irritates the eyes.

Smoke causes the eyes to burn and to shed tears and smoke prevents clear and distinct vision.

Everybody knows that!

Whenever you are around smoke the first thought that comes as that smoke enters the eyes is to get away from that smoke as fast as you can.

No one stays in smoke so their eyes can be irritated.

Smoke in the eyes brings disorientation and can even cause you to lose your balance and fall.

That's happened to me.

I may be standing and burning trash and the wind is blowing away from me and all of a sudden that wind turns and blows heavy smoke right in my face.

That smoke, all of a sudden, can cause disorientation enough to make you lose your balance.

Smoke is extremely irritating to the eyes and the body is so designed to be completely intolerant of it.

No one, absolutely no one, can build up a tolerance to heavy smoke.

The body is not designed to get used to smoke!

Our Creator has not designed us to be tolerant of smoke in the eyes.

So smoke to the eyes is irritating.

What about vinegar?

Now vinegar is fine in its place.

We need vinegar to flavor foods.

Without vinegar how would you pickle cucumbers?

But pure vinegar in the mouth is in the wrong place.

It should not be in there.

The mouth is extremely intolerant of vinegar.

What is vinegar to the teeth?

Take a mouthful of vinegar and you will soon learn what vinegar does to the teeth.

I guarantee you that your mouth will not tolerate vinegar.

Your mouth will immediately desire to erupt that vinegar quickly and expel it from your sight.

You will have Mt. St. Helena of the face.

A volcanoe will take place from your mouth! I guarantee it!

Your teeth will not be happy because your teeth will immediately start feeling soft as they start to pickle.

That's what vinegar does.

And it has an affect of pickling your teeth because vinegar is acid.

It actually causes pain to the teeth and it starts softening and dissolving the alkali of the bone.

I tried it and it took me several hours to undo what it did.

I washed my mouth out with water and tried to get it all out but all of it wouldn't leave.

Given enough time the vinegar would bring the teeth to a condition useless for chewing as it softens the teeth.

Smoke and vinegar in the wrong place cannot be tolerated.

Smoke and vinegar in the wrong place are extremely irritating.

Now that's the message of this proverb. Irritating!

And so is a sluggard to them that send him. That is irritating!

And that's the message that God wants us to know.

He wants us to know his heart about faithlessness.

God is irritated about faithlessness..

He is so much irritated about faithlessness that there is no hope for those without faith. You understand that?

So he paints this picture of common ordinary things of life that are extremely irritating and compares those things to one who is not faithful.

You see, a sluggard is not faithful to those who send that sluggard on a mission.

That sluggard is not faithful in carrying out his charge, not faithful in carrying out the mission.

So he shows us and says:

Look at these two things, vinegar on the teeth and smoke in the eyes that is so irritating I want you to know my heart about the sluggard to them that send the sluggard.

Its irritating and its OK to be irritated!

In fact I want you to be irritated!

Oh, a Christian shouldn't be irritated!

Yes! a Christian should be irritated!

A Christian should be irritated about faithlessness!

We do not tolerate smoke in the eyes or vinegar against the teeth and neither should we tolerate faithlessness. God does not!

God does not and as children of God we are to tolerate that which God tolerates and we are to not tolerate that which God does not tolerate and God does not tolerate faithlessness!

This sluggard is like the servant who was given one talent, according to his several ability, the Bible says.

The Master gave to his servants five talents, two talents and one talent according to the servant's several ability.

Now that word several means pertaining to self.

In other words the Master was careful to know the unique abilities of each of his servants.

Our Pastor takes on someone in the ministry and watches him or her.

What is that person's several ability?

What abilities are unique to that person?

Now he doesn't say. Well they have a college degree.

They have a good background therefore I'll give him this.

No, he watches that person and he sees what the ability of that person is and then he gives a task to that person.

That's good management.

You don't load up on unknowns if you're a smart manager.

You check it out.

Find out what talent the Lord has given a person before attempting to use a talent that he may not have given.

That is faith in God.

The Lord said this person is a one talent person.

Now there is nothing wrong with being a one talent person as long as you're faithful with that talent.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that!

