DON'T GROW WEARY - State of the Church Address

So starting next Sunday, we will spend begin to spend probably the better part of a couple of years

Looking at the early church looking at the acts of the

Apostles the foundation of of this very Sanctuary like right this building isn't this was an old restaurant, right?

This isn't a sanctuary. This isn't what we're talking about It's us The people the building blocks of this dwelling place with God and so what a better thing to do as we begin the year

As we jump into acts next week and look at what it looked like for the early church and that foundation

I'm looking forward to that study. I believe it's going to be fruitful for Us as a church as we look back at the

At the beginning stages of what the church looked like and where the church was meant to go

That's for today Being the first Sunday of the new year the elders we thought that that would be a perfect opportunity to do a bit of a state of the church address a time to evaluate maybe the health and well -being of this particular congregation and a challenge

For the good work set before us in the upcoming year in this new season from God's Word So, please if you've got a copy of God's Word with you turn there to Galatians chapter 6

The New Testament epistle of Galatians chapter 6 we're gonna be looking at verses 9 and 10 today

But let me kind of build up to those verses as you're turning there just just a few paragraphs back

From our passage Paul had written that famous quote for freedom

Christ has set us free stand there for firm and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery

Paul is denouncing that works righteousness that he had that had been creeping into the church there in Galatia That he had been pointing out that you are not resting in Christ and Christ alone.

You're adding your own works to this He went on to say walk by the

Spirit those who have been set free walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh that warring flesh within you as you walk in the

Spirit and as he comes into chapter 6 He calls for us to bear one another's burdens.

We get into the one another's of the body Essentially to live in light of that freedom in Christ the freedom that has purchased us from sin and slavery and purchased us to righteousness

Right. We we were delivered from one thing and then presented and brought into another we were in the kingdom of darkness and we have been brought into the kingdom of light and This leads us up to verse 9 here of chapter 6 of our text today

Where Paul says to the Saints and let us not grow weary of 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

This is a reading of God's Word that we will look at today Please bow with me once again, and let's pray that that God would give us

Illumination in our minds and our hearts to understand this truth Lord may we not be a people of your word in Namesake only now may we not be of those who swear to love

And to live by your word yet Disregard them and live a life that isn't stark contrast to them.

May we love your law? May we meditate upon your words

May our lives reflect the radiant life -giving light that emanates off of the pages of Scripture May we be a people that reverberate the very union that you have brought us into Let our minds be renewed by your truth and may our hearts be elated to live in light of that glorious Magnificent eternal truth and all of God's people said

Amen. Well here we are roughly three months into our fourth year as a church at 12 five and We have seen

God do some pretty amazing things in our midst He's taken us from one single family my wife and my children and myself

Meeting in a living room with the support of a of a church a thousand miles away down in,

Florida feeling detached and lonely to meeting in our living room to this

To all of us together today What faithfulness? We've seen him save many of his lost sheep those that were in darkness and then brought into light

What a miraculous work we've gotten a front -row seat to watch that hat take place. We have experienced many baptisms here those who have said

I want to be obedient to Christ in baptism, and I want to show the world and to declare to those around me the significance of life in Christ We Have truly seen and experienced his great faithfulness through difficulty through good times the rejoicing through mourning

It has been a jam -packed four years hasn't it? Many of you as I've spoken with you over the past handful of years

You had been diligently praying some of you for decades that God would provide a healthy church in this area

That God would bring a church that desires to be obedient to the

Lord in Every single way I said desires, right? Not perfectly but longing for a place where you could grow a place where you could be truly

Discipled a place where you could serve and now God has answered that prayer hasn't he?

He's brought you to a place. He has provided some of you have been delivered from false teaching of Works righteousness that is that is rampant all over this community under the guise of Christianity deceiving many of our brethren even still

And you've been delivered some in here had all but given up on On the idea of a church actually functioning as Christ prescribed you gave up And you began to tolerate watered -down teaching

You began to tolerate weak discipleship Just just so you could hang on to a little morsel of Christian fellowship others of us had simply been lulled to sleep by pragmatic revivalism and weak doctrine

Being told Doctrine divides doctrine kills evangelism

Doctrine kills all good things. Don't be thinking all the time Don't be trying to learn everything about Scripture all of us as I say all the time.

