Pastor Martin expounds Proverbs 20:4, which describes the sluggard who refuses to plow due to winter and consequently begs in harvest. He applies this proverb primarily to parenting, urging parents to recognize and counteract the 'spirit of a sluggard' in their children. Martin argues that allowing children to avoid difficult but necessary duties, especially in areas where they lack natural aptitude, cultivates a character ill-equipped for life's challenges and God-given responsibilities. He emphasizes the importance of diligently training children to face difficulties and master duties, even when uncomfortable, to prevent them from becoming unproductive and dependent adults.
Primary Texts
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Proverbs 20:4This is the sole passage expounded, serving as the foundation for the entire sermon's argument and application.
A Personal Example of Overcoming Sluggardliness9:25
Key Quotes
“You cannot be beaten by person but you have the responsibility in the face of difficulty and as a result of it come harvest time he is left without the legitimate fruit of labor performed against a tide of difficulty.”
“And if you allow them to back off in the very early stages of their development simply because of real difficulties, but not impossible difficulties, you are cultivating in them the spirit of a sluggard.”
“History is God's footprints over time. And your children must be interested in God's footprints in God's world over the millennia in which this world has existed.”
“If you allow your child to run away from the wintry blast of doing his history first and mastering his history lesson. You are helping to create a sluggard.”
“Son, you wash the French doors because doing things you don't like to do. Developed character.”
“God didn't give you a brain that works naturally in this area, but this is what the scripture says. The sluggard.”
“The day is coming when you're going to be interviewed for a job. You're going to take tests to get into such and such a school in order to have competent skills to be an adequate wage earner.”
Applications
All listeners
Recognize that each child is different and tailor your parenting accordingly.
Do not allow children to back off from duties due to real but not impossible difficulties, as this cultivates a sluggard's spirit.
Ensure that children tackle their most difficult subjects (e.g., history) first, before moving on to easier ones, to ensure mastery.
Pray for wisdom to identify areas where your child tends to be a sluggard and address those tendencies.
Address your child's sluggardly tendencies with compassionate firmness, explaining the biblical principle and future consequences.
Be willing to implement structured discipline, even during leisure time, to help a child overcome a sluggardly attitude in specific areas.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 30 paragraphs, roughly 10 minutes.
Machine transcription
The Sluggard's Dilemma: Duty vs. Difficulty
Chapter 20 and verse 4 the sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing the sluggard is conscious that there is a duty before him and that duty is to plow but though his conscience is very much aware of his duty to plow he is also aware of the difficulties in the way of performing his duty there are the difficulties connected with winter
perhaps the ground is hard and the wind is biting and cold and as he on the one hand feels the pressure of his duty upon his conscience he sees the difficulties in the way of performing his duty to plow of performing his duty and he allows the perceived difficulties which in this case unlike the lion in the street they are very real difficulties the difficulties of winter are real the soil is harder the wind bites and the cold is uncomfortable those are real
difficulties and the sluggard knowing the difficulties backs away from his God given duty and responsibility to plow and to plow and to plow and to plow and to plow and to plow in the presence and in the presence and soil the valley there is no mountain but just the flow of his blood Bi Hosanna Yes hosanna. You cannot be beaten by person but you have the responsibility in the face of difficulty and as a result of it come harvest time he is left without the legitimate fruit of labor performed against a tide of difficulty. Now this is why it is so crucial. That you as parents recognize that each child is different.
Cultivating the Spirit of a Sluggard in Children
issue changes in montana. Is not actually just me what is interesting. I wish I was. For two things.
this spirit. They know what their duty is, but they perceive the difficulties that stand in the way of performing that duty or which will inevitably accompany that duty. And if you allow them to back off in the very early stages of their development simply because of real difficulties, but not impossible difficulties, you are cultivating in them
Varying Aptitudes and the Challenge of 'Winter' Subjects
the spirit of a sluggard. Now, it may be that your kid very early manifests the disposition in which he or she just inhales phonics. No problem learning phonics, therefore no problem reading. Easy. It may be very evident very early that your child has a native interest in math and has a mind that just seems to be put together like a computer.
And very early learns the multiplication tables and just passes the time by sitting down, putting out big columns of numbers and multiplying them and all the rest. No difficulty. But oh, when it comes to nailing down the facts of history and where the Magna Carta fits in terms of the Declaration of Independence, their mind is just naturally like scrambled eggs. And so very early it becomes
evident that whenever they're going to face the matter of history, it's winter in the discipline of their educational process. It's real winter. History does not come easy. The way God put them together in your womb, moms, something was scrambled up in their wombs that phonics came easy and math came easy. But pegging history and having a native interest, it is nothing but winter.
