The following message was given at Emmanuel Baptist Church, Coconut Creek, Florida. Galatians chapter 6, we'll be looking at verses 6 through 10 this evening. I spent most of my childhood into my early teenage years growing up in the great state of Colorado, and that is how you pronounce it, Colorado. My family lived on a house. We were out sort of in what is called the foothills. It's not quite the mountains, but it's not the sort of the flatter lands. And we lived on top of a very large hill. And if you look outside of our dining room window out to the southwest, the entire view was taken up by the beauty of Pikes Peak. Now if you're not familiar with Pikes Peak, it is a 14,115 foot mountain. It has the highest summit of the southern front range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. I saw that mountain every single day growing up. As a family, we had driven to the top of the mountain to show visitors. We'd hiked on Pikes Peak. We'd picnicked on the road leading up to the top. For people who didn't live where I did, it was a very big deal. It was marvelous. It's beautiful. It's breathtaking. And if you go to the top of the mountain, it is literally breathtaking. But for me, growing up and seeing that same mountain every single day, I didn't really pay it much attention. It was there, it was always there. And as a boy, it was a bit annoying to me when people wanted to sit out on our porch or just sit at the window and stare out the window and look at a mountain. I thought, what's the big deal? And while many probably marked it off as my youthful ignorance, and surely that was a big part of it, I'm sure in one sense that to many people it was like me standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon and you saying, it's just a big hole in the ground. But here's the reality for all of us. The thing that kills excitement and enthusiasm and awe more than anything is often time. People grow weary of wonderful things. I guarantee that most of you could walk into my old house and myself included, since it's been many years, and look out that window and be absolutely mesmerized by its beauty or its sheer magnitude. But after a while, if you were there for weeks or months, it's just there and you don't pay much attention to it. Have you ever gotten a brand new car? What happens right after you get it? You wash it every week. You tell all the passengers to keep their hands in their laps and don't touch anything. But in time, you're dropping French fries in the cracks and you're spilling coffee on the center console and you're saying, it adds character to my ride. But we can all name these sort of things in our lives, can't we? Islanders grow tired of the beach, even though everyone wants to be there. Kids often grow tired of their toys even though they never want you to get rid of them and they just had to have it. And Christians often grow weary of doing good. Now, what does that look like for you? Perhaps teaching a Sunday school class. At first, it was filled with excitement and enthusiasm, and you were spending a few evenings each week preparing and studying your lesson and getting everything ready with teaching aids and discussion questions. But by week 10, you were letting your spouse drive to church so you could look it over before you walked in the door. The thrill is gone. At first, maybe you felt a strong desire to continue leading a Bible study, or welcoming visitors, or cleaning the church campus, or serving in an outreach ministry, but now you've grown weary in doing good. All of the excitement, the drive, the passion, it's been zapped away. It becomes a chore. You've lost heart. I'm sure all of us to some degree have been there at one time or another. Perhaps you're there right now. And as we come to the close, To the Apostle Paul's letter we have this week and we have one more sermon in his letter to the Galatians. He deals with this tendency in our hearts to pull back from the very things we are called to pursue in our Christian lives with a strong exhortation this evening for us to continue pressing on. Now remember last week we said that in chapter six, Paul is expanding his thoughts from what we saw at the end of chapter five. He's continuing to explain, he's continuing to give us various examples of what it means to keep in step with the Spirit. Now, of course, this isn't exhaustive in any way, but he's trying to make this very practical for us. He says we must keep in step with the Spirit, and what does that mean? So he's giving us a few examples. And in these five verses we're looking at, we're gonna consider the tendency to selfishly serve our own flesh instead of lovingly and sacrificially sowing to the Spirit that which is pleasing to God and is good for our neighbor. So let's read together beginning in verse six. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 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. And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Well, the first thing we see from the Apostle Paul in verse six is that the church has the responsibility of supporting the work of the ministry. In many ways, this is very much consistent with what we were thinking about this morning in Luke 16. And as we unfold Paul's example of what it means to keep in step with the Spirit, as he exhorted us back in chapter five in verse 25, we remember that along the way, We saw last week in verse two the exhortation to bear one another's burdens. We talked about that in terms of restoring a person who has fallen into temptation and has fallen into sin and we come to them in a loving and a gentle manner and now he switches gears a bit and he begins to get into our pockets. Now, the wording may seem a bit strange here in verse six, but in essence, Paul is saying that those who are taught the word of God have the responsibility to bear the financial burden of those who are their teachers. In other words, the church should bear the financial burden of those who carry the primary responsibility of teaching in the church so that the teacher of the word can be free to engage in prayer and the study of the word for their primary task of preaching and teaching the word of God. Now, it's speculative, but I think that we have to assume that there was very likely a problem in the church in Galatia as a result of the false teaching that was coming from the Judaizers. This argument could have gone in several directions. Perhaps they were thinking that they had already gained a great deal knowledge, they had gone much further than others in their personal devotion to God because they're now believing the teaching of the Judaizers, they're submitting themselves to the law of Moses, they showed their faithfulness through the flesh. And so why do we need to give anything to the church? We are already showing how faithful we are. Perhaps others had the mentality that, Paul, you've taught us that we're free in Christ, and so we have the freedom to do whatever we want with whatever we have. In fact, perhaps they said, who needs teaching? We already know enough of the truth. Besides, money is scarce, times are hard, we need whatever we have. So we don't know exactly what the issue was and why Paul thought this particular issue necessary to address, but we do know that he emphasizes this very aspect in the middle of explaining what it means to bear one another's burdens and to keep in step with the Spirit. So we have to assume it was an issue for the Galatian church in some way. Now, no doubt the principles here laid down by Jesus are repeated elsewhere in the scriptures and even by the Apostle Paul himself. But think about, for example, when Jesus sent out the 70 disciples to preach the word of God. Do you remember what he told them? He instructed them to not take their own food because, he said, the laborer deserves his wages. In other words, the people they preached to had a responsibility to care for them. Paul addresses this in First Timothy, chapter five. He writes, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. He also writes in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 11, if we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we rape your material benefits? So there's a lot that can be drawn out here, but here's some simple application for us. A pastor's primary responsibility is prayer, preaching, and teaching. In Ephesians chapter four, the apostle Paul says that pastors are given to the church to do the work of the ministry. So yes, it's a pastor's calling, it's using his spiritual gifts, just like all of us are called to do in various capacities, we all have to use our spiritual gifts in the church, but it's also a pastor's primary work, it's his job. And so Paul's point is that a pastor should be free to do his job. Specifically, he's addressing a financial freedom so that he's able to be supported so as to not have to find another source of income that would distract him from his labors. The focus of a pastor's life should be on finding the meaning of a biblical text, discovering how that meaning fits in with the totality of scripture, seeing how that text relates to contemporary life and figuring out how to communicate that in a useful way to God's people through various means. This takes a lot of effort, and if it's done well, it takes a lot of focused, individualized, quiet, and undistracted time. Now, of course, the pastor has a responsibility to be around the people of God, but the majority of his time during the week should be spent either on his knees or in his chair. And one of the things that is really encouraging with regard to the ministry here at Emmanuel Baptist Church is that all of you value the preaching and teaching of the word of God to such a degree that you find it worth your sacrifice to pay your pastors well and to give us the time we need to do the very things we're called to do. Some weeks are busier than others. Some situations arise that pull us away from time to time, but all in all, if we are disciplined and we are focused and we make the time to do what we're called to do, it is a testimony to your willingness to bear the burden to allow that to happen, hopefully for your spiritual benefit in the end. So for all of us, myself included, We should be giving financially to support the work of the ministry. And if we're not, the biblical exhortation is very clear. We're in sin. And in this way, even though it's Paul's main focus in verse six, I'm not just talking about paying those who are called to preach and teach, I'm talking about the whole of the ministry, all that the local church sets out to do. All of us as Christians, we all have a responsibility. We have an obligation to set aside a portion of what God gives to us through our labors to financially support the full breadth of ministry that is undertaken by the local church. In doing so, we are, remember back to verse two, fulfilling the law of Christ by loving one another, by loving the church, and by loving our neighbors. So the second thing Paul shows us in verses seven through eight, his next example as we move along, he shows us that the seeds