Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Performance Review

by Dave Wilkinson

Romans 12:11a, Luke 12:35-48

July 25, 1999

A while back a friend sent me a series of quotes taken from employee performance reviews. I don’t know why he sent them to me. I don’t know what companies they are from. They may even be from the company you work for. They may even be about you. But I sincerely hope not. I hope that no one would ever write about any of you something like: "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and shows signs of starting to dig."

How about this one: "His men would follow him anywhere but only out of morbid curiosity." Or this one: "This associate is not so much of a has been, but more of a definitely won’t be." Here’s some others: "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap;" "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them." Here’s my personal favorite: "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."

We’d better hope that we never get those kinds of reviews from God. Love calls us to much more in the way of performance.

In Romans 12:9-18, Paul is talking about what love does — how love acts in specific situations. We have seen how love hates what is evil but holds fast to what is good. We have seen how love makes us devoted to each other in brotherly affection and gives away the place of honor. Now, this morning, we are looking at the next action of love. Paul writes that love is "never lacking in zeal." A more literal interpretation would be "In regard to what you ought to be doing, don’t be lazy."

What does energy have to do with love?

Absolutely everything.

Without the energy to make things happen, love is only a good intention with no fruit. That is why the early church listed sloth as the first of the seven deadly sins. Energy is what makes love work. Energy gives our love wheels.

Scott Peck has written some of the most popular books in the field of psychotherapy such as The Road less Traveled. Peck says that laziness is a major cause of evil, a primary cause of psychological illness, and the main reason that Americans are increasingly failing at human relations.

True love, as we saw a few weeks ago in the sermon on verse 9, requires commitment and work. Those who are lazy are seldom willing to expend that kind of energy. Love is something that is just supposed to happen. As the song suggests, "Some enchanted evening, you will see a stranger .... and somehow you'll know .... " When children ask their parents how they will know when they are "in love," they receive the standard answer: "When you're in love, you'll know!" Peck says that this failure to recognize that love is an art requiring discipline and hard work is largely responsible for the absence of love in so many of our interpersonal relationships.

A salesman waving a book came up to a farmer. The salesman said, "If you buy this book you’ll be able to farm twice as well as you do now." The farmer spat on the ground and drawled, "I don’t need your book. I only farm half as well as I know how already."

This farmer recognized the core truth. We often don’t lack knowledge. More seminars and more books and even more adult classes or relationships won’t help us unless they energize us. What we lack is the will to put the best we know into action.

In his book The Seven Deadly Sins, Tony Compolo devotes a chapter to the sin of sloth. He writes about a man he knows whose life became consumed by sport. One day his wife left him for another man. Compolo writes: "He came to mc to see if there was something he could do to get her back. I told him that there was something he could do. He could change. I told him that he could cut back on the time and energy he spent on being a sports fanatic and make a commitment to his wife to give time and attention to things that would interest her. I told him that he would have to rearrange the priorities in his life and begin to give the Lord and his family the time and attention they deserved. He listened to me for a while and then said, ‘I thought of all that; but to tell the truth, I don't feel it's worth the effort. I want her back, but not that much.’"

Compolo’s story hits the issue dead center. Laziness keeps people from paying attention to what has eternal significance. They know better, but they are too lazy to do anything about it. They know what love requires but it sounds too hard.

Laziness is a major cause for the failure of marriages. Many times the parties involved in marital disputes both know exactly what is needed to restore the relationship. They are simply unwilling to put in the time and the energy that is called for.

In the same way, raising a family takes work. Children will not raise themselves in godliness. Left to themselves they will grow up like an untended garden, full of weeds and other wild things. It takes work to raise children with the kind of love that God requires.

For example, every parent soon learns that it is often a whole lot easier to do something yourself than to get children to do it. Children do not readily follow orders. But parents who do not keep at the task of requiring their children to do what is expected of them, and who find it too much trouble to be checking constantly on them, are too lazy themselves to do for their children what God requires of parents. Children test their parents to see how hard they are willing to try to get them to work. They find that their parents have so little perseverance that they choose the easiest course, which is to relieve their children of responsibility -- "Never mind, I'll do it myself."

