[0:20]Can we pray before we do this? Let's pray again. I just feel led to pray. Father, thank you. Thank you so much. that somehow in all your infinite wisdom and all the things that you carry, and all the things that you see, every bit of it, God, of course you're strong enough. It's nothing for you. But God, you care enough to speak to us. How humbling that is that the God of the universe would take the time to download a word into a imperfect vessel. to deliver it to a people that are hungry to know more about you. And God, we take this time today and we recognize the importance of it, and we ask you God to bless it. Open our hearts. We give you praise and glory in Jesus name. Amen. Galatians chapter 6, verse number 1. A lot of this, you guys could probably quote off the top of your head, but I think, and I'll be totally honest with you, this is, I'm not repeating somebody's sermon, but I, I did hear this thought about this scripture from another sermon I was watching this week, and I said, that's good. And I'm going to write a sermon about that. So I, I always like to do that. I like to let you know when there's stuff that's not original. But the word, man, it's like, you can't teach the word without teaching somebody, somebody else has already taught, so you're going to, you're going to repeat somebody if you get in here. But Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. We talked about this at connect group the other night. You know, the Holy Spirit actually showed me this while we were talking and it says bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, what'd he say? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. So when we bear one another burdens, we are loving one another, we are therefore fulfilling the law of Christ. That's what that verse means. And I'm not even teaching on that verse, but that's extra for you. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. We've, we talked that a couple weeks ago, right? I think I do series and don't even mean to, but just we can go back and put 'em together into series maybe. He deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load. Now I read those verses just because I want to set up, as Paul's talking and he's doing this, I wanted to set up what I'm teaching on today and and we're going to the next verse, and this is where we're going to get into the meat of what we're doing today. But Paul sets us up talking about loving each other. Loving each other, bearing one another's burdens. And then he goes into verse 6. He says, let him who him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. So you get the, the plate of food I'm throwing out there and we could all eat it together. We can all share it together. Verse 7, Do not be deceived, He says that all the time, don't he? Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. How do we get deceived? Well, when we think we're something and we're nothing. We get deceived when we think we can do it on our own. We get deceived when we think it's about us. Don't be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. And then he goes on to give us two different ways that we sow. He says, For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And verse 9 is our focus this morning. It says, And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. In the King James says if we faint not. And I like that, I like that wording. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. And that's a real interesting verse that we're going to discuss in a minute, too. But verse 9 is where I get the title of my message this morning. So I want to talk to you for the next hour and a half. I'm just kidding. Next little bit on no reap for the weary. No reap for the weary. And I want you if you're making notes, I want you to write that down because there's no reap for the weary. Just as there are laws of physics, like what goes up? Must come down. You all listened in physics, good for you. Yeah.
[4:56]Yeah. There's others that I can't remember, but I did have physics. Like if you apply force to an immovable, or object that's not in motion, that object will begin to accelerate and change motion. Thank you. All kinds of stuff. I'm going to have him come up here. E equals MC squared. All these laws. But just as there are laws in physics, like if you drive a car into a brick wall, it's going to stop. These laws that exist like that, there are spiritual laws, spiritual principles that have been given that if we apply to our lives in the proper way, they will bring us the benefits that we want from them. They'll have a positive impact on us. And then the same way those spiritual laws, if we don't apply them, or we ignore them, or we try to do our own thing, then they're going to have a negative effect on our lives. Or and by negative effect, maybe we will lack the blessing that comes from applying that principle. For instance, given it shall be given.