that we plant determine the harvest that we will reap. seems fairly straightforward, right? As we've looked at Paul's letter to the Galatians, I hope that we can all agree that the predominant theme has been that Christianity and the gospel are vastly different from that which the false teaching Judaizers were promoting among the churches in Galatia. And we can expand that and say from any other religious practice, How is that? Well, all religions in the world, no matter what they are, be it Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, COVID-ism, whatever your religion is, they all say, do the right thing or you won't go to heaven or paradise or nirvana or whatever it might be. In other words, do this or you will be judged. And we can literally sum up every religious idea in the world that is not Christianity and say it this way, follow our rules, do our works, walk in our way, and maybe in the end, you won't be judged. But Christianity comes along and says, no, the essence of the faith is not do, the essence of the faith is done. And so all other religions say, do or be judged, and Christianity says, Jesus was judged for you, it is done, now believe and rest in it, and in doing so, you will end up doing, but it is out of a loving, thankful, joyful obedience that isn't for the sake of earning anything. And so Christianity is utterly unique. because Christianity is infused with the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So in Christianity, the idea of works that is completely and totally bound up in the human heart is cast aside and the foundation of grace appears, which says, even if you want to work for it, You can't earn it. Because the standard isn't what you think you know, or you think you can do, or you think you have done. The standard is perfection, and you can't do that. So instead of trying to live up to perfection, since you already failed, submit to, love, enjoy, and follow the one who is perfect, who has already done it for you. That's the essence of Christianity. That's the essence of the gospel. But then all of a sudden, we run into verses seven and eight here. And it seems like Paul is saying something completely different from what I just explained, doesn't it? It sounds like he's simply saying, do the right thing, don't sin, don't go along with your sinful nature, or else God will get you. If you do the right thing, you'll go to heaven, but if you do the wrong thing, you won't. And I'll give it to you, if you just isolate these two verses and you don't think anything else of anywhere else that Paul has written, we could come to that conclusion very easily. But we can't assume that Paul is going to finish this amazing letter by completely unraveling his argument over the last five chapters. He's gone to a great length to separate his message from any other message. He even goes as far, remember to say, if someone is preaching to you a gospel or some other message that is not the gospel that you have heard and you believe, whether it's me, whether it's an angel from heaven, whoever it is, let them be accursed. The one true gospel is the only gospel and there are no other options. And so nobody sets out to write a letter, and especially under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and then in the end, in one sentence, completely disregards and discredits everything else he's already said. So we have to conclude that there's more to what's going on here. So first, let's think about the basic principle, a basic objective principle here. Paul says, whatever one sows, that will he also reap. In other words, if you plant zucchini, you are not going to get bell peppers. It doesn't matter how badly you want bell peppers. It doesn't matter how much you pray for it or wish for it or ask all of everyone in the world to ask the Lord to give you bell peppers. If you plant zucchini, you will get Zucchini. You can believe it. You can feel it. You can have an amazing experience. You can have dreams about bell peppers. You can have sweats when you think about bell peppers, because you're so excited that maybe the Lord will give you bell peppers. But alas, if you plant zucchini, you will get zucchini. It is an objective fact. You reap what you sow. And so if you sow nothing, what do you get in return? Nothing. If you sow poorly, you get a poor crop. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly, and so on and so forth. But here's the other part of what he writes here. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Now, it may seem like nothing's going on. It may seem like it's just going to stay under the surface, but eventually, it will grow. Now, in the physical aspect of things, we all tend to understand this. If I say, I strongly believe that gravity really doesn't exist, and I want to jump out of an airplane to prove it, what's going to happen? I'm going to realize very quickly that gravity does in fact exist. It's an objective reality. And in a matter of seconds, I'm going to be standing face to face with Jesus who says, what were you thinking? But for some reason, we often don't think that same way when it comes to spiritual truths and morality. We attempt to redefine objective realities. Perhaps you might say something like, well, that's immoral to you, but it's not immoral to me. You have your own beliefs, I have mine. And people say things like that and they believe things like that until you do something, we talked about this a few weeks ago, until you do something like steal their car or break into their house or take their wallet. So what