PROCRASTINATE TOMORROW
Looking at Diligence, Work, Plans, Ants, Counsel, and Workmanship
Jay Yousling,
“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29
I love this promise! To see this principle realized on a practical basis it requires some healthy choices. It requires developing a certain mindset. It requires developing an internal compass that makes a skilled person skilled. Have you ever heard of "executive function disorder’? It is a disorder disrupting higher level cognitive abilities such as self-regulation, prioritization of work, awareness of time, abstract reasoning, logical analysis, hypothesis testing, and cognitive flexibility. Please be careful with judging and labeling people as lazy or sluggards. There are many reasons for people having a difficult time moving forward, making decisions or acting. The key for us is to take healthy, helpful steps forward in our lives.
Do you want to achieve all that God wants for your life and are you willing to do anything, for however long it takes to complete God’s purpose, His mission for you personally? Do you want to want it?
Do you what is the most hazardous sport with the youngest mortality rate in the Olympics? It is the people in the stands watching, eating hotdogs and sugar drinks, cheering on others doing great things. People in the stands who sit there, for sixteen days, their arteries are hardening, their muscles atrophy, and all kinds of other stuff. The athletes are getting stronger. Why not be a participant in the grand business of experiencing a life of faith! Have you ever felt a huge 10,000-pound weight holding you back? You can’t get off the couch? You can’t finish the resume? You can't have that challenging conversation? You can't move? I have. I do. But I want it to be different. I want God’s help.
Do you want to live “highway living” or do you want to live “ditch living”? When I first got engaged to my wife, I was driving across Nebraska and for whatever reason, (I won’t get into all the details), I accidentally as I turned my head, I turned the wheel, and I found myself driving down the median of the interstate highway at about 65-miles an hour. I would recommend not ditch driving! There are better ways to live life. Sometimes we make choices in our lives and we choose to see life a certain way, that ends up … we ditch drive. God would really, really, really want us to learn how to drive on the highway.
On your outline, circle which one of these two lifestyle you want to live: DITCH-LIVING HIGHWAY-LIVING
In Hebrews 6: 9-12 the Holy Spirit give us some instruction when it says, “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of (W) better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to (I) imitate those who (S) through faith and patience (E) inherit what has been promised.
“Do you see a man skilled in his work? He’ll serve before kings and not serve before obscure men.” We’re going to be talking about being a wise worker. I want to give you an acrostic, W I S E, that I’ve been working on for decades that has helped me in this area of diligence, of fear, of sluggardness, of laziness, of being paralyzed, unable to move forward. Let me assure you. There is hope. There is help for you and me.
W – We are ___WORKERS________, designed and created by a worker. Be ____CONFIDENT____ of your identity in Christ. Act like the masterpiece you are!
“W” – Stands for: We are workers designed by and created by the supreme, heavenly Worker. We are workers created by a Worker. Be confident of your identity in Christ. Act like the masterpiece you are. If you’re a Christian, a believer, if the Spirit of God dwells within you, you have God in you. And so, who is that God? Is he a friend, is he a nice guy, is he a teacher? What is he? The first thing we know about God is that he was a creator, he had plans for seven days, he marked it out and he worked six out of seven days. He is a worker. Right now, God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit, are all working in your life. That’s part of who he is. He is a worker and we, therefore, are workers also.
Proverbs 8:30-31 “Then I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delightd day by day, rejoicing always in His presence. I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men.”
This entire section in Proverbs 8 is talking about Wisdom, starts off that God is a creator, and I want to read just one verse out of that section. This is an amazing verse if you think about who Jesus is and what is he like. He says this…verse 30. It says, “Jesus says”, (it says wisdom, but I believe this talked about Jesus) it says: “I was before him, the Father, like a master workman. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in the inhabitants of the world and delighting in the children of men.” So here, God the Father, and the Son were working together on this project of creating the world and people. And before people were even created, he delighted in them. He was thinking about you and me and he was so excited. That’s what motivated him every day of that creation. I can’t wait until we create people… and I can’t wait until this year when we get to talk to them and relate to them and live inside of them and transform them into more like you and I.
In Proverbs 23:7 it says, “As a man thinks, so he is.” Here’s one of the questions on this section. Who do you see yourself as? Do you see yourself as a hard worker? “I was created by a master craftsman, and I am a masterpiece. And I was created for a purpose that is so beyond me I don’t even know what it is.” It’s like race cars in the Indianapolis 500, and you see this race car and they decide to make it into a mail truck delivering mail. That Indianapolis 500 car was made to rip around about 225 miles an hour. Valiant feats. But at times, we don’t even realize what we’re like, what we’re made for. We are made in God’s image and designed to live a dynamic, faith filled, exciting, abundant life!