The Danger of Neglecting Difficult Subjects
Winter, winter, winter, winter, winter. Now you can do one of two things. You can say, oh well, two out of three, that's not bad. You bat 666 in the majors and you go down and you go into the Hall of Fame.
That's not bad. Two out of three. So I'm not going to press the issue. I mean history's mystery.
What's history anyway? My friends, history is his story.
History is God's footprints over time. And your children must be interested in God's footprints in God's world over the millennia in which this world has existed. It is not optional that your child should master some of the major facts of history and have them in their proper place, both biblical history and secular history. So what are you going to do?
Parental Strategy: Prioritizing Difficult Duties
When the kid will just naturally take things. First of all, to his phonics and to his reading and then to his math. And then when he's all tired out, say, well, I just can't do this. And what are you going to do?
If you do not take the steps to make sure that the first subject he does is his history. And he can't go on to his phonics or his reading. And can't go on to his or her math until the history lesson is mastered. Against all of the windmills.
The country blast of your child's native indisposition and native disinterest in history. Its own natural kink in the brain in terms of putting the right things in the right slot and allowing them there. I've met people who are veritable walking encyclopedias of the most innocuous facts of history. But they seem to have a brain that is like a magnet.
It will grab on to any name, place and date and it goes right there and it stays in its proper place and nothing ever jumbles it. Some of the rest of us, we feel like our heads are like scrambled eggs. Now, if you allow your child to run away from the wintry blast of doing his history first and mastering his history lesson. You are helping to create a sluggard.
Long-Term Consequences of Sluggardly Habits
Because later on in life, there will be issues. Where things are not dictated by the curriculum in the school, but by the necessities of life. And if they run because of the difficulties, they'll be crippled in the performance of their God-given task as wife, mother, person in the workplace, churchman, whatever it may be. And you have developed the psyche of a sluggard who knows what he ought to do.
But who can't. Who perceives the difficulties attending the path of duty and turns away and will not stick his moral face into the stiff, biting, bitter wind of winter and do what he's supposed to do because he's supposed to do it.
That's my mother again, thundering in my ear. Son, you wash the French doors because doing things you don't like to do. Developed character.
Parental Wisdom and Compassionate Firmness
You see it, parents? Now, I can't give you a list of the hundred areas. You need to say, Lord, give me wisdom to see in my child the areas where there is this tendency to be the sluggard. Where my child knows his duty.
His duty mandated by the school curriculum. His duty mandated by some explicit directive in the word of God. His duty mandated by house rules. Whatever they are.
And he's just not naturally disposed, sees the difficulties. Lord, give me the grace to be the heavy every time we come to that issue and to say compassionately, dear child, honey, sweetheart, son, whatever your pet names are for your kids. And I hope you have them. It's one of the clear indications, usually of good parental relations, as well as husband wife relations, often in pre and marital counseling.
I ask people. Uh, I tried to do a little role playing. And I say, uh, what are some of the pet names you have for your husband? I don't have any.
That tells me worlds. Usually. Wouldn't make an absolute rule over it, but usually. Same way with your kids.
If you've got no pet names, it usually, not always, but usually indicates a kind of unhealthy emotional reserve. But you take the child aside and say, no, I know this is not easy for you. God didn't give you a brain that works naturally in this area, but this is what the scripture says. The sluggard.
The Inevitable Harvest: Future Consequences
The sluggard will not plow by reason of winter. Therefore, harvest time is coming. The day is coming when you're going to be interviewed for a job. You're going to take tests to get into such and such a school in order to have competent skills to be an adequate wage earner.
What are you going to do then? That's reaping time. And you'll have nothing. Son, you'll have nothing.
A Personal Example of Overcoming Sluggardliness
My daughter, my dear, I can remember one summer with one of my children when I saw this attitude of a sluggard. With regard to certain areas of intellectual activity, I was beast enough to make that child sit at a desk in the summertime. Imagine that when school was out, sit at that desk from nine o'clock until twelve o'clock, three hours every morning, reading certain books and outlining them in order to try to overcome the spirit of a sluggard in a given area. Now, you think I like that coming down out of my study?
Every hour on the hour to check the progress and the rest. You think I delighted in doing that when I heard the other kids out play? No, no. But here's the text.
The sluggard will not plow by reason of winter. Therefore, he shall beg in the harvest and have nothing.
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Passages Expounded
Proverbs 20:4
This is the sole passage expounded, serving as the foundation for the entire sermon's argument and application.
Texts Expounded
auto_stories
This verse is the central text of the sermon, defining the sluggard's behavior and its consequences.