Life in the Spirit (Galatians 5:26-6:10)

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Well, good morning. Go ahead and grab your Bibles. Turn to Galatians, chapter Five. It’ll be page on 946, if you’re using one of the black pew Bibles there in front of you, or maybe underneath. Before I got into ministry, as many of you know, I was a physical education teacher and coach in high school, and before that, I played college baseball. I had years of lifting weights in high school and kind of different weight training classes. And so I’ve had a lot of experience in weight rooms, which has led to some unbelievable moments. If you’ve ever been in a weight room, because you see things that end up on America’s Funniest videos, or more likely, like a viral fail video at this point on YouTube, because you’d be working out, and then all of a sudden you’d hear, bang, bang, bang, bang. And you look over and there’s somebody with at the bench press like this, because they forgot to put the collar on the barbell, and all the weights fall off, which then at that point there’s another big Clang, because now all the weights on this side, and what happened? This side, and what happens is it goes that way. So you hear that, I’ve seen multiple people pass out because they are lifting so much weight and holding their breath, not breathing correctly. It’s where their head looks like it’s gonna explode, and then they pass out because they are exerting too much energy and not breathing right. I’ve heard people scream at the top of their lungs for somebody to help them because a weight is on their chest or it’s on their back and they can’t finish that last rep. What does this have to do with Galatians? Because in all those situations, there was somebody who had offered to help them. There was somebody there with an eye like they cannot lift that much weight, and so I’m just going to keep my eye on them. So every situation like this, there’s a time where the person says to themselves, I’ve got this. I don’t need any help. I’ve got what I need. I can do this. And then you quickly find yourself in this situation where you are screaming for help now, instead of just asking someone to be there to help you. So in life, what is it for you that you keep telling people, I’ve got this, I don’t need help. I can take care of it. We should not be lifting weights alone. We certainly shouldn’t be living life alone, especially in the church. And so in these situations, in training and weight lifting, you would have a spotter, somebody who is there with you, next to you, behind you, there to support your body, to encourage you with words, to make sure that you knew they were there to help make sure you finished what you wanted to do, finish your exercise. And that’s what we’re called to do in the church. And so it’s important to remember where we are in the book of Galatians today, because we ended last week by talking kind of about the fruit of the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit. And now we’re going to finish here in chapter five, verse 26 and we’re going to get a lot of imperatives. It’s going to feel like whiplash. There are a lot of things that Paul is going to say that are kind of like, okay, if you were walking in the Spirit, these are the things that should be true of your Christian life. And it’s key to understanding this next section, that all of this is done in the spirit. I don’t want you to hear any of the things we talk about today is saying, like, this is just something you have to do on your own. The whole I’ve got this, no, this is all fueled by the Spirit who is in us. It’s the life of the spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, growing in us and keeping in step with him. So specifically, we’re going to see how we keep in step with the Spirit. In community. Okay, in community. In God’s grace, He has given to us His Spirit, the greatest blessing, along with his word for how we actually go about the day to day, living this Christian life. So with that said, the first thing that we see is true of life in the Spirit is the Spirit shaped community. Okay, we’re just gonna look at two halves this morning. The first one, the spirit shaped community. We’re gonna start chapter five, verse 26 we’re gonna read through Chapter Six. Verse five. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other, brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you, who live by the Spirit, should restore that person gently, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions, then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry his own load. So if we want to live out the spirit shaped community, it starts with our hearts. That’s where Paul starts here, right after the fruit of the Spirit and saying, like we need to keep in step with the Spirit, he says, Let us not become. Am conceited. Now, why would he say that? I think this is true, and maybe it’s been your experience. One of the first temptations when you come to a saving faith of Jesus Christ is you start to live a different kind of life, which means you start to look at other people and see whether or not they’re living up to the way you’re living. It is a comparison