In 'The Lion,' Mike Davenport explores the metaphor of the lazy man's fear of lions in Proverbs 22 and 26 to highlight how laziness leads to fear, excuses, and inactivity. He argues that young men often create imaginary dangers to avoid their responsibilities, a behavior that must be overcome to fulfill their duties. Davenport contrasts this with biblical figures like David, Daniel, Benaiah, and Samson, who faced real lions through faith, duty, deliverance, and the power of the Spirit. He encourages young men to face challenges head-on, driven by faith rather than fear, and to follow the example of William Whiting Borden, who lived by the principles of 'no reserves, no retreats, no regrets.' The sermon calls for a rejection of imaginary fears and an embrace of one's God-given responsibilities, underscoring the importance of spiritual readiness and commitment to duty.

As was already discussed and announced, we are talking about young men and those with whom they will come into contact, who they will meet along the way. And we come this hour to the young man and the lion the young man and the lion so look with me at verse 13 of Proverbs 22 the lazy man says there is a lion outside I shall be slain in the streets. And this was an important enough topic for Solomon that he repeats it. Turn a few pages over to chapter 26. Chapter 26, verse 13 as well.

The lazy man says, There is a lion in the road, A fierce lion is in the streets. As a door turns on its hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed. The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl. It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly." So we see here in these two passages an introduction of a lazy man, a lazy man who cries out.

There's a lion in the streets. See the source of this is laziness. And so we see first of all from this verse, boys who fame lions. They fame lions. They fantasize.

They make them up. It's not really true. It's not really there. Because they are lazy. The source of such feigning is laziness or sloth.

And you see in this passage what happens is this laziness gives way to fear. It gives way to fear. And this fear gives way to excuse, to excuse. And then the excuse gives way to inactivity. Use gives way to inactivity.

It all begins with a lazy spirit that finds a way to remain inactive. As we saw in chapter 26 in the verses following, verse 13, the lazy man just turns on his bed as if he's a door on its hinges. He puts his hand in the bowl to take something to eat, and he's too lazy to bring his hand back up to his mouth. And so because of his laziness leading to this inactivity, he's a fearful man and he comes up with excuses as to why he cannot do the things he is supposed to do. There's a lion in the streets.

Certainly you don't expect me to go out there. There's a lion. I'll be eating a lion. That's what he says. And so working backwards from this flow of thought, if you are not busily engaged in your duty, young boys, men, if you were not physically engaged in your duty, you probably had excuses stemming from fear that is born out of laziness.

In fact, if your first response to duty is an excuse, you have biblical reason to assume you may be dealing with a lazy heart simply based on these verses. In his commentary on Proverbs, Charles Bridges says, Imaginary difficulties are the indulgence of sloth. The slothful man is a coward. He has no love for his work, and therefore he is always ready to put a sheet upon his own soul, inventing some vain excuse because he will not do his duty. He shrinks from every work likely to involve trouble, fancy dangers, frightened him from real and present duties.

He is afraid of being slain without, yet he willingly gives himself up to be slain within. If you get the gist of what he's saying, this is a man whose fancy dangers, his make-believe dangers, frighten him from real and present duties. What's not real is brought to the forefront. What is real, that duty that's been given him, it takes the vaccine. That's what Charles Bridge is saying here.

And that's even in speaking to sons, this is what Solomon's doing here, he's speaking to his sons, Solomon describes a lazy man, a lazy man. Unfortunately, fainting lions isn't something that we just naturally outgrow. In fact, unless we had mortified the sin of swamp in our own lives, most likely there will be ingrained patterns of laziness where we, even as men, see our duties as if there's a lion in the street. Certainly you don't expect me to do that. Such is our hearts.

Such is our hearts. I was listening to a message in preparation of this, all of this passage, and I had to fall on my face and confess my own sins, my own sins of failing to do my duties as I should. It's not something we outgrown. It's something that we have to mortify. Do you remember the response of the spies who were sent into the land that came, they came back with, hey, you're right, this is a land flowing with milk and honey.

Look at the grapes we brought back. One cluster had to be carried between two men on a pole. It's a beautiful land, a land of mountains with flowing rivers. But, but, here's the light of the street. We can't go in there.

They're stronger than we. They're giants. They're giants. We can't go in there." And they weren't feigning. They weren't believing.

They saw this with their own eyes. They saw a strong people. They saw the giants. But their hearts were moved to fear, and from the fear came the excuse, there's a lion in the street. We can't do it!

We can't do it. We live in a society that hampers the flesh, that refuses to do hard things, that seeks to be entertained, and we all too often are not unlike that society. What are some of the ways that we try to avail these excuses? What are some of the ways? See, we're trying to make it crack me a little bit.