In Ephesians 2:8-9 it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of works, that any man should boast.” That’s the great part. Hey! I don’t have to work for my salvation. God has done all the work for you, the Holy Spirit to transform you, to giving you a new life, a deed to heaven…. the whole bit. And we stop there. I love that plan…no work.
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
But what does Eph. 2:10 say? “We are God’s workmanship” …what’s that word, workmanship? It’s only used about 8 times in the whole Bible and it’s the only time that word is used in the New Testament. It’s used in the Old Testament as…He gave the men a spirit of workmanship when they made the Arc of the Covenant, He gave the men and the women a spirit of workmanship when they made the Tabernacle, and the golden basin and the alters and the pieces inside the Tabernacle. There’s a workmanship He gave them to give to these holy, special, sacred tools of God. And in the New Testament, it says here in Eph. 2:10 that you are now God’s workmanship. You are greater…Indiana Jones can look all he wants for the Arc of the Covenant. But what God sees is you and I. God is thinking, “There is an awesome piece of craftsmanship. That is the highest, the most incredible thing that I’ve ever created or designed.” A person with the Holy Spirit power inside them… capable of incredible, awesome things. And the power of the resurrection living in you.
Okay, you got that? That’s who you are. We are God’s workmanship. Created for, what? “Good works”. You were created to work. Whoa, that’s not my concept of God. It’s me and him strolling on campus and in a park, having a quiet time. But you are an incredible being, a new creature, and you were created to do things for God. Do you think about yourself that way? What is your role? Another way to think of that is your identity, and your roles. What are you and what were you created for? Do you say to yourself, “I am a diligent person. I am a hardworking person. I have the power of God in me. That’s who I am. I don’t act like it right now, but in me that’s what I was designed to do. I already have this Spirit in me. You already have it in you…do you believe that about yourself? “No, I need to create diligence… I have to dig it up somewhere.” No, the Spirit of God of diligence is in you. Do you tell yourself that? Do you look in the mirror and go “Well, there’s a hard-working person, who by the Spirit of God can do awesome things. I am designed by a master craftsman. That’s who I am. I am created for incredible deeds. I don’t know what they are yet. I’d just like to be able to do my homework, or share with somebody, or learn some memory verses on the outreach program.”
I – __IMITATE_____ and initiating with the wise. Be ___COACHABLE_____ by giving yourself to God-honoring aspirations. Pursue, get input and follow the advice of mature believers. Don’t confuse action with accomplishment.
Hebrews 6:11-12 “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to (I) imitate those who (S) through faith and patience (E) inherit what has been promised.”
The second letter. “I” stands for IMITATE the wise and INITIATE with them. How we also deal with character is number two, the second one, the letter “I” is: Imitate the wise. I am an awesome kind of character and maybe I’m just supposed to go off on my own and figure things out. Well, when you’re dealing with diligence at this point in your life, and me also, is the best things the Proverbs says is that you would find somebody who is already successful and copy those. Don’t think a lot about it, just do what they’re doing. Don’t be so smart that you have to come up with this new, never before tried plan. In Proverbs 6:6, it says this, simple verse, “Go to the ant.” Go to the ant. Go to the one who is a hard worker and watch them. And when you initiate with the wise and you walk with the wise, you’ll be wise. You want somebody to pace you, you want somebody to help you. “W” was to be confident. This one is to be coachable. Be coachable by giving yourselves to God-honoring aspirations. Pursue, get input, follow advice from mature leaders. And don’t confuse action with accomplishment.
Before my junior year in college, I went to work for my stepfather. I never worked for him before. My mom and dad were divorced, and my mom got remarried, so I moved to Omaha, and I worked the summer with him. Now…God was working on sluggardness in my life. This is nepotism at its best, right? I get hired by my stepfather. It’s the only time in my whole life, that I was almost fired... by my own stepfather. Because my work habits were so poor, were so horrible. I could talk my way out of any work, absolutely. My thing in life was to solve any work problems and get around them. My motto was to take as little responsibility as possible. And I was very, very, very good at it. But over the years, God has been teaching me this verse. I want somebody to copy, to pace me.