game, and it’s one of the first things that we’re tempted with when we come to faith in Christ, we look at ourselves and compare it to other Christians. What are they doing? And how does this work itself out? Paul tells us it comes out in provoking and envying. So provoking is irritating. Others, frustrating, them, picking fights with them. You know, I say in our family, like, as broken sinners, we are awesome at this. We are great, like we’re experts at provoking. Are we not? You know, it’s pushing each other’s buttons. You know what? This is like. It doesn’t happen in the church, of course, but you know what this is like, and so that we’re experts in that, I keep saying, like, I’d rather be an expert in love, not an expert in provoking and envying. Yet this is where we go. This is the temptation, which is why Paul puts this here. At worse in the church, when this happens, you lead it leads to a lot of division. And even at worst, again, church splits, church hurt and conflict. But more likely it’s those little comments, those kind of veiled prayers that you pray with people in the room, those kind of passive aggressive comments that make us look better, that kind of cut other people down to say like you’re not quite living up to my expectations or what I’m doing, and we make them feel people feel smaller. You’re not quite growing at the rate that you should be. And the other side we have envying, wanting something else that somebody has. Man, I really wish I could teach like them. Really wish I had the gift of evangelicalism, because I’m just not going to tell anybody about Jesus. I really, I really wish I could do this or that, or play this instrument. And so we sit there, we just like all the things that we we can’t do. And so we envy them, wanting that. So we for broke, and we envy perfect example of this is like in social media. When you go on whatever social media platform is that you use, within the first few seconds or minutes, how do you feel about yourself? Do you feel better about yourself? Do you feel worse about yourself? Depending on how you answer that question is how you will treat the people that you’re interacting with when you walk in the church. How does this person make you feel? How does that person make you feel? And depending on how you answer that question, will be how you treat that person. Treat that person. So are you provoking? Are you envying? In a word, are we conceited? Are we selfish when we walk in to the church, when we’re with other believers, looking out only for ourselves? Paul is saying, keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, which means we must fight against this, because this is our tendency. And to make sure this happens, we need to keep walking in spirit, in the spirit, together as a community. And so Paul has used a lot of tough language with the Galatians to this point. And in chapter six, verse one, he makes this little turn. He says brothers and sisters. He says, family like we are in Christ. Jesus, He has given us a spirit. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, so we must look at each other with a different affection than we ever have before, as brothers as sisters. And once our heart is right, we can now live out this spirit shaped community by taking care of two groups of people, the sinner and the struggler. That’s what we see here in the breakdown of verses one and two. So first the sinner. We see this like sin is going to happen in the church. This should not surprise us. This doesn’t give us license to snoop around, looking for it, trying to find it in every single person. It doesn’t mean we start church discipline in every single matter. Rather, as you live in the Spirit, because that’s what it says in verse one, you who live by the Spirit, if you are keeping us up with spirit, not conceited, you will be better able to discern one of the brother or sisters caught in something that is destroying them. Maybe they don’t see it. They’ve been caught up in it, and they definitely don’t know how to get out of it without your help. And so in some ways, though, while we don’t do church discipline in Matthew 18 with every single little thing that we might see, there are times where we do step in and we follow Matthew 18, verse 15. This is the first step of church discipline. If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. If you see this in them, go talk to them. But. Only to them, or is our first step to talk about it with 10 other people before we go talk to them, let’s go to them first, let’s talk to them, and then what we do and how we do it is extremely important. We seek to restore them. Gently, restore them. Gently, not provoking them, not in an envious manner, but just like the fruit of the Spirit, with gentleness. We go into this conversation with this person, with humility, with gentleness and with an end goal in mind. The end goal has to be restoration. The word here for restoration is the idea of helping somebody to rebuild walls or to mend their nets, two things that the people at this time would have been very familiar with, rebuilding walls, mending nets for those who were fishermen. And so when you think about what is a provoking or