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What wonderful words. I can go
in, not, look folks, not because of who I am. It's Pastor Monty
and I'm just such a good person. That's going to get you nowhere
but a devil's hell. Do you know what's going to get
you to heaven? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Belief on Him. It is all by grace and not by
your works. Boy, that message is a hard message
for some people to hear because they're very prideful about their
goodness and their religiosity. If you really read your Bible
carefully, and by the way, if you were at least the least amount
self-observant, you would understand that you are nothing. and he
is everything. Salvation is by the grace of
God through faith in Christ. Take your Bible with me this
morning and turn to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter
6. Faithful listeners might be a little nervous right now because
you think I missed a whole section of Galatians. I did not. I will
be returning to the end of chapter five and into the first part
of chapter six, but I wanted to give a message about New Year's. New Year's is one of my favorite
times. I have certain times of year
that are my favorites. I love Thanksgiving for all of
the obvious reasons. 200 and none of your business
pounds worth of obvious reasons. I love Thanksgiving, but I love
New Year's because it is a time for us to reflect and to think
and listen carefully to improve ourselves. Now, Immediately when
I say that, this message makes some people nervous because they
are satisfied with who they are and what they are. I am not satisfied
with myself in the least little way. This week, in preparation
for this message, I came across an interesting article. The article
said this, that the most emotionally damaging and devastating thing
that you can do at New Year's time is to make a resolution
or a decision to improve. The author, who is beyond crazy
in my mind, and who is seeking to gain the pleasure of those
who like to wallow in their own stupidity and mediocrity, The
author was simply pandering to an audience to simply say this,
well, if you make a decision, or if you exercise introspection,
that means looking into yourself a little bit, if you do that
during New Year's, the author was arguing that ultimately you'll
see some bad things. How many know that when you look
inside, you see bad things? Both of my hands are in the air.
And you know what? The truth is you will. But then
the author went on to argue this, that you should not, on any level,
seek self-improvement. Because the argument of the article
was this, that if you try to make a decision to be better,
you will only fail. And when you fail, you will become
discouraged. And when you become discouraged,
it will damage your psyche, and if your guy especially, wound
your ego. And so the author's contention,
this is crazy talk, ladies and gentlemen, but very, by the way,
very appealing. to people who want to sit around
on their couch doing nothing but eating Cheeto chips and drinking
Diet Pop and playing video games. This is very, very appealing
to that crowd, okay? It is very appealing to that
crowd that says, it's okay, Pastor Monty, I'm fat and I'm going
to just embrace it. You'll embrace it all the way
to a heart attack. You'll embrace it all the way
to the hospital. I was reading another article.
I get fired up when I read. I was reading another article
that talked about the new queen of fat that they put in charge
of fat people in San Francisco. Unbelievable. What is her mission?
To go into the schools and tell everybody that obesity is okay.
What a horrible message. But Pastor Monty, we just want
people to feel good. I don't. Do you know what I need? I need in my life over and over
and over again a good dose of feeling bad. Because frankly,
if I were to follow the first article that I mentioned, if
I were to follow that, I would never try. I would put forth
no effort. I would never examine myself
and say, hey, I can do some things that are better. Rather than
try to do better, try to be better, try to improve, I would simply
sit back and just wallow and embrace my personal failure and
mediocrity. And I would spend the rest of
my life defending that and saying there was no need to try. By
the way, what a failure attitude. What a failure attitude to say,
well, you know, Pastor Ma, if you make a decision, you're just
gonna fail. Now let me ask you an honest
question, and I'll answer along with you. How many of you have
ever made a New Year's resolution or a decision, if you will, and
then by about January 2nd, 3rd, 4th, I know, you know, you were
inconsistent with the decision you made. How many? Okay, I have,
I've done that. Well, I see Pastor Monty, that
just proves her point. She was right, you shouldn't
even try because you're just gonna fail. No, no, the answer
is not against trying, and the answer is not in failing. The
answer, ladies and gentlemen, is consistency over time. I invite your attention with
me, please, to Galatians chapter six, verse number nine. We read
this a moment ago in our scripture reading. The Bible says, and
let us not be weary in well-doing. I'm going to break this verse
down. I'm unpacking it for you this morning. Let us not be weary
in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Now I want to serve notice on
you. Listen carefully to my entire soliloquy for the next few moments.
