2, November 2003
Dakota Community Church
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Week Four: Diligence
Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.
2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city.
4 "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.
5 "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.
- We are not told what the seven pillars are.
- I believe they are themes of truth that will lead to life.
The fourth “pillar” upon which I believe wisdom is built is Diligence.
Dictionary definition:
1. Earnest and persistent application to an undertaking; steady effort; assiduity.
2. Attentive care; heedfulness.
I believe that this is a lost quality for many of my generation, myself included. When my grandfather tells the stories of his life I am always aware of the great amount of work that they did, that we no longer have to do, and would likely be unable or unwilling to do.
Illustration:
Do you ever feel overworked, over-regulated, under-leisured, under-benefited? Take heart. This notice was found in the ruins of a London office building. It was dated 1852.
1. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.
2. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colors, nor will they wear hose unless in good repair.
3. Overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.
4. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during the cold weather.
5. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from the supervisor.
6. No talking is allowed during business hours.
7. The craving for tobacco, wine, or spirits is a human weakness, and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.
8. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11:30 and noon, but work will not on any account cease.
9. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to the supervisor.
10. The supervisor will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. The owners provide brushes, brooms, scrubber, and soap.
11. The owners recognize the generosity of the new labor laws, but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near Utopian conditions. - Bits & Pieces, May 26, 1994, Page 13-15.
Four areas of life that God is calling me/us to be more diligent:
1. Seeking Him.
1Timothy 4: 7-16
7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
9This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance 10(and for this we labor and strive) that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
11Command and teach these things. 12Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
- We are not to turn seeking Him into a chore, but we must not be lazy about it either.
- Labor and strive
- Devote yourself
- Do not neglect
- Be diligent
- Give yourself wholly
- Persevere
These are not the words of a slacker; God wants to be pursued like a lover.
Proverbs 26: 16
16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.
Laziness has it’s own false wisdom that does not seek God.
Don’t be caught in it.
You are never done seeking the Lord:
"The hardest thing about milking cows," observed a farmer, " is that they never stay milked." - Bits & Pieces, August 18, 1994, Page 3.
2. Leading.
Romans 12: 6-8
6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Proverbs 12: 24
24 Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.
- In bible time not being able to pay a debt really did end in slave labour, you worked for nothing until the debt was paid.
Diligence is a requirement for effective leadership.
3. Working.
Proverbs 24: 30-34
30 I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; 31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stonewall was in ruins. 32 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: 33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- 34 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Proverbs 21: 25
25 The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.
Proverbs 10: 4
4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Proverbs 13: 4
4 The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
I think you get the picture!
- There are those who work hard but are not rewarded financially
- There are those who do not work and are financially well off.
- As a general rule most of us succeed with harder work or don’t by laziness.
A retired friend became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall. Observing the activity regularly, he was especially impressed by the conscientious operator of a large piece of equipment. The day finally came when my friend had a chance to tell this man how much he’d enjoyed watching his scrupulous work. Looking astonished, the operator replied, "You’re not the supervisor?" - Howard A. Stein in Reader’s Digest.
4. Personal Affairs.
Proverbs 19: 24
24 The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!
Proverbs 12: 27
27 The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.
How many of us are not enjoying life as we should be simply because we have not been diligent in our personal affairs?
- Sloppy household financial management.
- Poor auto maintenance
- Letting things go around the house and later paying more because we were lazy.
- Even personal health issues, exercise, meal preparation.
Conclusion:
When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or "cobbler," as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.
On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoe shop.
It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, and then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer; I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.
What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.
One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, "I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?" He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, "They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!"
"Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god."
"Harry," he said, "I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, ’Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.’ I want Him to be able to say, ’Well done, good and faithful servant.’"
Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me. - H. A. Ironside, Illustrations of Bible Truth, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 37-39.