[6:03]You give and God blesses you. There's no way that you don't get blessed. It just happens. It's a law, it's a principle. You're going to be blessed. Now, it may not be exactly the, the same the same currency that you gave. You may give money and all of a sudden you get blessed with health. Right? But when you give, it will be given. And just like there are principles like that that we apply. Now, if you don't apply that, you say, well, I'm just not going to give out of here. They don't, you know, they don't have my money. And that's fine if you have that attitude, please don't give because you're not helping anybody. But if that, if you don't give, then you're going to end up in lack. And so then you lack the benefits of that principle, correct? So I'm just setting a foundation because if we ignore them, we ignore these laws, or we ignore these principles, and we live according to our own desires, that has a negative, negative effect. And one good example of these kind of laws in the spirit is the law of sowing and reaping. We've all said it. We've all let it flap over tongue. You reap what you sow, right? And sometimes we say it in a kind of a hateful way, when we see somebody, you know, get it and then they're like, yeah, you reap what you sow, you know. And we're, that's our, that's our moment of justification, you know, hey, buddy. You reap what you sow, you know, and and so we turn it around. But if you sow corn, you get corn, right? You sow corn, you reap corn. You sow tomatoes, you reap tomatoes. Many of us sow bad seed, and then we pray for crop failure. And that's not the way it works. But whatever you sow, that's what you reap. That's what you reap. Paul says in verse 8 that if you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption, but if you sow to the spirit, you reap life. So one of the things that I want you to ponder this morning and we're going to dive deep into this in just a minute, but one of the things I want you to ponder is, what are you sowing into? Are you sowing to the flesh, are you sowing to the spirit? In pastoral moment, I love what Glenn Beck said, and I'm not saying I agree with everything Glenn Beck says, so y'all don't throw stuff out, but I love what he said when I heard him this week. The most dangerous weapon on the planet is not nuclear. One of the most dangerous weapons on the planet is what we hold in our hand every day. And there are foreign adversaries out there that want to spread information so they can divide me and you. And it has worked so well that not only has it divided R and D, blue and red, all that stuff we don't talk about right now. I'm just kidding. We can talk about it. Not only has it divided that, you know what it's divided? You and them. It's divided the church. It's divided the church. If you're on social media at all this week, you saw it divide the church. And can I just tell you, we have way more things that we should be spending our energy on than arguing over some dumb post by somebody who we don't even know what their walk with Christ really is like. And many of the leaders, can I just tell you, I've said this, I know Kristen's heard me say this. I've said this to many people, I don't vote for pastors. I vote for leaders of our country, to govern our country. Okay?
[9:50]I don't expect them all the time to be godly people. I may vote for the most godly. And I say, did you hear me say most? That's relative. It's a relative term, as godly as we can get. Okay? So just wake up a little bit because church, don't waste your time arguing over each other about stuff that has no eternal significance and consequence. And can I just tell you, you're not going to fix the world and change people's minds on Facebook anyway. You're not. You're not. And that's a caution to some of us. But if you reap to the flesh, if you're constantly, this is where I got off on this, so you all know. If you're constantly inundating your mind with the flesh, the music you listen to, the movies we watch, the arguments we listen to, the conversations we have, you're constantly sowing to the flesh. What do you think you're going to reap? Depression, discouragement, anxiety, worry. Oh my God, we're going to hell in a handbasket. You know, I don't, can I just tell you, you all know this, it's probably sounds cocky. If this world falls apart, this look, if you don't have this kind of faith, I mean, this is where I'm trying to get you to. If this world were to crumble beneath our feet today, I could care less. You say, well, that's hateful. You don't you love everyone? Yeah, I do love everybody, but I'm not, I'm not going to stress myself out about whether the government falls or shambles, or the dollar's worth this or that or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I put my trust in Jesus. And then I don't have to worry about all that. And I know it's easy to get wound up and talk, you know, get, get, uh, get, you know, you want to be, you want to be, because people always say, don't we want to be active? Don't we want to be, you know, we don't want to just sit on our hands. Yeah, but you know, let me just tell you, the one of the best ways you can be active, pray. Fight your battles. This is how I fight my battle. Fight your battle on your knees, giving him the, because the words you speak out here at the time, they're not godly anyway the way we say it. They're hateful and unloving and unkind often times, not because we mean to, that's just the way it comes across. And all you're going to do when you start talking about a sensitive subject somebody's starting an argument anyway. So just pray. God, move on our country. Touch people's hearts. And I don't want God to move on our politics for politics sake. I want God to save people's souls. I could care less if the straights open or not. I mean, yeah, sure. I'd like cheaper gas, but I want people saved more than I want cheaper