Mrs. B Story: There is a lady woman I’ve used to work for. Her name is Mrs. B. Mrs. B lived most of her life in Omaha, Nebraska. She owns a furniture store there and runs it (or at least she did until recently). I bought many a thing from her store. Later, I was a pastor in Nebraska, and I would do consulting with project management, and I did some consulting with Nebraska Furniture Mart and I heard legendary stories about Mrs. B. Some of them I already knew, but some of them I didn’t. This gal was born in 1893. She came to the United States, single, in her 20’s, not knowing to read or write English, with $66 dollars in her pocket. And then the Great Depression hit.
Things went downhill from there. She borrowed $500 and bought some furniture and put it in the basement of a pawn shop. The locals (established businessmen) hated her and tried to drive her out of business. She couldn’t read, she couldn’t write, she had no money; but she had tenacity, she had character. She took it one day at a time. She didn’t quit. She built her business.
When she was about 102 years old, Warren Buffet (one of the top two guys in America financially…he lives in Omaha, Nebraska), bought her “borrowed five-hundred dollar” business, for $55 million dollars. She, at one time, had the second largest furniture store in the entire world (there was one in Germany that was bigger). But the thing about Mrs. B wasn’t that she was so smart or anything, it was that she was an incredibly hard worker. When she sold her business, at 102, to Warren Buffet, he did it with a handshake and she marked an “X” on the contract, because she couldn’t read or write. Fifty-five-million-dollar business.
I did some consulting when she was 101, and I heard about her 100th birthday. At the time of her 100th birthday, Warren Buffet came to Mrs. B and said “I want to give you a birthday party, Mrs. B. You’re an incredible lady, I want to give you a birthday party.” And here was her response… “I can’t come”. Warren Buffet wants to throw you a birthday party you go, you know, you just do. But she said “I can’t come, because I’m working on Wednesday. That’s my birthday, I’m working that day.” She said, “I can come Saturday afternoon, because I work half days on Saturday.” At 101 years old she was working 14-hour days, she took 2 weeks of vacation a year, and she worked 5 ½ days a week, every week. Since she was about in her 80’s she was in a motorized wheelchair, and she would run around that store, hundreds of thousands of square feet of store selling carpet and making deal. At 103 years old she was working 14-hour days. Let me ask you this, how convicting is it to a young man when a 103-year-old lady outworks you. How about for us? How convicting is it? If 103-year-old lady outworks us? Fourteen-hour days! Here’s one thing you can be thankful for.
Let me ask you this. Do you plan to be like someone like that? Maybe not her. Let’s pick somebody else. Let’s pick John Wesley. He was a pretty hard-working guy. During the last 50 years of his life, it was estimated that he traveled a quarter of a million miles, mostly on horseback. He preached 40,000 sermons for the last 50 years of his life…that makes about 2 a day. He, in one 8-week period, when he was 85 years old, he preached 80 times…at 85…riding horseback. No coach airline flights. So, pick your person. Pick your ant, (maybe not your aunt), go to the ant and observe their ways and be wise. And have someone challenge your life and make plans to be that way. And don’t talk yourself out of it…they’re not like me…they have a different personality, I’m not like them. Inside, remember the Spirit of God, point “W”, we are workers, we have a craftsmanship that we’re made far more than you realize. Far more than you realize.
Here are several practical verses:
Observe: Proverbs 6:6 “Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.”
Initiate: Proverbs 15:12 “A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise.”
Imitate: Proverbs 13:20 “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Kill pride: Proverbs 26:12 “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”
Accept advice: Proverbs 19:20 “Listen to counsel and receive instruction, That you may be wise in your latter days.”
Deeds matter: Isaiah 32:8 “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.”
Work hard: Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Be On Time: Proverbs 20:4 “Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest.”
Plan: Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent certainly lead to advantage, But everyone who is in a hurry certainly comes to poverty.”
“Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.” –Charles Kingsley
S – ____STEP UP______ to your challenges. Be ______CALLOUSED____ toward your personal hurdles for godly endeavors in a healthy way. Acquire a healthy taste for pain, blood, sweat and tears. Other may, but you cannot. Learn to delay gratification knowing that trials are a necessary part of becoming like Christ.
Hebrews 6:11-12 “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to (I) imitate those who (S) through faith and patience (E) inherit what has been promised.”