We're all either legalist or recovering legalist at any given time and we

Have been fighting legalism in our own lives Desperately needing to be reminded of grace as we've been reminded this morning through our songs through our scripture readings and our prayers a

Lot of times you've found yourself going to churches where you're just hearing another prop yourself up by your bootstraps sermon and do better be better or some life principle or just a basic Evangelistic sermon that didn't give you any meat of any substance to feed on and so it fed into your

Legalism all of us in this culture have been plagued by pseudo

Christian individualism having little to no understanding of the corporate nature of the body and life within the church

Yet by the faithfulness of God Here we are I Want you to think about that for a second

Right. We look at those landmarkers those times when God proved his faithfulness to us and right now is a great opportunity to stop and do that Because we lose sight of that at times, don't we?

It is no coincidence that you and I have found ourselves here in this church

God in his kindness has sovereignly led each and every one of us and whenever you first came

You get a test of the fact that that that very first Sunday or set of Sundays that you came it was it was

Simultaneously a slap in the face and a breath of fresh air All wrapped up in the reality that this is so different than anything else that I've ever known

Yet what my soul was longing for and I didn't even know it and that's because our souls

Long for what God has prescribed and when a church seeks not perfectly but seeks

To be in alignment with his will there will be present abounding Sanctifying grace that you and I desperately need in this present darkness and praise

God we have found it You found it here He found it here in this broken grace -needing

Struggling clumsy unprofessional body of believers haven't we I don't mean that to be an insult.

I'm just pointing out the reality We don't have it all together do we

Anybody in here have it together? We're clumsy. We're broken. We're very unprofessional and that's okay

This Is the reality that many of us have come into as we found our way into this congregation over the last four years

However, there is another reality That is already in some of your minds and hearts or certainly will be as time goes on That will set in as we continue to live life together and that is that the honeymoon stage

Will end it always does

It always ends Many of you have already experienced this

I've spoken with a number of you You came in and found what your soul had been longing for you immerse your life into this

Body into the body of Christ just soon realized that this church didn't fix all my problems.

It didn't fix me

What do you say I thought that if I just did this if I just Joined the church and I and I committed to this covenant body of believers and I showed up on Sundays and I showed up on Wednesdays then

I thought I would be fixed. I thought that was the answer I thought that's the the bill of goods that you sold me

You go. Wait a second. The people here are just as broken and sinful as the people at my last church.

I Thought this was a healthy church The people here are just like everywhere else and Things start to become difficult and those things that you once couldn't wait to participate in started to feel like work

You thought for sure that you would be more sanctified by now you feel as though you're not growing

Spiritually and these doubts start to compound whenever you watch brothers and sisters

Be moved elsewhere Those who you thought they're in the foxhole with me for life

They're here. They're in and you start to think did they know something that I don't Maybe this whole healthy church thing really is just a pipe dream maybe

Maybe there's no such thing as healthy church And all of those things that once gave you so much excitement so much joy began to feel wearisome

And I want to tell you brothers and sisters You are not alone in this as a matter of fact, this is nothing new

This is why Paul felt the need to encourage their Saints there in Galatia 2 ,000 years ago

They're in verse 9. He says and let us not grow weary of doing good

Implied in this statement is the reality of weariness in the Christian life

Some translations say let us not lose heart to not be overtaken by discouragement a

Discouragement that leads you to give up to give up what?

Sometimes we find ourselves in this life and we go. Well, I'm not giving up on Christ. I'm not giving up on the faith

I'm just giving up on this particular outworking of the faith I'm just giving up on this activity over here

I'm just giving up on on what it is that I have committed to or I'm walking in I'm gonna give up on those things, but by no means am

I giving up on the faith? And we think that that's okay to give up what?

Doing good What is Paul referring to as doing good here in the text?