I am comfortable in my skin. I am comfortable in my skin. You go, but Pastor Mighty, what
does that mean? I know God made me unique. Really different. Like, kind of odd. And I'm comfortable
with that. Let me tell you, I'm comfortable
with my personality. I'm comfortable with my calling. I'm comfortable in my own skin
expressing myself the way that I am. I will not Alter how I
am, who I am, as far as who I am am. I'm not gonna change that.
Pastor Monty, you know, we wish you would do this. We wish you'd
do that. We wish you would tone this down, and we wish you would,
you know, you know what? Trying to please you is exhausting. It's exhausting. I'm not doing
it, okay? I'm not doing it. I'm not a people
pleaser anyway. I'm not doing that, okay? I'm comfortable in
my own skin. And I know that makes some people
very uncomfortable. People who are timid, they're shy, they're
afraid. I don't care what people might think. I'm comfortable
in my own skin. But you know what? I am not comfortable
with my own skin. I'm comfortable in my own skin,
but I'm not comfortable with my own skin. When I look at my
life and I look at myself and I take a moment for introspection,
I realize how far I have to go. Pastor, what is the ultimate
goal? The ultimate goal is to be conformed as a Christian,
is to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. I've not arrived. I'm not comfortable with my failures.
I am not comfortable. A few weeks ago we studied the
works of the flesh, which are obvious, they're manifest, given
to us in Galatians 5. I'm not comfortable with that
in my life, and yet I have flesh just like you have flesh. I'm
not comfortable with my failure. I'm not comfortable with my inconsistency. And I'm not comfortable with
my personal lack of self-discipline. I'm not comfortable. You say,
Pastor Monty, are you like self-discipline? In some areas, yes. Yes, in many
areas, to be quite frank with you. And when I look at myself,
though I'm comfortable with who I am, I'm comfortable in my own
skin, I am not comfortable with my own skin, that is, with my
flesh. And when I'm uncomfortable about it, it can lead to one
of two things. It can either lead to promoting me toward biblical
change in the power of the Spirit of God, or, It can cause me to
just give up and embrace myself and never change. I will tell
you that the Bible is a book of change from Genesis to Revelation. The Bible comes with a message. Number one, you are not who you
ought to be. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. You are a dirty, rotten, low-down,
good-for-nothing, stinking sinner. Bible says so, and that's true
of me especially. The Bible says so. You are not
who you ought to be, but you can become something different.
That is the entire message of salvation. My redemption, my
being bought back from the slave market of sin, the message of
redemption is that God has saved me spiritually, not so that I
can simply embrace my carnality or embrace my failure, but that
over time, in the process of sanctification, I can be changed. There's not a person in this
room who cannot be changed ultimately through the grace of God into
the image of Christ. You see, the Holy Spirit does
not lead you to discouragement and mediocrity. The Bible does
not lead you to some inflated sense of self-acceptance. The Bible lays bare who I am. And then the Bible says this
is who you can become, as in the power of the Spirit of God,
you follow Christ. How in the world can I rise above
mediocrity? It begins really when we refuse
to allow ourselves, in the words of scripture, to allow, we refuse
to allow ourselves to become weary in well-doing. Again, look
at verse number nine. And let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. The elements
of that verse present to us a pathway for success in personal self-transformation. Let me unpack this for you this
morning. First of all, I want to point out that we need to
assess the danger. We need to assess the danger.
