Galatians 6:6-10

Introduction:

**In 1952, a woman named Florence Chadwick decided to attempt the 26-mile swim between the California coastline and Catalina Island.

During her swim Chadwick traveled with a team whose job it was to keep an eye out for sharks and be prepared to assist in the event of unexpected cramps, injury, or fatigue.

Roughly 15 hours into her swim a thick fog began to set in clouding Chadwick’s vision and confidence. Chadwick finally relayed to her team she didn’t think she could complete the swim.

She swam for another hour before deciding to call it quits. As she sat in the teetering boat she discovered if she’d just continued on for another mile she would have reached Catalina Island.

**

Chadwick’s story is easy to relate to, not because any of us have ever swam 26 miles or even attempted to

-But because we all know how easy it can be to feel like we’re losing hope and want to give up

-I don’t know all the battles you’re facing in life right now, or what’s going on in your head as you come to church this evening

-But I do know according to the Scriptures, each of us is vulnerable to the temptation to give up, to throw in the towel

-To wonder, “is it really worth it to keep living for the Lord?”

-It can be hard to remain faithful in prayer

-It can be hard to keep reading the Bible

-To keep coming to church

-To keep hanging on to the faith

-And this evening, God has a much needed exhortation for us so that we would continue on in our perseverance and not give up

-Paul has defended both His Apostleship and His Gospel to this church that is in danger of believing that you can somehow earn salvation or favor with God through being circumcised and keeping the Law

-He’s demonstrated that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone

-And now, he’s exhorting them to walk in obedience to God through the Spirit, who can produce good fruit in our lives

-Last week, we looked at the need for humility in the way that we bear one another’s burdens, and in the way that we think about ourselves

-And today, we’re going to hear from God about our need to persevere in doing good

In our text, Paul gives us 4 exhortations, 4 commands

-So we’re going to work through each one of them

-Now, I’m going to save verse 6 for the end

-It’s an interesting verse, and I think it will be best to save it for the end

-So I’m not skipping it, I’m going to come back to it and explain it in context

**read passage and pray**

1. Do not be Deceived (vs. 7-8)

-Here’s Paul’s exhortation: Do not be deceived

**have you ever been deceived before?

I remember hearing from my cousin Sam about a prank that some people played on a BJU student around the time he was in school

. . . . (tell of prank of waking him up in the night and then going back to sleep)

-He got deceived!

-He thought this was reality, and found out it wasn’t

-Brothers and sisters, Paul is saying Don’t be Deceived!

-Don’t be fooled into thinking something is true when it’s not!

-And when Paul uses that phrase, he’s usually talking about the final judgement

For instance:

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

So essentially, Paul’s saying, “pay attention! Make no mistake! What I’m about to say has huge implications.”

He goes on to say,

The New King James Version Chapter 6

God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Now, other places, when Paul speaks of sowing and reaping, he’s speaking of giving

He talks this way in 2 Corinthians 8-9 for example

-However, I think here he’s giving a principle that goes beyond just charitable giving

He says that whatever a person sows, he will reap that very same thing

-If you plant tomato seeds, you’re going to get tomatoes

-If you plant an apple seed, you’ll get apples

-In other words, “you get what you give”

-Now, this is a truth has been appropriated by the world:

-People like to talk about Karma

-Or about putting out good energy into the universe

-Or nonsense like that

-And usually what that means is that if you pay for a random person at a restaurant, then you might get a raise at work

-Or if you pick up a piece of trash you see while on a walk, then your stocks might go up

But that’s not what Paul has in mind:

The New King James Version Chapter 6

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 everlasting life.

