Avoid Laziness - Cultivate Diligence #1

Driving home: And by way of introduction to our study, this morning, I want to say that in a day of crass selfishness and the sickening religion of self-worship, that one of the most encouraging indications of the grace of God at work…

Martin uses the physical exertion of praising God as a delightful privilege compared to the alternative of roasting in hell, to highlight the rottenness of mumbling God's praise.

What a privilege to sweat and get tight tummy muscles in the praise of God when I could be roasting in hell. You start thinking right. Do you begin to feel what a rotten thing it is to stand there and mumble God's praise? I hope you feel it.

0:28 - 0:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So was work before the fall. It was as natural and delightful for Adam and Eve to work and to work hard before the fall as it was for them to breathe.

He compares arduous labor before the Fall to breathing, arguing that just as breathing was natural and delightful, so was hard work for unfallen Adam and Eve, to show how sin distorted work.

You must think clearly and biblically, act biblically, and then your instruction will carry the weight, both of biblically grounded knowledge, and the amen of your own example. One of the most difficult things for us to understand and to believe is that before sin entered the human situation, arduous labor, and I worked at what word to choose, hard labor. You think of a concentration camp or a chain gang. I said, no hard labor's got to go.

9:03 - 9:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Humble yourself to learn from God's creation, like the ant, to overcome sluggardliness.

Martin uses the example of someone going to an anthill for instruction instead of a university professor to illustrate the humility required to learn from God's creation, as commanded in Proverbs 6.

right at the outset, nobody can be truly wise who's not ready to be humbled. If someone was on his way to a given place and someone said, Hey Henry, where are you going? He said, I'm going to school. Well, where are you going?

20:41 - 20:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your kids that even 'just 15 more minutes' of idleness when work is due creates a sluggard, leading to devastation.

The imagery of poverty coming 'as a robber' or 'an armed man' is used to illustrate the devastating, though gradual, consequences of laziness, making the destruction as real as a violent theft.

So shall thy poverty come as a robber, and thy want or thy need or thy lack as an armed man. He says that laziness that says just a little more sleep when you ought to be working, a little more slumber when you ought to be diligent and active in your legitimate calling, and the end result will be as devastating, as if someone came into your home and robbed you in a moment of time of all of your assets, or an armed man came in and at the point of the gun, here it's a shielded warrior, comes in and strips you of all your possessions. The only difference is the one is done in the moment,

24:37 - 25:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your kids that even 'just 15 more minutes' of idleness when work is due creates a sluggard, leading to devastation.

Martin tells a story of a child asking for 'just 15 more minutes in the pool' against a set schedule, illustrating how giving in to such small indulgences creates a sluggard and leads to household devastation.

Though the destruction is by degrees and imperceptible at any given point, the end result is as real as though you had been violently robbed and pillaged by an armed man. Now that's what you got to teach your kids. And they say, but oh mommy, just 15 more minutes in the pool. You say, no.

25:42 - 26:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Be a model of diligence in the work world, like Joseph and Daniel, doing whatever you do with all your might as unto God.

He gives the example of a worker bypassed for promotion, arguing that it's often due to working with a 'slack hand' rather than being a Christian, to counter rationalizations for poor work ethic.

He doesn't get the full reward that comes from the knowledge that by the grace of God, I did my best with all of my might. His boss sees that he works, punches the clock on time, that he may as well punch it two hours later because others, in the same amount of time, get a third more work done. Why? Because they're working with all their might.

30:56 - 31:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Be a model of diligence in the work world, like Joseph and Daniel, doing whatever you do with all your might as unto God.

Joseph and Daniel are presented as examples of men promoted in hostile environments because they worked with all their might, demonstrating that diligence is recognized even by those who hate one's God.

Joseph was promoted in Egypt by people who didn't want a thing to do with his religion. Daniel was brought to high places of influence in the Babylonian Empire, in the Medo-Persian Empire. They hated his God and his religion. But what did they like?

31:46 - 32:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your children that even legitimate and innocent diversions can be 'vain things' when they distract from timely and necessary tasks.

He illustrates a man rationalizing going fishing instead of plowing his land, to show how 'vain things' (even innocent ones) can distract from timely and necessary labor.

You're thinking down the road if I'm going to have bread through the winter, my wife's got to have grain from which to make it. If there's going to be grain, there's got to be a harvest. If there's going to be a harvest, the stuff has to be planted and if it's going to be planted, it's got to be plowed. So way back here in the spring, I'm determining whether or not there's going to be plenty of bread out here in the winter.

36:05 - 36:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Teach your children that even legitimate and innocent diversions can be 'vain things' when they distract from timely and necessary tasks.

Martin uses the vivid story of a hunter who brings down game but is too tired to roast it, letting it rot, to illustrate the slothful man's failure to complete tasks and the tragedy of stopping short of the end goal.

Now I'm conscious, as are most of the commentators and translators, so there will be footnotes as there is in the NIV and as there is here in the 1901, that the precise nature of the Hebrew word translated roasteth is difficult to ascertain, but most translators settle on something akin to this, so let's assume that's the right translation. The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting. He gets up one morning early enough to go out on the hunt, and he gets on his camouflage clothes and he gets on his equipment and he's got his bow and his arrow, his .30-06 Mauser and he's going t...

39:03 - 39:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We tried desperately to model stability, a God-fearing example, and a dedication to this work principle, quote, a thing worth doing is worth our best effort and should be brought to conclusion.

Martin reads a letter from his father summarizing his parents' sixty-year marriage, their modeling of stability and God-fearing example, and their conscious dedication to the work principle: 'a thing worth doing is worth our best effort and should be brought to conclusion.'

and my own mother. I received a letter this week in which my dad summarized what he said at a family picnic a week ago. I was hoping to attend it. It was to be the first time all ten children would be together in ten years.

42:17 - 42:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: We tried desperately to model stability, a God-fearing example, and a dedication to this work principle, quote, a thing worth doing is worth our best effort and should be brought to conclusion.

He recounts his mother teaching him to scrub floors, insisting on cleaning the corners with a rag, to illustrate the principle of thoroughness and completing a task to the highest standard.

You had to cut it up and roast it. I never went hunting. I'm using the imagery. It meant that a mother, most of the time big with child, had time enough to get on her knees next to me when she's teaching me how to scrub floors and say, son, the scrub brush won't get into the corner.

44:44 - 45:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I regard you as worth my best. And I bless God for parents that reared me that way. Your children are going to rise up someday and say that of you?

He shares another story of his mother making him clean French doors, even though he hated it, and inspecting the corners, to teach that doing undesirable tasks develops diligence and thoroughness.

Son, clean the French doors between the dining room and living room. But, Ma, I hate cleaning windows. I know it, son. And that's why I'm giving you that task because doing things you don't want to do develops dirt.

45:40 - 45:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Get your own act together regarding diligence so you can have clout with the consciences of your kids to help them get their act together.

Martin shares a personal anecdote from his time as a construction worker, where he was mocked for his diligence but declared he worked 'unto Jesus Christ,' illustrating the principle of working heartily as unto the Lord.

When I did dog work as a construction worker the other guys used to say hey Martin what are you trying to do? Show us up! No I said but I work unto not the boss and I named him but I said I work unto Jesus Christ. And they said he's a hopeless religious nut.

47:44 - 48:05 Read in full sermon