By Bobby Morgenthaler, MBC Bethesda Student Ministry Future Leader

I’ve often wondered if a boxer’s sparing partner is allowed to say when to make the pummeling stop?  Interestingly, sparring partner is the title that often comes to mind when I think about my experience as a future leader, although, I’m not sure if know if being a sparing partner is even the best way to describe the Future Leader experience.  That title alone is misleading because of what it implies.  That would imply that every so often we get to swing back.  Swing back? …Ha!  No.  There’s no fighting back here.  In fact, for many of us Future Leaders, 2010 has been “the year of the beat down”.  It seems as though the hits keep coming and even when the white flag has been waved often the hits appear to come faster and with more destructive power than previous to surrendering!

Still, the weeks keep rolling on… We’ve been challenged, we’ve been stretched, we’ve been pushed to our limit, we’ve been worked, worked and worked some more and we’ve finally been broken in… I think.  At least we can praise the Lord (a bittersweet praise) that we’ve made it a third of the way through our commitment to serve here at McLean Bible Church because most of us are growing very weary.  In fact, there has been much debate, mostly amongst the Future Leaders, as to worth of all this “abuse”.  Is all of this worth it—the toil, the frustration, the anxiety of pleasing all of our managers?  Is there really light at the end of the tunnel?

Well, deep down we do think it’s worth it.  And earlier this week I think I found the light.  It seemed to come at peculiar time but it was a divine timing to say the least, and the main way I was encouraged was that I finally able to get my heart’s focus back on what I, and many of the other Christians in general, tend to loose sight of when we are so immersed in serving that it’s hardly worth calling service at all!  This encouragement came in the form of a sermon from John Piper entitled, Do Not Grow Weary in Well-Doing.  I’ve attached a small except below for you to see what I mean.  The passage he is referring to here is Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  I hope it’s as encouraging for you to read as it was for me. 

Probably the worst enemy of enthusiasm is time. Human beings have a remarkable and sad capacity for getting tired of wonderful things. Almost every one of you can think of something you were enthusiastic about recently, but now the joy is faded. Your first day of vacation on the coast the sunset was breathtaking and made you so happy you could sing. But by the end of your stay you hardly noticed it any more. Vacationers get tired of sunsets, millionaires get tired of money, kids gets tired of toys, and Christians get tired of doing good. At first the excitement of teaching that Sunday School class was strong, but now you have grown weary of well-doing. The thrill is gone. At first you felt clean and strong in the Holy Spirit as you drove the van, taught the Lao English, led the small group, visited the newcomers, started reading the Bible, worked in the emergency shelter . . . but now you have grown weary in well-doing. The inner power and joy have seeped away. It’s a chore. You’ve lost heart.

But Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” It doesn’t mean, of course, that you can never stop one job and start another. If you ask what the well-doing is that we must not tire of, probably the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. is the best answer: don’t grow weary of being patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled. Don’t grow weary of manifesting your peace and joy in all kinds of acts of love to your neighbors and associates and family. In short, don’t lose heart in spending yourself through love, because if you do, the works of the flesh take over, and Paul says in 5:21, “Those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom.” Or, as Paul says in 6:8, if you stop sowing to the Spirit and sow to your own flesh, you will not reap eternal life, but eternal corruption.

This is very controversial. Let it sink in. What is at stake in this text is eternal life; not merely sanctification, but also final salvation. Whether you go to heaven or whether you go to hell depends in some way on whether you grow weary in well-doing or not. The text is addressed to the church. Listen carefully, and note how the thought moves from verse 8 to verse 9: “He who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not (therefore!) grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” You will reap eternal life, if you sow to the Spirit, that is, if you don’t grow weary in well-doing. Because of texts like these I understand my role as a pastor-teacher to be not merely a means to your sanctification, but also a means to your salvation. This text is written to help bring the saints of Galatia to final salvation, eternal life. Therefore, a sermon from this text to the saints at Bethlehem should also aim to help bring you to final salvation or eternal life.

Piper, John.  Do Not Grow Weary in Well-Doing. Desiringgod.org. 8/21/1983. 11/6/2010.