Work Hard
Don’t grow weary.
As a church, we recently celebrated our one-year anniversary. It’s been fun talking about the changes that we have experienced together over this year with many of you. As elders, we took some extended time at our last meeting reflecting back and thinking forward about what this next year may hold for us. I would encourage each of you to do this with your family and fellow church members and use it as an opportunity to praise God and to pray for his continued faithfulness to us.
One of the thoughts that has stuck with me in thinking about this one-year anniversary is Paul’s charge to the church in Galatians 6:9. Paul writes, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” With this in mind, my exhortation to us this morning is this: Do not grow weary in doing good by remembering the rewards of faithfulness.
We just finished our first cross-country season in our house. Watching a cross country race is an apt metaphor for the Christian life. Everybody looks strong coming off the starting line because all the runners can sprint a short distance. But then the middle-distance kicks in and weariness takes its toll. There are no awards given for the fastest 100 meters in Cross Country. Only those who push through the weariness receive the reward. Emmaus church, it may be that in some areas of our church life together, we just passed the first 100 meters of our race.
Stop for a minute and think about one area of your life that you find yourself growing weary.
May be an area of church life or volunteer ministry that taxes you.
May be at home with marriage, kids, or life circumstances.
For youth, students, kids, may be school relationships where you are striving to be kind, generous, patient with another person who keeps picking on you. Or annoying you.
May be a health struggle that does not seem to improve.
What is one area of your life that you find yourself growing weary?
Now ask yourself why. I think for most of us, we find ourselves growing weary when we do not see a result coming from our efforts. When I worked in sales, it was never difficult to talk to clients who were buying. Weariness comes when we feel like our efforts are not yielding any reward. A lack of results will wear down even the most disciplined person.
But what is God’s answer in Galatians 6:9? He tells us not to grow weary in doing good, “for in due season we will reap”. Any farmer will tell you that the things you plant in the ground will determine the crop you harvest. If a farmer grows weary halfway through planting season and stops sowing seeds in the ground, he will be disappointed during harvest season. Church family, the ministry seeds that you are planting now will not always grow up quickly. And some of them may seem like they are a total waste due to a lack of apparent response. But the promise of God in this text is that our ministry work is never wasted. Our “doing good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith” will always result in a harvest of some good.
And it is this promise that should strengthen our hands to not grow weary when we feel that fatigue. Remember, the first 100 meters is the easy part. Anyone can get excited and motivated when things are going well. But can you continue pouring out, sacrificing, serving faithfully when the reward in your life may be nothing more than teaching you to trust the Lord and endure.