W – We are God’s Workmanship. I – Imitate and Initiate the Wise. The third letter is S. “S” stands for STEP UP to the challenge, step up to your challenges. Be callous to your own personal hurdles for Godly endeavors. Acquire a taste, (and here’s a tough one) acquire a taste for pain and blood and sweat and tears. Others may, but you cannot. Learn to delay gratification knowing that trials are a necessary part of becoming like Christ.
You know that even Lance Armstrong, the multiple world champion cyclist between 1991 and 1998, he’s got a rider with him, right? He’s got teammates, right? And what does that rabbit do for Lance Armstrong, the bicyclist? Doesn’t he have somebody, a pace bike? Lance, he’s a world champion cyclist. Why can’t he just go out there and do it himself? He has someone go ahead to him so he just rips to his and just burns his muscles in his whole body, so expends it all to be a winner. Because he knows that he doesn’t want to pay the price, the flesh is too great. And we have to go to the ant and let the ant pace us.
Movie: Cinderella Man. Have you ever seen Cinderella Man? Good movie? I like that movie. It’s a real good movie. It should win an academy award, but it probably won’t…for best movie. But here’s this boxer getting old and tired. Broken his hand numerous times, and he was still boxing with a broken right hand. And so finally, they took his card away, he couldn’t box. He had to go down to the docks, and he had to work really, hard for a living. And…didn’t the broken hand make him a champion (if you know the story)? Because he had no left hook, because he always used his right. He just relied on his strength and never developed his left hook. So, he had to go down to the docks, almost starved to death, his whole family, no heat or anything up there in New York (or wherever he was at), and then he had to rely on his left arm. So then when his right arm healed, he had two good arms and he became a world champion. But it was the trial that he went through that made him a champion. And for you and I, that trial that you’re facing, that you will look in faith…get to the place in your life that you will look at that trial face to face, look it in the eye and say “You are my friend. You will make me what I don’t want to be. You will make me incredible, worthy bride of Christ. And I will take you on. I will accept you. Come into my life. Thank you, dear trial.”
God wants to make a movie, a YouTube of your life. And he doesn’t want to make it boring. He doesn’t want a boring DVD. You know, I only did a few things, accomplished and tried real small stuff. No, what makes a good DVD? They overcame incredible obstacles. They took supernatural risks. They were the greatest improvement of anybody ever known on the planet. It was a great comeback. That makes a great DVD. So why do we think that it’s all success? God goes, that’s all boring… I want to see him do stuff that the Spirit of God will need in their life. Chuck Swindoll says this…somebody asked him, “Chuck, what is the emotion that you like the most?” He said “I love the feeling of accomplishment.” Have you developed that in your life. Do you like the feeling of relaxing, or taking it easy, or joking around. Or have you learned to enjoy the feeling of, “I did it. I turned it in on time. I finished it. And I completed it.” I’m still working on this, massively so.
It won’t be without setbacks or failures. Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of the ox.” You can have a clean barn without animals. But if you have animals and have income from them you also ALWAYS have waste.
Get used to people giving unsolicited advice. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” This means that some part of that unsolicited advice is helpful. You don’t have to agree with it but it is good to see if they have something, however small, something useful to you.
Learn to reject soft living and improbable excuses. Proverbs 24:33-34 “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.” Learn to get up when your alarm goes off. Proverbs 26:14 “As a door swings back and forth on its hinges, so the lazy person turns over in bed.” Claim the promise from Proverbs 13:4 “The soul of the lazy one craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made prosperous.” There is always some reason to not step out and act courageously. We blow up things in our mind that ends up paralyzing us like in Proverbs 26:13, “The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion is in the streets!”” As some say, “This is the way.” Hebrews 5:8 says of Jesus, “Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”
In the book, the Disciplined Life, Richard Taylor wrote, “Selection-Selection-Selection: This is the law of life. We cannot join everything; therefore, we must select. We cannot participate in every good cause; therefore, we must select. We cannot give to everything; therefore, we must select. We cannot go to every interesting concert or lecture or meeting; therefore, we must select. We cannot read everything; therefore, we must select. To become well-read is vastly more than reading; it is a matter of exclusion as well as inclusion. President Case of Boston University once said, “If you want to become a specialist of New Testament Literature, you must say good-bye to the comics forever.” … In a general sense, self-discipline is the ability to regulate conduct by principle and judgment rather than impulse, desire, high pressure, or social custom. It is basically the ability to subordinate.