The danger is found in verse number nine where it warns us
about the potential of weariness. Weariness. I need to, every once
in a while, step back from my life and assess the danger and
recognize that there is a danger that in the busyness of my life,
I could become weary of it. Now, the word weary there is
not physical weariness, okay? When you do something super athletic
and you throw yourself at it with every bone and sinew and
your heart beating very, very fast and sweat pouring off your
brow, At the end of that, you're exhausted physically. That's
not the word there. The word weariness there, in
our Greek New Testament, actually talks about becoming disheartened
or complacent. It's basically when I adopt a
mentality that says, well, I'm just tired of this. And Paul
warns that there is a danger in becoming weary or becoming
tired because it is a mental thing, not a physical thing.
In other words, why I fail in making decisions and sticking
to them is not physical, it is mental. Every failure that I
have in keeping my own aspirations for myself, it doesn't stem from
a physical inability to do so. I am physically capable. Pastor Monte, people that have
physical handicaps, they're the exception to the rule. I would
say not. I would say not. Gary, I'm talking to you back
there. You know this, Gary Toombs. You
are one of the greatest inspirations to me of any human being. Gary is wheelchair bound. He is far more faithful at Planet
Fatness than I am. He is there on a very, very regular
basis. He is every excuse in the world.
Yeah, I know. I know. And he doesn't take the
excuses. He doesn't live for the excuses.
When I see Gary, I am personally challenged with the fact that
I have no right to ever make an excuse or to become weary,
but it's all in your brain. It's a mental thing. That's why
the word is used, weariness, to describe a mental, not a physical
state of mind. What are some symptoms of weariness?
Because we can all become weary mentally. What are some symptoms? Well, symptom number one is giving
up the battle of self-improvement. And he argued, Pastor Monty,
I've tried that before, and it just doesn't work for me. It
doesn't work for you because you won't work it. You need to
look yourself in the eye. You need to face the fact that
you're lazy. I'm talking to me. I am talking
to me. But you need to face the fact
that you're lazy. You need to face the fact that you give into
your flesh constantly. You need to face the fact that
you are not determined and personally self-disciplined. And frankly,
you may need to face the fact that your life is not really
controlled by the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God will
never cement an individual into mediocrity. Pastor Marty, this
is some hard teaching. Yeah, it is. It is. I'm not here
to make you feel good. I'm here to tell you the truth.
I am here to tell me the truth. See, I need this. I need a dose
of this every day of my life. My grandparents and my mom called
it a dose of reality. Anyone ever have a mom and dad
who gave you a dose of reality? Amen if you did. I need a hardcore
dose of reality, and I need to assess this danger. I could,
another symptom of weariness is this, a discouragement that
graduates to cynicism. I'll be honest with you, some
of you are there. Some of you are there. Now, a very wise man,
Dr. Arlen Horton, who founded Pensacola
Christian College, Dr. Arlen Horton made this statement.
It's a great statement. He said, as a Christian, you're
allowed to be disappointed. You cannot indulge the luxury
of discouragement. Pastor, you ever disappointed?
Yeah, I get disappointed a lot. Disappointed in people, disappointed
in myself. I get disappointed a lot. But I'm not allowed to
become discouraged. Because to become discouraged
will mean that I am disheartened. Precisely the word that the Bible
warns us against, being weary and well-doing. I become disheartened. And when I become discouraged
and disheartened, that very easily graduates to a cynicism, listen
carefully, a cynicism about myself and a cynicism about other people.
And one of the worst ways you can live is cynical. As a pastor,
I'm exposed, I suppose, to far more negativity than the average
person. I have my own life issues and
family and all that in the background, just like you do. But then I
have, on top of that, hundreds of people that I deal with their
negativity. I know some things that I will
never say, never gonna say it, never gonna say it, until I write
my book. The title of my book is For All
Have Sinned. No names changed to protect anyone.
Just kidding, folks, I would never do that. Your secret is
safe with me because I don't have a good memory. But you're exposed to an awful
lot of negativity and disappointment and you could turn cynical. Cynicism is the poison of the
soul. Cynicism is the poison of the
soul. I need to be careful of this
weariness because discouragement can quickly graduate to cynicism.
