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Daily Vigilance for Lifelong Productivity · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, ambitiously successful people rarely wait to cash in on
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  Speaker 1: a few big moments. They look for big moments, yes.
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  Speaker 1: But if you look behind the key moments, you find
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  Speaker 1: that success is built day by day. They focus their
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  Speaker 1: life's attention on one steady goal. They work, they endure,
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  Speaker 1: they plod, and they work toward one end. They're never
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  Speaker 1: content with just being busy. Today on Ask Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: daily vigilance for lifelong productivity. Today is Labor Day in
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  Speaker 1: the States, a holiday to celebrate American workers. And as
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  Speaker 1: we take this break from our daily work, it's a
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  Speaker 1: good time to ask why we work every day. Aaron
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  Speaker 1: writes in. Aaron is a busy, aspiring church planter, a
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  Speaker 1: 29-year-old husband, and a father of two toddlers. Very busy.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, I admire you, Aaron writes. I look at
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  Speaker 1: your life, this podcast, the books you've written, the sermons
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  Speaker 1: you have preached, and the way you seem to use
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  Speaker 1: every minute for God's glory. I want that. I want that.
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  Speaker 1: But I cannot have it right now. We have two
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  Speaker 1: little toddlers at home, and I feel like I'm constantly
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  Speaker 1: fighting off distractions just so I can get the bare
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  Speaker 1: minimum done. I read productivity books, but I feel like
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  Speaker 1: a sluggard compared to you. How do you stay urgent,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John? How do you manage the daily grind without
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  Speaker 1: losing your passion? Aaron, that is a great question. Here's
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  Speaker 1: how Pastor John answered a similar question in 2016.
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  Speaker 2: I think the first thing that I should say is
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  Speaker 2: beware of wanting to be like me. You don't know
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  Speaker 2: the sins of my life. You don't know how much
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  Speaker 2: I have neglected. You don't know what the costs have been.
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  Speaker 2: The real question is how to be the fullest, most God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated, loving, humble, mission-advancing, justice-seeking,
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  Speaker 2: others-serving person You, you can be. Don't measure yourself by others.
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  Speaker 2: Measure yourself by your potential in Christ. That's the first
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  Speaker 2: thing that I felt I had to say because of
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  Speaker 2: the way the question seemed to be posed. Now, there
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  Speaker 2: are a lot of other things to say. Let me
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  Speaker 2: tick them off. The second thing I would say is
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  Speaker 2: give 10% of your focus. in life to avoiding obstacles
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  Speaker 2: to productivity and 90% of your focus to fastening on
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  Speaker 2: to great goals and pursuing them with all your might.
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  Speaker 2: Very few people become productive by avoiding obstacles to productivity.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a good focus. That's not where energy comes from.
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  Speaker 2: It's not where vision comes from. People write books about
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  Speaker 2: that and make a lot of money, but that's not
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  Speaker 2: where anybody gets anything worthwhile done. Getting things done that
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  Speaker 2: count come from great, glorious, wonderful future possibilities that take
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  Speaker 2: you captive and draw your pursuit with all your might.
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  Speaker 2: And then all that other stuff about getting obstacles out
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  Speaker 2: of your way, that's the 10% of broomwork that you
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  Speaker 2: have to do. Third thing I want to say. Life
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  Speaker 2: comes to us in chapters that are very different from
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  Speaker 2: each other. If you are married and have little children,
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  Speaker 2: that's a chapter that needs a great deal of focus
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  Speaker 2: on the children. If God wills, there may be another
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  Speaker 2: chapter for you with different possibilities, different potentials, and different priorities.
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  Speaker 2: The Lord will be pleased if you focus on the
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  Speaker 2: chapter you're in and live according to the demands of
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  Speaker 2: that chapter with all your might. Fourth thing to say,
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  Speaker 2: give serious thought and prayer to what your big all-consuming
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  Speaker 2: life goal is. The biblical expression of mine is found
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  Speaker 2: in Philippians 1.20. It is my eager expectations. John Piper,
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  Speaker 2: not just Paul talking. It is my eager expectation and
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  Speaker 2: hope that I will not at all be ashamed, but
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  Speaker 2: with full courage. Now, as always, Christ will be magnified
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  Speaker 2: in my body, whether by life or by death, for
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  Speaker 2: to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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  Speaker 2: So Christ magnified in living and dying, spreading a passion
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  Speaker 2: for that Christ. into the lives of others. That's the goal.