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank among those poor spirits who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat" ~Theodore Roosevelt
E – ___ENJOY______ the rewards now, sensing God’s promised results! Be ______CHEERFUL___ to the very end of the task, stirring up your passions red hot. You’ve nothing to lose but regrets. You’ve nothing to hide but pride. You’ve nothing to fear but fear itself.
Hebrews 6:11-12 “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to (I) imitate those who (S) through faith and patience (E) inherit what has been promised.”
“E” stands for ENJOY. Nothing significant ever was accomplished in a day. As they say, life is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a journey, not a destination. While you are making progress, celebrate milestones, enjoy the small victories. It’s your celebration, it’s your party, find something that means something to you.
Learn to enjoy the promised rewards. Enjoy the promised rewards now. Be cheerful to the very end of the task, to the very end of the task. So, you’re a worker. Who are you? Imitate the wise. Go through the difficult times. Be glad to do that. Know that that’s how you become great. There’s no one who became great for the kingdom of God who did not accept the trials and welcome them as friends.
That’s you. You know that? The Spirit’s in you, that is you. You are a finisher. Maybe you haven’t developed it to its fullest (and I haven’t developed it to its fullest), but don’t disconnect from that. Embrace it. Embrace it, knowing that that is you. And that arrival and finishing is kind of the same thing.
You’ve got to have God’s promises. What are some of the promises? “We are his workmanship.” What are some of the promises? “Do you see a person skilled in their work. They’ll stand before kings.” Another one on your list, in Proverbs says, “In all hard work is profit.” How about this one, “The diligent man will rule.” You want to be a leader? It says if you’re diligent you’ll rule. Develop this in your life. But you’ve got to keep those promises.
One thing I did in my senior year in college, I got a plant. I put the plant on my windowsill, and I think I put “the diligent man will rule” on it. Or, “in all labor there is profit”, I can’t remember which one I put. But I wrote out the verse, and I taped it, back then I never memorized a verse, I think, in my whole life. So, I taped it on the outside of the plant pot there. And know what I would do? I would get lazy or distracted or make excuses and I wouldn’t water the plant. What happens to the plant when it doesn’t get water? I’d look over and be studying and I’d go “Man, that’s a pathetic plant.” Oh! I’m supposed to do something. Then I’d go there and water it and then I’d see the verse. And then the plant would pop up again after a few hours, and then a couple more days it’d go down. And that plant, that whole semester screamed at me, “Jay, keep the promises of God alive in your life.”
“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” This is me. I will have profit. I will have honor in the kingdom of God. I will rule, later, as I enjoy that now. My wife, she loves to plan vacations. She likes to go on them, but she has to do a lot of work. She’s got two kids and a husband that she has to deal with in the truck. And so that’s not always that fun. Especially when you go camping and stuff. What she really likes is the anticipation of it. Learn to anticipate that day when you stand before Christ and he says “Well done good and faithful servant.” And enjoy that now. I’m becoming, you’re becoming like that.
Here is a list of some promises and principles:
Proverbs 22:29 “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.”
Proverbs 12:24 “The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.”
Proverbs 10:4 “Poor is one who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Proverbs 31:18 “She senses that her profit is good; Her lamp does not go out at night.”
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Proverbs 12:11 “One who works his land will have plenty of bread, but one who pursues worthless things lacks sense.”
Nehemiah 8:10 “Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."”
2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”
John 17:4 “I glorified You on the earth by accomplishing the work which You have given Me to do.”
Putting it all together we have W-I-S-E, biblical principles to help us accomplish all that God has for our faith-fill, exciting, abundant life.
W – We are ___WORKERS___, designed and created by a worker. Be ___CONFIDENT___ of your identity in Christ. Act like the masterpiece you are!
I – __IMITATE___ and initiating with the wise. Be __COACHABLE___ by giving yourself to God-honoring aspirations. Pursue, get input and follow the advice of mature believers. Don’t confuse action with accomplishment.
S – __STEP UP__ to your challenges. Be ___CALLOUSED___ toward your personal hurdles for godly endeavors in a healthy way. Acquire a healthy taste for pain, blood, sweat and tears. Other may, but you cannot. Learn to delay gratification knowing that trials are a necessary part of becoming like Christ.
E – __ENJOY___ the rewards now, sensing God’s promised results! Be ___CHEERFUL__ to the very end of the task, stirring up your passions. You’ve nothing to lose but regrets. You’ve nothing to hide but pride. You’ve nothing to fear but fear itself.