As a boy I was told that it was my job to take the outer hulls off of the almonds from the seven large trees in our yard. Seven large trees can produce a lot of almonds. The sight of them sitting there on the tarp on a Saturday morning was almost more than I could bear. I wanted to be inside zoning out to "Top Cat" or "Sky King." My first response was to pretend that I did not know how to hull them. My father proceeded to show me how, and I pretended to too stupid to learn. I thought he would give up. But he knew that I needed to hull those almonds more than those almonds needed to be hulled. When my dad would not give up on me, I realized that there was no escape from the almonds and that if I said for the next ten years that I did not know how to hull almonds my dad would daily teach me how to hull them. I don’t think that was easy for him. I was an accomplished whiner. But he stuck to the task of making me stick to the task.

Laziness also impacts our ability to act in love for God — with the obedience that is what love for God looks like.

Tony Compolo writes: "One day a middle-aged man came to my office to talk with me. He explained how he had let the opportunity to serve God in a heroic and magnificent manner slip away from him. He told me, "Doc, once I was going to be a missionary and do something important for the kingdom of God, but I didn't do it. I kept putting off taking the necessary steps that would enable me to fulfill the will of God for my life. Now it's too late. My time has passed. There's no way I can ever do what will please God. I’m married and have two kids in college. I’m in debt up to my ears. There's no way I can stop everything in order to take up the call to Christian service. I came to urge you to talk to your students and to keep them from making the same mistake I made. Keep them from putting off serving Jesus until it's too late."

Compolo writes: "I almost lost my temper with him. ‘Look,’ I said, 'I don’t want to hear about what you might have done for Jesus twenty years ago. I want to talk about what you are going to do for Him today. I think you're using the failures of the past to evade the challenges of the present. You're still excusing yourself from the tasks which God has set before you. Only now you're trying to make your present responsibilities seem unimportant compared to what you think you should have done twenty years ago.’"

Compolo continues: "The man was shaken by what I laid on him, and that allowed me the opportunity to go on. ‘You may think that the little things you can do for the Lord now are relatively unimportant, but the Bible says that if we are faithful in a very little things, we shall have authority over great things. Why not get on with doing the work of God that is waiting to be done right now?"

That’s the issue.

Tom Sine writes about the "Doctrine of Passive Availability" than many Christians practice. These people say that everything they are and everything that have belongs to God and that they will use it for God just as soon as God hits them over the head with exactly what he wants. Then they sit back and do nothing because God doesn’t leave them a personalized note in their mailbox. What these people fail to understand is that we don’t need to be hit over the head. Most of what God calls us to be and do is already clearly spelled out in His Word. Sine’s "passive availability" is just another word for laziness. If you want to know what God wants you to do, start by doing the things He’s already shown you. You will discover the rest along the road.

It is a real problem in the Christian life that we can lose our energy over a period of time. It is easy to get discouraged, it is hard to work steadily. That is why Paul writes in Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary of doing the right thing knowing that in due time we will reap a reward if we do not lose heart."

Paul never wearies of reminding us that no one can find favor with God by doing good deeds. Salvation is nothing we can either earn or deserve. But at the same time we are told that the goal of the Christian life is to produce fruit that is worthy of the relationship with God we now enjoy.

Failure is one good cause for creeping inactivity. For example, the Galatian Christians had not been blessed as a church with any marked success. As Paul wrote them about "not becoming weary of doing the right thing," they were beset with divisions in their church family and false teachings from heretical teachers. I'm sure they often wondered what the point of continuing in the Christian life really was. Being Christians had brought them neither peace nor prosperity in the world. What was the use of "keeping on keeping on" and "doing the right thing" when there was no payoff. Paul says that it’s like the work of a farmer. If a farmer is too self-defeated to plant next year’s crop, there will be no harvest. But Paul says "in due time we will reap a reward if we do not lose heart."

But it’s not just failure that defeats the energy that love requires. Success can have the same impact -- especially as we compare our success or the size of our contribution with the success or contribution of those around us. Success can lull us into the belief that we've done enough -- that we’ve done our share. We forget Jesus’ words, "To those who are given much, much is required."

During the Korean War an American unit was desperately outnumbered. The captain told his men, "The odds are ten to one against us." But later, in the thick of the fighting, the captain saw one soldier, a mountaineer from Appalachia, leaning against a tree smoking his pipe. "What are you doing?" the captain yelled. The mountaineer drawled, "Ah got ma ten."