envious manner, is like that little kid with a brother or sister as their brother or sisters rebuild. Sister is rebuilding their little LEGO wall, and they come by and just do one of these, and they knock it over just to provoke them, just to irritate them, or maybe that wall looked really good before, and they’re a little bit envious, so like, now I’m going to knock it down again. Restoration is I’m going to get on my hands and knees and I’m going to help you rebuild this. I don’t care how it happened. I just want to make sure that I help you restore it back to the way it was. So getting on our hands and knees in kindness, in love, and saying, I’m right here with you. I’m going to help you pick up the pieces. I’m going to get my hands dirty and pick up this net and start to put it back together for you so it could be mended, so that you could be restored. That’s what we’re called to do, and then we do it gently. And this is probably the real challenge. It’s very easy to help somebody and then correct them as you’re helping them, but gently is where we’re not telling them, filling them with guilt as we help. I told you, so I told you this was going to happen. How could you that is not gentleness. So let’s help restore them with it, in our gentle way, in a way of love. We’re not sticking it to them, right? We’re encouraging them. Instead, we’re asking them, What do you need from me to help continue this process? Be in a faithful presence with words of comfort and not condemnation. So we help restore the sinner back into not only a right relationship with God, fellowship with God, with fellowship with His people. We come alongside, we help them. But there is a word of warning from Paul. You can see it there, he says, but watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. The lure of sin is strong, and the more we focus on a specific sin to help somebody else out, the more we can be drawn to that same sin. There have been many times before where people have tried to help a friend out only to get pulled in themselves into that same sin. So we need to make sure that we’re watching out. That’s what Paul’s saying. Just watch out for yourself. Be careful. That you don’t go down the same road. And so we could be well meaning, but we need to kind of have those safeguards and practical things in place, like we do for them, or maybe somebody come alongside us to encourage us as we help someone. So that’s the sinner. That’s our role. Sometimes we’re going to help, sometimes we’re going to be the sinner. The second thing is the struggler. And the struggler could include sin, but it’s actually a much broader category, one that we’re we all face. So it says, Here, carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you fulfill the law of Christ. Each one of us has burdens, and by this things that are too heavy for us to carry by ourselves, those weights in the bar that we know we can’t lift them. There’s no possible way I need somebody to help me, and sometimes these burdens actually feel like physical weight. Have you ever felt that pressure on your chest. Have you ever had those moments where you can’t sleep, or things are just gnawing at your mind and your emotions constantly, and then, have you ever tried to fix it yourself? I’ve got this only to make things worse because we can’t. And so this is kind of the participation point of the message. So I need everybody involved here. I’m going to list some burdens. I’m going to list some things that are too heavy for you to carry. And I want you to raise your hand if you’ve ever had any of the following happen in your life. Maybe it’s happening right now, but we’re just looking your entire life. Have you ever felt any of these burdens? And I want you to raise your hand once your hand is up, just leave it up if it’s not up for the first few things I mentioned, that’s fine. Put it up at some point if that applies to you. So if there’s ever been a burden in your life, I want you to raise your hand, being bullied, loss of a friendship. I had someone say something hateful or untrue of you, financial hardship, job loss, death of a loved one, chronic health issues, anxiety or depression, a child who has rejected Jesus, relational strain, church hurt, divorce, okay, there’s a lot of hands. I hope you you didn’t go through those things alone. I hope you didn’t go through those things alone, and I hope you didn’t let somebody go through that alone. This is what we need to understand. There are burdens in this church at every every moment somebody has a burden. So let’s commit now to never let somebody go through that by themselves. And on the other side, let’s commit to never tell somebody I’ve got this but get other people involved. We say this every morning we start our service. We just did it a few minutes ago, and I want to repeat it here, because there’s a reason we do this to all who are weary and need rest, to all who feel alone and want community, to all who mourn and long for comfort, to all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares, to all who fail and desire strength, to all who worry and want peace, to all who sin and need a savior, to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness and whoever will come. This gathering offers our welcome. This gathering, this community people, offers our welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we start with that? Because every day, people are coming here with burdens, things that make it hard to worship, and we have a calling as a people to welcome them in, because Jesus welcomes them in. And so let’s be that type of church. Let’s continue to be that type of church. And if you are here today and you are seeking, this is who we are. We are broken, messed up people just like you. And if you keep trying to rebuild your wall by yourself, it’s going to keep falling down. We want to be there to help restore and encourage you, because the thing I know implies you you are, you sin and you are in need of a Savior. And that’s who we talk about here. That’s who we try to show here. There’s always some in the church who’s got a burden. Maybe that’s you right now, or maybe you are in a good position to help carry someone else’s burden. And what you do when you do this is you fulfill the law of Christ that says the exact same thing we saw last week in Galatians, 514 for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. And what we say here is part of our discipleship pathway is as we become immortal like Jesus, we want to love like Jesus, and that’s exactly what we see here. Now Paul continues and comes back to some kind of personal reflection that we need to take seriously, to help us and not become conceited, especially as we are helping others. He says, If anyone thinks they are something, when they are not, they deceive themselves. If you think you are something, if you think you’ve got things figured out, and you’re helping the sinner and you’re helping the struggler, be careful, because that’s when you start to get puffed up. That’s when you can start to be conceited, and it won’t be long before you’re caught in sin or you’re struggling and so with the burdens of life. And so we need to be careful. We need to take some ownership of our faith. We need to step back, and we need to test our actions. That’s what he says. We need to test how we’re caring for others, test how we’re growing in our faith. And then he says we should take pride in that like, whoa, whoa, like I thought we weren’t supposed to take pride in the things that we do. We’re not supposed to boast in what we have done and the good works that we do. And yes, that’s true, but context here is key. We take pride in what we have seen be true in our lives, not by comparing to others, and that’s a big difference. We thank the Lord for the work he’s doing in our life, because we see change in our life, not because I’m better than so and so I’m not comparing to them. And so we need to be very careful and examine our own actions. It’s not, do I look more like Jesus than they do? Or is it? Do I look more like Jesus today than I did yesterday, six months ago, a year ago, not them, but have I seen this change? Not, do I give more money than they do? Do I give more money to the church than I did last week, six months ago, a year ago? Not well. They have that major sin in their life. At least I’m not dealing with that. No, it’s what sin do I have? What plank do I need to remove from my eye so that I can then go help and remove that speck from their eye? You see the difference in how we praise God for the work that he’s doing in our life, not by comparing it to others, but by taking stock of who. Who we are, where we are today, and how the Spirit is moving in our life. So we want to be proud of the work that God is doing in our life, but we need to take a kind of step back and examine our own lives. And then he finishes here, it’s important to note that carrying our own load, that’s what he says here in verse five, each should carry their own load is not contradicting bearing one another’s burdens. There are burdens that are too heavy for someone to carry. The load that Paul is talking about here is a different word. Burdens are those things that are too heavy, but everybody has a pack. That’s really what the word here means. This kind of load. We just have a backpack. We have responsibilities and things the Lord has given to us to carry in life, and we will all stand before God, and He will see whether we were faithful with what we had or not. Can we stand before him and saying, I carried my pack. I did what you have called me to do as a follower of Jesus, John Stott says it this way, there is one burden that we cannot share, and that is our responsibility to God on the day of judgment. On that day, you cannot carry my pack and I cannot carry yours. We stand before God as followers of Jesus, those who have the spirit. He says, I’ve given you responsibility. Have you been faithful with what I’ve given you? Have you been faithful with what I left for you to do so practically speaking, then what does it mean to live out the spirit shaped community two things, and maybe you’re in one of these, you’ll definitely be in one of these two groups at some point. I don’t know where you are today, but the first is, if you can help someone carry their burden, you get to live out the love of Christ in that moment you get to