So Paul here is not saying that if you yell at your kid, you’ll get a flat tire

-He’s not saying if you watch pornography your grocery bag will break on the way into your house

-No, what he’s saying is far more weighty than that

-What he’s saying, is that if you live in the works of the flesh, you’ll be destroyed

-He’s saying exactly what he said back in chapter 5, that those who practice the works of the flesh won’t inherit the kingdom of God

If you sow that kind of seed, you’re going to reap eternal destruction

-The flesh will pay you back for what you sow

-If you live your life in anger, and worry, and immorality, and greed, and selfishness, then you’re going to reap a harvest one day, and you’re not going to like the harvest you’ll reap, because it is a harvest of eternal decay and corruption and destruction

-But if you sow to the Spirit

-If you’re sowing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control, then you’re going to reap a harvest of eternal life

-So this goes so far beyond if you do something good, something good will happen to you

-No, Paul is saying that the way you live demonstrates where you’re going to spend eternity

-It’s not that somehow by doing good you’ll earn eternal life

-It’s that how you live reveals whether you’ve really been changed by God or not

And that’s why he says back in verse 7, don’t be deceived, God isn’t mocked

-In other words, “God’s no fool! You can’t outsmart Him! You can’t hack the system somehow.”

**My brother Brian works for a company that takes kids on school field trips

-And so he’ll take groups usually to places like NYC or DC

-And so when he’d go to DC, he would take the kids to DC, they’d go to a certain arcade and they’d get a certain amount of money to play these arcade games

-And if you do well with these games, you get a certain amount of tickets that you can then spend on prizes

-And so on one of his trips, he realized that there was a certain game in the corner of this arcade that would give out an exorbitant amount of tickets

-like, wayyyy more tickets than it ought to be giving out

-And so he’d go every time and use his money playing this game, and get so many tickets that he could go up to the counter and get anything he wanted

-One time he came home from a trip with a stuffed animal of Mario that was about 4 feet tall

-And then one time he went back, and the arcade had caught on to the fact that that particular game in the corner gave out too many tickets, so they adjusted it

-But for a while, he found a way to hack the system!

**

Brothers and sisters, that’s not going to happen with God!

-No one is going to be able to hack the system

-You’re not going to be able to live in sin, to give yourself over to the works of the flesh, and make it to heaven

-God’s not a fool!

-You’re not smarter than Him!

-He’s going to meet out perfect justice for all the sin and wrongdoing that goes on

-Don’t be deceived

-Keep on sowing to the Spirit

-Don’t be deceived into thinking it’s ok to sow to the flesh

That leads us directly into the second exhortation . . .

2. Don’t Grow Weary (vs. 9)

-Notice the second exhortation:

-Don’t grow weary

-This has the idea of becoming discouraged, losing enthusiasm

-Brothers and sisters, this can easily happen to us, can’t it?

-We can get tired of praying for a lost family member

-We can get tired of the confrontation from a rebellious child

-We can get tired of trying to witness and not seeing anyone get saved

-We can get tired of trying to show love to a difficult spouse

-What’s the encouragement for us when we’re struggling like this?

-We will reap if we don’t give up

**There was an interesting experiment done by a guy named Curt Richter

-He wanted to see how longs rat could survive in a bucket of water before drowning

-He first put in several rats who were domesticated

-These rats were used to living around humans

-And so he put them in, and was surprised that many of them survived days of swimming and staying afloat before they finally drowned

-So he then went out and got some wild rats and put them in the bucket of water

-These rats were a lot stronger, tougher, and better swimmers than the domesticated ones from living in the wild their whole lives

-However, he was surprised to find that wasn’t at all the case

-All 34 of the wild rats drowned within a few minutes

Richter pondered why that could possibly be the case, since these wild rats were much stronger and better swimmers and were used to fighting for survival

-And then it dawned on him . . . he wondered if the reason the domesticated rats lasted longer was because they were used to being cared for and rescued by humans, so they had hope that someone would come to their aid

-To test his hypothesis, he put more rats in the water, and each time one of the rats would succumb to exhaustion and begin to drown, he’d rescue the rat, help resuscitate them, and then put them back into the water

-And he found that after being saved, they would swim much longer the second time than they had the first time