Cynicism is the rationality behind our discouragement and it's dangerous.
Another symptom is this, frustration with a lack of progress. And
so I yield to my inconsistencies. Pastor Monty, I just get so,
I'm just, I'm done. Done. Not gonna try anymore. That's the problem. Pastor Monty,
every time I try, I just fail. That's a reality. The problem
is not in the failing. The problem is in the giving
up. when you learned how to ride
a bike for the first time. And by the way, shame on your
parents if they gave you training wheels. Shame. That is not the old-fashioned
way. Blood, broken digits, skinned knees. That is old-fashioned
Bible way to ride a bike. My dad put me on a little huffy. Do you all remember those huffies
with the banana seats? I had the little flag on the
back of it. We lived up on a hill. There
was a nice concrete sidewalk that led from our top of the
hill, we were the corner house, all the way down. Good steep
hill. I remember getting this beautiful
little bike with the banana seats, it was orange. I remember getting
this, I was so excited, finally I'm gonna ride a bike! I don't
know what, five, six, seven, I don't remember the age. And
my dad gave me a few hints. He said, get on the bike. And
I got on the bike. I'm holding its handlebars. Remember
those tassels they had? That's kind of girly, but they
had these tassels. Holding these handlebars, and
I'm smiling, and I'm ready to go. And dad's telling me what
to do. He said, now here's what you
need to do. He said, I'm going to push you gently. Liar. So I'm going to push you gently.
And he said, all you have to do is stay upright. Oh, that's it? Yeah, and then
he said, once you feel comfortable, pedal, but just stay upright.
Ah, this is easy. Anybody can do this. Seated on
my bike, big smile on my face. Dad said, okay, one, two, three,
boom! And he pushed me. How far did you go? Not 15 feet. Tipped over, bruised, scratched
up, because I was wearing shorts. Spasmodic, this is not good.
No, it was very, very good. I had to try over and over. How
many times did you fall? Countless times. I had to try
over and over and over and over again, and finally, maybe it
took me longer than it took you. Finally, it dawned on me, this
is how to balance, this is how to ride a bike. But gaining that
skill, listen congregation, gaining that skill required failure after
failure after failure after failure. you will never move ahead in
life if you don't try because of a fear of failure. I need
to assess the danger. Chronic weariness can actually
be manifest in withdrawal from many aspects of life. It is a
heart that rejects all challenges and refuses to move forward.
In its worst cases, it is an individual who defends the status
quo. If I need to assess the danger,
I secondly need to act against it. I need to maintain my enthusiasm. Look at verse number nine again.
Let us not be weary, that's the danger. But there's a three-letter
word, let us not be weary. Not. Now, the opposite of weariness,
and remember, weariness is a mental state. The opposite of weariness,
the polar opposite, is enthusiasm. So if I am to obey what Paul
says in verse number nine, not only am I to be on alert and
assess the danger of mental weariness, but I am to resist it in the
word not. And the best resistance to weariness
is to consistently practice its polar opposite, which is enthusiasm. That means in contradiction to
the dumb article. Dumb. Dumb. I can't believe how
dumb that article was. Just plain old garden variety,
box of rocks, stupid. In contradiction to the dumb
article I read, I am to maintain an enthusiastic positivity about
all of the possibilities of life. And by the way, this message,
in many ways, is a life and death message. The incidents of teenagers and
young adults committing suicide is on the rise. Just a reality
in the world in which we live. Pastor Mati, why is that? It
begins in the brain, and it's a matter of mental weariness. And let me be very clear about
this. When a person goes into that state of mind, they are
an individual who needs our compassion and our help. But they need to
change that way of thinking, which is weariness, discouragement,
discontentment. And they need to change that
to an enthusiasm for living. They need to quit thinking negatively. And by the way, you don't want
to, you say, Pastor Mindy, do you have New Year's resolutions?
