Weary in Well-doing

Our Lord, as we come to you now, Lord, we know that you are here with us. We know that you are among us. And Lord, trusting the promise of your spirit, who’s here with us, Lord, trusting the promise of your spirit, who’s here, we ask you to work in our hearts. Give us, Lord, a heart that is receptive to your word. Give us tenderness of heart. Lord, help our disposition be what you’d have it to be.

Lord, like Brother Mullen’s preach, Lord, that our heart would be given wholly to you. Guide me, Lord, as I try to explain the Word of God to your people, help us all to receive it as it is in truth the Word of God and not the Word of men. Lord, we pray that you would work in us. You would continue your great work. You said, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it.

Lord, you have said that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Lord, you are doing a good work in each one of us. Lord, help us not to get weary in doing that work that you’ve given us to do.

So Lord, guide us in our study. Bless your people by the hearing of your word. In Jesus’ name we ask, amen. Now back in Galatians chapter six, of course you read verse seven, and it’s an ominous kind of start to a verse. Whenever a preacher begins reading Galatians six, seven, you know it’s gonna be a painful message to hear. And often, and that’s certainly true, that God has not mocked whatsoever a man, so with that shall he also reap.

But note the word whatsoever in verse seven, because that goes either good or bad. Do you notice that? In this passage here, verses seven through 10, it’s not just the evil. Of course you see the evil for sure in verse number eight, you see based upon that idea of whatsoever, be it good, be it bad, it says he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.

And so the negative point of view of the warning that God gives us about what we sow, that is if we sow evil, we do evil deeds according to the dictates and desires and lusts of the flesh, that will produce corruption in us. It will bring great harm upon ourselves and others, and that is true. But that’s only one side of this coin.

The other side of the coin, the other part of the whatsoever, a man soweth that shall he also reap, is the second part of verse number eight, which says, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. So they go together, it’s two sides to the same coin. Now notice in verse number eight it says, he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.

Now this is not talking about like you read in verse number eight and you see, to sow to the flesh means you yield to the lusts and desires and impulses of the flesh. You do things that are carnal, things that are evil. If they’re carnal, they’re evil. You do things that the flesh prompts you to do, and that sows seeds that not at this moment, but at some later time will bring forth fruit that you and I definitely do not want to have in our life.

That’s the whole danger. So whether you’re looking at the good side or the bad side, you have this idea of sowing and reaping, but it goes both ways. But verse number eight goes on to say, on the flip side, he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Now I know it says life everlasting, but you have to understand, have you ever read the verse where the Bible says to lay hold of eternal life?

What does that mean? In that particular context, which is speaking to Timothy, is not that you need to find eternal life by yourself, because there’s no way to find eternal life yourself. Eternal life is a gift of God. Romans 6.23, right? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So you receive eternal life, right? You receive life from God when you receive he who is life, which is Christ.

Christ is life. But having received life, the Lord tells us to lay hold of eternal life. In other words, we need to live this thing out. Like you have eternal life now, you have eternal life at this moment. You already have it. You’re not waiting to receive it. You presently have it, and it’s already begun. That which is eternal has already started. And so the Lord wants us to lay hold of it, and he wants us to live eternal life, if I can put it like that, to the fullest.

What does it mean to live eternal life to the fullest? It’s actually the very reverse in verse number eight that we see about sowing to the flesh. It’s sowing to the Spirit. That’s how you live eternal life to the fullest, because remember, all of those things that you will reap when you sow to the Spirit, all the not things according to the flesh, but things according to the Spirit, all the works that you do, and I do, according to the Spirit, at the direction of and prompting an impulse of the Spirit of God, you will also reap those things, not now, but at a later time, and those benefits will be reaped and enjoyed in eternal life, you see.

So this is not talking about getting eternal life. This is talking about laying hold of eternal life. You have it already. Now the question is, are you and am I going to lay hold of it? Are we going to live and perform works according to the Spirit such that our eternal life is to its greatest degree?

Because without question, verse eight, although it has a negative part, it has a positive part too. Okay, so we understand the idea of sowing and reaping, and I’ll get back to that in just a minute, but from that kind of perspective, I don’t want you to think about the evil part of that anymore, I mean, you can if you like, but we’re going on to something else, right?

