Don’t Give Up
Selected Passages
August 24, 2002
Introduction
A man decided to join a monastery and one of the rules of the group was that you were only allowed to speak two words every ten years. At the end of ten years he said, "Bad food!"
Ten more years went by and he said, "Hard bed!"
Finally, on his 30th anniversary with the brothers, he thundered, "I quit!" And the priest in charge responded, "You might as well. All you do is complain anyway."
Our society is filled with people who are just giving up on everything from their jobs to their marriages. We live in a society that just simply quits when the going gets tough and is constantly encouraging us to do the same thing. This morning I want to encourage you to stick it out and not try stopping.
Body
I. God offers a Reason
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 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. 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. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:7-10
A. We reap what we sow
1. When nothing is sown, nothing is reaped
a.) No effort means: no return. The simple fact is nothing plus nothing is still nothing.
b.) The sad fact is that our Christian lives are the same way. We expect that we will grow in our faith if do nothing. We don’t pray. We don’t study. We don’t put our hearts into worship or serving. Put nothing into your walk with Christ and you’ll get nothing out of your walk with Christ
2. When we sow good, we will reap good
a.) Farm Illustration
1.) How many times does a farmer sow corn and get wheat? Sow wheat and get soybeans? Sow soybeans and get alfalfa?
2.) How can we as Christians sow seeds of bitterness and reap peace? Sow seeds of discord and reap unity? Sow seeds of doubt and reap faith?
b.) What we sow is as important as sowing in the first place
B. We reproduce what we are
1. We give what we are
a.) No one can give what they do not have and no can give direction when they do not know the way. It is impossible for someone who is not a Christian to share the Christian faith because they don’t have it.
b.) Take a good look at yourself because this is what you are giving to others
2. God wants more
a.) God literally wants you to give Him everything that you are to become all that you can be. It is an all or nothing deal
b.) God cannot work in those areas of your life that you do not give over to Him.
II. God offers a Route
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14
A. We need to forget our past
1. The past cannot be changed
a.) The past is set in stone and there is no changing it. What’s done is done.
b.) The past holds all of your failures. All of the times that you’ve blown it. When looking at our failures we have two choices: repeat your failures over and over or learn from those failures
Q – How can we move beyond our failure when we hang on to them?
2. The past cannot be re-lived
a.) The past is not a place that you can live. The “good old days” cannot be regained. The past is water under the bridge.
b.) The past holds all of your successes. All of those times that you accomplished more than you thought possible. When looking at our successes we have two choices: you can try to re-live your past or you can build on the successes to discover new ones.
Q – How can we find new success for God’s kingdom when we dwell on the old successes?
B. We need to focus on our future
1. The future holds all new things
a.) The future is completely new. In some ways this is scary and in other ways it is totally thrilling.
b.) The future is filled with new opportunities and new challenges that must be faced
Q – How can we take new ground for Christ if we give up?
2. The future is for us
a.) God has given us each day, so that we can seize it and make the most of it for His kingdom
b.) The future must be sought. We have been called to search out the plan of God and do our very best to live it each day
Q – How can we ever find God’s best if we give up?
C. We need to forge our way ahead
Life is meant to be lived!
a.) We cannot live life in a status quo mentality. We have been called to make progress in this life until we reach the next life.
b.) We must be continually moving forward and striving to grow closer to God. We must move forward in our efforts. We must move forward in our enthusiasm. We must move forward in our expectations.
III. God offers a Reward
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
A. Time to start running
1. Every believer is in the race
Never stop trying and never try stopping – Dolly Parton
a.) The race has started and you’re in it. Now you have to decide if you want to stay in it and how much effort you are going to give to it.
b.) The fact is that the race gets hard and there are times that we want to quit. “Never stop running”
2. Not every believer is running to win
a.) The race is going and you’re running but are you running to win? Are you giving your best to the race or are you just in the race?
b.) There is a price to be paid to be a champion for Christ. Are you paying the price?
B. The prize is before us
1. The reward of heaven
a.) Heaven is going to be a marvelous place. It will be a place of peace. It will be a place of people. It will be a place of permanence.
b.) Heaven is the reward of those who stay in the race and refuse to quit.
2. The reward of service: Two questions of God
a.) Why should I let you into my heaven?
b.) Who did you bring with you?
Conclusion
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.
But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.
And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth."
The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits.
God will never be able to do anything through your life if you quit. Never stop trying and never try stopping.
