Galatians Part 13

Intro:

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New series

Recap

• We’ve been talking about the Spirit of God

• How it’s at war with our flesh

• And that the way to defeat it is by keeping in step with the Spirit of God

• Last week we talked about then how that works out in our relationships

• Paul’s primary concern when dealing with the Spirit of God is how it then cause us to change from the inside out

• It produces fruit in us that comes out of us and created biblical healthy community primarily seen in the church

• so today we finish up our Galatians series. So i’m going to read the rest of chapter 6 beginning in verse 7 and then I will pray and we will get started this morning

Galatians 6:7–18 NIV

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 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. 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. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. 11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! 12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

› pray

Gardening. Any gardners here? Anyone ever had a garden? Like to garden? Me and my wife last year had a garden and we plan to do it again this year. But last year we were pretty new and so we learned a lot of things. Things like, don’t plant so close together. Don’t plant so much. Where to place things in your garden based on how they grow and things like that right? Well one thing we learned pretty quickly was that it’s a lot of work. And so, at the beginning things were going pretty well. We would go out most mornings and work in the garden. removing weeds and cleaning up around plants, making sure things were getting plenty of water and fertilizing when needed. But eventually, it became a job and so we would skip a day. Well of course that would make the next day that much harder and that much more work. But we had a beautiful garden that was producing a ton of vegetable. More than we could consume. Well a family emergency came up and we had to go out of town and we were gone for 10 days. When we came back, you could hardly see the garden anymore. It just looked like a pile of green stuff. There at the beginning, man we poured a lot of time and energy into it. We were excited and dedicated. But towards the end, life happened, it wasn’t as exciting anymore, we began to become bored with the mundane routine.

Paul here at the end of his letter tells us: you will reap what you sow.

• What you put into pleasing the Spirit of God that lives in you, you will reap

What you sow into the flesh you will reap

And notice Paul only mentions two categories that you can give to. Two places that you can sow in to

You are either sowing into your flesh, or you are sowing into your Spirit

And so, we must ask ourselves this question. Not just today but in every decision we make.

Is this a decision to sow into my Spirit or am I giving into my flesh

• Because Paul says; do not deceive yourself. Do not try to convince yourself or others of one thing because God will not be mocked!

• What are you sowing in to?

• If you sow into the Spirit you will reap the Spirit

• If you sow into the flesh you reap the flesh. And when we sow into our flesh it grows like a cancer inside of us, only looking to captivate every square inch it can with the outcome being a rotting death from the inside out.

• Instead, we are called to crucify our flesh!

Sow to please the Spirit

• And so what Paul us after here is a pursuit of holiness.

• Stott says “holiness is a harvest; whether we reap it or not depends almost entirely on what we sow.”

• So, the things you do, the people you are with, how you entertain yourself, the books you read, the things you watch, the thoughts you possess are all acts of sowing.

• So are they of the flesh or of the Spirit?

• Are they causing you to become more holy or less holy?

Now, what does this have to do with biblical community?

If Paul has been so concerned about biblical community is he now just jumping around or is there a connection?

Well there is a connection

• look at verse 9 & 10

Galatians 6:9–10 NIV

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

The thing that will keep us from doing good. The thing that will keep us from loving, caring, and restoring is our decision to continue to sow into our flesh.

Because when we sow into the flesh, the weeds begin to grow.

Just like weeds in a garden, they may seem harmless at first, but eventually they will take over everything that is good.

Don’t let the weeds grow

• It’s pride, it’s anger, it’s greed.

• The more we sow into our flesh the more we are concerned about self and the less we are concerned about the good of others.

• A lack of personal holiness not only damages you but it damages everyone around you, including the Church.

In other words: if you want the church to live up to the God ordained opportunities and responsibilities its called to, it starts with you.

• Your personal holiness or lack thereof will have an effect on those around you.

• So the more you become holy as Christ is Holy, the more the church becomes what it is called to be

• And notice here, this isn’t an easy task

• Paul says, “don’t become weary in doing good.”

• the temptation will be that when things get tough, things don’t work out, things don’t look the way you think they should, you become weary and you throw in the towel

• When we got back from 10 days away from the garden, the thought of trying to get it back into shape made me weary. And my weariness gave way to complacency, which led me to doing nothing, which caused the weeds to grow and the good to no longer be worth it

So Paul says, don’t grow weary!!! It may be tough at times and the temptation will be to throw in the towel, but don’t let your weariness grow into complacency, because then the weeds begin to grow and the good begins to fade.

Don’t let the weeds to grow!

Then keep sowing!

Keep sowing into the Spirit and then keep sowing!

• And it comes with a promise “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest”

• Now the problem is this: we’ve been taught to spend our 15 minutes in the Word every morning.

• 15 to 20 minutes every day, preferably in the morning because, you know, Jesus rose early in the morning

• And this time is spent to catapult you into your day.

• Essentially it’s: have your quiet time, have a good day. Skip your quiet time, then good luck to you!

• When we combine that with a culture consumed with instant gratification, Jesus becomes a spiritual ATM

• I spend my quiet time and God you give me what I want

• But then that quiet time doesn’t yield immediate emotional warmth and results and so what now?

• What do we do? Well, we stop!

• And before we know it, we’ve gone weeks and months and years and years without spending time with our heavenly Father

• And our relationship is like one with a distant relative that we may see around Christmas once a year.