-The reason is that when they had hope of being rescued, they could hold on for longer

**

-Now, aside from the question of whether someone should be drowning rats or not, the insight gained here is profound

-When people don’t have anything to hope for or to look forward to, this leads to giving up

-Whether it’s a basketball team that’s down 25 points with 5 minutes left

-Or an employee finishing out his last week on the job before he gets let go

-In an article in Psychology Today, the number one reason listed as to why people commit suicide is that someone’s own existence becomes simply too much to bear and they become hopeless

-People don’t feel like they have any reason to go on living

-However, as a Christian, we have hope

-We have something to live for!

-From our efforts of sowing to the Spirit, we know that we’ll reap everlasting life!

-And brothers and sisters, that can give you great hope today in the monotony of the life you’re living

-Your prayers for that last family member are not in vain!

-The constant effort to engage with your rebellious teenager is not a useless effort

-The attempts at witnessing to those around you is not a waste of time

-The effort at continually loving your spouse who’s unkind to you is not meaningless

Brothers and sisters, do you realize what we have to look forward to?

Hebrews 12:22–24 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

-Yes brothers and sisters, take heart, and hear the voice of God to you this evening:

Do not grow weary while doing good, for in due season you shall reap if you do not lose heart

**William Carey arrived in India in 1793

-He began the difficult and draining task of learning the language and trying to start a gospel work there

-He witnessed to everyone he could, and did not see one single person come to Christ for 7 years

He wrote home and said this: “

Galatians Keep up the Good Work!

I feel as a farmer does about his crop: sometimes I think the seed is springing, and thus I hope; a little time blasts all, and my hopes are gone like a cloud. They were only weeds which appeared; or if a little corn sprung up, it quickly dies, being either choked with weeds, or parched up by the sun of persecution. Yet I still hope in God, and will go forth in his strength.

Yet, after 7 years, Carey finally saw his first convert come to Christ

-By the end of his ministry, he had helped plant at least 11 churches and translated the Bible into 6 languages

-Before he died, William Carey said this about anyone who desired to write about him:

“If he [a potential biographer] give me credit for being a plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond that will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”

**

So brothers and sisters, Hebrews 12:12 “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,”

-And help bear one another’s burdens, so that no one will quit and be left behind!

But that brings up the question :

What does that look like, to persevere? What am I to continue doing?

3. Do Good (vs. 10)

-The exhortation here is really simple: Do good to all!

Why should we do good to all?

-Notice the “therefore”

“because you’re going to see your Savior, be rewarded by Him, and experience eternal life”

Also, notice the phrase, “as we have opportunity”

-what’s he saying?

-Your time is limited!

-Life down here doesn’t last forever!

One day, you’ll have no more opportunities to witness to people

-One day, you won’t have the opportunity to sacrificially give towards those in need

-One day, you won’t have the opportunities to visit the sick or the elderly

-One day, you won’t have these opportunities to sow to the Spirit down here and to bear other’s burdens in this way

-So while you’re here on earth, use this limited opportunity to do good

-Who are we to do good to?

All

-Do good to your spouse and to your children

-Do good to your parents and your in-laws

-Do good to your neighbors and coworkers

-Do good to republicans and democrats

-Do good to those who are kind and those who are harsh

-Do good to those who hold your values and those who do not

-Do good to Catholics and Mormons and Muslims

-Do good to police officers and to homeless people

-Do good to homosexuals and transgender people and to others who might be the last people to ever darken the door of your church

Do good to all!

Be like the sower who goes out to sow seed, indiscriminately casting it wide and far!

-There is no limit to the good you can do to people, and there is not limit on the kinds of people you can do good for!

-Let people cut merge in front of you on the road

-Give a little money to the person who may be in need

-Say thank you with a smile waitress who got your order wrong

-be kind to the person standing in front of you in line who’s wearing the hat or the shirt that bashes your political party

Brothers and sisters, while you have the opportunity, do good towards all people!