Well, what is doing good? What does that mean? Well in order to see I think we have to go back to the beginning of chapter 6 turn back there with me beginning there in verse 1

As we build up to this this this phrase that Paul has given here doing good in verse 1

He says brothers, right? That's us. That's Christians That's those Saints there in Galatia that are professing believers those who ran faith brothers

If anyone is caught in any Transgression any sin if anyone is found out to be living not in accordance with God's Word you who are spiritual you who are walking and being filled by the

Spirit should restore him in a spirit of gentleness

That's Matthew 18, isn't it? That's church discipline This is what

Paul is referencing he's talking about church discipline here. That's God's prescribed means of Accountability this can only be lived out within community

You get that Like Paul is laying the groundwork For what it looks like in the body of Christ in the local church as he gets ready to say this phrase

Don't grow weary in doing good and that doing good is tied back to all that he's saying here in this chapter so church discipline caring for one another in a spirit of gentleness and love as Jesus called us to there in Matthew 18 to Try and hold people back from their own flesh and from sin.

We're living life together in this apparently. This is a Doing good, right? Look at what he says next

Keep watch on yourselves Lest you to be tempted personal holiness

Paul is referring to safety rails to guard us from our own flesh

Paul said over in 1st Corinthians 9 he says but I Discipline my body and I keep it under control lest after preaching to others

I myself be disqualified This is part of doing good

And it requires us to walk in his common means of grace the tools

Given to us to accomplish this task such as a healthy church

There is no such thing as a perfect church. We will never be a perfect church till glory

But we can pursue health King. Jesus is worthy of a healthy church, is he not?

That's right And we should pursue it and we live life in it and that is a common means of grace that God is going to use

In your life to help you guard others from sin and then the safety rails to guard your own flesh from sin

This is the context of local body So doing good is watching out for your brothers and looking out for your own flesh.

Look at verse 2 Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Not only do we watch out for our brothers and sisters, but we live life with them we bear their burdens

We weep with those who weep we mourn with those who mourn we rejoice with those who rejoice we come alongside as A body a unified body and we bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ What is the law of Christ?

It's a law of grace We fulfill that grace. You see yes, every church is full of sinful broken people.

I Myself and part of that people that need to be restrained from their own sin people who are bearing

Difficulties struggles and heartache and we have no shortage of that here and Doing good is bearing that with them.

We think of doing good as some extravagant act of benevolence giving to the poor and needy evangelizing the lost and missions overseas and all the big

Stuff that gets a lot of attention all the big stuff that really makes you feel like you're doing something for the kingdom

And Yes, those are certainly good things works that God has set before us, but it's much more than just that It's the day -to -day

Difficult task of restraining sin and comforting the soul. This is what we are not to grow weary in Look at verse 3

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself Doing good is not thinking of yourself too highly

Or thinking of yourself too much Living the Christian life in the body demands that you consider others as more than yourself

That's a biblical principle, isn't it? And that's what God has called us to do to live life in a way

That it's not about me that I can't think more highly of myself than I should and You know good and well that all of us struggle with that Every one of us has a selfish propensity, but living a life of bearing one another's burdens restraining one another from sin

Fighting the flesh together Not alone together Is what

God has prescribed for us. That's the doing good That's what we don't grow weary in because the moment we grow weary in those small common means of grace is the moment that our

Flesh just it flourishes It takes over and our selfishness look at the state of the

American Church It's eaten alive by pragmatism individualism consumerism

I Love it. I love the American Church. I love it. That's what we pray for different churches in the area

I love my brothers and sisters over there and I have great unity with them and my heart breaks for them because They are eaten up With unhealth and we desire for them

To not grow weary in doing good But many churches over the the years and the centuries their people have grown weary and doing good and now they just go through the motions

That's why it's the Lord's hour not the Lord's Day Look at verse 4

Let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor

For each will have to bear his own load This can be a very confusing part of the text

You see it see it seems at face value to contradict what Paul is saying and what the rest of Scripture says, right?

He is to bear his own load like we just said bear with one another and now you're saying to bear your own load he's he's not telling us to boast in ourselves, though as it seems

I Think what Paul is doing here is he's referring to those who come into the body and consume those who think of themselves too much

Those who are a drain on the body Always taking

Never giving that lazy consumeristic self -absorbed

Christian If you ever notice that's what we long for when we go to church, that's how we pick churches

We're like, what did I get? Was my music

Desires was that filled was it good Was was the the type of fellowship the type of fellowship that I want

Did the preacher give me the right message that that really kind of gave me that boost for the week Were the people this way was the atmosphere that way

It's all about self and I think that's what Paul is getting at here Those who come in and they never participate they consume

This is what it means to not grow weary and when we grow weary, what do we do we become

Neutral we just sit and we do not participate as God has called us to participate in the body

There is no such thing as a bench warming Christian Right if you're in Christ today and you're a member at 12 five church, you're a starter and you bear

You bear the responsibility of someone who Participates as they ought and when you don't you are becoming a drain on The body and you are becoming a burden on the body

Now that doesn't contradict the fact that you need your burdens to be Carried by your brothers and sisters

It just means that you are equally participating in the bearing of others burdens

It's a unified front You ever seen them?

