Establish Your Hearts Series

We are officially 21 days away from Christmas morning. Anyone NOT have their Christmas tree up by now? Everyone else look around and take note of these people that might not love Jesus. We are officially in the thick of the Christmas season which I can’t even imagine given that it was just summer two weeks ago. And if you blink, you might miss Christmas because the month of December moves so quickly. And if there’s anything that I’ve learned in my nearly 49 laps around the sun, it’s that everyone needs to take a deep breath for what you’re about to experience. You’re going to have to squeeze in 3 Christmas programs for your kids or grandkids, you’re going to have to get together with relatives that might not even remember how you’re related, and you have to make sure that every little person is equally represented under the Christmas tree…you’re going to have to endure long lines and angry shoppers. Add on top of all the “fun” that Christmas brings, you undoubtedly are going to deal with the reminders of loss that come each Christmas. But here is one of the good gifts that God gives us, and that’s the gift of patience. Patience to endure the heavy work load and crazy schedule. Patience to endure long lines and your crazy Cousin Eddie. And patience to endure some of the overwhelming emotions that the Christmas season evokes.

And for you this morning, God in his sovereignty arranged our journey through the book of James so that he could help us build our way to patience NOW so that when it’s needed over the next few weeks, you’ll have some measure of patience. You see, patience isn’t like a light switch that can be turned on and off with the flick of a switch. Patience is cultivated in our hearts and grows in us as we grow in Christlikeness.

Turn with me to James 5 as we continue our series through the book of James. Today is our next to last message in this series leaving us just enough time to squeeze in a message with an actual Christmas theme in just a few weeks. James is beginning to wind down his letter and he’s ending on the same theme of suffering that he started with all the way back in chapter one. Remember, James was a pastor to Christians who were being persecuted, and today he leans into this idea of patience through suffering…and in just 5 short verses, he’s going to teach us how to cultivate a heart of patience.

James 5:7-11

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

In his book Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, Christopher J.H. Wright gives us two definitions of patience that are super helpful as we begin to wrap our minds around James’ counsel to us this morning:

• Patience is “the ability to put up with the weaknesses and foibles of others (including other believers), and to show forbearance toward them, without getting quickly irritated or angry enough to want to fight back.”

• Patience also is “the ability to endure for a long time whatever opposition and suffering may come your way, and to show perseverance without wanting retaliation or revenge.”

Basically, this author put PATIENCE into two categories – patience with people and patience with circumstances. And that’s exactly how James talks about patience in two ways in our text this morning, but he uses the same word to do so. The word is makrothumos and means: “patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness, perseverance, forbearance, longsuffering, slowness in avenging wrongs.” It’s the idea of being slow to anger or having a very long fuse. Those that know me up-close-and-personal can probably give testimony to the fact that I am NOT naturally a patient person. I don’t like waiting for things to happen…I want to make them happen. And for people like me, when this desire for things to happen quickly becomes an idol, then we respond sinfully to the people or circumstances that stand in the way (maybe through angry words…maybe through temper tantrums). But because Christ is in me, I’m not left to myself. Jesus gave me the Holy Spirit that gives me the ability to grow and change…that’s the hope of the gospel.