I mean, I don't think any of you young men have run through the window in your house saying, I'm too high outside. Oh, yeah. But here's the thing. See, our heart is cracked. And so we seek to twist in the turn.

And so we seek, first of all, to think of our comforts. And we see these things out there, these duties that are given to us as comfort killers. It's too high outside. I'm going to wait until it cools off. It's way too late.

It's way too late in the evening to do that. I've had a long day. And then we do this. It's been a hard day at work. Maybe we've worked overtime, Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday night prayer meeting comes. Is there a lion in the street? It's our comforts. We need rest. We look after our own body.

That's too hard, too much work. So we fail it in our own comforts. Another way we fail our duties is always planning. Always planning. Planning is good.

God says that plans belong to the man but the answer is from the Lord. Planning is good. But I have to look in my own life and see things that I planned and I planned and I shifted as it dropped off I'm going to do it. But it has to happen next week. It has to happen two weeks from now.

Two weeks comes up, and something else comes up. I'm not talking about things providentially that come into our lives that do these things almost for us. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about moving it off because of another duty that may arise and we just don't get around to it. We can find time to do some other things that we don't have to do and we fail to do our duties.

It's on the radar, it's on our calendar, and we move it around and we soothe our conscience because we pull our phones up and I've still got it all on this. I'm going to do it. Let's be careful that we're not fainting lions by saying and maneuvering and gratifying our flesh and not doing our duties to what God has called us to do. And then there's always procrastination. Just putting it off.

Just putting it off. And sometimes that procrastination comes and others will take care of it. Others will do it. If I don't get around to it, others will take care of it. If I don't get around to family worship with my wife and my children, my children are at home school, they got Bible tomorrow.

My wife's going to spend time with them in the Word. The pastor will take care of it on Sunday. They'll hear the Word of God. He preaches faithfully every week. Putting it all, I'll get started some other time.

I'll do it some other time. We know we need to spend more time in prayer. We procrastinate. We'll put it off. There's too many other things upon us.

There are lions in the street. Certainly you don't expect me to start today. And so we put it off. So here are some questions on means of application to ask yourself. How do you respond to the tasks that you are asked to do?

When mom or dad asks you to do something, how do you respond? What is your response? Secondly, how do you approach tasks you were not anxious to do? Maybe it's just a duty. It hasn't been necessarily given to you like, okay, go take the trash out and wipe your nails on.

This is a duty you do every week. How do you face the duties that you're just not anxious to do? If you're not anxious to do. Hey, as a man you'll face things that you won't be anxious to do, but you'll be put in other positions. What is your typical response when asked to do something hard or demanding?

What's the first thing in your mind? What's the first thing on your lips? Is it an excuse? Well, I don't know about that. I'll have to see about it.

Maybe it's breaking excuses. There's a lot in the streets. I'll die! Let me kill! How do you view, how do you handle entertainment?

There's a place for recreation. There's a place for rest, respiration. But How do you view the entertainment that mostly comes attached to those things? Is it used to get you back and refreshed so you can get back to your duty or does it keep you from your duty? Is there any known duty you are presently putting off?

Is there a known duty right now that you know in your heart that you're just putting off? Are you in any area of your life chasing fantasies and avoiding obvious work that God has put at your fingertips. Are you thinking about things that are just out there and you're not doing the duty right before your eyes that you didn't place at your fingertips. See, we can talk about all our planning for the next 20 years of my life in the garbage can just piling over into the floor. Because we're thinking about that arrow road and we hang our excuse on, I'm thinking about great things.

And the simple things that are right at our fingertips, We overlook them, we go past them, we push them aside. Have you become an expert rationalizer to excuse yourself from no duty. We can actually become good at this. We can actually become good at it, rationalizing away why we can't do the things that God has given us. That's what boys do.

They fame lions. You young men, don't learn, don't learn to make up these fearful things of freaks that you can't do your duty Because of it, feigning lions, that's what boys do. And boys, you'll meet with them. They'll rise up within your heart. These fears that place these so-called lions before us.

But secondly, we see from God's Word not only boys who feign lions, we see men who face lions. Men who face lions. And we see men who face real lions real lions in Wednesday night prayer meeting pastor Scott read Psalm 91 to us in Psalm 91 those who put their trust in the Almighty, who abide under His shadow, what does He say of them in verse 13? You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent, you shall trample under foot." Do you want to trample lions under foot? Then abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Put your trust in God and then you will be able to face lions like these four men that we're going to talk about briefly now. First of all, David and the lion. David and the lion. See we all know, all you young boys, your mind runs quickly to David and Goliath. Everybody knows about David and Goliath, but before he faced Goliath, he faced the lion, he faced the bear.