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  Speaker 2: That's the big overarching goal. So find yours and make
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  Speaker 2: it work in everything you do. Fifth, get a sense
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  Speaker 2: of gospel-rooted accountability before the living God. That is, understand
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  Speaker 2: the gospel and the spiritual dynamics of how it works.
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  Speaker 2: You don't labor to get into a right relationship with God.
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  Speaker 2: The gospel dynamics don't work that way. You labor morning
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  Speaker 2: till night with all your might because you are in
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  Speaker 2: a right relationship with God. Philippians 2, work out your
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  Speaker 2: salvation with fear and trembling for ground, basis, foundation. God
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  Speaker 2: is at work in you. That's the gospel dynamic. By
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  Speaker 2: the grace of God, I am what I am, and
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  Speaker 2: His grace towards me was not in vain. But on
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  Speaker 2: the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, but
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  Speaker 2: it was not I. The grace of God had already
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  Speaker 2: taken up residence in me and was at work in me.
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  Speaker 2: And if you get that order out of whack, you
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  Speaker 2: may accomplish a lot in life and go straight to
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  Speaker 2: hell with all your books and all your buildings. Let
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  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus intensify this sense of accountability on the
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  Speaker 2: last day with the parable of the talents, right? gave
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  Speaker 2: to one person five, gave to another person two, gave
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  Speaker 2: to another person one, came to call an account, and
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  Speaker 2: the person with one heard those awful words. You wicked
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  Speaker 2: and lazy servant. I don't want to hear that word.
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  Speaker 2: I do not want to hear that word. I want
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  Speaker 2: to experience the opposite, the counterpart to those words from
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  Speaker 2: Luke 12. Who then is the faithful and wise manager?
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  Speaker 2: whom his master will set over his household. I often
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  Speaker 2: thought those words when I was a pastor. I was
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  Speaker 2: over a household. To give them their portion of food
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  Speaker 2: at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his
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  Speaker 2: master will find so doing when he comes. I would
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  Speaker 2: be sitting preparing my messages or writing something or leading
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  Speaker 2: the family in devotions or something. And I would say,
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  Speaker 2: come now, Lord Jesus. And you'll find me doing it.
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  Speaker 2: That's the opposite of wicked, lazy servant buried your talent
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  Speaker 2: and didn't do anything with it. So that's number five.
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  Speaker 2: Number six, add to your sense of accountability before God
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  Speaker 2: a sense of urgency. We must do the works of
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  Speaker 2: him who sent us while it is day. Night is
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  Speaker 2: coming when no one will work. John 9, 4, or
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  Speaker 2: Ephesians 5, look carefully how you walk, not as unwise,
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  Speaker 2: make redeeming, literally redeeming the time because the days are evil,
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  Speaker 2: or Colossians 4, walk in wisdom towards those outside, make
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  Speaker 2: the best use of the time. There's urgency in this.
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  Speaker 2: The days are evil and night is coming. Seventh, do
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  Speaker 2: what you do with all your heart. Be done with half-heartedness. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: so many people limp through life doing what they do
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  Speaker 2: with half of a heart, half of their energy. If
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  Speaker 2: it's worth doing, it's worth doing with your whole soul.
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  Speaker 2: Ecclesiastes 9.10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it
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  Speaker 2: with your might. Jonathan Edwards, Resolution. Oh, probably had more
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  Speaker 2: impact on me in the last 30 years than anything
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  Speaker 2: else he He said in his resolutions, at least, when
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  Speaker 2: he said, resolved to live with all my might while
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  Speaker 2: I live. Those words took hold of me a long
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  Speaker 2: time ago that, oh, yes, Lord. The opposite, the opposite
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  Speaker 2: of this, 14 times in the book of Proverbs, the
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  Speaker 2: word sluggard is used. Isn't that an ugly word? Sluggard.
