Weariness Does Not Happen on the Outside, It Happens on the Inside

Sermon outline

God grows a believer through salvation, then long and painful preparation, then service, again and again at new levels; His chastening and pruning are love, not punishment, and we must stay connected to the vine, refuse stagnation and make the Holy Spirit our confidant when weariness comes from within.

1. Be strong and of good courage

   Courage is the mental and moral strength to persevere and withstand danger, fear and difficulty. God repeatedly had to encourage His people when the challenges came. A diagnosis you did not expect or something that derails you through no fault of your own does not change the command: be strong and of good courage, for He will not fail you or forsake you. God takes our situations as a holy seed for what He does next.

   “The Christian life is not a life that is going to be sitting on the chairs.”

   • Joshua 1:9
   • Deuteronomy 31:6

2. God makes you uncomfortable to move you

   Stagnation is a state of no flow, movement or growth. If you are comfortable and things are wonderful, you may be stagnant, because God makes you uncomfortable when He wants to shift you to something greater. Resisting the change is resisting God.

   Illustration: A child resists getting up for school, then resists homework, then resists going to bed early instead of playing games. Each discipline is hard but necessary, and parents relearn maths alongside them.

   “God makes you uncomfortable when he wants to shift you to something new.”

3. Step one is salvation, and for many it ends there

   The first gust of wind is wonderful and you tell everyone what Jesus did, but later many sit in church weary, disgusted and tired, decide God does not love them, feel sorry for themselves and relegate themselves to stagnation, going round and round. Letting God, not the world, define who you are is the first form of growth. He heals the broken-hearted and binds their wounds, and His plans are to give you a future and a hope.

   “Letting God and not the world define who you are is the first form of growth.”

   • Romans 12:2
   • Psalm 147:3
   • Jeremiah 29:11

4. The chastening of the Lord is not punishment

   Chastening is designed to burn out self-dependence: God allows a situation where plans A to Z all fail, bringing us to our knees where we should have been in the first place. Whom the Lord loves He corrects; the trouble you are in is training, not punishment, and only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Punishment is a consequence for wrongdoing; chastening is discipline meant to correct, direct and refine. Ask, "Lord, what are you trying to show me?" rather than turning cynical, angry or bitter.

   Illustration: Children push the peas and carrots around the plate and refuse to eat them, but the parent keeps insisting because they know what is good for them. That is exactly what God is doing.

   “The chastening of the Lord is not punishment. It is discipline that we need to learn.”

   • Romans 8:28
   • 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
   • Hebrews 12:6-11
   • Proverbs 3:11-12

5. Stay connected to the vine

   The Father prunes every fruitful branch so it bears more, at twenty, forty, sixty or eighty. Do not mistake success, money, career or notoriety for the fruit; those are by-products, and we are stewards. Often when the blessing comes people shave time off church and responsibilities, and the job becomes their god; then God may allow trouble at work to bring them back. A branch severed from the vine bears nothing, and there is no version of Christianity where you drop a religious card on Sunday and say two amens.

   “At any point in our lives, if we start severing ourselves from the vine, even the fruit that we once had will end up.”

   • John 15:1-8

6. Preparation, then service, then again

   Step two is preparation, a long, hard and necessary process; step three is service; then more preparation and more service at each new level. He believes the church itself is in a season of pruning to bear more fruit, preparing for a hybrid church with campuses in several provinces. The devil comes when you are hurt, tired, sick or after a fight with your spouse, so the response must be God, not self-reliance. You can tell a season of pruning by loss: of finances, position, influence, business, relationship or opportunity.

   Illustration: God sets you in a job and you declare it a blessing and refuse to bow to the situation; then the agency phones offering one and a half times your salary. "Now, which sounds like God?"

   “The weariness doesn't always happen on the external. It happens on the inside.”

   • Hebrews 12:12-13

7. In a moment, God can change it

   Your confidant should not be the aunt down the road or the friend you grew up with but the Holy Spirit. He tells of a pastor from another church who had preached himself to the bone and struggled for six or seven years, until on a ministry trip to Kenya he heard a South African worship song by a local pastor, played it for the next twenty-four hours, and was healed in a moment. Being a disciple means creating the avenue for God to work. Stop looking at church in the traditional sense: God will use you at work, to lay hands on the sick, and even to bring deliverance to those who mock you.

   “Disciple means create the avenue for God to work.”

In this message