Be Patient, Brothers! Series

INTRO.- ILL.- More and more doctors are running their practices like an assembly lines. One fella walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles." So she took down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.

Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aid came out and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."

So she took down his height, weight, a complete medical history and told him to wait in the examining room. A half-hour later a nurse came in and asked him what he had. He said, "Shingles."

So she gave him a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, told him to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor. An hour later the doctor came in and asked him what he had.

He said, "Shingles." The doctor said, "Where?" He said, "Outside in the truck. Where do you want them?"

There may be two ways to look at this. First, that delivery man’s patience was certainly tested. Second, he wasn’t very smart or else he would have explained what kind of shingles he had.

Life is full of situations that test our patience. How about traffic? How about waiting at long traffic lights? How about people who drive through stop lights? How about waiting in a doctor’s office or a dentist office for hours? How about waiting in line to checked out on a busy day in the grocery store? How about making a long distance to call some company to get some information and they keep you on the phone, waiting for 30 minutes or more?

Life itself tests our patience. Don’t you get tired of being tired? Don’t you tired of this world? Don’t you get upset and angry at all the horrendous crimes that take place in our world and in America? Don’t you wish these things could come to an end? Don’t you wish at times that the Lord would come back and call an end to this sin-filled world? And do you know what is the last prayer recorded in the Bible?

Revelation 22:20 “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

Can you pray that prayer and mean it? I have often felt that way but God knows best and does best. And apparently, the only reason He hasn’t sent Jesus back yet is because He is patiently waiting for more people to come to Christ and be saved. HE IS PATIENT BUT WE ARE NOT!

And doesn’t His patience tell us something about life? It tells me once again there is more to life than this life and God will set all things straight, He will correct all errors, He will make everything right in the next life. We may suffer for a season but there is a greater and better and longer season coming!

PROP.- This text tells us what it takes to be patient in this life.

1- Consider the farmer

2- Don’t grumble

3- Remember Job

I. CONSIDER THE FARMER

7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. See how the farmer waits.

ILL.- Some years ago, a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa. It reported that production of a hundred bushels of corn from one acre of land required 4,000,000 lbs. of water, 6,800 lbs. of oxygen, 5,200 lbs. of carbon, 160 lbs. of nitrogen, 125 lbs. of potassium, 75 lbs. of yellow sulphur, and other elements too numerous to list.

In addition to these ingredients are required rain and sunshine at the right times. Although many hours of the farmer’s labor are also needed, it was estimated that only 5 percent of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts of man.

It could be. If this is true then it’s a matter of a farmer waiting on rain and sunshine to produce the crop. IT’S A MATTER OF WAITING! If a farmer can wait patiently for a good crop why can’t we do the same?

Even though this world is not always a nice place to live and there are many evil things going on, we must wait on the Lord. We may well want the Lord to come back, stop sin and evil, end of all suffering, and take us to heaven BUT WE MUST WAIT!

ILL. - During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives: “On May 19th, 1780 the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Stopping a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, ‘The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.’”