God's Patience Series

INTRODUCTION

 A man’s car stalled in the heavy traffic as the light turned green. All his efforts to start the engine failed, and a chorus of honking behind him made matters worse. He finally got out of his car and walked back to the first driver and said, "I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to get my car started. If you’ll go up there and give it a try, I’ll stay here and blow your horn for you.

 Did you hear about the teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on? He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn’t want to go on.

 When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off then it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren’t my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn’t you say so?" like she wanted to. Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear them." She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

 How many of you like to wait on things? How many times have we wanted something to happen, but got impatient because it did not happen now!

 Patience can sometimes be hard to muster.

 As we continue to look at some of the attribute of our awesome God, we are going to look at an attribute that we would do well to pick up on in our own life. This attribute is PATIENCE.

 Today we are going to see that God is patient, not indifferent. We will look at the motivation for God’s patience and we will see the blessing of God’s patience for us.

SERMON

I. GOD IS PATIENT NOT INDIFFERENT 3-9

A. Patience is not indifference v3-4

 A French proverb says, "Laziness is often mistaken for patience." Perhaps the opposite is also true; patience is often mistaken for laziness. A mother once chided her doctor, when her daughter was ill and she was worried. "Why don’t you do something?" she asked. "I am doing something," replied the doctor. "I am waiting." Many of us have trouble determining when we are being patient and when we are being lazy.

 This book was written within 30 years of the resurrection and the people then were thinking that God was not going to do anything. Can you imagine how it is today, over 2000 years since the resurrection?

 Peter tells us that in the last days (in which we have been living since the resurrection of Jesus) that people would say that God is not going to do anything.

 Even those who are Christians really do not expect Jesus to return anytime soon. We tend to think that of something does not happen now, it will not happen.

 The sad thing is that these people who were mocking God are the very people who do not want Him to come yet because they are not ready for Jesus to return.

 The Second Coming of Jesus was preached often by the Christian preachers of the early church, Matthew and the other gospel writers wrote about it when Jesus told them He was going to return. Paul and Peter wrote about the Second Coming.

B. God is all-powerful v5-7

 Peter is telling those who would question God that things have not always continued on their natural course. He points out to a historical event; the flood to show that God does what He says. Peter says that these people have conveniently forgot this fact. This was a fact that they were willingly ignoring to promote their false teaching.

 God created everything from nothing; He can wipe it out whenever He chooses to.

 God is holding it all together until the Day of Judgment. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that He upholds all things by the power of His word!

 God exercised that judgment once with the flood of Noah’s day.

 The same word that created the earth, the same word that destroyed that world by water is the same word that is holding it all together for the time in which it will all be destroyed by fire at judgment time.