do they say? Hey, you can't do that. Why? Because it's what? Wrong. Well, now we agree that it's wrong, but if we each get to define what's moral and what's true, then how do we draw such a conclusion that something is wrong? So here's my point. What Paul is doing here is really slapping this kind of worldview in the face and saying, no, there really is an objective moral order, just like there is an objective physical order to the way that things operate in this world. So you can claim all day long, I believe everybody has the ability and the right and needs to make up their own minds about what's right and what's wrong for them. But your response to me stealing your wallet and breaking your car window prove that in your heart you really do understand that there is an objective moral reality. So that's fundamental to Paul's argument here. Whatever you reap, you will sow without a doubt. Now back up a few words where Paul says, God is not mocked. Now again, out of context, we can get the wrong idea here. He's not saying, Christian, if you do the wrong thing, God will destroy you with pestilence and thunderbolts and devouring locusts. That is not Christianity, that is karma. That's Eastern mysticism that says, if something goes wrong in our lives, it has to be because we did something wrong to bring it on. If I get a disease, it must be because I said something wrong, or I wasn't living right, and so God struck me with some kind of terrible punishment. And I talk to Christians sometimes, and that kind of thinking comes out. We think, oh, I sinned in this way, so it's obvious to me that this trial or this ailment or whatever it is I'm facing, it is as a direct result of this particular sin. Now, of course, sin has consequences, but it's not always that this thing happens, my child got sick, or my parent died, or whatever it is, because I sinned over here. I did this thing, therefore this is the case. I did all the right things, so I will be blessed. I'm living right, so everything's going to work out in my favor. That's sort of the positive spin to all of this. But that's not what Paul has in mind in any of this. When he says God is not mocked, he's saying what Moses said in Numbers 32, your sins will find you out. So let me try to clear this up a bit, eliminate confusion here. Paul is telling us, listen, You cannot be flippant and nonchalant about your sin. You cannot treat God lightly. He will not be mocked. The judgment that comes in your life is as a result of your breaking the natural order of what God designed and created. So, for example, if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. And in time, you will be famished and you will starve. Everything is tied together. So if you're supposed to change the oil in your car every 5,000 miles, but every time you wait until 20,000 miles, the car is going to break down. Why? Because you didn't follow the natural order of how it is designed to work. So you see, we don't need some car monitor to walk around finding people and punishing them for not changing their oil at 5,000 miles. The consequences of that are going to take shape regardless. More laws and more rules aren't going to change the fact that we're trying to function outside the boundaries that have already been established. And in doing so, there are going to be consequences. So we don't need lightning bolts and famine and disease to snap us back into shape. We have the natural consequences of our actions already. Reaping what we sow. If you don't work, You don't eat, right? That's one of these principles of objective reality in the natural order. And we see these kinds of things all throughout the scriptures. They're not threats. This isn't God threatening. You're mocking me, therefore I'll get you back. He's just saying this is how the world works and how it's been created to function. So how does this tie back to our previous point and what he says in verse eight? God has made all of us with hearts that function in a very specific way. And I'm talking spiritually, not physically here. So when God tells us in his word that we have a responsibility, we have an obligation to give sacrificially to the work of the ministry. He's not in heaven saying, this person has a bad attitude and is treating others wrongly and he hates puppy dogs, so I'm going to put this huge financial burden on him and straighten him out and show him who's boss. No, it's quite the opposite. God is saying, I created the human heart and I know how it works in light of the fact that it is filled with sin. And so I want you to give away a portion of what I give you so that you're not solely focused on yourself, but so that you have an eye toward others and you have an eye toward the things that matter. Because if you spend it all on yourself, it is going to hurt you in the end. Being self-focused will take you down. It will ruin your heart. You won't be like Jesus. And so I'm conforming you more and more to be like Jesus. And so when you see the joy of generosity, you will become more like my son. You see, this isn't the Lord threatening to punish. This is the Lord saying, if you don't do this, there are natural consequences that will flow from it. And so one of the main takeaway points here is that God has designed things in a natural order for a reason. And that reason is ultimately for our good. And even though it may seem difficult or it may seem burdensome or it may seem like something that isn't pleasing to us, it may seem like we want to do the opposite of what he commands because it actually feels better and