I want you to look at it purely from the positive side, because I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you. Because when you live for God, and you do works and deeds and have a life, a pattern of life that is prompted by the Spirit of God, controlled and led by the Spirit of God, you are also sowing seed. And at some point in the future, those seeds will sprout and shoot up and will bear fruit.

Now that’s not going to happen often in this life, but it is going to happen. Now many of you probably have sown seeds recently, being the spring, I know I have out here at my house, I’ve got seeds and I’m waiting on those seeds to sprout, we’re watering them, actually, Isaiah is doing most of the watering, he’s watering these things every day, we’re waiting on the seeds to sprout, and we hope that it’s going to bear fruit.

I planted a tomato plant, Brother Andrew’s proud, he’s going to be proud, an heirloom tomato plant, see? I’m up in my game. None of that hybrid junk. I have no idea what I’m doing. I literally have no idea. And I’ve already proven that before, the whole congregation in time past. So we’re sowing it now, but I don’t expect any fruit for some time, right? We’ve got strawberries, we’ve got blackberries, we’ve got all kinds of things, we got lavender, we’ve got all kinds of things, of course flowers and those things as well.

But at some time in the future, we hope that those things are going to bear fruit that are going to benefit us. But it’s not now. That’s the whole idea of sowing and reaping, is as I say, the law of sowing and reaping, you always get what you sow, but you always get what you sow after you sow. Sometime later, it’s not immediate. So here’s the question.

In verse number eight, what is the sowing and what is the reaping on the good side? What is sowing to the spirit in this context, and what is the reaping of the life everlasting in this context? Look at the next verse. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. So you see in verse number nine, Paul here carries on the analogy of sowing and reaping into the next verse.

You know, that helps us understand what is he talking about when he’s saying sowing to the spirit, what is he talking about when he says reaping life everlasting? Well, what he’s talking about in sowing to the spirit is well-doing. You see that in verse number nine? And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. So that’s the well-doing now is the same as the sowing, and the reaping is not now.

The reaping’s later. Again, we’ll come back to that. Now often when we think about well-doing, here’s what we think about. We think about, we don’t take the idea of doing well, doing good, righteous things. You might say good works, because the Bible says that God, in Ephesians, that God has created us. He has saved us, and he has created us to do good works.

You know, I know we believe in our church, and this is not just our church, this is a biblical truth. We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, and it has our works, our good works, play no part in whether we go to heaven or hell. Our works, well, our works have earned us a place in hell fire, but we are saved by grace, purely by grace through faith in Christ, not of works, lest any man should boast.

But that does not mean that our works matter not now that we have eternal life. Our works do matter. Repeatedly, the Lord tells us that we should be doing good works, indeed, that’s why the Lord saved us, Ephesians tells us. He saved us to do good works. That’s what we see here in verse number nine. In verse number eight, sowing to the spirit, verse number nine, well-doing, this is good works.

Just as you see the bad works in verse number eight, sowing to the flesh, that is indulging and acting, doing the works of the flesh, chapter five, right? So doing the works of the spirit, chapter five, that’s also what you, that’s the flip side to it. So God wants us to do good works, but good works are not simply defined privately.

Now, recently in the past several weeks, I’ve bought some plants and planted them in my flower bed since we’re on the subject. I planted them in my flower bed, and I have been happy to see the little flowers coming up. We planted some stuff out here. I’ve been happy to see my little tomato plant growing and the lavender plant taking hold, and it’s not wilting yet, so I’m hopeful.

That’s not a good work. It makes me happy, it gives me pleasure, right? It makes me happy, I have a little bit of joy when I see that, and I see the plants coming up, and it gives me joy and it makes me feel good, but that’s not what we’re talking about when we’re talking about good works and doing well.

Look at verse number 10. This gives us a little more information. As we have therefore opportunity, let us, what does it say? Do good, which is what we see in verse number nine, well-doing, which is part of verse number eight, which is sowing in the spirit, right? As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

So well-doing is not defined simply as, first of all, it’s not simply defined as avoiding or the absence of the evil things, in verse number eight, sowing to the flesh. It’s not just the absence of evil. Well-doing is also, is also, its focus is not on the state of our condition of heart, although of course we know that is super important, and I talk about that a lot for good reason.

But the well-doing is something more than just being virtuous. Well-doing involves our activity. It involves the active service that we have to God, what we, the works that we perform. That’s what we’re talking about in this context. It’s clearly laid out. In verse number 10, it makes it clear that that service, that good, those good deeds, those good works, are good works, first of all, done to the Lord, but done unto men.

