"Don't Give Up...Look Up!"
"Don't Give Up...Look Up!" • Sermon • Submitted
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· 540 viewsWhen we are living the wrong way and looking at the wrong person, it is easy to be willing to give up!
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Introduction
Introduction
I want to talk for a moment from the subject of "Don't Give Up...Look Up!"
They can give the sense that the sky is falling...
"Don't Give Up...Look Up!"
Yet, it is important for us to understand the trends and what may be impacting us in our communities as we work the works that Christ has commissioned us to do.
69% of U.S Adults were members of a church in 1998-2000, compared with 52% in 2016-2018.
People are quitting church by the masses and I wanted to try to uncover why this would be.
Churchleaders.com ran a survey that gave 5 reasons why people give up on the church.
That’s a decline of 17% in less than 20 years.
Burnout - we’ve equated being busy with being godly; however, the haunting reality that confronts that idea is what God Himself said in , “Be still and know that I am God,” not “be busy!”
Unrealistic Expectations - Too many people believe that “ministry = easy” When it’s our plans and our ideas it usually leads to people”giving up” because “God just didnt come through.”
This decline is significant because we know as the years pass the makeup of adults have changed.
Criticism - it hurts to be criticized. If your ministry responds to the critics you will never have on that responds to Jesus. Spectators, Instigators and Participators.
Discouragement -Every one has faced some discouragement at some point or another. This is why it is essential to get in a place like David did in David faced an incredibly discouraging situation and yet somehow managed to find his strength in the Lord.
Losing Focus on God’s Power - When we understand that God is in control and not we ourselves we will find true strength.
The Galatian Churches were facing some of these same challenges and Paul had to write to the Galatian Churches because they were under attack by the influence of teachers known as Judaizers.
Teaching that they had to follow the Jewish laws in addition to believing in Christ.
Along with that they were challenging Paul's Apostolic authority.
Paul begins by telling them in Ch.1 that there is no other Gospel and that he was surprised how they were so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ.
In Ch. 2 He even had to withstand Peter who found himself caught up being one way and then another way. This led other who were with him to get caught up in this legalism. Paul told them:
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Ch. 3 he had to ask the people “O Foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth. He said I need you to know:
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
Ch 4 Paul tells them Don’t return to bondage
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Galatians 4:4-6
So Paul confirms in Ch 5
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1
In essence Paul is saying “Don’t Give Up.”
He says:
7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Galatians
“Don’t Give Up…Look Up!”
Paul brings it to a culmination after he encourage the Galatian Churches on how to treat one another, He makes a sharp contrast.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6
God cannot be mocked. Why? Because a man reaps what he sows.
Mocked means “to turn up one’s nose” or “”treat with contempt.”
You can turn up your nose and role your eyes all day but it doesnt change the law of the harvest.
Paul tells them in vs 8
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Notice the word “But.”
This word is used to connect one clause to another. It is most often used in scripture to express contrast.
The idea is that if we sow to the Spirit we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Paul goes on and say’s
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:
As he continues his thought, he tells those who are sowing to the Spirit “And let us not be weary.”
Wait a minute! “Don’t Give Up… Look Up?
First, You Must Determine what your Focus is on...
First, You Must Determine what your Focus is on...
Have you been sowing to the flesh or have you been sowing to the Spirit?
If you ready to give up you need to determine where your focus has been. Have you been sowing to the flesh or sowing to the Spirit?
If you ready to give up you need to determine where your focus has been.
Sow to the Flesh - Can be me, my and I ministry.
When you sow to the Spirit you don't have to be weary in well doing...
To sow to the Spirit?”
What is the well doing?
Well if you would remember this is an continuation of Paul's thought in Ch. 5
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:
Explain each of the fruit of the Spirit...
“Don’t Give Up…Look Up.”
Second, Understand It’s not on your timing; but God’s timing...
Second, Understand It’s not on your timing; but God’s timing...
Paul is letting the Galatian Churches know that God has His perfect timing.
Don’t Give up or get weary = tired.
God’s timing is always right on time.
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down,
And the snow from heaven,
And returneth not thither,
But watereth the earth,
And maketh it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
Isaiah 55:
“Don’t Give Up…Look Up!”
Lastly, There’s a Promise if you Faint Not...
Lastly, There’s a Promise if you Faint Not...
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6
Paul starts off by saying “let us.”
Paul starts off by saying “let us.”
Then he say’s “we shall reap, if we faint not.”
Listen this is a together thing. We cant do it by ourselves.
Paul already told us
Galatians 6:
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
The promise is not just for one person. If you Blessed then you ought to be a blessing to others.
Notice what he said about the Promise “we shall.”
Shall - used in laws, regulations, or directives to express what is mandatory.
God has already set the promise in motion.
Just in case you been thinking about giving up I stopped by to tell you “Don’t Give Up… Look Up!”
Song writer said:
Don’t give up on God cause He want give up on you.
God is able to do just what he said he would do
Just in case you been thinking about giving up I stopped by to tell you “Don’t Give Up… Look Up!”
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Ephesians
It was Isaiah who asked a good question:
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
That the everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Fainteth not, neither is weary?
There is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint;
And to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall:
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.
Isaiah 40
Because I’ve learned to
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And he shall direct thy paths.
“Don’t Give Up…Look Up!”
Because Paul Declared unto us:
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15
12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:12-13