You ever seen how the Amish move barns, you know The whole community comes together and there's hundreds of them like army ants and they pick up this massive

Framed a building that you're like, what in the world how could that even happen and they carry it across the field and then they place it somewhere else and And they're hardly breaking a sweat because there's so many of them all bearing the same burdens together

What beautiful imagery of the body I Think what Paul's getting at in this verse is someone that thinks too highly of themselves and they show up to the barn moving party

And then they say well, I'm gonna run the lemonade stand for you And then they just sit back and do nothing while everybody else bears the burden and then they go

Why didn't they move? Why didn't they move my barn? I need I had a barn needed to be moved

Why didn't anybody move my barn? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? I Think that's what

Paul is denouncing here because you've grown weary Look at verse 6

But the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches It becomes very obvious here that Paul is referring to the life and the body of Christ represented in the local church

Good things that Paul talks about here involves what what it is that you do with me and my family

You are the ones being taught hopefully and in return you provide for my family

This is doing good And you do good, thank you for that But that is part of life together

This is what God has prescribed And look at verse 7 do not be deceived

God is not mocked You don't get away with it

You can't be a consumer in the Christian life without Participating and think that God is just going to overlook it and that everything's gonna be fine

And everything in your Christian life is gonna be fine. You come in and you you you don't participate You don't get involved.

You don't bear one another's burdens. You literally just want to consume consume consume What is it in it for me?

And then you turn around and go why am I not reaping spiritual growth? God's not mocked

You're not even obeying what he's called you to do Why in the world is he gonna bless your spiritual walk in your life

Who says 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 if you so Work at if you toil to restrain one another from sin to guard your own flesh

To bear one another's burdens to think of yourself less to not be a consumer to give of your resources to the work of the kingdom if you were

Preserved and you do not grow weary in doing good things look at verse 9 and our passage

He says and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season

We will reap if we do not give up and what will we reap?

verse 8 Says that from the spirit reap eternal life Now Paul is most certainly not referring to works righteousness here

He has just spent the whole letter denouncing that What Paul is doing is he's pointing to the reality that those who are of the

Spirit those who are truly of the body will most certainly Sow good seed

They will without question persevere Every last one of them you see this is how we this is how we obtain encouragement from our weariness

Our hope is not in this church and a healthy

Church Hope isn't in that Our hope is not in any pastor any man any group of men.

Our hope is not in a ministry philosophy Our hope is not in any of God's good gifts

His good gifts are not our hope you will not find hope in them And when you turn one into an idol, that's when you will find hopelessness

If you have come to 12 five and you think that it's going to fix all your spiritual problems

God will make sure that that gift and it is a gift. It's a wonderful gift

But that's all it is is just a gift. He will make sure that that gift from him the gift giver

Fails you just like everything else single thing will fail you hedonism self doubt money spouse family community a church

Everything will fail. You know why? Because job God is a jealous God And he will not share your worship with anything.

He will trample that idol in your heart Now it doesn't mean that that gift is a bad thing

It just means that it must be rightly ordered Paul said in 2nd

Corinthians 4 he says therefore Having this ministry by the mercy of God we do not lose heart when the gift giver

Who is your only peace? Who is your only joy? Who's the only one that will fix you?