You see it? So let me just bring this home a little bit further. The well-doing is not doing the things that make us happy. Listen, if you like going to the lake, go to the lake, but that’s not a good work.

Listen, I haven’t been to the lake since I was a kid. I love the lake. I mean, I grew up on it. I can slalom, I can water ski with two skis, whatever you call that. I’ve kneeboarded and tubed, and I’ve done all, and I love it. It’s not a sin to do that. Can I get amen? It’s not a sin, but it’s also not a good work.

It’s not a sin that you participate in that, but that is not what we’re talking about here. Doing something, just simply engaging our time in things that are non-sinful, that bring us pleasure, is not what the Lord has saved us to do. Let me bring that back around. When the Lord says he has saved us and created us unto good works, that does not mean he has saved us and created us to indulge the rest of our time in non-sinful pleasure.

It’s more to life than that. But that is the American dream. The American dream is to, is you have your nice family, you have your house with your two-car garage, you have your nice well-manicured lawn, you have your two cars, you have your dog, you have your 2.8 kids or whatever, and you, not to do anything wrong, although they permit a lot of that, but anyway, not to do anything wrong, but you live your life in moral, moral pleasure seeking.

I wanna tell you something. There are many Christians that think that that is what it means to live for God, that that is what it means that we have been created unto good works. That’s not what we’re talking about. And I’m not knocking that. If you have your two-car garage and you have your cars and you have your, you know, you go to your lake, I’m not knocking that at all.

I mean, I’m not gonna label something sin because it can be used wrong, right? But that’s not the good works being described here. The good works are the active things, the active deeds and works that you and I do unto God and in service to God, but to the benefit of men.

They involve time, they involve money, they involve commitment, they involve service. When the Bible says that God has created us unto good works, that is our purpose. Our purpose is not a life that is created as a life of infrequent sin while seeking the most amount of pleasure. It is a life wholly given to God where our works are works that are given to serve God and serve people.

That’s what it means. It’s clearly spelled out in verse 10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, whether saved or lost with a priority being upon the household of faith, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. That means that what I am doing, the active works and deeds that I’m performing, I’m living, I’m serving, those things are done, first of all, to God, that’s my motive, but they’re done to benefit others.

This is what we mean when we say well-doing. And I wanna remind you, this is a good thing. Verse number eight, remember? That’s what it means to sow to the Spirit.

Because one day, all of those good things you have done unto others in the name of the Lord, the Lord is going to remember those things and those are gonna bear fruit. There are problems with that. The Lord is going to remember those things and those are gonna bear fruit. They’re probably not gonna bear fruit in this life, but they are going to bear fruit in the future, because you’re gonna reap what you sow.

Don’t you like hearing that in a positive light rather than a negative light for once? You’re gonna reap what you sow, all that service, all that love and care you’ve done for others, visiting people, praying for them, giving them money, making a meal, you’re gonna reap what you sow. You are. You are gonna reap it. I hope you do and I want you to and I want to.

Can I get an amen? Amen, right, amen. But there’s one caution. We read it in 2 Thessalonians chapter three and we read it here. Verse nine. And let us not be, what does it say? Weary in well-doing.

So we know what well-doing is. Well-doing is these acts of service unto God to the benefit of others, right? That’s what we’re talking about. It’s clearly spelled out. We know what well-doing is.

The Lord cautions us about falling weary. In that. So we’re not, listen, we’re not even talking about, this is not necessarily, hear me now, and I wanna make this, I wanna make this distinction clear, okay, I wanna make sure we get it, we nail down exactly what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about somebody falling into sin. That’s not being weary in well-doing, that’s not it.

We’re talking about those active and intentional acts of service unto God for the benefit of others. That we wear you. Now let me say this, cause listen, I understand, everybody, I wanna say this on the outset so everybody knows, this is not talking about weariness of the flesh that comes from age or health conditions. The Lord is not saying, hey, you need to get up and get better.

Or we’re not talking about that. Here’s the real tragedy of this verse. The tragedy of this verse is what they’re tired of. Be not weary, he’s not saying be not weary. You can’t control that. There’s some among us that are in their 80s. I found out brother Bill Stewart is 88 years old, right? Did I get that right? Look, when you get to that age, your body just doesn’t cooperate as much as it used to, right?

