Do Not Grow Weary Galatians 6:9 January 4, 2015 Intro. New Years is a time for fresh starts, fresh goals, and fresh hopes. o Here is the other unfortunate reality: Trials in life don t start over just because the calendar changes. o Difficult situations and relationships don t suddenly get easy just because we re in a new year. o Grief doesn t take a holiday at the end of the year. You may be here this morning because you decided to start fresh with God in 2015, or you may be investigating the Christian faith or coming back after a long absence. o This is an important message for you because it is important for you to develop realistic expectations of what it means to have a relationship with God. As a church family, we attempted a large goal in 2014 by throwing our weight into paying off our mortgage. o While every dollar you give will make a significant difference, this is a 3- year commitment, and we won t start to see the fruit of this commitment in a financial sense until 2017. o In the meantime, we must keep on growing as disciples who make disciples. o We must continue to pray that God will raise up people who will answer the call to go to the unreached peoples of the world. o We need to grow as a church so that we can reproduce ourselves in planting churches. o There are seats to fill, hard hearts that need softening, sins that need to be put to death. In all of this, there is a temptation, and that temptation is to get tired and give up. o After all, we know that nothing not even failure can separate us from the love of God. o We know that all who are saved are free of God s condemnation and are secure forever. o This year you will feel the pull to ease up and not persevere. o You will feel the weight of your commitment to Christ and will be tempted to just pull over and stop, to get off the train and say, I ve gone far enough. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 1
However, God s Word to you today and on that day will be, Do not grow weary. o I want us to take a closer look at that word today here in Galatians 6:9, and I want to break it into two parts. o I want to look first at a command that encourages and then secondly at an encouragement that commands. 1. A Command That Encourages a. The reason Paul exhorts these Galatian Christians not to become weary is that weariness is a natural temptation when we are doing good. i. Of course, we need to remember that it is God s Word that defines for us what doing good actually is. ii. Weight loss goals and other personal achievements may be personally satisfying, but Paul has some very specific things in mind when he gives this command. iii. Looking at the context we see that Paul is envisioning such things as coming alongside other Christians caught in sin, guarding against temptation, bearing each other s burdens and sharing with each other. b. Paul does not say, When you grow weary, he says, Let us not become weary. i. There is encouragement in this command. ii. I find encouragement in the us. iii. Paul includes himself in this command. iv. The apostle Paul, who planted churches all over the Roman Empire and superintended the writing of over half of the New Testament, knew what it was like to be tempted to become weary. 2 Corinthians 1:8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. c. One thing that can encourage us in this command to not grow weary in doing good is to understand reasons why we tend to do so. i. Paul is using the metaphor of sowing and reaping here. ii. When we do good, we have an expectation that we will see fruit from our labors. d. It s right to expect fruit but one of the reasons why we can grow weary is that we are looking for fruit at the wrong time. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 2
i. If you get on I-84 and head east for a few hours, you see massive poplar tree farms. 1. These trees grow closely together and then are harvested after 10 years and ground into pulp for paper. ii. Then there are oak trees. 1. We measure the age of oak trees not in weeks or years but in decades. 2. These are the trees we tell stories about storms they weathered, tree houses they supported. 3. Even after they ve fallen, we see their beauty in furniture that is passed down from generation to generation. iii. God is not growing a kingdom of poplars; he is growing a kingdom of oak trees. Isaiah 61:1a, 3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. iv. When we are doing good, we can be tempted to grow weary because we are looking for fruit at the wrong time. e. A second reason why we can grow weary in doing good is that we expect the wrong fruit. i. There is a temptation to define the fruit that we want to see from our sowing. ii. There can be the temptation to believe that if we do good then God will reward us with financial prosperity or good health or acceptance in relationships. iii. There can be a temptation to look at struggles in our own lives and assume we must be doing something wrong and to look at the external successes of others and assume they are doing something right. iv. Why is God rewarding them and not me? v. You may be looking for the wrong fruit. vi. Instead we should be looking for the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. vii. In doing good we must look for this fruit and not become discouraged when we don t see the fruit that doesn t truly last. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 3