And as he stood before Saul and saying why he could go forth, he said, your servant used to keep his father's sheep And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it rose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear and this Uncircumcised felicity will be like one of them seeing he has defiled the armies of the living God Moreover David said the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." So as we look at David, we see his facing of the lion as duty. It was his duty. He told Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep.

It was my duty. I faced the lion because It was my duty. It was my task. It was given to me by my father. He said, keep my sheep.

It was my duty to keep them. So when the lion came, I rose up. But in this duty, what do we see? In this very passage, we see it as preparation for the giant. It was preparation for the giant.

Before David was ready to go and face this man who was armed, Before he was able to face this man who was some two and a half times bigger than him, he faced a lion, he faced a bear, and in his duty he prepared for the giant. Young boys, take up your duties. Take up your duties. God's preparing you for something He's preparing you for something and it might be great things. But you can't cry, there's a lion in the street.

I can't do my duty, you must. Second, Daniel and the lions. Daniel and the lions. And here it was not so much duty we see in the facing of these lions deliverance. Deliverance.

So the king gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions for praying to his God. But the king spoke saying to Daniel, your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you. Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the dead, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring, and with the signets of his lores, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed. So the king went to his house and he came back early the next morning and the king spoke saying Daniel servant of the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, Oh king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths so that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before him. And also, O King, I have done no wrong before you." The facing of his lion, these lions, was for deliverance. It was for protection from evil plans. We also see one of David's mighty men, Benaiah in 1st Chronicles 11. It says, Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from Kabzeel who had done many deeds.

He had killed two lion-like heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day and he killed an Egyptian, a man of great height, five cubits tall. In the Egyptians hand there was a spear like a weaver's beam and he went down to him with a staff, rested the spear out of the Egyptians hand and killed him with his own spear. This was one of David's mighty men, a man named Benaiah, and we are told he went down into a pit to face a lion on a snowy day. If he went down into the pit to face the lion, realized the lion was already down in the pit.

And so we see in facing this lion development. Development. Benaiah was developing as a man of God. And he said, if I am going to serve the Lord and the king's army, I'm going down into this pit and I'm facing this lion on a snowy day. You ever played football in the snow?

It's kind of hard to get a little traction isn't it? Imagine facing a lion with snow on the ground. He went down there and faced the lion in a pit. Didn't have room to maneuver. Didn't have good footing.

He was going to need it against a giant five cubits tall. It was for development. It was for proof of valor. To prove he was a mighty man, he faced this lion that was set before him. Also we read of Samson in Judges 14.

Samson, who faced a lion. So Samson went down to Timna with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timna. Now, to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hands. And we see in this facing of the lion a demonstration. A demonstration.

What was it a demonstration of? The power of the Spirit. The power of the Spirit. The Spirit came upon him as he faced this lion in the way So rather than Fainting lions in the street Real men men of God face the lions that come their way. These men face real lions.

You may not face real lions, But going back to our Proverbs passage, it's those duties that seem to be so insurmountable. Can't do it! It's too demanding! It's too hard! It's a lion that's going to overpower me!

No. It's your duty God can give deliverance. It's a demonstration of God's power in your life of The spirit who can give you what you need to face these lions. So though you may never face a real lion in the streets, There are two lions that everyone in this room will come across in your life. Everyone in this room will face two lions.

Peter tells us about one in his first epistle, and this is what he tells us to do, to resist steadfastly a roaring lion. Resist steadfastly a roaring lion. Who is that lion? It's the devil. The devil, he says in 1 Peter 5, 8, is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

You young men, You're sitting even tonight under the preaching of the Word of God Satan doesn't like it Satan wants to devour you He wants to eat you alive. He cares not for you Peter says, resist steadfastly in the faith. The lion, the devil. You will run across this lion. He's crafty like a real lion sneaking up quietly often and Roaring as he comes upon his prey Resist him steadfastly in the faith.

God will give you grace, young men, to face the devil. But you can't do it in your own power. You resist Him steadfastly in the faith. In the faith. Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live and the life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me that's the faith in Jesus Christ steadfast faith and in that faith resisting the devil But the devil is not the only lion that you will come into contact with.

Everyone in this room will come to face the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so your duty is to respond savingly to a reigning lion. Respond savingly to the reigning Lion, that lion of the tribe of Judah. And he's called the Lion of Judah all the way back in Genesis 49. And he's called the lion who takes the throne in Revelation 5, responds savingly to this lion, this lion who was set forth as a lamb, as a sacrifice for you, because you young man have sinned.

