Harpeth Community Church

Work?
Do it Well . . . . Proverbs: 7 Habits for Your Best Life
Diligence – persistent and smart-working effort to accomplish a goals or complete a tasks.
1. Diligence will bring you wealth.
Proverbs 10:4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Proverbs 21:5  The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty
Proverbs 6:6-9 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

2. Diligence will achieve your goals.
Proverbs 12:27 The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.
Proverbs 13:4 The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.
3. Diligence will lead you to positions of authority.
Proverbs 12:24 Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.
4. Diligence Bring You Respect from Great People.
Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.
5. Diligence Means Rejecting Laziness.
Proverbs 24:  30-34 I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
6. Diligence Means Resisting Fantasy and Get Rich Quick Schemes
Proverbs 28:  19 He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
Proverbs 21: 17 He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.
7. Diligence Means Not Being A Workaholic.
 Proverbs 23: 4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
8. Diligence Means Doing The Hard Little Things First.
Proverbs 24: 27 Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.
9. Diligence Makes Work Sacred, The Way You Worship of God.
Colossians 3:17-24 - And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. . . . Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.  
10. Diligence Means Striving for Neither Riches nor Poverty.
Proverbs 30: 7-9 -  "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.