Now Matters Later

Galatians 6:6-10

How many of you have finally eaten all of this year’s halloween candy? In my house, my wife bagged up all the candy and made me give it all away within a few days after halloween. She was on a mission. Some of you can probably relate. Anyway, speaking of candy, one of my favorite candies to eat growing up is called “Now & Later.” Of course, growing up, we called them “Now-Laters.” We dropped the “and”. I found out later that the name was meant to suggest to customers that they would enjoy the candy now and want some more later. Thus, “Now & Later.” Wouldn’t it be cool if everything that we to do now was enjoyable and then it became even more enjoyable later? Wouldn’t that be cool? Unfortunately, life doesn’t always deal like that. Sometimes, what we have to do now, isn’t enjoyable now, but will pay huge dividends later. In scripture, this is known as the principle of “sowing & reaping.” But, because we tend to only think of “sowing & reaping” as relating to negative consequences, I’ve decided to frame this crucial principal with the phrase “Now Matters Later.” What we do “now, matters Later.” This is extremely important when we consider what has been sown and is still being sown in our culture today: Lots of fear, fear of death, fear of being alone, fear of not having enough, fear of losing what we have…Lots of division and strife has been sown and finally, lots of fear about the future. Brothers and sisters, this is our Father’s world. We must commit to sowing good seed now more than ever, because now matters later. Open your Bibles with me and turn to Gal 6:6-10 . <Read passage, pray after reading>

What we do now matters later in our relationships with God, self & others!

vv6-7 Highlights one of the most overlooked areas of faith when it comes to our relationship with God, which is: receiving the preached Word of God and financial giving to support the ministry of God’s word.

When it comes to receiving God’s Word…many of us don’t know how to prepare our souls for nourishment. In my home, when it is dinner time, my wife will often yell out: “It’s time to eat!” In our home, that does not simply mean, come and sit at the table. It means, wash your hands, help set the table, get ready to say grace and sing a hymn.

What should we do to prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God on the Lord’s Day?

We should pray for our church , our family, the minister and ourselves. We should for God to plant and water His truth in us.

When this is happening regularly, we will be filled with joy when it comes to financial giving in support of gospel ministry. It’s interesting that Paul uses our support of the local ministry of the Word as a status check for the heart. The Christian church that changed the ancient world relied upon the saints generous giving to fund the ministry of the Word. This was so different from the ancient, pagan temples, where the pagan priests charged the people a hefty fine in order to perform a sacrifice. God does not want us to give out of legalistic compulsion, but as an expression of our joy in Him. In this, Paul says, God will not be mocked, if your love is elsewhere, it will be exposed.

Matt 6:21 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. By the way, this is a warning to ministers who only enter gospel ministry because they hope to get rich. In other words, what we do to get ourselves ready to receive the Word, teach the Word and to support the ministry of the Word, matters significantly to God.

v8 Hones in even more on the importance of understanding that we what do now matters later in relationship to ourselves. How many of you, when you heard me say and then read the words “relationship to self,” thought, “that’s a really odd thing for him to say.”

Be honest. It was odd thing for me when I was first exposed this idea. To be clear, I’m not endorsing self-indulgence or self-centeredness. I’m endorsing the passage which calls for an honest, self-assessment and intentional living before God.

Now matters later when it comes to assessing:

*Who has the highest authority over me?

*Which priorities come first in my life?

In my second year of marriage, I had one of the biggest aha moments of my life. Marriage will do that to you, by the way, if you’ll allow God to work in your heart through marriage.

Here’s my “aha moment.” Whenever my wife and I would have conflict, I would just get up and leave. I would leave the room or leave the house. One day, we get into a very heated conflict, I started heading towards the door, and my runs and cuts me off…with tears in her eyes, she cried out, “Stop running away!”

It was at that moment that Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see that my response in that moment mattered for later. God also opened my eyes to see, that my own selfish heart was acting as the highest authority over my marriage and that the priority of that selfish heart was only concerned with protecting myself. But not only that, I saw that by running away, I was sowing the seeds of divorce. The Holy Spirit used my sweet, at the time, broken-hearted, little wife to give me an honest assessment of my own heart and actions before God. And it changed the trajectory of our marriage—we just celebrated 14yrs in October.

How we choose to treat one another...

*Matters to God

*Matters right now

*And, it matters later

This is great encouragement to us because we understand that what we now, matters later, even if we feel like giving up!

Why do we become weary with doing good and begin to consider giving up?

We become weary because...

We’re finite creatures and the life we have been called to live requires supernatural grace.

We’re not sure if we and/or what we’re doing matters to God.

We feel unappreciated and unnoticed.

We don’t believe we’re making a difference.

The gospel provides an answer to all of this:

The same Spirit that raised Christ gives life to our mortal bodies. (Rom 8:11)

Christ loved us and gave his life for us while we were enemies of God. (Rom 5:10)

Jesus Christ is still to this very hour praying for you. (Heb 7:25)

The Body of Christ is stronger because of what every member supplies. (Eph 4:16)

In Conclusion...

What we do now, matters later...

*In our relationship with God

*In our relationship to self

*In relationship to others

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Col 3:23

Let us close in prayer.