gas. Right? Anyway. Soapbox moment. The problem with this law, Paul says that if you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. But if you sow the spirit, you reap life. So what do you do when you get discouraged, or get down in the dumps? Do you turn on the worship music? Do you open your Bible and begin to read the truth of God's word? Do you put yourself in an atmosphere for the Spirit of God to encourage you and uplift you and make you stronger? Because whatever you're sowing to, that's what you're going to reap. Now the problem with this law of sowing and reaping is the time between the two. The time between the two. It's kind of like this. I used to, I heard this in a funeral one time and I really loved it. But when you die, you're going to have a headstone, hopefully, and on that headstone, and if we die, we might be out of here, who knows? But if we die, there's going to be a headstone and there's going to be a date. Mine's going to be May 15th, 1974. May 15th, 1974. There's going to be a dash, and it's going to be whatever, whatever, whatever. And you know that date at the end, and that date at the beginning, aren't going to matter one bit. You know what's going to matter? What's going to matter is what I did with that dash. And it's the same thing when you're sowing and you're reaping. It really, it is important what you sow because you're going to reap what you sow. But reaping, Paul says, is contingent. Did you know that? So I think you just said you reap what you sow. Well, let me say it like this, what you sow will grow. Now, whether you reap it or not, Paul says there's a contingency. And what is that contingency? He said, don't grow weary, and well doing, for in due season you shall reap if, if you faint not, if you do not lose heart. Now, after the flood, God set forth a principle in motion. He said, I will never run the earth again by water. Genesis 8:22. He says, while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. That's 24 hours in Arkansas. And so he set this law in motion, an agricultural law, that when you plant something in the ground and water comes, it's going to grow. Now, if it's mine, it probably won't, cuz I don't, I don't have a green thumb. I have a, I have the thumb of death when it comes to the plant. But this, this thing that happens between sowing and reaping, it's kind of annoying because to reap what you sow, what you sow has to grow. And there's this time between sowing and reaping that Paul says, you can mess up the reaping if you're not growing these things the right way. And it's interesting that Paul didn't say don't get weary. What Paul said was don't grow weary. And so when I read that, I was like, and, and I heard it taught this week. I was like, man, that's good. Because what happens after you sow to the time that you reap, that what happens in between and what you grow in between is significant to the results that you're going to have at the end. He didn't say don't be weary. How many of us have been weary before? I can attest. What he says is don't grow weary. When you feel weary, don't water it. When you feel weary, don't fertilize it. When you feel weary, get your shears out and pull that sucker up by the roots. When you feel weary, don't give in to the weariness.
[16:34]See if we sow to the flesh, those seeds will eventually come back to bite us. You may not face the consequences immediately, but rest assured, you will reap the detrimental harvest. But if we sow to the spirit, those seeds will eventually blossom in our life and become a bountiful harvest. Sometimes though, we sow good seeds, and they come up, but we don't reap. And Paul says, that's because you've grown weary. What if we just stopped building the church right now? We'll never move over there. You all wouldn't come with no bathrooms, no air conditioning, would you? If we just grow weary and we just quit, we can't reap the harvest. Some of you walked in here weary this morning, but I want you to know something, if you don't want something to grow, you have to pull up its roots. My wife works in flower beds all the time. At least she used to. Now she does more mowing than anything, but she will tell me, she said, I think I've pulled up every root in every one of those stinking flower beds. I think I've got 'em all, and they'd still come back. They still come back. But weariness, here's what weariness, and this is where we're going this morning. Get ready for this. Weariness is rooted. If we want to pull that up, we don't want to grow weary because we don't want to end up without a harvest. We want to reap, and Paul said if you grow weary and you lose heart, you won't reap. So we don't want to fall to that, we don't want to fall prey to that. So we want to pull up the root of weariness. What is the root? Weariness is rooted in the disappointment we feel when we don't see the expected outcome. See, here's the problem with sowing to the flesh. When we do good deeds out of our own strength, we're doing good deeds, we're sowing good seed, but we haven't yet seen the harvest. And then discouragement sets in, and then disappointment sets in, and then frustration sets in. Well, I've just, I've been to that church a hundred million times and I'm still not getting blessed. I'm still not. I paid my, these people out here, they're just going to the lake every Sunday fishing till they're blue in the face and they just, they'd have everything they needed. Here I am, I don't feel good. I'm doing and I mean that discouragement sets in. Those lives begin to fill up, and what are you doing? You're growing your weariness. You're growing weary. And it's a warning to us as believers this morning to not grow the weariness. This is the issue that we miss this point. Here's the point, here's the point I need you to grab this morning. See, the growing season is not about the outcome. It's about what you become.