fulfill the law of Christ, who is the ultimate burden bearer. Taking something on for somebody else is exactly what Christ has done for us. If we let people do things on their own, we are living contrary to the gospel. Because if Christ left us to live and say, I’ve got this, we would be condemned still. But he didn’t. He took it on himself, and we need to walk alongside and say, I am going to take this with you. I’m going to help you, not just one person, but many of us. So maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re the one carrying the burden right now, on your own, on your own shoulders, be willing to let someone carry it with you. Don’t keep them from doing what God wants them to do. Have you ever heard this phrase when somebody has mentioned something to you about something difficult they’re dealing with? I don’t want to be a burden on you that is contrary to the gospel. It is you’re not a burden. I want to help you carry that burden, because you’re not meant to do it on your own. The Gospel says you cannot do it on your own, which is why Christ took it on which is how he got our salvation for us, but in the day to day, how does Jesus usually help us in the day to day, he helps us with His people to help carry those burdens for us. Day by day, he uses his people to do that. So be willing to carry someone else’s burdens and be willing to let somebody come alongside you and carry that weight. So that’s the spirit shaped community. Second thing the spirit shaped life. We’re going to start in verse six and finish in verse 10. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 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. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity to let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. So here verse six, kind of seems odd. It really seems like come out of nowhere. Paul shifts to saying that those who benefit from the teaching of the word should share all good things, which includes financial support, food, housing, everything else material needs, with the one teaching them. So people who proclaim the gospel should be taken care of by those who benefit from that proclamation. So remember going back to the beginning of this letter. Why is Paul writing to the church in Galatia? Because there are false teachers. There are false teachers in Galatia. These teachers have led the Galatians astray. They have bewitched them. As we read. They are persuading them that there is a different gospel, which Paul says is really no gospel at all. And so he’s writing because of that, and then also there’s a pretty good chance he puts it here because the people proclaiming the Gospel were not being taken care of by the people. It, they didn’t have what they needed. And so when you think about this, and you think about the church across this country, at least, they say that 45% of pastors work a second job to pay the bills, those who are proclaiming the gospel week in and week out. 45% we know a lot of those are bi vocational pastors, ones that maybe pastor smaller churches, or are planting a church, and so they need to work a job in order to pay the bills while also serving. They said 14% of pastors are getting minimum wage. And when we see here, what Paul is doing is he’s trying to care for not the person only he cares about the message that’s who we’re supposed to take care of, the people who are proclaiming the actual truth. So it’s not about the money, it’s about the message that they are proclaiming. And he wants to make sure that that message stays. And how does that happen? By supporting them enough that they stay, the people proclaiming the truth. So he’s highlighted, in fact, there are good teachers in Galatia, ones who are faithful to the proclamation of the good news, and the church should take care of them. Look at First Timothy 517, through 18, says the elders who direct the affairs the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching for scripture. Says, Do not muzzle an ox while just treading out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages, which is similar to what Jesus said in Luke chapter 10, like the generosity of others is what funded the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was not a trust fund, baby. You know that right? He was not independently wealthy. He was going from place to place, house to house, meal to meal. From the generosity of others. The disciples, when they were sent out by Jesus in Matthew 10, he says, Go and proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom. Don’t take any gold, silver, copper. Don’t take an extra shirt, sandals or a staff with you. Let others do that for you, let others take care of you. Don’t bring any of that. So some people will stop giving to a church, to a ministry, because they don’t like something that was done. They disagree with a certain decision. They differ an opinion from leadership. But what we kind of see here is the only reason you should stop giving to a church is if they stop preaching the word, like we stop doing this, then you should stop giving, because there’s nothing worth hearing anyways, then that’s the reason why. And so Paul is saying, like, there are good