Avoid Laziness - Cultivate Diligence #2

In this part of the sermon: Revisiting Proverbs 12:11 and 12:27, Martin contrasts the wisdom of tilling land for bread with the folly of pursuing vain persons or things, specifically condemning the 'dollar…

Martin contrasts the 'dollar and a dream' mentality of lottery players with the wisdom of investing the same money in sound investments, highlighting the vain pursuit of wealth versus diligent labor.

But he that follows after vain persons, or vain things, is void of understanding. And in the context, it is vain persons and things with respect to the accumulation of bread or of money. And this is the heart of the curse of the dream with a dollar mentality, of the growing addiction to lotteries. A dollar and a dream, we are told, is all you need.

8:29 - 9:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Impart to our children the delight of looking at their report card and having that sense of fulfillment, knowing they applied themselves diligently.

The story of the foolish rich man from Luke 12 is used to illustrate a 'lean soul' despite material wealth, contrasting with the 'fat soul' of the diligent man who acknowledges God's blessing.

It is a contented soul. It is a soul that has the legitimate joy of accomplishment. The soul of the person who can sit back and look at the blessing of God upon the fruit of his arduous labors, his careful industry, his wise investments, and when he has a sense of well-being in gratitude to God, not like the foolish rich man in Luke 12, who regarded his wealth as the fruit of his own cleverness, period, to be used for his own selfish ends, period. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.

11:35 - 12:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Work diligently even if paid below minimum wage, as someone may be watching and God may open up a marvelous opportunity.

Martin recounts his experience as an itinerant minister shoveling snow for money in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to pay rent and buy groceries, demonstrating the dignity and profit in all labor, even humble tasks.

When I used to be in the itinerant ministry and didn't have any doctrine of the church and no accountability to a church, but was completely freelance, and when I preached somewhere, I got paid sometimes, and when I didn't, I didn't get paid. Well, I had a little apartment to have, to pay the rent every month and other expenses, and had a child at the time. And when we'd get snowfalls there in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I'd take my little Volkswagen and go around. Sometimes the snow was so deep, and that pan on the bottom of the Volkswagen would get hung up in the snow.

18:18 - 18:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Enforce the lesson 'If I don't work, I don't eat' with your own children, using missed meals as discipline for laziness.

Martin shares a personal anecdote from his childhood where he was sent to his room without a meal for laziness, illustrating how hunger can be a powerful motivator for diligence.

And it is perfectly right to say, If I don't work, I don't eat. And we need to enforce that lesson with our own children. I tell you, you send a teenage boy with a hollow leg up to his room and make him miss a meal because of his laziness. I tell you, that's a lesson you don't soon forget.

24:39 - 25:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Enforce the lesson 'If I don't work, I don't eat' with your own children, using missed meals as discipline for laziness.

Martin quotes Richard Baxter's 'Christian Directory' on the proper place of sports and recreation for children, emphasizing that play should be limited and not replace learning and duties, and should involve physical exercise rather than idle activities like cards, dice, or modern video games.

That's not torture. And if the lesson needs to be enforced, the admonition needs to be enforced by that form of discipline, then have the moral courage to do it that you might teach your children this valuable lesson that they will not grow up with the idea everything is fun and games and play and don't wait until the kids are 15 to start doing it. Listen to Baxter in his Christian directory. Advice to parents about how to rear their children.

25:34 - 26:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Bring the text of Proverbs 18:9 to bear upon the conscience of your son or daughter when their heart is not in what they are doing.

An analogy of a diligent field laborer producing ten sheaves of grain, half of which are destroyed by an evil person, is compared to a slack laborer who only produces five sheaves, illustrating how slackness in work is akin to destruction.

Along comes an evil person and destroys half of the fruit of his labor. For example, suppose he was out in the field reaping grain and he worked diligently with all of his might as unto the Lord, took only as many breaks as were necessary to replenish his bodily fluids, to have his lunch and a few minutes for it to settle. He was the model of a diligent field laborer and at the end of the day he has ten sheaves of grain that show the fruit of his labor. Along comes a destroyer and takes five of them and puts a torch to them and burns them up and they're nothing but a handful of ashes.

32:48 - 33:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Monitor your children's sleep and train them to the discipline of the alarm clock, or be the 'living alarm clock' yourself.

The story of God putting Elijah to sleep and feeding him is used to illustrate that legitimate sleep for refreshment is a gift from God, contrasting it with an inordinate, sinful love of sleep.

When the tired, worn, distraught, emotionally upset prophet was running from that painted witch named Jezebel, who was threatening his life and he's out moving away from the place of ministry and service and God sees his weary servant, what does he do? Back him on the side of the head and say, get up, you and I got business to do. No, he put him to sleep. And then he fed him and put him back to sleep.

44:43 - 45:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes with Proverbs 22:13, where the sluggard invents dangers ('a lion without') to justify laziness. He applies this to children's excuses for avoiding tasks, urging…

The sluggard's excuse of a 'lion without' is used as an example of fantasized dangers and imagined opposition to justify laziness, which Martin applies to children's excuses for avoiding tasks.

Look at Proverbs 22, 13 and we'll close on that. The sluggard says, there's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. This is what Pastor Hofstetler calls the fantasizer that is always one of the marks of the sluggard. Hey, buddy, why aren't you working?

51:29 - 51:56 Read in full sermon