Yeah. You know what one of my resolutions is? to stop my negative
thinking. Pastor Money, I won't succeed
100%, but you know what? I'm gonna be positive Pollyanna
until it makes you sick this year. That's gonna mean keep
your negativity away from me. I'm not interested in hearing
it. Go talk to Satan about it. I'm not interested in hearing
about it. I want to cleanse my thinking from my native, natural,
I've written down a list of things I'm going to work on this year.
I want to cleanse my natural thinking from negativity to positivity. By the way, a lot of you could
use a good dose of what I'm saying right now. And you say, why?
Because if you get into a negative frame of mind, you're one step
away from weariness. And if you go into weariness,
as some young people have, this is not just for old people. If
you go into weariness, as some young people have, it is very
tempting to become cynical, as I spoke of a moment ago, and
then discouraged with all life, and then to say, why does this
even matter? and all of a sudden your tunnel
vision in negativity does not have a light at the end of the
tunnel, it is absolute darkness, and there are some people in
this state of mind that will take their own lives. Ladies
and gentlemen, hear me. The Bible teaches that if I maintain
a positive enthusiasm about possibilities, that God will carry me through.
that I will know his help and his grace and his strength. But
it means a focusing of my thinking on things that are positive and
things that are possible. Pastor Monty, I've heard all
this stuff before and it just doesn't work out for me. Do you
know why? Do you know why? Because you, sir, And you, ma'am,
who are all cynical about everything I'm saying and are resisting
everything I'm saying, you have determined that your personal
failure is the end of the road. I'm going to let you know something.
With the decisions that I am making for 2025, I will not be
100% consistent. It is a guarantee. Then why do
it? Because I think I'll get just
a little bit better. Why do it? Because I think I see a need.
I am not this morning, and you know me as your preacher, I am
not preaching perfectionism because I would be a hypocrite to stand
here and preach perfectionism. What I am instructing you on
is this, that while there will be bumps in the road in 2025,
and while there will be things you'll be a little bit discouraged
about, not discouraged, we shouldn't say that because we're not supposed
to be, how about disappointed about, disappointed in myself,
If I try in the power of the Spirit of God, I will come through
this year a better person than I go into this year. I need at
times and will during this coming year to feel the sting of disappointment,
but I cannot allow myself to devolve into discouragement. I'm going to maintain an enthusiastic
spirit. Don't pour water on that. Ah,
Pastor Monty, you know, my kids are so enthusiastic about life,
but they just don't understand reality. Don't you dare pour
cold water on that. Don't put out the fire. Don't
even attempt to. You know, well, you know, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, just because
you're negative and embracing it. Just because you love being
a critic and you're happy being a cynic, Don't bring your toxicity
to me. I'm going to maintain my enthusiasm. I'm going to assess that danger.
I'm going to maintain my enthusiasm. Number three, find my focus. I'm going to find my focus. Where's
that found? Look at verse number nine. Let us not be weary, note
the next three words, in well-doing. Now I studied out this word.
The word well-doing, it's a really general term. It's very much
general. In fact, in the first part of
chapter six, several examples of well-doing or doing good are
given. For example, I'm to restore people
that are fallen. I'm not to judge them and condemn
them and be negative toward them and be cynical and be critical.
I'm to restore the fallen. I'm also to help people, do good
to people, provide for the needy. So there's examples given. But
the general term of well-doing goes beyond that. In fact, if
you look at verse number 10 of chapter six, Paul says this,
it's a big general statement. He says, as we have therefore
opportunity, whenever the chance arises, let us do good, now notice
this, unto all men. Wow. Every time I have a chance
to do something good for anybody, whether they're saved or lost,
whether they're baptized or Pentecostal, it makes no difference. He says,
if you have an opportunity, let us do good unto all men. And
then he says this, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith. My focus is on my faith community,
my faith family, but I'm to do good to everyone. Well, Pastor
Monty, all these are very general terms. Where are the specifics?