My age is the same way, more than somebody like my kid’s age. So it is. You get health conditions, you can’t go, we’re not talking about that. The tragedy in these verses is that we’re not talking about that. Because if we were saying, well brother Steve, you know you’ve had some health setbacks and stuff, so you know God’s gonna get on your case, no, no, no, no.

The tragedy is that what we are talking about, which is we’re tired of doing good works. We’re weary doing good works. How could, I’m telling you this is true. This is true. Brother Jim, do you ever get tired of going to the gym? Do you ever get tired of going to the jail? Do you ever have times where it’s like, the homeless, right? Do you ever get tired of praying for people?

Have you ever started a ministry and then later backed off because you got discouraged or got tired of it? Oh man, I know I have. This is what we’re talking about.

Being weary and well doing. You know, you can be engaged in well doing, that is doing good works for God unto others. You can be engaged in that and because of weariness, stop and still not be in any kind of gross sin in your life.

This is what we mean when we say weary of well doing. Now keep in mind verse number nine, cause we’ll come back to this in a minute. Let us not be weary and well doing for in due season we shall reap. Here’s the only thing I want you to take away from that. Due season, you do good works unto others for God unto others.

You are gonna reap but it’s not gonna be now. That’s the thing I want you to take. Due season means not now. There will come a time, but not now.

It refers to the harvest, which in time is far from the time of sowing. So the question that came to my mind as I was thinking about being weary and well doing, the first question came to my mind is, why would someone, why would I, why have I been weary in well doing?

And I thought about three reasons. The first reason that someone might start out in serving the Lord in some way that benefits another, the first reason is because they see very little visible result.

Let me ask you a question. If you were to, say you were to plant grass in your yard in a patch where there was some bare ground, say you planted grass and you sowed the grass seed and then you strawed it and so you’ve done it and then you set the sprinkler up or maybe you water it by hand and you start watering it and go day one, nothing happens.

Day two, nothing happens. Day three, nothing happens. You’re gonna have to water that thing probably twice a day for like two weeks before you even start to begin to see even small blades of grass coming up, right? But what happened if after day one, day two, you don’t see anything and you just say, well forget this and you stop watering it. You just, you give up. Are you ever gonna have a nice lawn?

You’re not, because that seed’s not gonna come up because it needs water. It needs care. It needs continuance, right? And one of the reasons that people, that people, they start out serving God. They’re doing this, they’re doing that. They want to help, they want to serve, they want to do things to help other people. They want to serve in the church in various ways or serve people in the church in various ways and they start out but they weary and they tire because they don’t see the visible results.

But let me remind you of something that the reaping comes later. We, whenever you do good works unto God for others, that the reaping of that is not now. That means you have to do that by faith. You’re not gonna see the results now. And furthermore, let me tell you something. You might serve the Lord unto others in some way and you might never see a result in this life.

You might never see a result in this life. But in the day of reaping, when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, your service will not be forgotten. The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your what? Labor of love which he has showed toward the saints.

Even if in this life there’s nothing to be done, there’s nothing to show for it. You go, listen, I’ll give you an example. You go to visit Mary Myers down in Lawrence. What’s the name of the place that she’s in? I always forget the name of the facility.

Say it again. Yes, that place. You go down there. I’m trying not to be unkind. I don’t mean to be unkind at all. She’s probably not gonna recognize you. And when you leave, she’s probably not gonna remember you’re there. You’re gonna have no visible results. That’s pretty much guaranteed. When you take that drive down there, you’re gonna have no visible results from that service to her.

But that’s what sowing and reaping is all about. You reap later. And the day of reaping is when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and he examines, remember, 1 Corinthians tells us, he examines at the judgment seat of Christ our works, not our intentions, although he will that too, our works, the actions, the deeds that we do for God unto others.

Are works like that worthy? You better believe it. You better believe it. So just because you don’t see visible results, it’s not a reason, listen, it’s not a good reason to get weary, but that’s one of the reasons that we weary because we don’t see visible results. Look if you would really quick at 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

I want you to look at the last verse in the chapter. 1 Corinthians 15. Now how many of you know what the theme of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians is?

It’s the resurrection of Christ. But as you get toward the end of the chapter, it is no longer talking about just the resurrection of Christ, but it’s also talking about the resurrection of the saints, because as he lives, we shall live also. Because Christ is risen, so we will rise. And you get to the very end of chapter 15, and you get to the very end, and Paul brings this truth home to us.

