Tired and Weary

Review

We started in Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Recognizing that all of us will harvest something in our life.

If we expect to harvest something good, we must be intentional to

set realistic expectations

make preparations

Hopefully you made some goals for this week at camp. We are at our last night session and I hope God has already been making you grow.

I want to ask you tonight a very important question

Are you Expecting?

Expecting God to grow you, to meet with you, to reveal Himself in new ways, or to challenge you

You will reap tonight what you sow, even in the next 15 or so minutes

Someone with expectation in their heart has a pen and paper, ready to take notes

You may even choose to not sit by someone or in a certain area.

When I was in school I chose to sit in the front of the room not because I wanted to be the teachers favorite, but because I didn’t want to be distracted.

Prepare for God to show up. Stay focused, get distractions out of your way.

Expect God to move and Prepare for it!

Last night we talked about Galatians 6:8 “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

sowing to please the flesh talks of those who do not know God whether they claim to or not. There are those who sow to the flesh because they truly do not know Jesus for whatever reason and wouldn’t claim to know Jesus. Then there are also those who claim to know God because of their appearance, yet their hearts are far from Him.

Many people in the church, maybe even here tonight are in this category. You will not reap eternal life by doing good things

You will reap eternal life by placing your faith in Jesus.

He will give you His Holy Spirit and from walking in step with Jesus, you will become more and more like Him. Your heart will change

Tonight I want to continue on in Galatians. The next verses say

Galatians 6:9–10 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Do Good

Doing good is a result of our obedience to the Spirit of God changing us and challenging us to be like Jesus

This is not a natural goodness that I’m born with. this is a goodness I am born again with

It’s not for my glory, but the glory of God

It’s not a natural desire of our flesh.

naturally we are selfish, not selfless

naturally if we do good it’s for pride, so people see me

naturally we think about ourselves 1st, not others

This flesh still has desires and still tries to get what it wants

The point is, doing Good for the glory of God is hard work and goes against our flesh.

It’s a strength I get by being close to God and our flesh is fighting against

which brings me my second point

Doing good is tiring

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

The leaders that are here at camp know what I am talking about.

There are many other things they could have done this week with their time for their own gain, but because they are obedient to God, they show up to camp to show ya’ll the love of God.

It’s not that they don’t love you, it’s that they too have selfish desires that they have to deny

If you choose to stay at home on a Monday night and play video games is it because you don’t love me...Hopefully not. It’s because you have selfish desires that you are allowing to win over obedience to God

God knew that we are weak and we would get tired of doing good so He is reminding us here. Keep on sowing spiritual things even when it gets hard. I, your Father in Heaven who loves you and is cheering you on in this race will reward you. You will reap good things!

The leaders have a leader meeting every morning and we get to share some of the hard things about camp and cheer each other on, but more than hard things, this morning we are starting to see the reward of doing good at camp.

Which is my third point.

Doing good is rewarding

What is the harvest we reap. Do I win like a million dollars, do I get a new car, a new home, an easier life, no more depression, no more pain, will Harold hold Ben. None of these things are the true reward.

I believe the true harvest is what we get to take to heaven with us

Does anyone know the 1 thing we get to take to heaven with us?

People

When I sow the seeds of God’s spirit people get to see Jesus, not me

Doing Good is all about people seeing Jesus

Jesus is the reward

If I sow God’s love, someone gets loved. That seed may grow and mature into salvation for someone

If I sow God’s kindness, forgiveness, patience, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, self control, all the things that come from His Spirit in me. That seed may land on soil ready to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Who in here wants their friends, family, or anyone for that matter to go to hell? I hope nobody

The greatest reward in our life is for people to know Jesus.

Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

The purpose of people seeing our good deeds is to glorify our Father in Heaven. All Glory to You God!

Don’t give up, in God’s time, not our time we will reap a harvest.

Like Ben shared this morning with Peter stepping out of the boat, the storm was still rolling on.

Life can be difficult, but keep on doing good because God’s promises can be trusted and He says in His time you will reap. Eternal life and for many others

My final point tonight from

Galatians 6:10 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Do good today!

I like to say tomorrow is a thief. It robs from today. Don’t wait to let God shine in you. If you have placed your faith in Jesus, He lives in you and you can shine for Him today, here at camp,

Especially among your Christian brothers and sisters. Go encourage them.

I could give many examples of how I have already seen many of you doing good here at camp and I thank you for that.

I love being the youth pastor to a bunch of students desiring to love God and love one another.

I want to end with one personal story from today regarding one outstanding student who continues to show an immense amount of love and kindness to everyone he meets

This afternoon, Bri came up to me needing to borrow some money to buy a sweatshirt. I let her borrow what she needed, but a short while later she returned the money with a look of shock on her face.

She said, Dekker, whom I hardly know said he would give me the $10 I needed. She was so blessed that Someone who barely knew her would do something so kind for her.

Dekker, thank you for doing good today! I love you brother!

Let’s worship our amazing God together before we head to small group.

Be vulnerable in small group