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  Speaker 2: 14 times. And what's a sluggard? Chapter 20, verse 4,
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  Speaker 2: the sluggard does not plow in the autumn, and he
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  Speaker 2: will seek at harvest and have nothing. You don't want
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  Speaker 2: to be a sluggard. Number eight, many chops fell a
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  Speaker 2: huge tree. Man, this is so crucial because of how
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  Speaker 2: quickly we get discouraged after a thousand chops and the
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  Speaker 2: tree's not down yet. I just finished listening to Robinson Crusoe.
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  Speaker 2: You may say, what in the world? What's John Pfeiffer
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  Speaker 2: listening to? A teenage novel from a— I' ve never heard some
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  Speaker 2: of these classics, so I'm listening to them. Robinson Crusoe,
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  Speaker 2: marooned on an island, all by himself, wants to escape,
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  Speaker 2: needs a boat. Mainland is 45 miles away. Might be
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  Speaker 2: cannibals over there. He's not sure he wants to go,
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  Speaker 2: but he needs a boat. He's got nothing else to do,
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  Speaker 2: so he's going to make a boat. He finds a tree.
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  Speaker 2: This tree is 5 feet 10 inches, I think, across
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  Speaker 2: at the bottom. He has an axe. It takes him
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  Speaker 2: 22 days to chop this tree down. 14 more days
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  Speaker 2: to chop the branches off. A year and a half
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  Speaker 2: to finish the boat with an axe. I'd chop on
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  Speaker 2: a tree for a day or two days. I'd say,
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  Speaker 2: this tree's not coming down. I'm done with this tree.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to go work on some little tree. So
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  Speaker 2: there's the key. Many chops fell a big tree. Well,
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  Speaker 2: you want to do something great? Don't quit. Keep chopping.
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  Speaker 2: Number nine. I got two more. Number nine. Be willing
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  Speaker 2: to do many things in life cheerfully that at first
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  Speaker 2: you don't want to do. They don't come naturally to you.
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  Speaker 2: There is no worthwhile role in life that does not
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  Speaker 2: require you to do things you don't at first feel
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  Speaker 2: like doing or that only let you do what comes naturally.
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  Speaker 2: So be cheerful. Be cheerful in doing the parts of
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  Speaker 2: your life that you do not at first prefer to do.
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  Speaker 2: And lastly, number 10, I tried to push it to
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  Speaker 2: make it 10, so it'd be a nice round number. Lastly,
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  Speaker 2: find your niche. That is, find the thing you do
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  Speaker 2: love to do. With all your weaknesses and all your strengths,
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  Speaker 2: put most of your energies and your love there for
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  Speaker 2: Christ and his kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: Productivity isn't about technical hacks or tightening the schedule to
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  Speaker 1: fit more into your day. We begin with greatness, a
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  Speaker 1: great desire. People become productive by fastening onto great goals
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  Speaker 1: and pursuing them with all of their might. Yeah, we
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  Speaker 1: find a calling that's big enough to pull us through
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  Speaker 1: the doldrums and the discouragements of life. We seek after
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  Speaker 1: a goal for our lives that is worthy of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good word, a good reminder, as we read
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  Speaker 1: all those sluggard texts and proverbs right now in our
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  Speaker 1: Bible reading. And for more on purpose, productivity, and laziness,
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  Speaker 1: see the Ask Pastor John book beginning on page 85
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  Speaker 1: for a lot more on this theme that we've talked
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  Speaker 1: about in the past. Despite all this talk about purpose
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  Speaker 1: and productivity and work, I do hope this Labor Day
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  Speaker 1: is a restful one for you. Next up, the primary
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  Speaker 1: barrier to doctrinal maturity. What's the primary barrier to doctrinal maturity?
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  Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, it is not IQ. Pastor John rejoins us
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  Speaker 1: in the studio on Thursday to explain why not. I'm
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  Speaker 1: Tony Reinke. See you then.