Proverbs 22:13

Proverbs 22:13 Proverbs

Pastor Martin expounds Proverbs 22:13, which describes the 'sluggard' as a 'fantasizer' who invents specious excuses for inaction, such as a lion in the street. He contrasts this with real difficulties that intimidate the sluggard (Proverbs 20:4) and highlights the difference in temperament among children, some embracing challenges while others are naturally timid. Martin applies this to parenting, urging parents to lovingly confront their children's imagined fears and help them overcome dispositions that the devil can exploit to foster a sluggardly spirit, preventing them from fulfilling their duties.

3 illustrations in this sermon

The Sluggard as a Fantasizer

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Pastor Huffstetler's 'Fantasizer'

Driving home: The sluggard is a fantasizer. He has a mind that is very prolific, not in designing ways to be productive, but in finding out all kinds of specious excuses for not getting out of bed and getting off his duff and doing hi…

Martin quotes Pastor Huffstetler's description of the sluggard as a 'fantasizer' to introduce the core characteristic of the sluggard in Proverbs 22:13.

Proverbs 22 and verse 13, the sluggard says, there's a lion without, I should be slain in the streets. And as we indicated, I believe, in a previous study, this is what Pastor Huffstetler calls in his four powerful messages on the doctrine of the sluggard in Proverbs, the fantasizer. The sluggard is a fantasizer. He has a mind that is very prolific, not in designing ways to be productive, but in finding out all kinds of specious excuses for not getting out of bed and getting off his duff and doing his duty.

0:01 - 0:42 Read in full sermon

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Choice Meat for the Lion

The sluggard's exaggerated fear that he is 'choice meat' for the lion, unlike others, illustrates his self-centered and irrational fantasizing.

The sluggard says, there's a lion without, I should be slain in the streets. Everybody else, they are going about their business for some reason. And the lion just doesn't like the meat on their bones. But I'm sure that I am in that lion's nose and in all his juices, I am choice meat for the lion.

0:43 - 1:06 Read in full sermon

Temperamental Differences in Children

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Grandson Climbing for Object

In this part of the sermon: Martin illustrates the difference in temperament through a story of his persistent grandson and contrasts it with naturally timid individuals who anticipate failure and never…

A story about his grandson repeatedly falling while trying to reach an object but persisting until he succeeds illustrates a temperament that embraces challenges.

Now, someone was telling me about my grandson recently. That there was something he wanted, and it was a legitimate object. It wasn't a no-no for which he'd get his hands spanked. And he climbed up on the chair and reached over and tried to get it, and fell off the chair on the rug.

2:23 - 2:39 Read in full sermon

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