looks more fun and feels more satisfying, in the end, he has actually designed everything he calls us to do and to be for our good. Believe it or not, nothing that God has designed and commanded is with the purpose of making you miserable. It is for your good every single time. Your money, your relationships, and on and on we could go. If you think of a command, think of any command of God, I'm guessing you can think about why he commands it and why it turns out to be for your good in the long run. Now let's be honest about this. there really aren't many things that God commands us to not do that if we do them, at least in the immediate aftermath, they don't feel good. So for example, we are commanded to forgive and to not hold grudges. But you're not kidding anyone by saying that it doesn't feel really good to initially hold a grudge, right? If you think someone has wronged you, there's nothing in your natural existence that says it's not really enjoyable to sit back for a few minutes and just stew and be angry and think of all the mean and nasty and horrible things you want to say to that person. It feels good in our flesh. Perhaps we want to add to that and call someone and say, you're never gonna believe what they said to me. and just go on and on about it, right? There's something about that that feels good, and we try to mask that reality by saying, well, I'm just venting. I just need to get it off my chest. But sin is a seed, and in its early stages, it doesn't seem to do anything. It's under the surface. It doesn't seem to sprout, so it's no big deal. I was bitter and angry, and I talked bad about them, and man, it felt good, but it's all over. seemingly no consequences. But eventually, you will reap what you sow. It's the natural order of things. You don't think that just by being bitter right away your life is destroyed. But whatever you sow against the will of God is also against the fabric of your being. It's against who God has created you to be and who is making you to be all the more as a Christian. That's what Paul's getting at. To work against God's will is to work against yourself in every single instance. And so if you sow into the flesh, you're going to reap from the flesh, and that can only mean corruption and destruction and disintegration. Your sin will find you out. God will not be mocked. It may not be out in the open. It may never become public. It may not be something that anyone ever finds out about, but it will have a destructive end result when it's not repented of and dealt with before the Lord. However, If you sow in the Spirit, you can only reap from the Spirit. And that means joy and peace and the assurance of faith and hope, regardless of the circumstances. When you don't honor the design that God has given, everything breaks down, and eventually, whatever you're sowing, you will reap. Remember, back in chapter five, Paul wrote, don't walk in the deeds of the flesh, but cultivate and live by the fruit of the Spirit. And remember, to be under the law is to try to earn your salvation, which is to sow to the flesh, to earn something so that you can feel good about it, something you've done so that you can please the flesh. So this isn't just about changing your habits or doing new things. If you decide, okay, I'm gonna turn over all these new leaves because I don't want destruction in my life. you're still sowing to the flesh. What it really means to sow to the Spirit means to understand the gospel, to understand not do, but done, and to live from that, to get rid of the fear that drives you and to get rid of the selfishness that drives you because you say, look what Jesus Christ has done for me. So I hope no one will walk away from this tonight and say, I'm going to be good now. Because you can only be saying that out of fear. What do I mean? Well, it's fear that God is out to get you. Or fear that other people will get you. People will see, and you want to feel good, and you want to know you're going to heaven, so you're going to just be a really good person. But what does that do? When you're operating out of fear, it will fill you with pride. Next thing you know, you look around at all of your non-Christian friends, as you think maybe you're really doing great, you're living good, you're a good person, and you look around at all of your non-Christian friends who think you're a prude and a bore now in your life, and you say, they don't understand the truth. I'm a good person, I don't do those things anymore. That's actually pride. And you'll be sowing into your sinful nature, you'll be reaping destruction. Not at first, but it will germinate, and it will begin to grow, and that fleshly pride will grow and grow and grow, and then one of these days, some temptation will come along, and it will just knock you flat because the real pride and fear in your heart has never been dealt with. So what will deal with it? How do we deal with that? There's only one answer, and it's the answer Paul's given through this entire letter, and that is the gospel. It is believing and trusting and resting in the reality that you have no righteousness to provide of your own. And any righteousness that you seek to provide falls far short of the standard that God has demanded. It is realizing and remembering and reminding ourselves day by day by day that I need a righteousness outside myself. I need the Lord Jesus Christ. I need his perfection. I need his life. I need his death. I need his resurrection. And if I'm not trusting in him, if I'm not standing upon him, if I'm not living into