The specifics are the situations that the Holy Spirit leads you
into every day. Finding my focus means this.
I'm going to figure out what the Spirit of God is speaking
to me about in 2025. That's how I'm gonna find my
focus. Mine might be different from yours. You know, one of
my resolutions is this. You'll never believe this in
a million years. I, Dr. Atkins, this is so true what
I'm about to say, I need to become a better time manager. I am horrible
at time management, horrible at it. You say, Pastor Marty,
don't you have a rigid schedule? No, rigidity of schedule means
nothing to me. I have to become a better time
manager. I just kind of roll with it.
I kind of wake up in the morning like a puppy. You know how a
puppy wakes up in the morning, a little puppy? Puppy wakes up
in the morning, Wondering what exciting things
are gonna happen. That's me. Puppy doesn't have a plan. Except
to go out and use the bathroom if he's been housebroken. Puppy
doesn't have a plan. But I need to become better at that because
I realize that I could accomplish more and that that area of my
life is a weakness. That's me finding my focus. That
may not be yours. How do I figure this out? How
do I figure out what I should decide about for 2025? Let me
ask you a few questions. I'll call these diagnostic questions.
Let me ask you this. What do you wish you had done
in 2024? It's a good diagnostic. What do you wish? Pasquale, I'm
totally satisfied with everything. You're a weirdo. You're not walking
on my side of reality. What do you wish you'd done?
Man, I wish I'd done this. I wish I'd done that. I wish
I'd been more faithful to X, Y, and Z. That's a diagnostic
question. It will help you to find your
focus. Here's another good diagnostic question. What do you regret?
I regret nothing about 2024. Then you, sir, are an idiot. Blooming idiot. I regret a lot
about 2024. I regret not one donut, but that
box of donuts. It was sure fun at the time,
don't get me wrong. I regret that. What do you regret?
Here's another diagnostic question. What was the happiest and most
productive time of your life? What was the happiest and most
productive? See, we're trying to figure out what well-doing
means to us as an individual. What was the happiest and most
productive time of your life? Oh, Pastor Ronnie, my heyday
was back in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, what then is
different from that time until now? I might ask it this way
in a diagnostic sense, what is missing now that was present
in that time? You see, if I'm thinking about
these things, I can kind of come to a conclusion that there are
areas of well-doing that the Holy Spirit will individualize
for me if I'll examine this. Let me ask you this. Here's another
diagnostic question. What grips your heart? What grips
your heart? Pastor, that sounds emotional.
Yeah, it is. Because do you know that our emotions drive our behaviors? And when something absolutely
grips my heart that drives me to do better, I'm suggesting
that we need to find our focus. What is our individual version
of the very general term well-doing? And then, fourthly, quickly,
we need to trust the process. We need to trust the process.
Look, if you will. at that verse again. Let us not
be weary in well-doing for in due season. Those are the words,
trust the process. Now, he's going to allude to
the agricultural world in that verse when he says in due season
we shall faint not. But in a sense, this is a little
bit of a contrast because the farmer has a general idea of
when harvest is coming. But the words in due season literally
mean it'll come at the right time. You may not have an idea
of when it's going to come. Some of us set goals in our mind,
and we attach a time frame to them, and the time frame increases
the possibility of our failure. Now listen, I'm not saying don't
have a plan, and I'm not saying don't have goals that lead to
that plan, because you should. But for some of us, we artificially
attach a time frame to a goal of self-improvement, and when
it doesn't happen, we quit. And the problem is we quit sometimes
immediately before it is about to start happening. It means
that time is not my enemy, time is my friend. And time plus effort
will equal success. And when I quit trying, there
is no success to be known or to be had. Time is on my side,
consistency becomes my lifeline. If I keep at something long enough,
the keeping at it, the journey is its own reward. See, the process,
you say, Pastor Mario, I'm going to, in 2025, become the muscle-bound
hunk that lives right beneath the surface of my skin. Wouldn't
that be wonderful? But you'll only do it if you
put the time into it. And how many know this? That
while someone can transform himself physically in a rather brief
period of time. By the way, I hate those people.