But the Lord looked at that person and he said that person can handle one talent for me.

I'm going to give that person one talent.

His master knew that he had the ability to do something with the talent otherwise he wouldn't have given him the talent.

This is a smart master. The master does not waste talents.

If you're a manager you don't waste your assets on people that can't perform.

If a person is good at doing a function and that is all they are doing and that's all that they can do that's what you let them do.

But if you see in that person something that leads you to believe that they can do something else you're going to also give that something else to that person.

That's good management.

And that's using what God has given you as a manager of his servants.

If you don't use the God given talents of his servants you may be the one burying the talent of another under a tree.

But this master does not waste talents and he only gives talents to those whom he knows are able to produce.

Now this servant was afraid to fail and he blamed his fear on the master.

The master expected his servants to be risk takers for him.

He did not expect his servants to be timid with his talents.

His talents were not to be saved but his talents were to be risked so that he could expect a profit.

His talents were to be invested for the Master, not hoarded!

But the servant replies to the Master,  I knew thee that thou art an hard man,

(Well you ought to praise the Lord for a hard man, you know a hard man makes you do excellent things, do you know that?

A hard man makes you do excellent things, a hard man makes you rise higher then you can by yourself.

But this person didn't appreciate that)

(I was so afraid! Weren't you afraid when the master came back and you had not had a profit? Didn't consider that!)

and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

Don't I get some applause for that?

No you don't! I don't need servants like this.

So what was the master's reaction?

Why the master was intolerant of that servant.

Don't you get that from the scriptures?

He's intolerant of the servant.

His intolerance was such that he was shocked by one who would not do what was expected.

That's the way a supervisor ought to be.

As a supervisor if I say go there, I expect you to go there.

I don't even give it a thought that you won't go there.

If I expect you to move this from there to there I expect that to happen.

I say to myself: Well I'll go away and I'll just come back and I'll see all those things over there.

That is the right of authority to expect!

I'm in a position where I can turn around and a year later I can see a big construction project finished simply because of my word.

I see to it that those who work for me are given the tools to do the work.

I know that they are mentally equipped to do the work and I expect performance.

I expect a profit from faithful exercise of the talents they have.

That's what authority expects.

So he was intolerant of this servant's faithlessness.

Now his shock turned to anger that met the qualifications of:

Ephesians 4:26,  Be ye angry, and sin not: Authority should do that.

You see his intolerance brought anger.

He was extremely irritated at the servant.

I mean extremely irritated that the servant brought him no profit and he had every right to be irritated!

If you're a supervisor, and your orders are not carried out you have a right to be angry.

You see, that is righteous indignation.

And you ought to exercise that.

As a mother, as a father, as a supervisor, as a teacher, as those in authority when your word is not carried out you ought to be irritated.

Why? That elevates faithfulness!

That lifts up faithfulness.

That puts a value on faithfulness.

What's the Bible say?

Without faith its impossible to please God.

And any time you can elevate that which pleases God you're doing well.

So he was extremely irritated.

He was much irritated because he fully expected that servant to bring him a profit instead of burying that talent for many months.

Wasn't he was going to a far country?

He was looking forward to coming home and seeing what the servants had done, giving them a "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

He had that desire in his heart.

Oh, its going to be so good. I've given these servants opportunity.

I've given this one five. I wonder what he'll bring me?

I've given this one two, I know he'll bring me at least two more?

I've given this one, one. I know he is able.

I've carefully evaluated him and I know that he can bring me a profit.

Maybe he'll surprise me and bring me five.

And all this time he's in this far country and he wants to come home and reward his servants.

He loves to reward faithful servants.

Rewarding faithfulness is his most favorite thing.

He delights in it and he wants to give his servants a "Well Done, thou good and faithful servant."

But one of them lets him down.

Don't you think he ought to be irritated?

He was as irritated as if he had gargled his teeth with vinegar and had opened his eyes to heavy smoke, both at the same time.

He was not only irritated for not getting a profit he was irritated because that servant had not earned his "Well Done!"

Did he give that slothful servant another chance?

Did he try to make excuses for him?