[19:58]Think about this. If I plant a zucchini plant, and I started expecting my zucchini, and here in about three months, I'm looking down there and I don't see a zucchini yet. And I'm just like, man, I expected zucchini, but it's not there, so I'm just ripping that thing out of the ground. Will I ever get a zucchini? No. You know why? Because my expectation didn't give that time to become what it was supposed to become. And next expectation comes in the flesh. Because I'm wanting the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Me, me, me, me. I want that outcome. I want that zucchini. I want to bite that thing. I want to make. I'll get rainy to make me some zucchini bread. I want that, I want that stuff. Instead of just understanding and enduring and and being patient in this season and saying, God, that's beautiful plant. Watch what that's becoming. Man, I see the little yellow flowers. There's fixing to be a zucchini there. And living in this expectation instead of growing weary. Living in this hope, living in the understanding and the, and the adoration of the becoming. Understanding the process and embracing it. Perry Noble said one time, if you never embrace the process, you'll never see the progress. There's a process to the progress. You have to just embrace it sometimes. It takes time. There's times that I have to walk on that building project over there, take a deep breath and go, we'll get there when we get there. It'll be okay. And we just embrace the process. Hey, maybe God's working on people that are working there. Maybe he's building relationships. Maybe he's weeding things out of some people. Maybe he's humbling some people, helping them to learn to submit and walk in love and all these kind of things. Maybe he's working on me, teaching me how to lead people better. Who knows? But no matter what he's doing in the becoming process, we have to learn to embrace it so that we don't grow weary. It's so easy to grow weary. But if I in my weariness, I pull up the plant, I never get to taste the harvest. But if I let it become what it was sown to become, I will reap the benefits of the harvest. So how does weariness grow? How does weariness grow? It grows this. It grows from facing persistent trials. You just ever get tired of the devil? You just ever get tired of, feels like, man, you sick and tired of being sick and tired? You burnt the toast that morning. The clothes you wanted to wear weren't, weren't dry yet. You had a stain on your shirt, you spilt the coffee, then you walk outside and the tire's flat.
[22:41]Doesn't that make you grow a little weary? How about the physical work of ministry? Doing doing good deeds. It drains you. It drains you sometimes. When your spouse is a little grumpy and maybe you think they don't deserve your love and you're, but you, you have to serve them anyway. You all do know we're called to serve each other, right? Called to serve. And you just have to serve anyway. Even when they don't deserve it, can I just tell you Jesus went to the cross when we didn't deserve it? So who are we to think that we don't get to serve? You know what you do when you're weary? You keep sowing. You keep sowing. Keep doing good deeds. Not to earn anything, just to enjoy the process and and make yourself understand and embrace the process of becoming. How about the delayed harvest? We're all impatient, aren't we? Man, we want instant gratification. Our society has made us so bad about that. We want it now, and I want it now. It's my money and I want it now.
[23:46]I'm just kidding. The dumbest commercials on the planet.
[23:54]How about this? This is one that Amy Turpin and myself we have to watch. How about over commitment? Boy, I'm it's, it's hard for me to say no, especially to customers and people. I'll just, you know, yeah, sure, I'll be there. There ain't even enough hours in the day for all the yeses I would say. So over commitment, it will wear you out. Neglecting rest. Neglecting rest. My wife hits me with that one all the time. Neglecting rest. Don't neglect rest. Here's the big one that will wear you out. Self-reliance. You'll grow weary when you're trying to do it on your own. When you're trying to do the good, we're not talking about planting bad seeds right now. We're talking about all the good seeds. I mean, the good deeds that you're doing, the faithfulness that you're being, how you're continuing to walk according to God's word. You're being obedient to his word, you're, you're paying, you know, you're giving, you're, you're praying, you're reading your Bible, all these things. And sometimes it's like, God, I'm doing it all, but I just still, I just don't feel it. And God say, just keep on becoming. Keep on becoming. Plant another good seed. Plant another good seed. So how do we deal with the weariness? How do we, and I'm going to give you some scripture right here. You all ready? How do we deal with it? We focus, number one, we focus on the joy of what is coming. Not the disappointment of what's not there. Focus on the joy. You know, Paul taught us that about the rapture. He said, encourage one another with these words. The reason that we encourage each other and celebrate the fact that Jesus is coming again someday, don't know when that day is, but he's coming. That's a joy. I can live because I have a blessed hope. And whether I go by the grave or the rapture, either way, I'm going to see Jesus. So I have a blessed hope. That is encouraging to me. It doesn't scare me. It doesn't scare me. It's a blessed hope. So here's the key there. If we focus on the joy of what's coming, and not the disappointment of what we're missing or what's not there, we just have to learn to trust him with the results. We just trust him with the results. We got to do good, and the expectation part fades away when we just trust him with the results. God, in your timing, whenever you see fit, whenever it's best for me, I know that you're going to come through. This is the confidence that we can have in him. Philippians 4:6 says this, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You don't have to understand it. You don't have to figure it out. You don't have to know how it's going to happen. You don't even know how, when we started this building over there, we had no clue where the money was coming from. We had some commitments, small ones, but we didn't know what, we didn't have really a clue where it was all going to end up. You know what we just did? We said, we're going to do the good work and we'll just continue and watch, watch it become whatever God wants it to become. And that's exactly what's happening. And the peace of God has passed way past my understanding. I can't figure it out. When I try to figure it out, that's when I mess it all up. That's when I mess it all up. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus. See, this is where the battle is. It's all right here. The battle is right here. Peace battle, peace guards your mind. Who is peace? Jesus. He's your peace. He's your hope. He's your comfort because when you truly trust in him, you, it's like sitting in a lazy boy recliner. You can just kick your feet back up, throw the thing up. That doesn't mean you don't have to do your part in obedience and and whatever he calls you to do, you have to walk it out. But you can trust. You can rest. You can kick back and say, God, you've got this. God, I'm just grateful for you. Because you got me. And I'm good. I'm good. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That's number one. Number two, consistently rest in him. Take time to refuel the spirit, man. If you're not doing this, you know, the old saying, you've probably seen it on somebody's fridge, seven days without prayer, makes one week, W E A K. Seven days without prayer, makes one week. You can't live on yesterday's mana. You can't live on this sermon till next Sunday. I wish I was that good. But you can't. You got to put that scripture on your dash when you're driving to Texas being or wherever. And you got to put that on your fridge, or on your mirror. I would say put it on your windshield, but the way some of y'all drive, I don't know.