f. A third reason why we can grow weary is that we are trying to do the wrong work. i. Paul describes two kinds of activities here sowing and reaping. ii. We must remember that reaping is the effect of sowing. iii. Reaping is the reward. iv. When it comes to doing good, you can grow weary because you expect that doing good will be reaping when in reality it is sowing. v. When it comes to serving Jesus, many people want to be reapers but how few are willing to be sowers. vi. Many people want to reap the harvest of conversions but are not willing to do the work of sowing. vii. Many people want to reap the harvest of spiritual maturity but do not want to do the work of sowing in Bible reading, prayer, spiritual disciplines, and putting sin to death. g. A fourth reason why we can grow weary in doing good is that we have the wrong attitude. i. How easy it is to do good for the approval of men instead of the approval of God. ii. We can grow weary because we are working hard and no one is appreciating us. iii. We pour our hearts into doing good and someone else gets the credit. iv. Paul recognized this temptation. Galatians 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. v. If you want to persevere in doing good and not grow weary, you must determine ahead of time that you are serving God, not people. h. It is not the expectation of fruit that brings weariness, it is looking at the wrong time for the wrong fruit, attempting the wrong work with the wrong attitude. i. We can draw encouragement from this command because it does indeed contain a promise. ii. Let s look at the encouragement that commands. 2. An Encouragement That Commands a. There is a sure promise in this command. i. Paul says that we will reap a harvest. ii. We don t have this same assurance with other endeavors in life. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 4
1. Olympic athletes can train their whole lives for a chance to win a medal only to stumble and fall and go home emptyhanded. 2. You can work hard and invest your money only to see it evaporate before your eyes when the market crashes. iii. However, Paul confidently asserts here that we will reap a harvest for doing good. iv. What gave Paul such assurance? v. Where did this encouragement come from? b. Paul knew that the harvest was God s responsibility. i. If the responsibility for harvesting was in human hands, there would not be such grounds for confidence. ii. However, Paul knew that God was the gracious and sovereign determiner of the harvest. 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. c. This confidence produced encouragement in Paul that could lead him to the command: Do not give up. i. Because the harvest from doing good is sure, we must not give up. ii. There are two things that we must do to not to give up. d. First, we must work with patience. i. Doing good that produces a sure harvest is slow work. ii. It s not flashy. iii. Sometimes the ground is hard, and time is required to soften it and break it up so that the seed can take root, receive nourishment and flourish. iv. Working with patience means we shouldn t be surprised by opposition or difficulty. v. When we are doing good and not seeing fruit, we must keep telling ourselves that this is the way God works. e. Second, we must work with diligence. i. Because we have the promise of a harvest, we must keep doing what is good. ii. Keep spending time with God in his Word and in prayer. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 5
iii. Keep inviting your friends to church. iv. Keep spending time with unbelievers. v. Keep drinking coffee. vi. Keep serving. vii. Keep giving. viii. Charles Spurgeon said, If there are a hundred reasons for giving up your work of faith, there are 50,000 for going on with it! Though there are many arguments for fainting, there are far more arguments for persevering. Though we might be weary and do sometimes feel so, let us wait upon the Lord and renew our strength and we shall mount up with wings as eagles, forget our weariness and be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! f. Doug and Carolyn Tharp were Bible translators with Wycliffe. i. Wycliffe assigned the Tharps to the Sulka people of Papua New Guinea on the basis of survey work that identified this people group as ready for a Bible translation work. ii. However, when the Tharps settled in the village they were not received warmly. iii. Although they were tolerated, none of the Sulka people were cooperative in helping them to learn the language. iv. For nearly seven years, the Tharps labored with no success. v. They would come to find out that the survey data was based on an interview with a man who had married into the Sulka tribe and did not truly represent the feelings of the tribe. vi. They also learned that the chief in the village had told his people that they were not to help the Tharps learn the Sulka language. vii. What seemed to be the final straw was when Carolyn contracted a severe case of malaria. viii. In this remote village inaccessible to aircraft and motor vehicles, Doug prepared to watch his wife die. ix. To his surprise, a couple of Sulka men came to Doug and said that the chief had a dream and they were to help get Carolyn to a hospital. x. Then they were to help Doug learn whatever he needed to give them the Bible. xi. With the help of the Sulka people, Carolyn did reach a hospital in time and received the necessary treatment. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 6
Conclusion xii. After she recovered, Doug and Carolyn were able to finish the translation project in nearly record time, completing the New Testament two years ahead of the projected schedule. xiii. Nearly the entire village received Christ, and today, the Sulka people have God s Word in their language. xiv. A church has been established because the Tharps did not grow weary but worked with patience and diligence. What good work have you been called to? o It may be persisting in a difficult marriage or maintaining integrity in an office where backstabbing and stretching the truth to meet a deadline are how business gets done. o It may be a ministry that needs workers or a neighbor that needs serving. For every season of sowing there is a proper season of harvest. o There is still such a thing as fruit being in season. o Today, you can go to Costco and you can buy strawberries. o They will be large, firm, and mostly red and juicy. o However, this June, if you will drive west toward Hillsboro on TV Highway, you ll encounter an unassuming fruit stand. o As this tent, you will find small green paperboard containers labelled Hood strawberries. o They won t be as big as Costco strawberries, but they will be redder and more plump and juicy. o You can buy Costco strawberries today, but the Hood strawberries in the proper season are far sweeter. o Do not grow weary. o Spurgeon s word reminds us well: As all fruits are sweeter for being in season, so is the reward of Christian service when it comes in God s time. Beaverton Christian Church Pastor Scott Gassoway Page 7