Don't Grow Weary // Run the Race to the End, Part 2

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

I don’t know about you, but it’s easy to get tired of life. To just – well, I’ve had it. I’m sick of always being the good guy. Don’t you get it, I’m tired. Hmm. Well God – yeah, God actually does get it.

The last couple of weeks on the program we've been talking about running the race in order to win the prize. Not some foot race or a horse race or a car race. But the race of life. The life that God set before each one of us. But along the way there can be many distractions. Things that cause us to pull over or to turn back and one of those is other people behaving badly.

Happens so often. This is how it works. Someone like you or me, we decide to run our race for God. Somewhere along our path we've met this Jesus and from deep within our hearts, we've reached out to Him and so has begun, the race of a lifetime. A race begun with all the best intentions.

But then what we notice is this. There are people around us who aren't behaving the way they ought to be. Even people who claimed to be running this same Jesus race as we are. Sometimes it's especially those people in Gods family who seem to be behaving so badly. And that gets to us. They hurt us. And then there's the temptation to give them what they deserve. To behave as badly towards them as they've been behaving toward us.

And before we know it, we're just like them. Exactly like them. And then we meet someone who's just started the race over here and the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

Kind of depressing huh? So many people start running the grace race, the race of faith, and they discover it's hard. It's tough. There are circumstances. There are people. And they all seem to conspire against us. It's not quite what we expected. And you know the bit that really gets me. It's when other people start behaving badly.

I remember quite a few times along my journey. In my "grace race". My race of faith. Where other Christians, people more mature. At least they should have been than me. People who'd been walking with God much longer than me. People who should have known better. They seem to want to drag me down.

I'm completely sold out. I don't do things by half measures. It's just the person I am. When I gave my life to Jesus, I gave Him the lot. But then, along the way, I met people who were luke warm. People who made compromises in their lives. People who are into petty bickering and back biting. People who wanted me to descend to that level and carry brand 'Christian' around on their terms. People who'd reject me. People who deliberately set out to hurt me.

To tell you the truth, in my early days as a Christian I oft times wondered whether there was something wrong with me. I had this deep passion for Jesus. This desire to make a difference. A heart to use the few things that God had put into my hand for others.

Now please don't get me wrong. I make so many mistakes along the way. I stumble over here and get up and ask for Gods forgiveness and dust myself off and get on with it. We're all on a journey. We're all running that race. But it seems to me that there are two sorts of people on that race track. Those that are completely sold out to Jesus and those that aren't. And there are more in the second category than there are in the first.

And so it's easy to slow down. To get with a pack. To compromise. To lose the fire in our hearts. To lose the passion for Jesus for a lost and hurting world. And before we know it, we're back where we started. We're just like anyone else in this world. You wake up one day and you realise the race you started with such great intentions and enthusiasm. If you're really honest, I've given up.

I want to share something with you today that the apostle Paul wrote about that very thing. Have a listen. It comes from his letter to the Galatian Church, chapter 6, beginning at verse 7. He said,

Don't be deceived. God isn't mocked. Whatever you reap you will sow. If you sow to your own selfish flesh you will reap corruption from the flesh but if you sow to the spirit, you'll reap eternal life in the spirit. So let's not grow weary in doing what's right for we will reap at harvest time, if we don't give up. So then, whenever you have an opportunity work for the good of all, especially of those in the family of faith.

Now the bit of that that really cuts to the quick is the bit about not growing weary in doing what's right. For at harvest time we will reap if we don't give up. See, when someone gets angry at me and nasty towards us. At first, well maybe at first, we try and deal with them lovingly with good intentions, you know. I believe in Jesus, I'm supposed to love everyone and so I'll cop it sweet for a little while and I'll do the right thing, right?

But after a while, when they keep on, they keep on, it wears us down. You get sick and tired of it and one day something snaps. That's it! I've had enough! And so we give them a serve. We start treating them the way they've been treating us. It becomes about winning. Why do we do that? Why did we stop running the race of love and sacrifice that Jesus called us to? Simple. We grew weary. We had enough. We're sick and tired of them.

Now I don't know where you are in your faith. I don't want to assume that you're completely sold out to Jesus the way I am. Maybe you are, maybe you're not. Maybe you're much stronger in your faith than I am. I don't know. Wherever you are, my hunch is that the things we're talking about, they're kind of true in your heart too, aren't they? We can all relate to this.

Let me state it plain and simple. God's an amazing God. He loves us so dearly. He sent His Son to pay the price for all our sin and rebellion and mistakes. And when we put our trust in Him not only do we get an eternal life but we get a new life. A fresh start. Slate wiped clean. Here and now. And part of living that new life of freedom is discovering that, well there's a better way to live life. A way that works so much better than the old way. But it involves sacrifice. There's a cost. And yet the prize, the prize is a freedom and a joy and a peace that words simply can't describe.

But some days, we're going to grow tired. We're going to grow tired of making the sacrifices. Of biting our lip instead of lashing out. Of praying Gods blessing on our enemies. We want to give up. Because taking up our cross and following Jesus, like He told us to, man it hurts some days.

And that's where so many people who started that race with all the best intentions, pull over by the wayside and just plain give up. And then we wonder, 'Why isn't this Christianity thing working for me? Jesus promised so much.' Well let me give you Paul’s advice again. It's clear. It's unmistakable. Let it ravage your heart today.

Let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap, at harvest time, if we do not give up.

And the very next time you feel like giving people their just desserts, listen to this very next verse. Galatians chapter 6, verse 10:

So then, whenever we have an opportunity let us work for the good of all, especially those of the family of faith.

Run the race. Win the prize. When you grow tired just remember Gods word. Keep going. Keep sowing into the spirit and not into the selfishness. Because just at the right time, at harvest time, we will reap the rewards. That's the promise. The reward that God always planned for our lives.