You are going to be raised in a new body. Therefore, verse 58, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Notice this, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. This is talking about your labor is not in vain because of the resurrection. You know what that means?

Many of our rewards, most of our, in fact, probably all of our rewards will never be realized in this life. They’ll only be realized after the resurrection of the body, when we stand before Christ, when Christ comes.

Listen, if you’re going to serve God, you’re gonna have to defer the expectation of fruit and result from that, and you’re gonna have to do it for the Lord with only your eye upon him, because that’s when the reaping happens. But notice one more thing about verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, who are those? Is he talking to the preachers, to the deacons, to the pastors? No.

Paul addresses the church, everybody in the church, and he says this, therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. You know what that means? That means the whole church should be involved in the work of the Lord. The work of the Lord is not for the so-called clergy, which doesn’t exist. It is not for just the preachers and the ordained folks.

It is for all of the church. Work, doing well, serving God, serving others in Christ’s name. This is the work of the church. If you wonder, is that my work? Yes. If you’re a part of this church, if you’re a part of the body of Christ, that is your work and my work.

And it is not in vain. So long as we have a risen Savior, and so long as there are resurrection, it will never be in vain, because God will never forget that service. The second reason a lot of people, or some people might get weary in well-doing is because they receive no recognition from others.

It’s along the same line. You see, the reaping doesn’t come from others. The reaping is something that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and his coming. Let me ask you something. Should not that be sufficient reason for us to not be weary?

And if it’s not enough, if we will not serve God in ministry, the work of the Lord, unless we get a pat on the back, unless we get recognition from others, what does that then say about our motivations?

Should you recognize people when they serve? Yeah. Should you give thanks when someone brings you a meal, or sends you a card, or does any kind of active service to you in the name of Christ? Absolutely, you should thank them. But for those of you that serve in that way, our motivation cannot be the recognition and the thanks. That’s not the reaping. The reaping comes from Christ.

And the last reason I think people, and there’s probably other reasons, no doubt, that people get weary in well-doing, is because, and I think maybe this is the biggest, one of the two big reasons, I think, just shooting straight with you, that people get weary in well-doing, weary in serving others in the name of Christ, weary in serving the church, weary in serving God, and start to withdraw, and start to fall away from that.

I didn’t say fall into sin, I said start to fall away from doing well-doing, right? Number one is probably little result, and number two is that they get disillusioned with dealing with people.

I’ll tell you something, there are few things that will kill one’s desire to serve God more than dealing with people. But let me remind you of something. Pretty much all service to God, pretty much everything in the work of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 15, 58, pretty much all of the work of the Lord is about people.

God didn’t care if there’s plants in this flowerbed, right? He doesn’t care if lights, if all the bulbs are screwed in, I mean, he doesn’t care if the sound system’s broken, I mean, he doesn’t care if the sound system’s working right, that’s not what it’s about at all, you know what it’s about, it’s about people, and the way that all of those things affect people.

The ministry’s about people, the Lord is not concerned with trees and rocks and flowers and clouds and all that, no, he’s concerned with people, humankind is God’s pinnacle creation, they have never dying souls, the Lord is concerned with them, that’s what service is all about. So whether you clean the church house, you do it to the Lord so that you give people a clean and welcome atmosphere.

Whether you weed the flowerbeds, you do it unto God, but you do it to give beauty to the grounds to which people come, to make it attractive. When you knock on doors and you spread the gospel, you do it unto God, but you do it to save the souls of people.

You take care of the little kids in the nursery, you do that for God, but you do it to give love to those little people, and to give opportunity for the big people to listen to the message and to grow in the grace of God.

You see, no matter what area of service or what good works that you and I might be involved in, it touches people. We don’t just do it for, we don’t do the flowerbeds for the flowerbeds, we do it for the people, because God cares about people. He wants people to come to a building that’s at least attractive and decent and well maintained so there’s no distraction. He wants a comfortable room so that people aren’t distracted and all these practical things, but it all touches people.

You can’t serve God without people, but yet, that’s the very reason that some people withdraw from serving God and doing good works. You know why? Because they get tired of dealing with people, and I get it.

