Be Not Weary in Well Doing
Pastor Matt Black
18 July 2007
Midweek Bible Study
Galatians 6:9
Introduction: Open your Bibles to Galatians 6:9. The title of our message is “Be Not Weary in Well Doing”
Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”.
Outline:
I. Press On! Paul said, Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing”. Why did Paul write this? The context is restoring a brother who has fallen into sin. If you haven’t noticed, there are no perfect people in the church. All those who are in Christ are being perfected, but none of us has yet arrived.
The idea here is that the Christian life is hard especially when there are so many who name the name of Christ who are failing! It is easy to get our eyes off the Lord and onto the hard ground we are trying to plow. Don’t do it! Get your eyes on Jesus, and keep doing what is right.
How do you press on in the good?
A. Be consistent!! Verse 9 says, “And let us not be weary in well doing”. Don’t give in to your weariness. The word “weary” means to lose courage in the course of an action.[1]
Things are constantly changing. Our lives change every day. One day the Christian life looks easy and wonderful. The next day, you wonder what happened to all the beauty of it. It seems hard and dull and you’re ready to give in.
1. Get up when you’ve fallen. That’s what this passage is all about. It’s about getting restored. Don’t wallow in your failure. The only true mistake is the one you don’t learn from!
Listen if you’ve found you’ve drifted from the Lord, then right now, you probably have already turned me off. You don’t want to hear it. Your flesh is resisting this message. I’ve been there, and you need to repent. You need to give in to the Lord! You were just on that mountain top, and now your in the valley. Get up!! Repent! If you will repent than God will restore! 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Don’t be weary in well doing. Press on! Be consistent! Meet with God. Yes, you’ve messed up, failed, and sinned against the Lord. But get up!
Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”
Maybe you say, I thought since I’m a child of God, it was going to be easy! No, it is never easy to stand and be consistent. There are just as many hard times for the righteous as there are for the wicked on this earth. Sometimes more! But we have the promises of God!
Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”
Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”
You may have fallen seven times, you may have many afflictions, you may be cast down, but you will never be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds you with His hand!
You will never be forsaken saint of God. For he says “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Psalm 103:13, “as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”
If you have learned this yet, you will. As a Christian you are going to fall and fail and get back up. Your faith will be tested and tried and you will go through the deep waters.
God says, “thou art mine”, “I’ve called you by name”. He says all this in Isaiah 43. He says “I’ve chosen you.” I’ve got a plan for you. Look at Isaiah 43:2, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
The just man falls seven times and gets up again. The believer in Christ passes through the waters, through the fire, and he passes through still standing! Stand for Christ! Press on! Don’t give in! Consistency is not so much about perfection as it is about persistence and perseverance. Let me say that again in case you missed it: Consistency is not so much about perfection as it is about persistence and perseverance.
Be consistent! Carry on!
Application:
a. It is easy to do the right thing once or twice. It’s easy to make get on the path, but it takes the grace of God to choose over and over and over again to do what is right, whether it be in raising children, doing right in your finances. How about choosing to respond in the right attitude. We need to consistently choose right when it comes to raising children.
b. It’s wonderful being a parent when your child’s heart is tender, when they pray with you the most beautiful prayer, and when you see that earnestness to follow God. But if your children are like you, then there are days when they severely disappoint you. My advice to you is: Press on! Be consistent! Keep loving God even when it is hard. Keep doing what is good and right for your walk with God and for their training in the Lord.
c. Can I say something to the mothers here tonight? You are not always going to hear a “thank you”. If you are married, your husband will take you for granted most of the time. And if you are a single mother here tonight, the only “well done” you may hear is from your Father in heaven. Now I hope it is not that way. In fact, let me just say this to you tonight if you are a mom who rarely hears thank you. It is easy to do good to those who are grateful, but we are commanded to not be weary in well doing regardless if we are appreciated or not.
Ok, so we need to press on—how do we do that? It’s a life of constant repentance, surrender, a constant giving of your will to the Lord! Get up! Press on. Be consistent.
We also press on by being discerning.
B. Be discerning. Don’t settle for anything less than God’s best. Look at our text. Verse 9 says, “And let us not be weary in well doing”.
It says do not be weary in “well doing”. The word “well” is emphatic and means that which is absolutely good.[2] The word is used of Jesus when it said he went about doing good to all the people (Acts 10:38), and it specifically says “for God was with Him”.
Don’t settle for second best with God. Paul says in Galatians 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing”.
As a parent you need to be discerning. So many things look good, but God doesn’t want the world’s best—He wants His best. In other words we need to do as Philippians 1:10 says, “That ye may approve things that are excellent”. We need to distinguish between what may be good and what is best. Just because something is good, does NOT mean it is God’s will.[3]
Do not give into something that you know is less than your best. To do so is sin. James 4:17, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”[4]
Application: Can you tell the difference between what is good and what is best? Excellence is something that excels the status quo.
