In Due Season We Shall Reap - Gal. 6:9

What is the real reward of Christianity?

Text: Gal. 6:9.
Why do you serve God? For the short-term "temporal" benefits you may receive, or is more involved?
Job was accused of serving God for what he could get out of it.
1. Satan asked cynically: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" (Job 1:9).
2. But God knew Job would be faithful to Him whether it was to Job's advantage in the short term or not.
  Cf. Job 1:1-2:10.
It is true that righteousness will be rewarded -- but the reward primarily has to do with heaven.
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart"
(Gal. 6:9).

The quality of character that Job is known for is the one we need.
1. Patience = the ability to endure, hold out, bear up, persevere.
2. The patient person takes the long view - e.g. the stock market investor.
  1. He is willing to wait for long-term results -- even when short-term events are discouraging.
  2. He is a person of trust -- he trusts what he knows about the future enough to not lose his head in the present.
3. Job was blessed for his endurance - Jas. 5:10,11.
4. When the nighttime closes in, we must not forget assurances the Lord has given us in the daytime!
Patience is one of the great biblical virtues - Hb. 6:11,12; 10:35-39. Cf. Mt. 24:13.
Jesus said, "By your patience possess your souls" (Lk. 21:19).

Those who work with living, growing things often know the most about patience and trust.
Patience: Farmers receive their reward only at the harvest, so they must be willing to wait for long-term results.
1. The farmer gives and gives -- getting nothing in return -- until the harvest.
2. Imagine a farmer who resented his "ungrateful" fields because he worked and worked for them, and they never reciprocated and gave anything to him until the whole growing season was over.
3. Cf. Jas. 5:7,8!
Trust: Farmers must be willing to trust the growing processes that have proven themselves in the past.
1. The farmer must not lose confidence in what he has planted -- if he does, he loses his harvest.
2. Imagine a farmer who, long before the harvest, grows impatient or worried that the crop he first planted is not producing anything.
  1. He anxiously tears up his fields and plants a different crop.
  2. Maybe he continues to change his mind and replant every few weeks all summer.
  3. What will he harvest? If anything at all, it will certainly not be the first thing he planted.
3. Cf. Gal 6:7-10!
We need to "cultivate" the patience and trust of the farmer.

Do you take a long-term or short-term view of God's blessings, the rewards of righteousness?
1. In the short term, doing what is right does not always "work," and God's will may not always be "effective" by our standards of judgment.
2. Solomon observed that in this life the race is not always to the swift - Eccl. 9:11.
We need to be careful not to take an accusing attitude toward God for His seeming indifference to our problems.
1. See, Lord, I tried Your way. And just as I expected, it didn't work! My problems are just as bad as they were, maybe worse. Trying to do the right thing has gotten me nothing but trouble.
2. This response to God is similar to that of Moses - Exo. 5:22,23.
If we do not have the patience to wait until the end of the story has been written, we ought not to draw premature conclusions about whether doing God's will "pays."
We must cultivate confidence in (1) God's grace - (2 Cor. 12:9) and (2) His faithfulness (Hb. 10:23).
Our main emphasis must be on the end of the story - Phil. 3:13,14; Col. 3:23,24; Hb. 12:1,2.
Heaven is worth whatever hardships and sacrifices we may endure in the short term - Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17. Cf. Phil. 3:7-11.

If Satan were allowed to take away, one by one, the temporal blessings God has allowed you to have, how many would have to be taken away before you quit serving God?
1. What does God have to give you in this life to keep you on His side? Is heaven blessing enough?
2. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him" (Job 13:15).
3. "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:25,26).
God can deliver us from hardship in this life -- but even if He does not, it is still worth it to serve Him. Cf. Dan. 3:16-18.
1. To Smyrna, Christ said, "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev. 2:10).
2. To Thyatira, Christ said, "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations" (Rev. 2:26).
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Cor. 15:58).
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart"
(Gal. 6:9).