him, and trusting that he's living and working in and through me, then all I'm going to sow is pride and arrogance, which ultimately wreaks destruction. I need Christ every second of every day. And the moment I forget that, I start to get into the flesh and I start to sow some very destructive things. I must continue to be reminded I cannot do what God requires. Yes, the Lord enables me as a Christian by His Spirit to remember His word and to walk in obedience, but my obedience, even as a Christian, still falls far short of what God requires. We are so sinful that we sin even when we don't realize we're sinning. Sometimes we think about things or the way we do certain things or the way we interact with others. We can be sinning and not even realize it. It's undiscerned. It's unrealized. And it's so destructive that if we are not continually looking to Christ, then we will never have hope to be released from this constant drumbeat of pride in our own hearts. This arrogance, this self-reliance, this self-dependency. And so friends, some of you here don't know Christ at all. So what I'm talking about really makes no great sense to you because Whether you think you are or not, your life is being lived on the basis of I must do all of these things so that everyone will see me and think that I'm a good person. Everything that you're doing is along those lines. You may not think that. You may not really process that that's why you do the things that you do, but you care a whole lot about what everyone else thinks, even when you claim that you don't. But the gospel comes along, Jesus comes along and says, stop worrying about right now whatever one else is thinking and look to me. I lived the perfect life that you can't live even though you know that is required of you because that law is written on your heart and you cannot fulfill it. Look to me, I fulfilled it. That death that I died on the cross is exactly what you deserve. And that's where you should have been. And if you do not repent of your sin and trust in Christ, that is where you shall forever be. But come to me, bring nothing in your hands, bring nothing to plead other than Jesus Christ and him crucified alone. It is in Christ alone that we can be freed from sowing the things that bring destruction in our lives. Our pride is dealt with by the gospel that says, you're so sinful, you will never earn heaven, so don't even try. But your fear is dealt with because the gospel comes and says to you, but God loves you so much that he willingly gave his son for you. Unless you see that you are so sinful and simultaneously so loved, you cannot possibly see that there's no way to earn your way to heaven. You are far more sinful than you think you are, but you are far more loved than you could ever imagine. and only when you know the depth of your sin and only when you know and understand the grace of the gospel will you be able to begin to live free, to live a good life and to live a life that looks at God's law as done so that you're no longer trying to fulfill it in order to earn something but you're seeking to live obediently to it as your way of life because you know God has given it to you for your good and for his glory. Only then will you start sowing in the spirit. And so what does that look like? Paul shows us finally in verses nine and 10 that Christians have an obligation to sow seeds of good work into the lives of others and particularly within the body of Christ. This gets us back to the very beginning of the sermon. What are you growing weary of and why? I hope we will all ask ourselves that question. What well-doing for the good of the church, for the good of others, either with our money or our time or our gifts or our prayers, what am I growing weary in because it's expensive or it's draining or it's just lost the luster that it once had, it's not exciting anymore? It's easy to get to that place in the flesh, isn't it? But remember the principle, when we sow to the flesh, we reap the flesh. And so the question we have to ask ourselves is, what am I sowing? You know, I think it will become increasingly difficult in our current culture to remain faithful to pursuing the things of the spirit and denying the flesh. We're moving from a culture that by and large doesn't think much about Christianity at all, into one that is becoming outright hostile to Christianity. That could change, but if it doesn't, it will be more and more difficult for us to remain faithful in doing good according to God's law. Christians are going to have to continually make difficult decisions that may put relationships and livelihoods on the line, and the temptation is going to be there for us to just give up. So instead of staying faithful to what we believe and to know is right and true according to God's word, we're tempted to bail on it. We're tempted to go in another direction. We're tempted to just leave it all behind altogether. But Paul is exhorting us here. Don't lose heart. Don't grow weary. Keep persevering. Keep giving, keep serving, keep loving, keep giving yourselves to others, keep dying to yourself and living upon Christ and loving his church and serving his church. Don't give up. Why? Because no matter where you turn, there are going to be problems. There will always be problem people, and your responsibility is to sow good works into them, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Those who are Christians, and even more specifically, those who are covenant members of your local church. And in time, Paul reminds us, there will be a harvest, and