I hate those people, those internet influencers that say, completely
transformed in 30 days. Not in my world, baby. When we put an artificial time
limit on it, we don't recognize that the Bible says it will come
in time and consistency when it is due. I need to be inspired,
then, by the due time. I will not get there if I become
weary. That means I've got to keep going. I may mess up one day, but I'm
not going to mess up two consecutive days. And over time, and it will
take time, and a lot of people, I'll just be honest with you,
a lot of people give up and, ah, that's just gonna take too
much time. Nothing worthwhile ever happened
instantaneously. People who live for that hit
of dopamine in the moment, they never experience something long
lasting. It takes time. Pastor, I wish
God would just zap me. He's not gonna do it. Do you
know why? He gave you a whole book of instructions.
And he says, do this, and when you get tired of it, just keep
doing it. And when you're not feeling like it, just keep doing
it. And when you fail, just come back to it and keep doing it.
And keep heading this way, and keep heading this way, and keep
heading this way. And over time, listen to me, over time I am
transformed by the power of the Spirit of God into the image
of Jesus Christ. but it takes time, it takes time. I need to learn to trust the
process, and then I love this, lastly, I need to envision the
result. Look at verse number nine. For
in due season, look at the next words, we shall reap. We shall reap. If you are not
weary in well-doing, you've assessed the danger, If you maintain your
enthusiasm, you are not weary in well-doing. If you recognize
that there is a process of change that will ultimately result in
a harvest of glory in your life, that alone can keep you going. Truth of the matter is this,
you're either going to in your life experience the joys of success
or the regret of failure. It's true. Pastor Marty, I just,
I try and then I mess up. Try again. Yeah, but you don't
know, Pastor Marty, it's just too hard. You're too hard. You're
too hard. Stop. Would you stop being so
woke? The key to success is knowing
that there is a Bible guarantee we shall reap, but there's a
caveat, we shall reap if we faint not. The idea of fainting is
the same idea of becoming weary. How can I know I'm gonna make
it to the end? College student, you're home
from the college. Oh, it was so hard. I'm going to quit. Don't you
dare. Don't you dare. I've got this
job, but I hate my job. It's so hard. I'm going to quit.
Don't you dare. We shall reap if we faint not.
The reaping does not happen in an instant. It is part of trusting
the process of time. And during the process of time,
I am to ultimately envision the result. Many years ago, I saw
a movie that has become one of my favorite movies. It was a
Disney movie back when Disney wasn't woke and ridiculous. It
was a Disney movie. How many have seen the movie
Iron Will? It's about dog sleds. It's about
dog sleds. I loved it. It's about will. who was gonna save the family
farm, because his dad had died, and he had to win this money,
and the only way to win this money was to get in the Iditarod
dog sled race, and begin at the Great Clock Tower of Winnipeg,
and travel 1,000 miles on this tremendous race. What a great
movie. If you haven't seen it, quit watching that garbage, and
start watching this. I bet I've seen that movie 10
times. Pastor Monty, why so much? Because I like the idea of dog
sledding. You know, this week, my wife and I traveled. Kelly
and I traveled on up to Alaska to visit our son, Thomas, who's
in the Air Force. Thomas had made reservations for us to go
on a dog sled ride. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now,
I'm not talking about me sitting my big fanny in a basket. I'm
talking about Kelly got her small fanny in the basket. I'm so good at preaching when
I have jet lag. It's crazy. She got in the basket. The musher stood behind her.
There's handlebars like this. And then I stood on two little
skis immediately behind the musher. He said, there's only two things
I can tell you. He said, hang loose. Hang loose. Don't tense up. I'm a tense person. I can tense up that. He said,
hang loose. I'm trying my best. Monty, hang loose. holding on
like this, doing the Donald Trump dance a little bit, trying to
hang loose, holding on. Those dogs, this is so exciting. If you ever have the opportunity,
or if you don't have the opportunity, you should make the opportunity.