He? Has given you good gifts He has called you to ministry

He has called you to good things and In his goodness, he says you walk in those rightly ordered and you will

You will reap benefit Of seeking me You will grow in me

You you will be formed more and more into the image of your Savior Jesus Christ These are the means that I use now don't walk in them

See what happens You think that 12 five hasn't fixed you go to an unhealthy church see what happens

You'll get what you want for a season, but I can promise you you're so far off of the mark that You're gonna suffer

Because God has prescribed this by the mercy of God. We do not lose heart

And we have this ministry from his mercy then and only then will you have peace to not be weary Isaiah 4031 says but they who wait for the

Lord not wait on the bride not wait on the church Not wait on the pastor not wait on the people to be fixed not wait on some sort of magical pill

That's going to change me spiritually overnight But wait upon the Lord those who do so shall renew their strength

They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not faint if we love doctrine if we maintain theological

Accuracy if we lean into the fellowship if we sing all the right songs all things that God has prescribed for us all good

Things that we must continue Steadfastly in but we do those things and lose our first love.

We will simply be going through the motions Those things will simply divulge into sowing to the flesh

The answer is not to lose heart and throw those things out

For they are the very good thing that God has prescribed for you in their proper order.

Look at verse 10 so then As we have opportunity

Let us do good to everyone Especially to those who are of the household of faith as you have opportunity.

Are you making that opportunity? right

That's what Paul says as you have opportunity As the opportunity arises

Are you and I making that opportunity? Is our life curated in a way that purposely and intentionally

Seeks Opportunity to do good. Do we gather with the

Saints at every conceivable opportunity? That common means of grace that God has given us

Or do we cash in on every excuse to miss out on that opportunity? I don't think people realize just how negatively that impacts

Not only their spiritual life but their absence from the gathering actually impacts the body

When you're not here We feel it. I Don't think people realize that when you're not here the body knows it

It would be as if I showed up this morning and my left arm had stayed home

Would you know it? I Would and we feel it and it hurts

It harms the body Maybe you're physically there

But you're merely that consumer that we spoke of not doing good to those of the household of faith notice though He says especially to the household of faith that statement proves

God's design of the local church That word for household actually implies a gathered people

Some people will read that passage and go Paul's talking about just the universal church I do good to all

Christians and he already said do good to everyone. I But that statement when you understand it

It actually is referring purely and simply to the covenant body of believers in a local gathering

Do you know that he says do good to everyone? but especially

Especially do these good things to these That's your primary focus

Christ Jesus has purchased us He's brought us into union with himself and with the triune

God this brought us into union with each other and this What he has built here is the very means that he has prescribed for you and I to express and to walk in that unity

Saying I know it can be tiresome. I know it can be difficult at times, but do not lose heart.

Do not grow weary Lean into the life of the body

Accepting the warts and all The shortcomings and the ugliness

Because Jesus Christ has fully embraced us you get that right you look at a church you go what ugliness

But Christ looks at it and goes what I have accepted it

I have forgiven I Love it This is his beautiful bride

He loved so much that he gave his life for her and has made her pure bathing her in his words and one day will present her spotless and without blemish and you and I Are not that bride

Sorry to tell you You're not that bride You're part of that bride the church is the bride of Christ Paul says in 1st

Corinthians 15, therefore my beloved brothers Be steadfast

Immovable Always abounding in the work of the

Lord knowing that in the Lord Your labor is not in vain we as a church will see seasons of abundance and seasons of drought

Mountaintop experiences and valley discouragements Great times of revival and ordinary common means of grace and in all of it your labor is not in vain for the

King Jesus is Building his church and not even the gates of hell will stand against it.

That's right So go in great confidence and do good to everyone especially those of this body

Let us once again lean into one of God's sanctifying common means of grace

Pointing us to our union with him and our subsequent union with each other the

Lord's Supper It is the first Sunday of the month and so we will partake together

You're in just one moment You will split the room go around Take of the wine and the bread and go back to your seat, but do not partake yet I'm gonna read the account of the

Last Supper and Matthew and we are going to partake together Let us pray Father.

Thank you Thank you for not leaving us to ourselves May we not grow weary of doing good

May We not be discouraged When things don't seem to go the way that we think they should go

Let us know that you You have sovereign plans and your ways are not our ways

For you have perfect ways in times of drought and difficulty and discouragement

Maybe the very thing that we need So that the idols in our hearts the things that we've placed above you the good things that we've made ultimate things

Would come crumbling down and the throne of our heart would once again be you reigning

May this supper May this sanctifying Ordinance be used in our soul today each one of us

To unify us together But to drive us back into commitment to you

Mold us through it May we see the glory of Christ and his sacrifice at the table