OUR NEED FOR RENEWAL
Text: Galatians 6:9-10 - “And let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we do not give out. As we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto all man, especially unto them that are of the household of faith (fellow Christians).
INTRODUCTION:
Sometime ago I was reading about the automobile races held at on TV of last year’s race. First, there was the start of the race. All of the hopeful drivers lined up and followed a lead car for two
laps around the track. The lead car then dropped out and the cars took off with a roar. Periodically the racers would leave the track for a pit stop. Before they came to a full stop, pit men would start cleaning the windshield, refueling, checking the tires and leaping out of the way as the driver
roared out to the race track again. Each driver had his own pit stop and pit men. Pit stops were places of renewal and were necessary to the success in the race.
There is a lesson here for us. In life’s race we need the spiritual pit stop where we may go for renewal, lest we grow weary in Christian activity and give out before the end of the course.
I. SPIRITUAL LET-DOWN IS NOT A NEW EXPERIENCE
Human strength gradually wears out. Spiritual strength also is in danger. This normal tendency makes productive ground for the
planting of ideas by the vitamin companies and health cults. Some years ago I answered an ad in a paper which promised to develop my muscles and make me a strong man in three months. With the course
came a gadget to help me. The lessons were easy at the beginning and became more difficult as they progressed, the sad part is that my strength gave out before I could become a strong man. My get up
and go, got up and went.
While it is necessary to take care of our health, get plenty of rest, eat the proper foods, exercise lest we wear out physically, we must take care of the spiritual man lest we wear our spiritually.
Spiritual weariness is as old as the human race beginning in the Garden of Eden and afflicting every generation since. It was
prevalent when Jesus came to earth. When our Lord saw the multitudes, he recognized the symptoms. It affected him so much that he cried out, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest.” When the future looked so uncertain to the disciples he said, “Don’t worry, your Heavenly Father knows about your needs.” Some years later Simon Peter writing to a persecuted congregation said, “Be constantly casting all your anxieties on Christ for He cares for you.”
Paul did not want his churches to show symptoms of spiritual weariness. So much depended upon their faithfulness. Writing to the Galatians he said, “Let us not grow weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap, if we do not give out.” Paul followed his own advice. He suffered for Christ. He was beaten but his persecutors couldn’t beat Christianity out of him. He was stoned,shipwrecked, endured hunger and thirst, suffered from the cold, was in sever pain but he did not back down or give out. He found the place of renewal. It was in Christ and instead of complaining he cried out “I can do all things through Christ giving me strength.”
II. SPIRITUAL ENERGY IS NEVER IN SHORT SUPPLY
A.J. Gordon tells of an American and an Englishman viewing the Niagara Falls rapids. Pointing to the rapids, the American said, “here is the greatest unused power in the world.” “Not so”, said the Englishman. “The greatest unused power in this world is the Holy Spirit of God”.
Before Jesus went back to Heaven, he called his disciples about him and gave them their commission, to carry his Gospel into all the
world. It must have looked to them like “Mission Impossible”. Had Jesus told them only to go, it would have been impossible, but he told them to return to Jerusalem and stay until they were endured with
power from him on high. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and he enabled them to carry out their “Great Commission”. The same divine enablement is a “must” for every Christian today, and is available as it was then.
God longs to meet us in the peace of renewal. The time spent there is not lost time. He wants us to make our requests known unto him. How pleased He must be when we come to Him for a time of
fellowship, when we just want to be near Him. S.D. Gordon says,“there are three keys that will unlock the innermost chambers of friendship with God. A key time, a key book, and a key word. The
key time is time spent alone with God with the door closes to outside things. In the shut-in place God will reveal himself to us. Here he will instruct, strengthen, sweeten us. The key book is the Bible. Reading and listening to God speaking through his word. The key word is obedience which is saying yes to God in regard to his will. As David once wrote, “The friendship of the Lord is with them that reverently love him”. But:
III. If we would keep intimate friendship with the Lord, we must keep on praying ground. We must guard against that critical spirit which saps the warmth from Christian fellowship and get us off of praying ground. Friendship with the world will do it. Jealously will do it, self seeking, self asertion, wrong ambition,over anxiety, uncontrolled temper,pride, stubbornness, desire to get even, hatred, unbelief, dishonesty, robbing God of the tithe. All of these are hindrances to being on praying ground and we must seek the place of renewal daily. J. Hudson Taylor once said, “All of God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God, for they reckoned on him for strength and he did not let them down.”.
Praying Ground. Are you on it? God was with Hudson Taylor because he lived in the presence of God. He found his power there. Free from anxiety, connected to the power, supported by divine strength.
IV. We may use the resources of God for doing good. “As we therefore have opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are the household of faith” - Galatians 6:10
(Fellow Christians)
“Ye shall receive power”. The promise stills stands connected to the power”. We can do all things through Christ giving us strength.
It is the everyday life after our surrender to God where the real battle takes place, but near to the heart of God is our place of renewal. Our Lord’s presence and always available help will provide a daily refreshing to meet our need.
I once read of a little girl who used to annoy the guests of a hotel with her practice on the piano each afternoon. It was monotonous for the child but maddening for the guests. One day a musician heard the complaints. He walked over and sat besides the little girl. As she practiced her simple exercises he began to weave around and through them great and beautiful harmonies and as they played together, the guest came back to listen.
So our Great Master will come into our lives and take our feeble efforts and weave in them and through them high and holy purposes that will lift us up in His likeness, and all will hear the message of divine love and see it demonstrated in our humble efforts. “Let us not be weary in well doing for we shall reap if we do not give out”.