teachers there, make sure they’re taken care of, so that they stay and keep proclaiming this, or else you’re going to lose them. And who’s there to fill in the gaps, the false teachers that have this other gospel, which is no gospel at all. Now I want to speak to our church, because maybe you’re expecting the plea for money here. That is not going to happen like you are a generous church. You have taken care of our families and us too much, and I appreciate what Paul is doing here, and I appreciate churches that take it seriously, because we want to be devoted to the ministry of the word and to prayer, and you guys allow us to do that. So I just want to say thank you and praise God for you. Paul moves to another warning. Then he says, Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Again, this seems abrupt, like we’re going from supporting gospel Proclaimers to God cannot be mocked and a man reaps what he sows. But there is a connection here that we have to see again. It seems abrupt, but if you understand the support that he wants to see of these gospel Proclaimers the truth, because he wants to see them not be deceived, like the people we don’t want you to be deceived. And so he’s kind of moving here, and he’s saying, All right, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. And so when we read, God cannot be mocked, the first thing that comes to mind is probably, well, God does get mocked all the time, does he not? He gets mocked all over the place, but God will not be mocked ultimately, because what we see here with sowing and reaping is this is usually used to talk about the end times, saying you’re sowing now, and the Reaping will come at the end. And what a man sows, he will eventually get. And so in the end, God will not be mocked, even while it’s happening now. Ultimately, he will not be mocked. He is judge, and he will judge according to what we reap. What will your harvest show at the end. Will it be based on what you have done, which we see here is sowing to the please the flesh, or will it be based on what Jesus Christ has done, which is sowing to please the spirit? The principle here is in the context of giving, as we just saw. But Tom shiner says this is what Paul says here. Cannot. Limited to giving, we have a principle that sums up life as a whole. A man reaps what he sows. But of course, the focus here is on giving. And this makes sense, because what area of our life do we want to hold on to things the most? Our stuff, our finances, our security, our material things, we don’t want to give it up. And so what better place to go than after that, where your treasure is there, your heart is and so let’s kind of talk about it in this context. Now, there’s two types of sowing, right? Sowing seed, we’re scattering seed, we’re planting seed. There’s two types of sowing. They’re sowing to the flesh, sowing to the Spirit, and the Reaping comes later. The harvest comes later. And I’ve heard people say this, especially students over the years of like, I will take my faith seriously when what? When I’m older, I’ll take Jesus, Jesus’s words seriously, like when I move out of high school and college, eventually I will get there. And what is, what the principal is saying. Here is, how do you expect to continue to sow, to please the flesh, over and over and over and over again and expect to see a harvest for Jesus. You reap what you sow. So if you continue year after year, day after day, of just sowing to please the flesh, to what you want, to the evil and ungodly things in our heart, what else do we expect at the end? Well, Paul tells us your flesh sowing to please the flesh will lead to your destruction. How could you expect any other harvest? And what we’ve seen in this passage already is that sin is there’s selfishness in sin, and sin has consequences. The word destruction here can also mean corruption or disintegration. Saying, sin makes things fall apart. That’s what happens. Sin makes things fall apart. So if things are falling apart for you right now, it’s worth asking, am I sowing to the flesh? Like look at your life. Am I sowing to the flesh, or am I sowing to the spirit in this moment. So we sow to the flesh, we will reap destruction. But if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life. If you sow according to God’s Word, you start to see the fruit of the Spirit growing, then all of this life will culminate in the harvest of eternal life. If you say, I’m going to live my life in the Spirit. I’m going to keep in step with the Spirit today, and I’m going to love others. Well, what else would we expect at the end than eternal life? Because we’re pursuing Jesus every day, we have the Spirit who guarantees us of this in Christ, Jesus. So something important to say here is the harvest comes later. But between the sowing and the harvest, what happens? There is some growth, like something is going to grow. You’re going to start to see it. We see shoots growing up. So if any point along those lines, you realize, oh, my goodness, I planted the wrong seed. What do you have to do? You have to get down at the roots, like we talked about last week. You need to crucify to crucify the sin. You need to crucify sowing to