Did he look into his background and consider from where he came?

Did your mother disturb you when you were a child?

Did you have a tough upbringing?

Oh, I'm so sorry for you servant.

I shouldn't have put the load on you.

I just shouldn't have put the load on you.

I must have been wrong in my evaluation of your abilities.

No, he didn't think that way!

He didn't think that way because he did that before he gave him the one talent.

He measured his ability and he said this person is able to do this and I'm going to give him the talent and I expect a profit.

God knows what you can do!

He wouldn't have given him the one talent if he did not think he was able to increase that talent and bring in a profit.

Those in authority have a big responsibility to judge what talents they give to people.

When I say talents I'm saying responsibilities.

You just don't dump responsibilities on people.

You measure, you see if they are able, you watch them.

You give them smaller jobs and see how they function.

Then when they are ready, you give them that extra and see what they do.

This experience revealed to the master that his servant was slothful and the master was intolerant of sloth.

That is the message for us. We are to be intolerant of sloth.

Don't permit your students be slothful in their God given abilities.

You as a teacher are a supervisor of your students.

You are to see to it that they learn faithfulness.

You are to see to it that they are not slothful.

We are to be intolerant, we're to throw a hissy when something comes about like that.

We're to be angry and not tolerate it!

So therefore he didn't look in to his background, didn't listen to any sad stories, didn't listen to any excuses.

Therefore he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who was faithful and he ordered that unprofitable servant to be cast into outer darkness.

Talk about a drastic step! Talk about irritation!

Would you think of handling sloth in that manner?

That master must really feel strong about faithfulness.

He must have been more irritated than any of us have ever been.

But he took that servant to Cape Canaveral and launched him into outer space.

There was weeping and there was gnashing of teeth.

The weeping was by the servant who was cast into outer darkness blinded by the smoke of sloth.

Why didn't he weep before?

Why didn't he weep to the Lord to help him to not be afraid?

Why didn't he call upon the grace of God to help him do right, but now he chose to weep when it was too late.

The weeping was by the servant but the gnashing of teeth was probably by the master who would not put up with an irritation of one so faithless.

The master would not permit the vinegar and the smoke of sloth to be around him.

I don't put up with servants like this he said.

And I want my other servants to know that.

He was intolerant of sloth, intolerant of faithlessness!

This is God who we are talking about.

God is intolerant of faithlessness for without faith it is impossible to please God.

Boy, we ought to get that into our heads.

Put that on the frontlets of our eyes.

We ought to put it on the doorposts. You want to please God?

Be faithful. So he is intolerant of sloth, intolerant of faithlessness.

This is good intolerance, this is Biblical intolerance, this is holy intolerance, because each of us has been given a talent to use to bring profit to the master.

God didn't put us here for nothing.

You know most humankind goes about padding their own nests when they ought to be padding God's nest!

We are so interested in our own selves and in our own profit to the exclusion of any profit for God.

God didn't put you here to use up his assets for nothing.

We ought to be intolerant of anything that keeps us or other servants of God from doing that.

It is this intolerance that ought to move us to do something for God and to be a profitable servant.

Not one who is a sluggard to them that send him!

How dependable are you to be about the Father's business?

We are to be the faithful messenger of Proverbs 25:13:

This is the message of the Christian.

As the cold of snow (that's expected isn't it, that's what's normal,) in the time of harvest, (the cold of snow is coming, that's expected) so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: (that's expected of you, nothing unreasonable) for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

You want to refresh the soul of God?

Be faithful, be faithful. Do what your supposed to do.

God is looking for those on whom he can depend, those who are in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

That's all you have to do.

As the supervisors walks the halls of our Christian School they want to know that each teacher and worker is faithfully doing what is expected of them.

Being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

That's the faithful servant, that's the kind of servant that refreshes the soul of his master.

I know that from personal experience.

As a supervisor, as one in authority, I expect a person to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

And if they do that I'm happy.

We're happy and we like to be happy. We like to be happy.

We all like to be happy but if we're not happy then nobody's happy.

That is the kind of servant that refreshes the soul of his master.

Be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.