However, even with this broad command, Paul does give us a set or priorities to follow:

**A few months ago, during an interview, Vice-President JD Vance made the comment that there is an order of priorities when it comes to loving others

-He articulated the view that a person should first love their family, then their neighbors, then their country, and then others in the world

-And regardless of how you view the VP, and whether or not we agree with everything in that statement, what he’s certainly right about is that there are people who ought to be higher in priority than others when it comes to how the Christian seeks to love and meet the needs of other people

***

And Paul clearly lays down this priority:

-Yes, the Christian ought to do good indiscriminately to all people

-However, there are some people who ought to take a higher priority in the concerns of the Christian than others

-and the higher priority ought to be those who are of the household of faith

-In other words, Christians ought to be especially concerned with meeting the needs of other Christians

-Brothers and sisters, there are many women who’s husbands are being deployed by the military in other countries, but we have a special obligation to Sarah more than we have those other women

-There are many people who are battling with cancer and live in the reality that it may return, but we have special obligation to help and pray for James Dockery

-Brothers and sisters, there are many elderly people who need prayer and support and visiting in their old age, but we have a special obligation to the elderly that are part of our own congregation

Who can you do good to?

-Can you invite a neighbor over for a meal?

-Can you take a coworker out to eat?

-Can you mow the grass of someone who needs the help?

And specifically, who from your church can you do good to?

-Can you help watch the kids of a young couple in church

-Can you have a teenager over for dinner?

-Can you visit one of the elderly in our church and help them with housework?

You must do good to all while you have the opportunity, especially those who are of the household of faith

-This evening, think of someone that you can do good towards

-Come up with a concrete way that you can obey this command

4. Share (vs. 6)

Now, this brings us back to verse 6

-Verse 6 is a rather puzzling verse for many interpreters

-It’s not puzzling as far as what it means

-The meaning seems rather simple

-Paul is exhorting those who get taught God’s Word to share with those who do the teaching

-In other words, God is giving a command here that He gives in other places in the NT as well: Christians ought to pay their pastors

-So it’s not that the verse is hard to understand, but it’s puzzling as to how it connects with the rest of the passage

-Paul is teaching about humbly bearing burdens in 5:26 - 6:5, and in 6:7-10 he’s exhorting Christians to persevere

-So why this command?

-And furthermore, if you notice throughout this first half of chapter 6, the commands that Paul gives are rather general commands

-Confront sinning Christians

-Bear others burdens

-Don’t think too highly of yourself

-Continue doing good to all

-But verse 6 seems like a very specific kind of command

-So what’s going on here?

-I think a good way to see this verse is that it serves as an example of a fitting application to everything Paul’s covered in this entire first section of chapter 6

-It’s like he’s giving us one specific way that all of these principles can be applied

-Supporting your pastors is an example of humility

-It’s an example of bearing the burdens of others

-It’s an example of sowing to the Spirit

-It’s an example of persevering in a good work

-And it’s an example of doing good, especially to those who are in your own church

-And so when viewed in that light, it fits the context rather nicely as one of the many ways that we should apply the truths we’ve been learning

-Christians ought to take care of their pastors and meet their needs

-And brothers and sisters, there are a myriad of other ways that this passage can be applied as well

-Don’t be deceived — whatever a person sows, they’ll reap

-Don’t grow weary while doing good — we will reap if we don’t give up

-Do good to all — especially those who are of the household of faith

Keep persevering

Keep enduring

**Two months after her failure to finish her swim because she gave up that foggy morning, Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the 26 miles from California to Catalina Island

-Once again, a thick fog had set in

-But Chadwick had learned her lesson

-With the picture of how close she had been to the island last time firmly in her mind, she didn’t let the fog discourage her

-This time, she made it all the way

-She learned to persevere, knowing that what she was working towards was real and close by, even if she couldn’t see it

**

Brothers and sisters, do not grow weary while doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart