Sermon: Strategies for Escaping Babylon (Part Five)

Embracing God's Work Ethic - Go the Extra Mile
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David F. Maas
Given 04-Nov-23; 29 minutes 2023-11-04

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Luke 17:10 “So likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do so.’”

The Amplified Classic version offers a few more cogent details: “Even so on your part, when you have done everything that was assigned and commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants [possessing no merit, for we have not gone beyond our obligation]; we have [merely] done was our duty to do.’”

Matthew 5:38-42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him take your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

The Amplified Classic reiterates this verse “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” It is the command to go the extra mile, giving extra measure, embracing the work ethic instead of the welfare ethic, and becoming a profitable servant which is the focus for Part Five of this series on escaping from Babylon.

The tile for this message is “Strategies for Escaping Babylon (Part Five); Embracing God’s Work Ethic; Going the Extra Mile”—the philosophy of choosing to walk an extra mile, especially when coupled with a faulty interpretation of Romans 13:1-3. As a reminder,

Romans 13:1-3 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

In his article, “On Going the Extra Mile (And How it Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means”), Corey Farr suggests that “these words of Jesus would have been profoundly disturbing to his first-century audience. The “second mile” that Jesus mentioned was not just a nice platitude that he made up on the spot. Rather, it would have struck a very real and painful nerve.”

Soldiers of the Roman Army, who in certain aspects we might consider the “Nazis” of their day, had the legal right to force any subject of an occupied territory to carry their heavy packs and gear for them. However, the legal limit was 1,000 paces—that is, one Roman mile (approximately half a mile today). Thus, the subject was turned into an object to be used as a pack mule. But by offering to exceed the limit, the silenced and oppressed human object would be regaining his status as a subject. By making this free choice, he would not only be demonstrating the extravagant generosity of God, but he would also be placing the soldier into an embarrassing situation, because to allow the extra mile would be breaking the law—that is, man’s law.

Some of us, I am afraid, have misinterpreted the sense of Romans 13:1-3, that yielding to government authority allows us to tacitly defy God’s moral and spiritual law, such as obeying the government vaccine mandates, as Martin discussed last week. When I wrote the commentaries on “Unmasking Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” three years ago, one of my former students living in England, tried to convince me that the apostle Paul would have taken the vaccine and worn a mask. But, in Dave Maas’s humble opinion, any manmade law which conflicts with God’s law ought to be resisted and disobeyed with every fiber of our being, as the apostle Peter vociferously proclaimed in Acts 5:29.

In his Feast of Tabernacles message, “The Longsuffering of God,” Ronny Graham remarked that he has known very few people in his life as longsuffering as his father, stating that there could be chaos all around and he would calmly go about his business as if nothing had changed, doing this day in and day out throughout his entire life, never losing his patience or his temper, never uttering a curse word, even when he would accidently hit his thumb with a hammer.

My own father evidently was cut out of the same kind of cloth. To me, my dad was the most stable human being I have ever known in my life, always keeping his emotions under absolute control—to my shame, providing a stark contrast from me. I often overheard my father complaining to Mom that “David has an artist’s temperament, losing control of his emotions continually.” I have often thought that God should have called my dad first because he seemingly had more natural spiritual resources than I did. I appreciate my father for another important reason, namely that he instilled a firm work ethic in my brothers and me, which we, in turn, have instilled in our offspring.

In the spring of 1957, my dad, who was serving as a statistician for the Green Giant Company in Le Sueur, Minnesota, bought a farm between Lake Emily and the beautiful Minnesota River Valley, replete with over a hundred acres of forest, with 55 acres under plow, where dad intended that his sons learned some work responsibilities of growing row crops and taking care of livestock, telling us repeatedly, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

The only time in my life when I ever heard my dad cry was when our soybean crop remained in the field after an early December snowstorm, making it appear that we would not make the annual payment on the farm. My dad would lead the family in what he would term Devotions, encouraging a daily Bible reading and prayer, which he taught our family was equivalent to breathing, reminding us that if we would ever stop breathing, we would die. Consequently, the whole family prayed earnestly and intently that God would rescue our soybean crop, and He did!—making a firm and unmistakable impression on the minds of my brothers and me that Almighty God had indeed performed a resounding miracle.

This work ethic which my father bequeathed to his four sons I have passed on to my three sons, who all paid for their college education by hard, intensive work rather than government loans, which the current occupant of the Oval Office is trying to make all of us pay for through our taxes. I think one of the things that I hate about the current ruling party is their entitlement philosophy, making all of us feel like helpless dependents of the federal government and devotees of collectivism and Marxist socialism. God’s people must resist with every fiber of their being becoming helpless wards of the state, making big government and welfare their idol, realizing that going the extra mile means to resist the societal pressure to succumb to victimhood and entitlement, and instead to embrace the work ethic and pass it on to our children.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loathed the victim mentality, as we read in John 10:18, which I will read from the Amplified Classic edition:

John 10:18 No one takes it [His life] away from Me. On the contrary, I lay it down voluntarily [I put it from Myself]. I am authorized and have power to lay it down (to resign it) and I am authorized and have power to take it back again. These are the instructions (orders) which I have received [as My charge] from My Father.

Going the extra mile means giving extra measure. Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” The Amplified version adds these salient details: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) where you are going.”

Consider the fruits of diligence and going the extra mile in Proverbs 22, verse 29 which I will read to you from the Amplified edition:

Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skillful and experienced in his work? He will stand [in honor] before kings; He will not stand before obscure men.

In his article, “The Habits of Going the Extra Mile,” Keith Ready, inspired by the work of Napolean Hill, insisted that “going the extra mile means the rendering of more and better service than that for which one is paid, and giving it in a positive mental attitude.” We, of course, understand that Almighty God installed this principle in the entirety of Creation. Among the specific advantages of going the extra mile, Keith Ready identifies the following:

1. It tends to make one indispensable in many different relationships, enabling him to command more than average compensation for personal services. Last week, my podiatrist informed me that TIPS is an acronym, meaning To Insure Professional Service.

2. It leads to mental growth and to physical skill and perfection in many forms of endeavor, adding to ones earning capacity.

3. It protects one against the loss of employment when employment is scarce and places him in a position to command the choicest jobs.

4. It enables one to profit by the law of contrast since the majority of people do not practice the habit.

5. It leads to the development of a positive, pleasing mental attitude, which is essential for enduring success.

6. It tends to develop a keen, alert imagination because it inspires one continuously to seek new and better ways of rendering service.

7. It develops the important quality of personal initiative.

8. It develops self-reliance and courage to move forward.

Remember, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ takes a dim view of spiritual timidity, as He states in Luke 9:62, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” The Amplified version adds the following details: “But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

Jerry Pokorsky, in his July 1, 2019 article, “Tinkering with the Faith,” states that the phrase “putting hand to the plow” is a metaphor for starting a task, while “looking back” refers to hesitation, timidity, or regret.

9. It serves to build the confidence of others in one’s integrity.

10. It aids the mastery of the destructive habit of procrastination.

11. It develops definiteness of purpose, insuring one against the common habit of aimlessness.

12. Going the extra mile gives one the only logical reason for asking for increased compensation. If people perform no more service than for which they are being paid, then obviously they are receiving all the pay to which they are entitled.

As a kind of afterthought or post-reflection, Keith Ready proclaims, “There is still another benefit to be gained by the man who follows the habit of going the extra mile: It keeps him on good terms with his own conscience and serves as a stimulant to his own spirit. Therefore, it is a builder of sound character, which has no equal in any other human habit.

The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay on compensation declared, “If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withheld, the better for you, for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.”

Going the extra mile means getting control of our fears and timidity. We all have our share of fears and anxieties. Both Elijah and Job became upended by paralyzing fear. In Job 3:25, we learn that the thing Job greatly feared has come upon him, and what he dreaded happened to him.

In Proverbs 10:24, Solomon lets us know, “The fear of the wicked will come upon him, and the desire of the righteous will be granted.” The Amplified version renders the passage: “What the wicked fears will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous [for the blessings of God] will be granted.”

The late Dr. Herman Hoeh, in his 1955 article “How to Conquer Your Fears.” declares that, “Proper fear is wisdom. It is also knowledge. Suppose for a moment, that we are confronted with a real danger. It is only natural that we should be fearful. But let’s master our fears. Fear tells us something is wrong. It warns us that we must calmly and carefully face our danger. We must get busy and take action. Action solves the danger! But simply worrying about it and being afraid that the worst will happen won’t help us.”

Going the extra mile means total commitment and compliance to God’s holy and spiritual law. Sadly, over the years, Dave Maas has been a late bloomer when it comes to total alignment of manmade laws or perhaps alignment with the finer aspects of the spirit of the law, especially dealing with Romans 13:1-3 issues. Back in 2001, a Texas State Trooper stopped me for not wearing a seat belt. Subsequently, a judge fined me $100. In my March 18, 2023 message, “Responding to God’s Pruning is Not Passive,” I described how the Ventura County Sheriff had convinced me that turning left into a warning light was not the smartest nor the safest thing I could ever do. While I feared getting a ticket, I quickly sent a petition to Almighty God, assuring Him that Dave Maas had finally learned his lesson.

Over the past month, God has allowed me to make some mistakes, letting me stew in my own juices. For example, at the Feast this year, I ordered a set of books to be sent to Myrtle Beach, only to discover that they were sent 400 miles away in Sandy Springs, South Carolina. In my usual impulsive fashion, I blamed consecutively Satan, the publisher, and the United States Parcel Service, not realizing that Dave Maas was the true culprit, typing in the wrong zip code on the original order form. On November 31^st, five days ago, I was making my daily trip to Corriganville, stopping for a red light at the intersection. As I started looking at my cellphone, my foot slipped off the brake, and I collided with the car in front of me. A very large man with an uncharitable countenance with litigation written all over it, beckoned me to follow him around the corner into a parking lot. I sent a quick petition to our heavenly Father, assuring Him that I think Dave Maas had finally learned his lesson not to mess around with the cellphone while driving. (Let me be a lesson to you teenagers!) I followed the disgruntled gentleman to the back of his car where he examined his car closely, finding absolutely no scratches or dents anywhere. We then looked at the front of my car, finding only that my license plate had a slight horizontal crease in it—the only mementos of the collision. Consequently, we parted on good terms with a handshake, after which I thanked Almighty God for providing a miracle.

As we age, going the extra mile requires slowing way down, focusing on fewer projects, but vastly improving the quality of the ones we are working on. In Proverbs 13:11, we learn that “wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but those who gather little by little will increase it” (NRSV). The Amplified Classic edition renders this passage: “Wealth [not earned but] won in haste or unjustly or from the production of things for vain or detrimental use [ such riches] will dwindle away, but he who gathers little by little will increase [ his riches].” When Tommy Tkaczyk and I had a phone conversation last month, he described how he, because of his injured leg, had to slow down his work. He mentioned how he had compensated by improving the quality rather than the quantity of his output.

As the Germans frequently say, “Eile mit weile” roughly translated, haste makes waste. As God’s called-out saints, we must slow down like the Simon and Garfunkel 1966 hit “Feeling Groovy: “Slow down, you move too fast, you’ve got to make the morning last.” It seems incredible that there never seems to be enough time to do it right the first time, but lots of time to make endless repairs.

To wrap this message up, Going the Extra Mile, we must resist the societal pressure to succumb to victimhood but embrace the work ethic and pass it on to our children.

• Going the extra mile means giving extra measure.

• Going the extra mile means getting control of our fears and timidity.

• Going the extra mile means total commitment and compliance means total commitment and compliance to God’s holy and spiritual law.

• Going the extra mile requires focusing on fewer projects, but improving the quality of the ones we are working on.

DFM/jjm/drm