Let me explain. We are to give God our best—our whole heart. He is to receive our all, nothing back. It is easy to sluff off in our Christian life.
1. We have lazy parenting skills. We discipline our children when it is convenient. We feel like we are bringing them to church, and seemingly doing our best, but we know we’re not! We’ve got to stop making excuses and do our very best.
2. It’s easy to think they’re getting along, but we are not approving the excellent because we just don’t think it’s possible. You’re out of resources—physically, spiritually, financially, you’re drained. What did Paul say in Philippians 4:12-13—He said I know what it is to be broke, and I know what it is to get a bonus check! But he says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Press on! You can do it! Whether you’re in a valley or on the mountain, press on! You CAN do it!! So press on. Then, look up.
II. Look up! “for in due season we shall reap”. Look, there’s a day of reaping.
A. But we need to remember Who gives the harvest.
Some plant some water, but “God giveth the increase!” God says so. He promises it. The problem is, none of us can make anything grow. We can plant seeds, that’s all. Kristen sings a little song that really illustrates this:
Oh who can make a rain drop?
I’m sure I can’t can you?
Oh who can make a rain drop?
No one but God ‘tis true!
The second stanza asks, “Oh who can make a flower grow?” The answer is still the same: “No one but God ‘tis true!”
Listen, you can only plant the seed of doing right, and then you have to wait on God to change any situation. You cannot change any situation. You cannot change a soul. You cannot save your child or your job or your spouse. You cannot change anybody or situation. All you can do is plant righteousness from your own life. You can plant seeds of doing God’s well-pleasing best. You cannot do spiritual heart surgery on anyone, but you can present your own life “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
B. We also need to remember that we will reap in God’s time.
Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. God’s got a season for you to reap. Most of the work though is first. You’ve got to plow up that hard ground in your life. You’ve got water with faith and prayer and a tender heart of repentance. You need to do the same with your children if you have children. Husbands you need to do the same with your wife.
You will reap—it may not be today or tomorrow. It may not even be in your lifetime, but the promise is clear: you will reap.
Application: Now the problem with us is that we want to see all the reaping in our lifetime. It says we will reap “if we faint not”, so we will at times see reaping in our life time, but so much of the reaping is done when we are dead and gone.
Let me give you the medicine for weariness. I’ve never done any farming, but I love gardening. The essence of both though is planting and waiting.
C. Third, if you are not seeing the harvest coming, let me give you some practical advice as to how to make sure you have optimal growing conditions.
You know God wants you to “grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18), but how can we make sure our heart has the best soil?
1. Get rid of the weeds of sin and doubt. Now maybe you’ve grown weary because you’ve let the weeds of sin and doubt grow up in your life. Now the way God wants us to grow is through daily renewing our mind. We need to be daily plucking up weeds of doubt and sin from our mind, or very soon our hearts will be cluttered with worldliness and sin, and we will have grown weary. You need to make a commitment to the Word and to the prayer closet tonight. It may take some time to get the sweetness back into your heart. In fact, if you have a hard heart tonight, you need to know that tears of true repentance can only soften the hard heart. James 4:8-10 says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” That’s a reassuring promise. But read on, “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Ok, how do we do that? Let’s read on, verse 9 and 10, “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
2. Water with faith! If you are weary of well doing, then you need to have faith, waiting for the harvest. This is really the point. Are you raising children? Whether you are married or single, with children or without children, there are days you want to give up. There are days you feel totally alone and abandoned.
Here it is—there are days you feel like nothing you are doing really matters. Hear me, those are lies of the devil. Don’t listen to that.
You remember this promise. There is someone that always takes notice. Your boss may not take notice. Your spouse may ignore what you are doing. But God is watching. He says, you sow righteousness, you sow good—constantly discerning the very best—then you are going to reap!
Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
We said: press on by being consistent and diligent, look up, because you’re going to reap. Finally, never give up!!
III. Never Give Up! We shall reap… “if we faint not”. Don’t give in to feelings of hopelessness. Your consistent walk with the Lord will die on the vine of hopelessness and despair. Don’t be weary. Don’t give in! Don’t faint! Keep going. Put your eyes on Jesus who promises the harvest. He will never fail!
The grammatical construction here is present tense. Right now you have to make the decision to carry on. Don’t be faint hearted. Reject faintheartedness. It is the opposite of faithful waiting for the harvest.
Conclusion: What does faintheartedness and worry and concern gain you? Nothing. Leave it in the hands of the Lord.
Closing Hymn: 459 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
[1] Eadie, Greek Commentary on Galatians, 449.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Albert Barnes says in his Commentary on the book of Philippians, “The idea is, that he wished them to be able to distinguish between things that differed from each other; to have an intelligent apprehension of what was right and wrong—of what was good and evil” (comments from 1:10).
[4] Cotton Mather adopted it as a principle of action, "that the ability to do good in any case imposes an obligation to do it."