Introduction: The Call Not to Faint
I want to bring to you a message I've entitled "A Billion Reasons Not to Give Up."
Galatians 6:9 — just one verse, where the Apostle Paul says, And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
The original King James says "if we don't faint." It carries the connotation of somebody running a race — perhaps they get halfway, two-thirds of the way through this long-distance race, and then they just quit. They just stop. Maybe it's pressing through the exhaustion or the pain. There are times that we feel pain and we're exhausted, and we have a tendency to want to draw back from the work that God has entrusted into our hands.
But there's an incredible promise given to us. First of all, there's an admonition: don't grow weary in doing good. For in due season — in the proper time, in God's timing — we will reap if we don't lose heart.
Why Do People Lose Heart?
So the question arises: why do people lose heart? Why do they faint? Why do they quit? People who knew the redemption of Christ. People who have been given the Spirit of God. People who know the truth of God's Word. People who have at least a sense of what our commission is on the earth.
We're not here to live for ourselves any longer. As we teach here in our Bible school, the purest expression of the Christian life is found in living for the benefit of others. That's what our Savior did for us, and we've been commissioned to do that for the sake of others. And while we are on that journey, Jesus Christ promises that he will give us all that we need. He'll give us comfort in times of sorrow. He'll give us his strength in times of weakness. He'll give us his encouragement in times of discouragement. He'll keep us going. He'll keep us running for a divine reason — reaching those that are lost, because that is the mission of Jesus Christ on the earth.
Reason 1: No Vision for the Future
People lose heart because they have no vision for life in the future. Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no vision, the people perish. The King James says they cast off restraint. They turn to self-focus, or they become disillusioned. Where there's no vision — what is my life? What is the purpose of my life? What is the purpose of God? Help me to understand why I'm here. When we lose the vision of God for the future of our own lives, it is inevitable that we are going to lose heart.
Reason 2: Constant Complaining
People lose heart when they fall into constant complaining about the present. Psalm 77:3 — the psalmist says, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.
If you want to sink your own boat — if you want to drill a hole in the bottom of your own boat in the middle of the ocean — start complaining, and your boat's going to fill and you're going to go down. We have to learn not to complain.
Listen, it might be tough, but you're not going to hell. I'm talking to the Christians. It might be tough. I used to say to the choir in New York City: if you're going through hell, just be thankful you're not staying there. You're going through. You're going to come out the other side, and heaven is your eternal home.
There is no guarantee in the Word of God that everything is going to be easy. You're going to be opposed. You have an enemy in this world. There are going to be things said, things done. There's going to be exhaustion, all kinds of things coming your way. But don't fall into complaining. A complainer not only sinks his or her own boat, but they sink everybody else's boat around them.
To me, complaint is the opposite of faith. Complaint is the absence of seeing God. I would rather be an optimist. I would rather live on the side of "it's going to work out," because that's what God says is going to happen.
The Bible does say all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Not so