• And so what has happened in our hearts is that our time with God and in His Word has become primarily transactional instead of it being formational and relational.

It’s a time to get what I want, when I want it, and how I want it

• But we have forgotten that time with God and time in His Word is not meant to be merely informational or inspirational

• And you can probably gather the dangers of this approach

• We are not faithful to God or His Word

• We are not seeking truth and obedience but information that causes instant results

• When we do read His Word we gravitate toward more simple and easy feel good Scriptures and avoid all difficult and deep ones

• We become shallow in our faith, theology, and apologetics

• We look to get things from God and miss the prize all together, which is God himself.

We must remember that God is not concerned with getting you what you want when you want it but rather most concerned with giving you what you need and more specifically who you need.

• Our sowing is not always meant to have us reap immediate results

sure, 15 mins a day may not feel like much today but 15 mins every day for 15 years produces a fruit that we can not comprehend here and now

Our sowing is meant to give us a relationship with Jesus and when we sow into the Spirit of God the way that God intended us to then we reap the benefit of a deep relationship with our heavenly Father that transitions into an eternity spent with Him!

The idea of being able to wait is distinctly Christian and a mark of Christian maturity.

Waiting on the Lord, spending time in His Word, just spending time sitting and listening, thinking on the goodness of God and all that He has done does not just merely inform or inspire us but puts us in a position to be relational with Him.

And so as we are faithful in our time with Him, running to Him not to get something out of Him but just to get Him, He is faithful to meet us and form us into who He called us to be.

And He also promises, perhaps even the larger application of this text, that we will reap a reward of faithfulness to God in the eschatological future.

So keep sowing and serving faithfully for it is fruitful whether it feels that way or not.

Then Paul wraps up his letter. And it is consumed by one primary theme: the cross

Paul wants to remind the Galatians one more time what is at stake

And because the controversy surrounding the Galatians was such a big one Paul does something different here than in any other letter he writes

Don’t get it wrong, the controversy around the Galatians is a controversy around salvation and the power of the cross of Jesus

These are not minor theological disagreements Paul is working through

And so Paul makes it a point to stress the importance of what he is about to say by saying “see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.”

You ever gotten a text from your spouse and it’s in all caps

Like something is really serious right?

• We don’t text in caps all the time or it would have no significance right?

• If you text in all caps all the time: stop it!

• We actually had a milestone happen this past week in the Foshee house

• So I have 3 girls right and one of the things we are always trying to learn around my house is when it’s ok to cry and when it’s not

• And we’ve tried to teach them “crying is ok. Crying is not bad, but if you cry all the time over everything that happens then we never really know if you are actually hurt or need something.”

• We’ve literally said these words before “Being uncomfortable is not the same as being in pain.”

• Well this week my oldest daughter Wren, she’s really trying hard to be a little tougher, she got bit by and ant twice and did not cry.

• I’m telling you guys, a milestone!!! Like the Spirit of God at work at the Foshee house. We are reaping a harvest and we are celebrating!!!

• But we told Wren, “now when you cry, we know it must really hurt and that we need to hurry to you and help you. Because you aren’t crying over everything.”

• Here, Paul does something different. He writes in big bold letters to stand out. He is saying “PAY ATTENTION!!!”

• And then he says,

Galatians 6:12–13 NIV

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.

• Paul says look at those who are trying to deceive you:

• They are manipulators who are trying to “compel you.”

• They are compromisers who wanted “to avoid being persecuted.”

• They are hypocrites who “don’t keep the law themselves.”

• and they are braggers who love to “boast.”

• And so the question we must ask ourselves is this

• Is true faith about divine accomplishment or human achievement because it can not be both?

• If it is about human achievement then praise you!

• But if it is about divine accomplishment then there is only one proper response: Praise Jesus!!!

And so for us, the application is clear: Either you glory in yourself (the flesh) or you glory in Christ.

• You have to choose one! You cannot have both.

• We live in a culture that is so enamored by so many things

• and we boast and praise popularity, and income, and possessions, and job performance, and intellect to name a few

• But what Paul says is that there is only one acceptable form of boasting and that is in the cross!

• The cross is our answer.

• When we understand the full scope of the cross we understand the full scope of ourselves.

• And we realize that we have nothing to boast in but the cross itself

• When we begin to fall back into our flesh run to the cross

• It shows us that we have been crucified with Christ and reign over the sin in our lives

• When we begin to feel worthless or hopeless, run to the cross

• For it shows us our identity is in Christ and Christ alone

• He has purchased us and made us His sons and daughters

• When we begin to feel prideful in ourselves, run to the cross

• For it shows us the full weight and price for our evil and wickedness

• That we were without hope and dead in our sins

• When the things of this world become overwhelming, run to the cross

• When Christ died, we died to the world

• And although the world may have it’s affects on us, it has no power over us for the deathblow has been dealt

• When we can’t decipher truth, when there seems to be no way out, when life beats you down, run to the cross.

• Jesus is the way the truth and the life

• When you begin seek out mans approval over Christ, run to the cross

• For we are reminded of the scars He bore for us

• The ridicule He faced for us

• The pain He endured for us

• When you feel like giving up and all is lost, run to the cross

• For we remember how He persevered so that we may be with Him.

• Now and for forever more

• If you have no where else to turn, nothing else to do, no where else to run, run to the cross!

• Because there you will find Jesus and He is all that you need.

› pray