You have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And this lion Jesus Christ should devour you. But he came as a lamb and was slain for those who will cast their hope and faith on him. He still will be a lion to devour those who will not trust in him. But today, while it's called the Day of Salvation, he's a lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

By trusting in him, You will not have to face him as a lion who will devour. He will be your lamb to save. Respond savingly to this reigning lion. And what does this reigning lion tell us to do? Those who are his people, he says in Luke 9.23, he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

What's he saying in that? He's saying, away with these lions in the street. Die to self. Daily die to self. And to come and to take up the cross of Christ and follow Him.

Young men, that's your duty. If you claim the name of Jesus Christ, if you said, yes, He's a lion, but He's my lamb, He says, take up your cross. Away with this rubbish of lions in the street. There is one lion to fear and that is Satan, but you resist him steadfastly in the faith of me, he says to you. And go and take up your cross and follow me.

So will you feign lions or Will you face lions? Will you flee lions? Or will you fight lions? Will you be driven by fear? Or will you be driven by faith?

That's the question. Young men, how is it with you? How is it with you? In terms of your duty, in terms of obedience to Christ who says to all men everywhere, repent! Repent!

That's your duty. Don't talk about lions in the street. Don't procrastinate. I'll do that tomorrow. I've got my life to live.

I've got my fun I want to take care of. I'll do it some other time. Don't veil your excuses in obedience to the duty God sets before you. Take up your cross. Follow Christ.

In closing, I want to read something about the life of a man named William Whiting Borden. William Whiting Borden. Not much has been written about this man, largely because what he desired to do, God did not give him that grace. He made plans, God gave the answer. But let me tell you about William Whiting Borden.

In 1904, William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school. As heir to the Borden family fortune, he was already wealthy. For his high school graduation present, his parents gave 16-year-old Borden a trip around the world. As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the world's hurting people. Finally, William Borden wrote home about his desire to be a missionary.

One friend expressed disbelief that William was throwing himself away as a missionary. In response, Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible, no reserves, no reserves. During his college years, William Borden made an entry in his personal journal that defines what his classmates were seeing in him. That entry said simply, say no to self and Yes to Jesus every time. Borden's small morning prayer group at Yale gave birth to a movement that soon spread across the campus.

By the end of his first year, 150 Freshmen were meeting weekly for Bible study and prayer. By the time William was a senior, 1, 000 of Yale's 1, 300 students were meeting in such groups. Borden made it his habit to seek out the most incorrigible students and try to bring them to salvation. Borden's outmeats ministry was not confined to the Yale campus. He cared about widows and orphans and the disabled.

He rescued drunks from the streets of New Haven. To try to rehabilitate them, he founded the Yale Hope Mission. One of his friends wrote that he might often be found in the lower parts of the city at night on the street in a cheap lodging house or some restaurant to which he had taken a poor, hungry fellow to feed him, seeking to lead men to Christ. Borden's missionary call narrowed to the Muslim, Kansu people in China. Once he fixed his eyes on that goal, Borden never wavered.

Although he was a millionaire, he seemed to realize always that he must be about his father's business and not wasting time in the pursuit of amusement. Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high-paying job offers, even from his own dad. And this is what he wrote in his Bible, underneath no reserves. He added two more words, no retreats. No retreats.

William Borden went on to do graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. When he finished his studies at Princeton, he sailed for China. Because he was hoping to work with Muslims, he stopped first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.

Prior to his death, Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words, no reserves, no retreats, he had written, no regrets. No regrets No reserves no retreats No regrets young men as you meet with the Lions in your life Go forth in the faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit. Go forth as Paul who said, forgetting everything it is behind. I pressed toward this one thing, one.

He was a one thing man. He pressed for the glory of Jesus Christ that was laid before him, that prize of that upward calling in Christ. Be a one thing man. You young men, be a one thing young man. The duty of Jesus Christ as it comes before you.

No lions in the streets, no reserves, no retreats, and no regrets. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Oh gracious Father, there is so much potential sitting here underneath this tent, potential in your kingdom, in your church, as these young men sit and hear the Word of God, oh Father, may none be found to be lazy men. O Lord, for those young men who give excuses for doing hard things, O Father, set before them Jesus Christ, who set that joy before Him and endured the pain, who set that joy before Him and endured the pain, who set that joy before Him and went to the cross, who is the author and finisher of our faith because of it. Help them to set their eyes on Christ.

Help them to forget about potential lions in the streets. And oh Father, as they go about their duties and they face lions that may come into their path, give them grace to face those lions with no fear. Give them grace to face those lions with no fear. Give them grace to face those lions and to go forth in the power of the Spirit and to know true deliverance in the way of duty, to know true development in preparation for those things you have before them. And oh Father, for us as men, help us as well, as we so often give vent to our excuses.

Give us grace to repent. Give us grace to flee to Christ afresh. In His name we pray, amen.