He said, hang loose. And then he said, I need to ask
one more thing of you. He said, remain upright. By the way, it
reminded me of my dad's bicycle advice. When he gave some little
call to those dogs, the whole thing just, they took off. And
in the dark of the night, on this, it's quiet, it's quiet.
The dogs don't bark when they're pulling. It's quiet, beautiful. And in the dark of that night,
I wondered, what have I gotten myself into? for 45 minutes. By the way, I loved it after
I began to hang loose a little bit. I loved it. We went up and
down and around and curved. All he had to do was call, ha! The dogs turned to the left.
Gee, and the dogs turned to the right. It was amazing. It was
amazing. I loved every second of that.
It was one of the top things. And I've dreamed about that for
decades since that movie came out. I've dreamed about it for
decades. I will never forget. And by the
way, I remained upright the entire time. I will never forget standing
behind that man. staring at the snow-covered woods
of Alaska, by the way, for 45 minutes, folks. This wasn't some
little two-minute carnival ride. For 45 minutes, in the dark,
the quiet, and the beauty of Alaska, with the full force and
energy of 10 dogs. You say, why 10? The average
would be eight. They took one look at me and they added two.
Fat people always have these embarrassing moments in life.
I'm going on a horseback trail ride and they look at me and
they're like, go get the Clydesdale. And I'll never forget for my
whole life, my whole life, seeing that come to fruition. Can I tell you something? Be
not weary in well-doing, for in due season, it's been decades
since I had this dream, be not weary in well-doing, for in due
season we shall reap if we faint not. Ladies and gentlemen. Never,
ever, ever give up. You find your focus, the thing
God would have you to do. You find the one area, maybe
two, where God would have you to change this year and you say,
by the grace of God, I'm going to make a plan and I'm going
to do it. And you're going to recognize
that over time you're going to fail and have inconsistencies. And
you're going to determine that when I fail or have an inconsistency,
I'm just going to get up and try again. Because you know why? I'm going to reap. It's going
to be a great harvest. It's going to be a golden harvest.
It's going to be a life transformative harvest. I'm going to reap if
I faint not. I am not Listen to me, and I'm
done. I am not gonna let this, I'm
pointing to my brain, I am not going to let this stand between
me and success. I am not, and neither should
you. Father, thank you for Paul's
admonition to us, inspired by the Spirit of God. A simple verse,
Lord, a verse that maybe some of us could make as a motto for
2025. If we're honest, Lord, some of
us have become weary in well-doing. It all just feels like too much.
Every person in this room Myself, especially, has at times felt
very overwhelmed. But Father, right now, we're
gonna lift up a promise in our hearts. We're gonna understand
there's a danger in that weariness. We're going to understand, Lord,
that you have a specific good for us to do. That enthusiasm
is an antidote to weariness. Father, we're gonna understand
that there is a process. It will take time, but in due
season, we shall reap if we faint not. Spirit of God, speak to
every heart. Maybe lay upon someone's heart
that focus for them, that thing that you'd have them to do. Thank
you, Lord, for loving us. Thank you for Christ, and thank
you for the promise that He, God, which hath begun a good
work in us, will perform it until the day of Christ. Blessed in
the invitation, if someone needs to turn to Christ today, help
them today to come in saving faith to Him, we pray in Jesus'
name. Stand with me, please, everyone,
standing. We're going to give a hymn of invitation. The invitation
is a time when you can respond to the message you've heard.
Today, maybe you'd say, Pastor, the Spirit of God spoke to my
heart about something. Maybe you're here and you're
not sure that you're a Christian. You don't know where you stand
with God. That's the reason our
Keys To Success in 2025
Series Galatians
| Sermon ID | 1229241654572631 |
| Duration | 45:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Galatians 6:9 |
| Language | English |
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