Don’t Grow Weary in Doing Good
Nothing can bring more joy and satisfaction in life than ministering to others. But ministering to others can also be full of disappointment, discouragement, frustration, and exhaustion. Maybe you are reading this right now and are struggling to find the joy in serving you once had. Is it possible to keep our ministry tank full instead of running on fumes? Near the end of the letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul writes these words:
"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Notice that Paul includes himself in this exhortation. He doesn’t point the finger at the Galatians as though they were the only one’s who would struggle with ministry endurance. We all struggle with the temptation to give up. We all wonder if ministry is worth it. We all wonder if we are making any difference. We all grow weary.
Pau’s ministry to the Galatians broke his heart. If you are weary right now, Paul can relate. Listen to how he describes his ministry experience with the Galatians:
1:6: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel
3:1: O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?
4:11: I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
4:19-20: my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Paul compared ministry to childbirth. A woman will go through the anguish of labor pains and will not give up until her baby is born. Paul wanted to see Jesus in these Galatians. He labored among them and refused to give up. He felt like his labor was in vain. He was perplexed by their spiritual immaturity. But, he would not quit.
Why not? Why not just quit? Why keep doing things that cause so much frustration and exhaustion? Go back to that verse we looked at above: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, IF WE DO NOT GIVE UP.”
Quitters will not reap the rewards of seeing Jesus formed in others.
If you are like me, we want to see those rewards immediately. No, the Scripture says the reaping comes “in due season”. You can’t make people love or look like Jesus. Only the Spirit of God does that. You and I must labor over souls like a woman in childbirth trusting that God will create something beautiful and rewarding in his timing. How can we stay at it when we feel like giving up?
I want to share with you 3 principles from Paul’s letter to the Galatians to help us not to grow weary in doing good.
1. Be a God-Pleaser, not a Man-Pleaser
Galatians 1:10: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
You will grow weary in doing good if your ministry fuel is seeking the approval of people.
Sometimes people will love you and applaud you. They will be so grateful for your ministry to them. Sometimes people will hate you and hurt you. They will gossip about you and reject you.
If your ministry motivation is fueled by the applause and approval of man, then you will crash and burn when they turn on you.
Paul refused to water down or change the gospel message to win over the approval of people. If he was a people-pleaser, he would be tempted to make everyone happy by letting them embrace the lies they were believing, rather than calling them to repent.
Let your ministry be driven by a desire to be a God-pleaser above all.
If people pleasing is what fuels my serving, then I will only serve others when it will benefit me. I will only serve if people will like me. I will only serve is others applaud me. My goal is focused on myself and others, when the call to minister is ultimately a call to serve Christ.
In Paul’s mind, being a slave (or servant of Christ) is incompatible with being a people pleaser
So, what if I face opposition in my serving of others? What if somebody says something to me that hurts my feelings? What if I don’t see the results that I think I should see? What if nobody notices the good things I’ve been doing? Do I stop? Do I attack? Do I leave the church?
The answer is yes, if my drive to do good to others is driven by a motive to look good in the eyes of people.
The answer is no, if I see that my drive to do good is not based on human approval, but instead by a desire to glorify God.
You cannot faithfully serve Christ if you get this mixed up.
Sustainable ministry only happens when we remember that our fuel is first and foremost to please God.
A ministry that pleases God may not always please people, but it’s the only kind of ministry that will form Jesus in others.
2. Serve from Gratitude, not Guilt
Galatians 5:13-14: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The issue Paul was confronting in the church were people who were convincing the Galatians that it wasn’t enough just to believe on Christ to be saved. In order to be saved, you must believe in Christ plus be circumcised and follow the ceremonial laws.
That’s not the gospel. The gospel message tells us that our standing with God is based 100% on what Jesus has accomplished for us in his life, death, and resurrection. Our standing before God of being declared righteous is based on faith in Christ alone.
That means there is nothing I can do that makes God accept me or forgive me. Only the transferred righteousness of Christ makes us right in God’s sight.
In Christ, we are set free from the bondage of thinking that we can earn favor with God.
But here is the trap that many of us fall into. We are ok with that, but then we try to live the rest of our Christian lives thinking that if we don’t perform to some level that God won’t like us anymore or that we just are not spiritual enough or that we have to somehow earn our salvation. If I just serve on enough committees or do enough ministry God will love me more than if I don’t.
God loves you and accepts you fully based on Christ’s performance and not yours, so I want you to take a deep breath and a sigh of relief.
So many of us feel like we are on a treadmill and running so hard but finding that we are only falling further and further behind. It’s exhausting.
Jesus has set you free from trying to please God with external law, you are now truly free to serve others because Jesus has already achieved your righteousness. Therefore you can serve out of gratitude and not out of guilt!
Don’t serve people in order to earn enough righteousness for God to like you.
Serve people because Jesus has already earned righteousness for you and now you do it because you want to, not because you have to.
The gospel enables us to be driven by love, not guilt.
3. Walk by the Spirit, not the Flesh
Galatians 5:16-17: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
What makes us weary of doing good? It’s not the Holy Spirit. It is our flesh. It is that part of us that is still fallen.
Our text tells us that the flesh and the spirit are opposed to each other. Why do I get tired of doing good, it’s because I’m not being led by the Spirit, or filled by the Spirit.
What does the flesh desire:
Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Pretty obvious, if the flesh is not being restrained in our lives, then we will grow weary, and downright evil.
What does the Spirit produce in us:
Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The Spirit restrains and kills the flesh in us. If I am living by the Spirit, good will come out.
Galatians 6:8 :For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
If I am allowing sin to get a foot hold in my life, my heart will not be drawn toward serving. If I’m a Christian, I will be miserable. Ministry has become nothing but a duty. How many times have people walked away from the Lord or quit ministry because sin overtook them?
Sowing to the Spirit, will produce a far different result in us. To sow to the spirit is to be empowered by the Spirit, controlled by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit, to have your mind on the things of the Spirit, to be in the Word, to be in prayer.
What does this look like practically?
Flesh and Spirit are battling it out in your life. The one who wins is the one you feed. If you are not filling your mind with the Word of God, you will grow weary of doing good. If you are not in prayer, you will grow weary in doing good. If you avoid the church, you will grow weary in doing good.
Are you weary because you have been setting your mind on the things of this world more than the things of the Spirit?
The only way to not grow weary is to be empowered by the Spirit. He alone fuels our drive to serve and he alone kills sin in our lives. Walk by the Spirit, not the flesh.
If you want to look at someone that never gave up, then look at Christ.
Hebrews 12:1-3: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Don’t give up! Are you weary and tired? Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. He will sustain you! Be a God-pleasing, gratitude driven, Spirit walking servant of Jesus and know that in due season you will reap, if you do not give up!
Blessings,
Pastor Gene