the flesh. And so you can say, like, I’m seeing this go this direction. I need to uproot this and I need to start over. That’s what needs to happen. But if we continue to say, I’m just going to keep going a little bit longer, sowing to the flesh, when is that day coming? No, as soon as we notice this, as soon as we see it, we gotta dig it up from the roots. There’s a place we see this principle in life, and it’s in our phones. Like algorithms that are in our phones, right? Like you start to watch something, start to read something, start to focus on something, your phone says this is what they like. So I’m going to keep giving them what they like, and you sow more and more little seeds, more and more and more. How many of those seeds are sowing to the spirit, and how many of those seeds are sowing to the flesh? It’s worth asking every single time we come to our phone, because eventually the harvest is going to come and you’re going to realize your mind and heart have been shaped not by God’s word, but by everything that the phone tells you, which, by the way, is what you’ve told the phone you like. We reap, what we sow. What is that in our life? What is most important in prepping for this week, looking at this idea of sowing and reaping, and seeing this connection to social media, I came across an interview with an actor that happened, I think, this week, Edward Norton, not a believer, from what I know, but he was talking about this idea of doom scrolling and algorithms and phones. He said something interesting, not from a biblical worldview. I’m not like on the Bible here, but this one he says. He says, If I Doom scroll and stay in it, in it, meaning the anxiety and the downward spiral of the emotions and stuff that happen when you Doom scroll on your phone. He says, If I Doom scroll and stay in it, as we all can for me, the only antidote to anxiety has been action, some kind of action. And I thought about that, and I said, what is the action for us? It’s sowing to the Spirit. That’s the action. The only added, the only thing that we could do to get away from sowing to the flesh is to keep in step with the Spirit and pursue the mission of God. Because if we keep feeding the flesh. If we keep sowing to the flesh, we’re going to go further and further down that rabbit hole. The only way out is to say there’s something better. I’m going to sow to the Spirit. I’m going to act here. And what do we do? Look at verses nine and 10, because this is where Paul goes next. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Remember all this is coming after Paul has made it very clear throughout this book that we are not saved by our works, but by the grace of God. And Tom Schreiner says this about good works. He says that we’re supposed to do. He says such good works constitute evidence that one has been transformed by God’s grace. Our works are coming from that understanding of who Jesus Christ is, what he has done for us. So as we see those things start to grow in our life, we’re like, oh, I’m sowing the right seed. I’m sowing to the Spirit. I’m seeing these things flourish. Others should see them as well. They should see this, this flourishing in our life, as we’ve said in the series, and we’ve said many times before in quoting Dallas Willard, grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Sowing is an action. What type of seed Are you sowing? Is it to the flesh? Is it to the Spirit? We have been transformed by Jesus. The spirit is not just concerned with you. The spirit is concerned with us. That’s a big difference. The Spirit wants to keep coming back to us, because we’re not meant to live this life alone. So you’re going to keep bringing it back to us as a church, as a people. The Book of Galatians was written to a church, to people, not a person. So you want to sow according to spirit, we need to stop sowing for ourselves. We need to start looking out for others. Because sowing seed is hard work, it is tedious, it’s slow, and ultimately, all depends on trust. Will the harvest come? Will the harvest come? So Paul says, Let us not grow weary. Are you weary? Are you tired from doing good? He’s saying, Keep going like it’s easier to doom scroll. It’s easier to give up. It’s easier to keep money for myself. It’s easier to come home from work and phone it in and not pursue my family. It’s easier to say I just can’t do community group tonight. Like it’s easier to do all that stuff, but step back, am I sowing to the flesh, or am I sowing to the Spirit in those moments, and then not be surprised later, when all my decisions of sow into the flesh, so into the flesh lead to things that I see are destroying me are destroying others. It’s easier to let sin kill you than to fight back. It’s easier to let things continue to grow than to uproot it and replant it is so Paul’s like, let us not grow weary in doing good. Do not we cannot give up. Keep pursuing, keep planting. I think we often understand how important our good works actually are, and I understand why that’s there, because our good works don’t save us. So we like to kind of reject things that sound like that. But listen again to Matthew five, which we hadn’t read for us earlier. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden, Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its standing. It gives light to everyone in the house in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We do good so that people glorify God because of it, when they see the growth in our life, they. They praise God for it, they want to be a part of that. So yes, we do good to all. It says we’re supposed to do good to all, but first, we need to do that in the family of believers. It’s very interesting that Paul says this, if we don’t take care of each other, why in the world would we go take care of those in a world opposed to God, if we shoot our own wounded, why would anybody pay attention to us? They have to see that there’s something different about us first, in order to ever give us an ear to listen to what we have to say in John 13, Jesus says to His disciples that the world will know they are His disciples, if you love one another. So if we live out these things first, others will take note of that. It will be attracted to them, and they’ll want to hear more about the Jesus we serve. So as we bring all this together, what’s the big idea this morning? It is to keep going and do good. Keep going and do good. What I mean by keep going, test your own actions, test your own actions, examine your own heart, and then be faithful. What God with, what God has called you to, you are going to be tired and weary. Is there anything better than being tired in serving the Lord. Like, when I talk to most people say, How you doing? You know, many times I hear the word tired as the answer, all right, so you’re already tired, so be tired serving Jesus. I’m so serious, like, I don’t get it like, and so I’m just like, okay, I’d rather be exhausted hitting my pillows saying I serve the Lord today than being tired doing anything else like so go on the mission of God. Keep going when you’re weary and tired, say, am I sowing to the Spirit? Because there’s an awesome harvest coming. Like that’s the motivation to keep going. We are sowing to the spirit, and it is exhausting. It is tiring, but we have to trust that the harvest is coming. Trust that the harvest is coming. And then what do I mean by do good? Well, Paul says here, as we have opportunity, as we have opportunity all over, do good so that others would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. So how do we do this as the church? I want to plug real quick here a couple things the care and visitation team. Marielis Figueroa, leads this team. And Brandon often says in tour of the city, if you if you’ve never been a part tour of the city, he says everybody in here is on the care team. So welcome to the team that is the church like this is who we are. We care for one another, and so yes, we do that by meal trains. We do that by all these different things that kind of help with the burdens of life for people, but maybe you’re looking for something more. Talk to Mary else about what this looks like, to serve on the care and visitation team, to just be with other people, to come alongside them and help carry these burdens. So do good? Join the team. Be a part of it. Be rejuvenated by the stories that you hear. You’ll hear of how people needed this in their life at that moment. The second thing is community and journey. Groups like these are the places where these things we first talked about with the burdens are going to happen when you start to share things with the group and you start to realize I’m not the only one fighting this anymore. You need that. And guess what? We need it too. What happens when we hear these things and we help carry the burdens of other people is that when we get into those moments, we know there’s a group of people we can go to and that they’ll help carry our burdens with us at that time. And then we also need to look outside the church. I don’t know who these people are in your life. You do, and God does. But how are you doing good to them? How are you taking the good news to them? We talked about Easter already. Very easy invite to those who need to hear the good news. But how are you getting into their life? How are you getting kind of in the mess, pointing them to Jesus, trying to help bring them into the kingdom, by telling us about their great Savior. So we will get tired. But let’s keep doing good. Let’s keep going by keeping in step with the Spirit, and do good and so to please the spirit and then trust the harvest is coming. Let’s pray, Lord I I just want to say that we trust you. We trust that the harvest is coming, that the work you are doing in us, the fruit of the Spirit growing will lead to our experience of eternal life now and what is still to come. Lord, if there’s moments in our life where we know we are sowing to the flesh, help us to uproot those things and instead plant the seed of the spirit. It the things you are calling us to do, help us to be faithful in that as we are tired and weary, help us to not give up, but give us the motivation. Give us the perseverance that we need to continue to pursue you, to keep in step with where your spirit takes us. We thank You, Lord. We love you, and we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.