Study Notes

FOUNDATION STATEMENT: What you honor you give priority to and what you give priority to you’ll be diligent with.

 

I.   The Law of Diligence

A. You won’t walk in victory without being diligent in hearing and doing Word (Josh 1:8)

B. Nothing just happens; There’s a reason things aren’t happening in people’s lives-Prov 26:2

1.  The natural and spiritual world are governed by laws; If you do this, this happens

2.  You’re in the condition you’re in right now because of what you have or haven’t heard and done from the Word

3.  You can’t ignore spiritual law and then be surprised when the results of the law that you put into motion show up in your life (Js 1:20, Hosea 4:6)

C.You’re supposed to be skillful in the Word of Righteousness; you should be able to run to this Word, do your way out, and make our way prosperous-Hebrews 5:11-13

D. After hearing these things how can a person stay slothful in the Word?

II. Honor, Priority, Diligence  

A. Everybody can be diligent because everybody is diligent at something right now

1.  People have selective diligence; they’re diligent in flesh pleasing activities

2.  Most people are outright lazy, but their diligence is misplaced

B. Diligence has been misplaced because God and His things have been given no priority

1.  Diligence will manifest with the highest priority

2.  What is most important to you, you’ll be diligent at

C.God and His things have no priority because of lack of honor

1.  Whatever has the place first priority in your life got there through your honor/because you value it the most

2.  Honor-Greek (Timios)-Estimate or attach a value to something, to honor somebody as sacred or special, to value as of great price, precious, esteemed (valued), to hold especially dear---Hebrew (Kabad)-Weight, heaviness, to be heavy or weighty; in those days they had scales and how much something cost was determined by weight; if something was very expensive you had to pile a lot of heavy precious metals on that scale to buy it; the more valuable a thing was the “heavier” the price

3.  When we honor something it’s valuable to us, it gets priority in our lives, and we’re diligent about it

D. Many believers don’t show honor because they’re dominated by their feelings

1.  Honor says when it’s convenient or inconvenient, when I feel like it or when I don’t, when I have time or don’t have time; you are so valuable to me that I don’t care what I have going on you have place, priority, and my diligence (2 Sam 23:14)

a. They valued their king enough to die to get in a drink of water; many believers don’t value their king enough to come to church

2.  I honor/value this thing so much I can ignore my feelings when it comes to how I treat it; It’s not important enough to you to disregard your feelings

a. Honor is not feeling-based it’s a faith-based decision and act of your will

b. Honor works in spite of feelings, not in response to feelings

c. I can be diligent in this thing because I value it enough to disregard my feelings

1)   Is this Word important enough to you to disregard our feelings for it

2)   Have you ever given the Word of God that type of honor that you give carnal things

3.  People are underdeveloped in honor and overdeveloped in their feelings

E.  We are to honor God and His Word (John 5:23)

1.  John 1:1-5,14-God is the Word and you can’t honor him w/o honoring His Word

a. EX: You can’t honor your spouse, but not value what they say

2.  We honor God by giving him and his word our diligence

F.  What you honor/value the most you give priority/preference to and you are diligent at

1.  Lack of diligence manifest through lack of honor; it’s an honor problem

2.  Believers aren’t diligent in the Word because it has no priority in there lives; it has no priority in their lives because their honor for it is missing; their honor for it is missing because they don’t really believe that this Word can change their lives

III.            Diligence has been misplaced because honor has been misplaced; you value the wrong thing; it’s not a diligence problem it’s an honor problem

A. The Word is precious and knowing what it says and doing it is precious (2 Pt 1:4, Ps 119)

1.  There’s great results when you value the Word (Pr 13:13, Ps 119:92,165, 1 Sam 2:30)

B. Attaching the improper value to things leads to misplaced priority & diligence

1.  Matt 13:45-His selling all that he had and buying that showed he honored it

2.  Luke 14:16-They honored other things more, those had priority, and their diligence

3.  There can only be one first (Luke 14:26-33, Matthew 6:33)

a. If I’ll keep first things first and be diligent in what’s first I’ll be the best I can be at what’s second, third and so on; You’re wife, kids, family and everybody else would enjoy you a lot more if they were second and God was first

4.  Matt 7:6-Hogs value slop as much as they value pearls; they don’t see the true value

a. We won’t miss our TV shows slop, but the Word is secondary

b. EX: We’ve put a $5000 price tag on a pack of bubble gum

C.There is two different values systems (John 5:41,44, 1 Samuel 16:7)

1.  What men see as important often times God sees as meaningless

2.  What God sees as important often times men don’t have time for it

D. If your honor is misplaced your priorities are out of whack, your diligence will be misplaced, and you won’t walk in victory

IV.            Locating your honor

A. Where is your honor? Find your diligence (Malachi 1:6)

1.  Matthew 15:8-Many believers like to think that they can honor God

a. Matthew 6:24-Their heart/treasure, what they value the most is far from me

2.  Malachi 1:6-13-When it comes TV you got time, attention, and effort to give

a. 6-They despised his name

b. 8-God got the polluted stuff, the governor got the good stuff

c. 11-Second best doesn’t please God and he doesn’t accept it

d. 12-They didn’t value God’s stuff and they weren’t excellent and diligent in it

e. 13-It was too inconvenient for them

B. Proverbs 5:7-13-We can locate your honor by locating your diligence

1.  7-Your attention is your diligence  

2.  9-Your effort, energy, and excellence is your diligence

a. Vigor-Physical or mental strength and energy; intensity

b. Splendor-The condition of being magnificent, impressive, or excellent

3.  9-Your years (time) your diligence

4.  10-Your money is what your diligence

5.  10-Your labor is your diligence

V. A big part of developing diligence is becoming developed in honor

A. Release your faith-I am a person who honors God and His Word above all else

B. Find and attach the proper value to things

C.Ignore your feelings

D. Refer to the Word with honor

E.  Confer upon the Word-Make time for the Word

F.  Prefer the Word over other things-Practice giving it priority