Patience! Series

Patience of Job

James 5:7-11

August 13, 2023

Patience is not one of my virtues. I really struggle with being patient! For those of you who are not so patient, doesn’t it drive you crazy when people are patient? It’s like . . . how can you just be calm? I wish I could do that, but that might make me impatient.

I think God was testing me this week when I was driving. I was at a red light, about the 5th car in the turn lane. The light turned green and nobody moved. I thought to myself, “the light’s not getting any greener.” And I missed the light! UGH!!

Well, we’re moving towards the end of our time in the book of James. And today’s message deals in part, with patience. So yes, I’m preaching to myself, and I can’t wait until this is over.

If you took a test to determine your level of patience, how would you score? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself, and how would your spouse rate you? Pick a number . . . and hurry up!

However you scored yourself on that, James can help us.

Two weeks ago, you’ll recall in the first part of James 5, James didn’t have anything good to say, especially when it came to the wealthy people. They were being rebuked because of their love of money, greed and possessions. They were committing sinful acts against the good guys, the poorer folks.

Today, we’re going to look at James 5:7-12 as James now addresses these good guys – the people who were being treated unfairly. In this text James is essentially saying, “Having addressed the rich, now I want to talk to you poor people — you guys who have been condemned and unjustly treated.”

With that in mind, let’s look at James 5, beginning in verse 7 - - - -

7 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.

11 Behold, 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.

12 But above all, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

I believe this second part of James’ fifth chapter is an important text for us to study because, like those victims of the rich in James’ day, we live in an unfair world — a world where the nightly news is filled with stories of UNFAIRNESS.

Watch the news, and each story deals with some sort of tragedy. It could be politics, it could be shootings, death, accidents, natural disasters, acts of terror. There seems to be a lot of unfairness around us.

Unfairness is everywhere.

And, to bring it closer to home I’m sure you have no trouble thinking of times when you had to endure what seemed to be unfair hardship. Whether it’s your children coming home from school in tears after being snubbed by their supposed friends or it’s job related unfairness, or having to find money for an unexpected car repair or trying to make ends meet because you became sick.

Maybe it’s a loved one who is sick, or you’ve received news about yourself. I mean the truth is UNFAIR trials big and small are indeed an inevitable part of life.

On top of that, it seems that the good people face unjust, unscrupulous people and those not so good people seem to skate by. And we question where God is in the midst of our suffering . . . .

. . . . and being patient, geesh, that’s not so easy!!

And sometimes it feels like we’re being persecuted. It feels like the world’s against us, and it’s easy to fall into a woe is me attitude, which doesn’t help. It leads to bad attitudes, and I really believe it leads us further from God, because the world would have us direct our anger at God. God is the culprit and we can make God our adversary.

But that’s not so. So, James gives us some help - - - -