[29:00]Write it down. Rest in him. Second Corinthians chapter 4:16. Here's here's how you do it. You can't act on your own. Now Paul myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent, I'm bold toward you. Paul saying, I write you these letters and I'm bold, but when I come, I come meek. He says, but I beg you that when I am present, I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. He's saying, if I came to you in the boldness that I want to come to you in, you're going to think I'm in the flesh. Because I'm going to tell you something. You all like to tell some people something sometimes. Yeah, yeah. I like to tell him a thing or two. You all know what I'm talking about?
[29:38]And Paul says, I can do that in a letter. I can do it in a letter, but when I come to you, I need to be a little more kind and sweet. So that you think I'm, you know, because I don't want to. I don't want to hurt your feelings.
[29:51]For though we walk in the flesh, and this is why he's saying that. Because we walk in the flesh, and oh yeah, I'd like to let him have it in the flesh. I'm walking in the flesh. But we don't, what did he say? We do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's how you win the battle of the mind. You bring that thing captive. And this is what I was talking about earlier. You can get on Facebook and waste all your energy all you want, but the battle is not with people on Facebook. The battle is in the principalities and powers of airs. And the way you fight that thing is on your knees. Or if you don't want to get on your, you stand and pray, I don't care. Sit and pray. You can sit in your recliner and pray. I don't know where we get all this religious thing. I got to bow my head, close my eyes. There's nothing in the Bible says you have to close your eyes to pray. Did y'all know that? It's just tradition. I don't know why we do that. Nothing in the Bible says it. That's a side note, too. Wait on God, not act on your own. You don't wrestle that way. You don't fight with your flesh. Thank God, cuz I am not a fighter. We don't fight in our flesh. We fight in the spirit. Now, I am a soldier in the spirit. Mine comes out a little different. My wife will start praying and throw a little few mama mammas and run around the house and and she'll fight. Me? You know, I might get a little more just, Devil, you alive. I'm coming after you. You know, I might get a little more aggressive, not in the same way. But I'm, you let the enemy come, boy, I'm, I can get stubborn. I can get, I can get pretty hot and heavy. Uh-uh, we ain't we ain't having that.
[31:48]Wait on God's timing rather than your own understanding. There's number two. Wait on God's timing rather than your own understanding. What is the scripture I gave you, Psalms? I didn't even write the scripture down. I didn't. I think it's Isa. Thank you. It's Isaiah.
[32:04]My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. I think it's Isaiah 26 if I'm not mistaken. Huh? Isaiah 40.
[32:20]That's the next one. My son, don't forget my law, but let your heart keep my command. It's in here. I promise you it's Psalms. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you, bind them around your neck. This is Psalms.
[32:37]Write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in your, you all know this scripture. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path. That's Proverbs. Thank you.
[33:04]I didn't get that. Three. Proverbs chapter 3, is it? Yeah, Proverbs 3. That's what happens when you don't write down your reference. Three five and six. Actually three one through six. Thank you. I read the whole one. Three, there you go. But look at the first few verses that we we love to quote the last two. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not in your own understanding. And all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths. But we don't read the first part where it says, my son, don't forget my law. Keep the commands on your heart. For length of days and long life and peace, they will add to you.