Maybe, like the mountaineer, we can decide to lie down because we figure we've done our share. To be honest, we have done a lot as a congregation. We’ve worked hard and it shows. But the conflict is real and it's still going on. At least seventy percent of eastern Ventura County is unchurched. As a Church we are not commissioned to pay off the building and live comfortably. We're commissioned to love the people Jesus loves. We are called to expend some energy, take some risks and keep moving forward. As a congregation we have the resources for effective ministry in potentially overwhelming abundance. We are the those who have been given much. This also means that we are the those from whom much is required.

Even our ability to really love our own selves is impacted by laziness. We think of laziness as self-indulgence. It is in a way. But it is an indulgence of our worst selves. It is ultimately destructive. We taste of God’s gifts and enjoy them. But then we head for a brew in the beanbag chair while we live life vicariously through the T.V. We can be too lazy to enjoy the good things God has for us in the way God means for us to enjoy them.

A consistent theme of Scripture is that joy in Christ requires a commitment to working at the Christian lifestyle. Salvation comes as a gift, but the joy of salvation demands disciplined action. Many Christians have just enough of the Gospel to make them miserable. They don’t have enough to make them joyful. They know enough about the biblical message to keep them from doing some of the things which the world tempts them to do. But they do not have enough of a commitment to God to do those things through which they might experience the fullness of His joy. It is like they have enough guilt to keep them inside on a beautiful day practicing exercises on the piano. But they don’t do it enough to really learn to play and cut loose in making great music for themselves and others.

I read of a young woman had accepted Christ as her Savior. She lived a pretty straight life and went to church with fair regularity. Nevertheless, life was depressing for her and she seemed bored with it. She had no joy.

She went to a Christian psychotherapist for help, but after several sessions with him, felt that the effort was futile. Then one day she came into her therapist's office with her face radiant with excitement. She said, "I've had the most wonderful day," This morning I could not get my car started, so I called my pastor and asked him if he could drive me to my appointment with you. He said he would, but on the way he had to stop by the hospital and make a few calls. I went with him and while I was in the hospital, I visited some elderly people in one of the wards. I read from the Bible and prayed with them. By the time the morning was over, I was higher than a kite. I haven't felt this good in years.’

The psychotherapist quickly responded, "Now we know how to make you happy! Our problem is solved! Now we know to keep you out of the doldrums!"

Much to his surprise, the young woman answered, "You don't expect me to do this sort of thing every day, do you?"

God’s answer to her and to us is "Yes" — and in doing it you will find yourself and experience the best that I want for you.

Some people are afraid of becoming full disciples of Jesus because they know that there are changes they will have to make, and are unwilling to do so. They want cheap grace that requires little response to what Jesus has done for them. They do not accept the fact that the good works God desires of them are means through which their joy might become full. They are afraid to become what God believes that they can be, because they are too lazy to face the challenges of living out the will of God in their daily activities.

At 7 p.m. on October 20, 1968, a few thousand spectators remained in the Mexico City Olympic Stadium. It was cool and dark. The last of the marathon runners, each exhausted, were being carried off to first-aid stations. More than an hour earlier, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia -- looking as fresh as when he started the race — crossed the finish line, the winner of the 26-mile, 385-yard event. As the remaining spectators prepared to leave, those sitting near the marathon gates suddenly heard the sound of sirens and police whistles. All eyes turned to the gate. A lone figure wearing the colors of Tanzania entered the stadium. His name was John Stephen Akhwari. He was the last man to finish the marathon. His leg bloodied and bandaged, severely injured in a fall, he grimaced with each step. He hobbled around the 400-meter track.

The spectators rose and applauded him as if he were the winner. After crossing the finish line, Akhwari slowly walked off the field without turning to the cheering crowd.

In view of his injury and having no chance of winning a medal, someone asked him why he had not quit. He replied, "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

The same is true for us. Paul writes about the actions of love, "In regard to what you ought to be doing, don’t be lazy." God didn’t send us to start loving people. He sent us to finish loving them. We do that — even if we have to limp our way in. The stands may be empty except for one spectator. But that one spectator will be God and His applause -- His performance review -- is all that counts.