Please Be Patient

Please Be Patient

James 5:7-12

May 24, 1998

Introduction

I. Young Man seeking patience

II. Patience Testers

* Long lines at the grocery

* Having someone pull out in front of you on the highway and then drive extremely slow

* Children who refuse to go to sleep

* Slow service in the McDonald’s drive through

* Long winded preachers who talk way too long

* Waiting for hours at the doctor’s office

III. Key understanding about patience

A. Patience is born out of adversity: Patience does not come to those who have no trouble, patience is the result of waiting for God in trials, patience comes into being after we watch and wait,

B. Patience takes time to develop: Patience is not acquired overnight, it is not a quick fix in the life of a person, patience takes long hours of pain and hardship to develop

C. Patience is a difficult process: Patience is not for the timid or the weak, patience is a process and a hard one, patience is a key virtue in the life of a Christian

Read James 5:7-12

Main Sermon

I. Patient in Work

A. Work of God

1. God is at work: James called to be patient, times of trial and distress, God never stops doing His work, we fail to see it, we are to be patient until God’s work is done, “Don’t judge the Lord by his unfinished work. Be patient till he unveils the perfect pattern in glory. Await the “end of the Lord.” - F.B. Meyer, the work of God is done when - a. we die and go on to be with Jesus, b. Jesus comes back, this is our hope and our joy,

2. Our role:

A. Hebrews 11:13 “All of these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. God is doing his work and His will by His timing, we are seeing His work unfold in our lives and in the church, Rain falls on the crops and God sends the rain at the needed times,

B. The lost sheep: The sheep lost in the cliffs, shepherd hears the sheep crying but does not go and get it for several days, then goes and gets the sheep when it is totally weakened by its exposure, if the shepherd tries before the sheep is not weakened it will jump off of the ledge and die, when it is totally reliant on the shepherd then he can do his work

C. Maxwell’s Law: Nothing is as hard as it looks; everything is more rewarding than you expect; and if anything can go right it will and at the best possible moment.

B. Work of humanity

1. Example of a farmer: Farmers work extremely hard, they plow, fertilize, plant, add pesticides & herbicides, wait a season and then harvest, all of their work depends on God, farmers labor but they must also rely on God, we are called to labor in the field of souls, hard work and often stressful, we too must depend on God

II. Patient in Specific Lessons

A. Stand Firm

1. Story of Thomas Edison: Edison’s famous quote - Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, Edison’s secretary stated something different - 99% of knowledge of things that do not work the other 1% may be genius. The only way to accomplish anything is to keep working with patient observation,

2. Stand Firm: Never, never, never give up - Winston Churchill, why not give up? - a. God is faithful - still working and never stops, b. Jesus is coming back, we must be rock solid in our faith,

3. Don’t grumble: When we fail to have patience, we fail to put our trust in God, we grumble and fight with one another, we pick out other people’s faults and failures and focus on those things, we avoid our own weakness and focus on other people’s weakness, Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with measure you use, it will be measured to you.”, in times of trouble it is easy to turn against one another, those who do this will be judged, why? - they destroy the unity of the Body, they ignore the grace and mercy of Jesus,

Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken.

How do we stand firm?

* Resolve to resist sin

* Contemplating God’s grace

* Encourage one another

* Continuing to serve others

* Focus on one day meeting Christ