if it's not here, certainly there will be in heaven. Now perhaps we will see a great harvest here. In many ways we do get to see that, and we have been seeing that. But regardless, there will be a day when we see the full harvest in heaven. All of the sacrificial service will be well worth it. God will keep his word. The farmer must wait a long time for the harvest. Think about it, he plants his seed in the ground, and what does he have? other than hoping and praying to the Lord that he could hold onto with any assurance that at the end of the season, that crop will come out of the ground and benefit him. But the difference between us and the farmer is that we have the assurance of a promise from a never failing God. That word planted in the ground will grow. and it will continue to grow mysteriously and there will be a harvest. And so we are called to persevere. And as a church family, I think we tend to do that quite well. When someone is sick or suffering, we do a pretty good job of coming alongside them and loving them and serving them and doing good to them. But we have to think about that in every aspect of our life together. Is that the case for us across the board? Are you known by the people of this church? Not everyone, but do you have people in this church who know you? I'm not talking about knowing your name or knowing where you live, but actually know you. Know things about you. Your tendencies to sin and the ways that you struggle or the things that you love and are prone to love maybe too much. Knowing these things about you. that you're accountable to them. But not only that, that you're encouraged in the right ways. You're brought along in the faith with them, arm in arm as brothers and sisters in Christ, living to sow good works into one another. If we're not doing that, brothers and sisters, we're not functioning in love and unity as the church. We're just people sort of gathering together and hearing from the Bible. We need our lives so intricately interwoven to one another that when one member of the body suffers, all the members suffer. And when one rejoices, we all rejoice. And so while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Now notice Paul relates this verse to what he's written. He writes at the beginning of verse 10 those two words, so then. And this is the conclusion. He builds on the exhortation that we are to persevere in our sowing. In verse nine, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap. Therefore, let us sow while there is opportunity. Today is a time of work and Paul reminds us to seize that opportunity. Seize the opportunity to do good and to not grow weary. Boldly plunge into the labor that is before you as a Christian, as the people of God, as the church of God. For all men and especially in the body of Christ. And so how are you doing as an individual Christian? How are we doing as a local church? May it be that the Lord helps us to continue to press on, doing good to all men and especially to one another in the body of Christ, that in us and through us, God may be glorified. and that we may sow that which will bring a bountiful, beautiful, joy-filled, Christ-exalting harvest that one day will be reaped in God's timing. Let's not grow weary, brothers and sisters. Let's press on and persevere. It's worth the fight. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we are so very grateful for your goodness and your kindness to us. We're grateful to know, O Lord, that the essence of our faith is not that we have to do, but rather that Christ has already done. But Lord, as we trust in Christ, as we rest in him, as we stand upon his righteousness alone, We pray, oh God, that you help us to recognize that all that you have commanded is for our good. And it is utter foolishness for us to push against it and to fight against it. Lord, help us to recognize that the more that we sow in the spirit, we will reap the benefits of for our good and for your glory. Help us, oh God, to walk in a way that is pleasing to you, that honors you, knowing that as we do so, that our lives will be much fuller and much richer, that our communion with you will be all the sweeter. We pray, oh Lord, that you would do this for your church. Lord, unite us together in such a way that we would never even think to grow weary in doing good to one another. We pray, oh God, that we can be a faithful church that will reap a bountiful harvest, that as we all gather together on that last day, as we gather together in the marriage supper of the Lamb, that as we sit side by side, we can rejoice, not only because we're in heaven and have received the greatest gift of Christ, but also knowing that we have lived our lives on this earth in such a way that we sought to be obedient to your word, that we were conformed to the image of Christ, and that we loved each other with a never failing love that only comes into the hearts of your people because Christ has loved us first. And so we pray all of these things, trusting your word, trusting that you will help us as your people to persevere And we pray, oh God, that you would help us to do just that, to press on, to never give up, and to do it all unto Christ and not to our own sense of self-righteousness and pride in our flesh. Would you do that for us, oh Lord, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you were edified by this message. For additional sermons, as well as information on giving to the ministry of Emmanuel Baptist Church and on our current building project, you can visit us online at ebcfl.org. That's ebcfl.org.