You say, well, somebody might say, well, I only wanna serve God where people aren’t involved. Forget it. That’s the whole purpose. Some might say, well, it’s just easier not to deal with people. I agree.

But there’s no way to serve the Lord and do good works without the people. So it’s a binary choice. We either serve God with people or we don’t serve God. It’s really that simple.

Look, if you would, back at Galatians chapter six, verse 10. Notice, I read it a minute ago. Notice what it says, to illustrate my point. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good, which is the good of verse nine, which is the sowing in the Spirit, verse eight, unto all men.

Right? Serving people. Brothers and sisters, listen, if we get disillusioned, we’re gonna be in trouble. We’re gonna be in trouble. We’re gonna be in trouble. We’re gonna be in trouble. We’re gonna be in trouble. We’re gonna be in trouble. Brothers and sisters, listen, if we get disillusioned with people and because of that we withdraw from serving the Lord, you know the result is that we leave ourselves with no opportunity to serve God at all.

For all service is, at its very core and essence, related to people. That’s what God cares about. People are the most valuable thing in God’s creation. He loves them. He loves all of you. He loves those that you serve.

Some people might. Listen, I get it. I’m just gonna be a little transparent here. The hardest things in ministry, and I mean, if there’s any distinction between the people in the church and the pastor, is that the people in the church, you guys have jobs and things. You pay your bills through your jobs and that’s something that you have to do. Whereas the pastor’s whole job, if you will, career, whatever you wanna call it, calling is about serving people.

That’s, I mean, the whole thing. That’s what it’s supposed to be about. But the most difficult part in that is definitely people. Without question. Without question. But without that, what are you serving?

What are you serving? That’s why the Lord calls us to love. It’s a labor of love. But that’s also one of the primary reasons that people who start a ministry in the work of the Lord withdraw. They get mistreated or somebody complains.

So they get discouraged and they stop. Listen, you’re not doing it for them first and foremost. You’re doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reaping comes at the end. You stand before him. People gonna be people.

Jesus loves them, right? Some people, I think, don’t really, even if they wanted to serve, some people don’t know exactly how or what ways to serve. So I made a list. I made a list.

Let me tell you something. There are, there is so much room. And this is just one little church. Our church is not anything, you know, it’s not any, you know, multi-campus church. Multi-campus, whatever, you know, I mean, our church is, you know, our church is modest. But there is so much that could be done to serve God and to serve others among us. So, so much. I made a list.

I’m gonna read this list, okay? I’m gonna just read this list to you. I’m not trying to browbeat you at all. What I’m trying to say is if you want to serve God, if you want to do good works, and you have a desire to fulfill that purpose for which God created you as a believer, there is so much opportunity. It is coming out of our ears.

You could tidy up the sanctuary before the service. You could dust the church from time to time. You could clean up and prepare the prophets chamber, pull up weeds in the flower beds, all these water coolers. You could be the guy that changes out the water bottles and puts the cups so they’re refilled. You could sweep and clean up the laundry room or the kitchen and organize that.

Change the church sign. Clean up the, and tidy up the playground equipment. Sweep around the entrances on Sunday mornings. Where are you at? There’s opportunities for you to go to the jail. Did you know right now, David Roth has told me, if you have somebody on Thursday night, if you get a commit, if somebody in your church will commit to going there every week because they can’t take off and on, if somebody will commit, there’s an opportunity for jail ministry right now at the Greenville County Detention Center.

It’s just a matter of people who want to do it. You can pass out gospel tracts and invitations. There’s all kinds of little repairs and maintenance projects that can be done around this building. You can fill up the track track. Some of you are already doing some of these things. I get it.

Start a kid’s ministry during the morning service. Post the missionary letters. Read the missionary letters. Contact the missionaries on behalf of the church. You can bring out the Sunday school cart and you can bring out the Sunday school card and you can bring out the Sunday school card and you can bring out the Sunday school card and you can bring out the Sunday school card and you can buy the gifts, the prizes we put on the Sunday school card.

Somebody could turn on the lights and turn off the lights. Turn on the air conditioners. Turn off the air conditioners. Set up a church library for others to utilize. You could take part in the school of scripture we have every Friday. Trim the hedges, clean the garage, tidy the garage. Vacuum, wash the church van. Take the church van to have this oil changed. Organize these senior outings.

