Kryptonite: Week 4

Devotional

I want to tell you about two different people. The first is a girl who decided she wanted to win the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest. Do you know the one I am talking about? They hold it every year on the 4th of July in Coney Island in New York. The winner takes home $10,000 for eating hot dogs. So she goes to the Wiki How site for How to Win an Eating Contest. You might not know this, but they have about 27 pages worth of content on how you can win. Then she spent a year training. She started with a hot dog per day day. She learned how to soak the bun in water to eat it. She got to the place where she could put away about 50 hot dogs in 10 minutes. It was hard, but after a whole year of training she entered the contest. The next person I want to tell you about is this girl’s friend who decided that she was going to sign up for the contest as well. But she did something different. She decided she did not want to train. It sounded like too much work and she didn’t like stuffing her face and eating wet hot dog buns. She thought, “I like like hot dogs. Let’s see how this goes. I mean how hard could this be?” She would just show up to the contest in Coney Island in a year and eat. Who do you think was better prepared for the contest when the time came? What do you think the result was? The girl who trained for a year, or her friend who never prepared or trained? [Speaker, let students yell out the answer.] Yes, of course the girl who trained for a whole year was better prepared and she probably won if she could eat 50 hot dogs because the women’s record is 40! . She worked hard and literally put in the effort. Her friend, on the other hand, who did not practice or prepare for the contest probably choked and died Actually, she probably threw up just watching her friend.

What was the difference between the two of them? One chose hard work and discipline. The other chose to be lazy. It may have felt good in that moment, not to have to practice or work hard for the contest, but she definitely regretted it when she was trying to force feed herself. That is what laziness does, isn’t it? Laziness, in the end, leaves us with regrets and wishing we worked harder and did not take the easy way out. Today we are going to talk about laziness and how to let go of laziness and pick up discipline instead.

When we talk about laziness, the first thing we need to understand about it is why it can be so damaging.

The thing we need to see is that laziness holds us back in so many different ways. It holds us back from growing in our relationships with the people in our lives. When we only play video games, get on social media, or watch tv, you cannot have strong relationships. When we are not trying to be a good friend, son or daughter, or student, we cannot really have a good relationship because we are not trying to help them, learn more about them, or prove to them that they can trust us.

It holds us back in school and our extra curricular activities. It keeps us from working hard and doing the best we can in school. It can tempt us to not study as hard as we can and our grades are not as high as they could be. Laziness can also keep us from being the best in our extra-curricular activities, too. It can keep us from practicing as much as we can, we stop getting better and growing.

It also holds us back from growing in our relationship with God. When we are not trying to get to know Him more, our relationships with Him are not as strong. We do not talk to Him often and learn more about Him by studying the Bible to read His words to us that can be found in the Bible.

So, the question is, how do we fight laziness? What is a better way than letting laziness get the best of us? We let go of laziness and pick up discipline instead. Discipline is when we make hard work a habit in our lives. We study hard, we practice our extra-curricular activities often and as best as we can. Let’s take some time to see what the Bible teaches us about being people who are disciplined.

1. Always give your best

Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.”

To work at something with “all your heart” means to give your very best at all times. Discipline means always giving our very best in everything that we do. People who are disciplined give 100% all the time.

2. Do everything for God’s glory

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

This verse tells us that we do everything that we do remembering that we are doing it for God. This helps us have discipline and do our best. If you could see Jesus with you when you were doing your homework, you would probably study really hard, wouldn’t you? If He was at your soccer practice or cheer practice, you would probably work twice as hard at your sport, wouldn’t you? We may not be able to see Jesus every day, but He is with us and everything we do, we do it for Him. Disciplined people understand this and do their best because they realize that they are doing it for Jesus.

3. Think with the End in Mind

At the end of his life, Paul is saying “I did well.” That is where I want to be. I don’t want a prize for hot dogs or money, I want to know that I lived my life well for God and others. There is a finish line in heaven and I want to hear God say Well Done!

At the end of the day, we are representatives of Christ. When we do our best and work hard, we make much of Christ. When we are lazy and slothful, we do not represent Him well. I do not know about you, but I want to represent Him well. I want to do my best and work and point people to Jesus through my discipline and hard work. After all, He gave His best for us when He gave His life for us on the cross.

Break the ice

What do you think is the laziest animal? Why?

Small group questions

1. What are the reasons a lot of people choose to be lazy instead of working hard?
2. What are reasons you sometimes choose to be lazy instead of working hard?
3. What holds you back from giving everything to God?
4. How do your decisions to be lazy or work hard impact you?
5. Read 1 Corinthians 10:31. How would doing this impact your life? Explain.

1. What area of your life that you have been holding back from giving 100%?
2. What is one thing you can realistically do to give this area to God?

Moving forward

Take a minute to think about one area in your life that you want to work on giving your best in this week. Maybe you want to work on giving your best in academics, athletics, or another extra-curricular activity. Maybe you want to work on giving your best in relationships, being the best friend, sibling, or son or daughter that you can be. What is a step you can take this week to grow in that area? Maybe that means studying for 15 extra minutes every day or practicing your sport every Saturday morning. Maybe it means being more thoughtful and unloading the dishwasher for your parents at least 2 times a week. Share with your group the area you want to grow and the step that you can take this week to grow in that area. When you come back next week, be prepared to share with the group about the step that you took to grow!