Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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I’ve been talking these last few weeks about missions. God has called us not only to the Great Commission, but to serve others. It’s so easy to get discouraged as we seek to do the work of the church. We start to ask ourselves, “Is our mission impossible?” We try to be be faithful, but we often don’t see the outcomes that we desire. But it shouldn’t have to be this way. We should be full of joy as we serve! Furthermore, the Bible tells us the kind of results we can expect when we serve others.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who 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, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal 6:7-10 NIV)

God created us to do good works (v. 9a, Ephesians 2:10). Our temporal jobs are only temporal. Our eternal occupation is to glorify God. We do these works not to earn salvation, but out of love knowing that He has saved us. But we tend to forget that. We naturally begin to forget the joy of our salvation. And when our joy fades, our motivation for doing good is gone. Hang on to your joy! Remind yourself of your salvation. Remind yourself of the future harvest.

The harvest will only come if we persevere in doing good to those around us (v. 9b). Notice how important it is to serve people in love. This passage doesn’t mention evangelism. It talks about how our doing good will bring about a harvest. Obviously our witness must be verbal as well. If we don’t tell people about Jesus, they will not come to believe in Him. But we often underestimate our important loving people through service is. God will bring many to saving faith in Christ. But we have to wait on the Lord’s timing. We must never give up.

But what happens if we do give up? (v. 7-8) In 1962, Sweden only had one tv station, and it was broadcast in black and white. Citizens couldn’t wait to have color tv. So on April Fool’s Day, the station announced a way to view the channel in color: stretch a stocking over the tv set, and sway your head from side to side. Thousands of people admitted to falling for their April Fool’s Day joke.

It’s fun to play a trick on others, right? Some people actually make money by tricking others. But we must never attempt to trick or mock God. Yet people try to do it all the time. They say He doesn’t exist. They try to get away with sin. A better translation of the first phrase in v. 7 would be “Stop deceiving yourselves.” It’s not just others who attempt to trick God. We do it, too. We deceive ourselves when we say we believe in God, but don’t act like it. The final outcome, however, is that God is just, and you can’t trick God. If a person sins, he will receive the penalty for sin. If a person lives to by the Spirit, he will receive eternal life You reap what you sow.

The application of this principle, therefore, is to not grow weary in doing good. Dr. Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, once said, “The Christian life is a busy life.” We are all busy people. We are either busy doing God’s agenda, or our own agenda. Our mission to reach the lost is not impossible, but we must be diligent to serve God by serving others. We must never give up the confidence that God will use us.