Tidy and clean the utility closets. Redecorate the prophets chamber. Minerize the Bible verses. Serve in the nursery. Sanitize the nursery toys. Invite other folks to come to church. Reach out to people who have been absent for a while. You could take part in the gospel mailings. You could go around and collect the dresses for the gospel mailings. You could start a church photo archive.

You could run a church bookstore. You could do the flowers and the decor. You could write a gospel tract. You could take photos and videos of different events at the church. You could change out the filters on the air conditioners. You could be someone who stands at the back and greets the visitors that come in. You could get on the church’s cleaning schedule. You could help count the offering.

And I could go on and on and on. And all of those things in some way, fashion, or form deal with serving people. You know what it’s about? Listen, here’s what it’s about. We have gotten tired of well-doing.

There is so much opportunity. There is so much opportunity. That’s just a list I made. I mainly made that list for me. To be honest with you. So somebody says, hey, is there something I can do? I don’t have to think about it. I got a list.

You see, brothers and sisters, if you look at Galatians once, one more time, we’re gonna end in a place where we’re gonna end in Hebrews in just a second. Verse nine says this, and let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. That’s the blessing.

If we faint not. You see, being weary leads to fainting. What does fainting look like? Fainting means we give up well-doing. We quit the ministry. We withdraw. We let up.

We used to do these works to serve God and others, and now we’ve stopped. We’ve fainted. Second John 1-8 says this, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought. Lose not those things which we have wrought. You know what wrought? It’s related to the word works. These good works we’re talking about. These ministries, this work of God. You lose it even though you’ve done it, you lose it when you faint.

1 Corinthians three talks about, I mentioned this before, the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord examines our works, the Bible says some will suffer loss. That is, you’ve done good works, but they’re taken. In other words, in the Soean, you don’t get to the reaping part because we quit midway.

Let’s finish in Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. Look at verse one. Wherefore, Hebrews 12 verse one, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about what’s so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now notice verse three. For consider him, Jesus, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be, what does it say? Wearied and faint in your minds. Are you weary?

Have you kind of given up on the work of the Lord? Have you just kind of decided that you’re gonna be a bystander? I’ll give you the admonition of verse three. Consider him. If you’re weary of well-doing, look at Jesus.

When our Lord went to the cross, you know what he was doing? He was doing good for us. If our Lord had fainted, what would have been the result?

It would have been the loss of our salvation. There would have been no salvation. So the Lord says, look at him, who for others, in motivation for love to his father, but in benefit to others, which is us, he took our sin upon himself, and he was not without contradiction of sinners against himself. He was not without difficulty. No, he had great difficulty, yet he persisted. And the difficulty, listen, the difficulty that our Lord endured was done by the very people for whom he died.

Just like when we serve God and people mistreat us in our very service. So the Lord says, if you’re weary, look at the Lord Jesus Christ. It is upon him that our eyes should be fixed, not upon others, but upon the Lord himself. He was not weary for our sakes. He endured the cross for us that we might be saved. You notice in verse number one, he mentions this great cloud of witnesses, which are all the witnesses in chapter 11.

Look at verse 39 of chapter 11. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the price of the sin, but the reward of the sin. The good faith received not the promise. All these people you read about, listen, I’m done. All these people you read about in Hebrews chapter 11, some of them are named, but you get to the end, 33, roundabout verse number 33, the writer just starts listing off all these things, but he doesn’t list names anymore.

He’s just listing all these, some very great things, and some very terrible things that they did that happened to them. And he just starts to listen, they’re sown asunder. Some of them stopped the mouths of lions. Some of them were persecuted, burnt with fire, and all these things. And then it says in verse number 39, Sam, read it out loud for us, what does it say? You read it out loud, and you believe those people who see the darkness, brought them to life, so they are not lost, but they are the ones who should come to life.

I wanna ask you a question. Those people in verse number 39, did they see the reaping in their life? No. Yet they served in the work of God. Yet they gave their lives to God. Yet they served and they worked and they did not weary in well-doing, because their eyes were set on the reaping before the Lord. And that’s why they didn’t weary. Brothers and sisters, are you weary in the work of the Lord?

Are you tired of well-doing? Have you withdrawn from how you used to serve God? Because you’re tired of it. Tired of dealing with people. Tired of the little bit of result. Let me encourage you, get back into that. That’s why you were created. You were created to serve God. You were created to serve God. That’s why you were created.

That’s why the Lord saved you. Let’s pray.