"Relaunch 2015"
pt. 4 - I Will Be Patient
Galatians 5:22-23
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Introduction: I want to welcome you this morning to part 4 of a new sermon series based on the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. This series is all about life change and what God wants to do in our lives if we will let Him. Make no mistake my friends; the goal of God in salvation is Christlikeness. God wants to change us into the image (icon -- exact replica) of His Son in character, conduct and personality.
What is patience? Someone has written that:
1. Is the ability to sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration.
2. Is the ability let go of your need for immediate gratification and be willing to wait.
3. Patience is the trait that displays tolerance, compassion, understanding, and acceptance toward those who are slower than you in developing maturity, emotional freedom, and coping abilities.
4. Patience is the ability to remain calm in the midst of turmoil because you know God is in control.
Let me also remind you that we can translate the first few words of verse 22, "The fruit of the Spirit..." to read "...the fruit that the Spirit produces..." This morning I want to you to ask yourself this question as we begin; "If I was more patient would it make a difference in my life?"
First let's consider:
I. We Need to Acknowledge God's Patience
We have the patience of God illustrated in the way that He deals with those who commit sin. The scoffers that Peter mentions charge God with "...slackness..." or tardiness or the inability to keep his word but Peter declares that this is His patience with men. We can see this patience in three areas.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
a. His patience with wicked
Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ESV
What Paul is saying is that all those who sin are "storing up" or piling up God's wrath until the day of "...righteous judgment..." God is displaying his patience in that He allows men to continue in their sin even though he could justly destroy them at any time. God is very, very patient with those who sin against him.
b. His promises to the waiting
The second issue that Peter addresses in the passage that I read is "...his promises..." The scoffers ask the question:
2 Peter 3:4 ...where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Joshua 21:45 Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
It was 900 hundred years between God's promise to Abraham to make of him a great nation and the unification of the twelve tribes under King David, but it came to pass. It was 20 years between the time Elijah pronounced God's judgment on Ahab and Jezebel but it came to pass.
Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
1. One jot -- the smallest of the Hebrew letters.
2. One tittle -- one of those little strokes by which alone some of the Hebrew letters are distinguished from others like them. (Our punctuation marks)
c. His patience with the wayward
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
He is speaking not of justification through His blood once for all, but of the present sanctification ("cleanseth" is present tense)
Notice that God not only forgives believers but he also cleanses them and continues to cleanse them! This would mean that God understands that we need to be cleansed over and over again. I shower every day and wash my hands many times every day to keep my physical body clean. As a Christian I sin and because I do I need forgiveness and cleansing every day in order to stay clean. God is patience, more patience than any earthly parent and like a good parent He is alert to the cries of His children when they are in distress and in need of forgiveness.
Second consider:
II. We Need to Appreciate the Savior's Patience
a. His patience with his friends
Nowhere is the Lord's patience on display any more than when He dealt with the apostle Peter. In Luke 22 he and the other disciples are jockeying for position in the Kingdom and the Lord lovingly rebukes him.
Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
And in John 13 where Jesus washes the feet of this proud and arrogant disciple and in John 21 where Jesus seeks to draw an expression of true love out of Peter only to be met with irritation and impatience.
Christian friend can you see how often our Lord is patient with us.
b. His patience with his foes
When I speak of Jesus having patience with his foes, you may ask why I have chosen the one that I am about to mention but Judas Iscariot is an easy choice. One of the most revealing studies that you can do is to find a diagram of the seating at the Last Supper. If you can visualize an oval shape with the disciples reclined around it and use the position of Jesus as the starting point you would find John on the right side of our Lord and then Peter to John's right. To the left of Jesus you would find Judas Iscariot. Edershiem states in his "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah," that Judas is sitting to the left of Jesus (the host), in the place designated for the most honored guest. Although traditionally the host would choose who would be the honored guest (see Luke 14:7-11) the Bible does not state that Jesus asked Judas to sit next to him. Judas may have felt in his own mind he DESERVED to be honored and, according to Edersheim, did what was necessary to secure the seat for himself: If you recall this would be in direct contradiction to the Lord's teaching about not seeking the "chief seats" when attending a meal or a worship service. What's all this got to do with the Lord's patience? We know that Judas was still present when Jesus washed the disciple's feet and something else occurred during the meal that really illustrates the Lord's patience.
Traditionally, the host of a formal meal would give the chief or honored guest at the table the first "sop." The sop was a piece of bread or other small amount of choice food that was dipped in a sauce. The host, once he had the sop, would place it INTO the mouth of the honored guest. The Bible is clear as to the name of the honored guest that received the sop:
"Jesus answered, 'He it is, to whom I shall give a SOP, when I have dipped [it].' And when he had dipped the SOP, he gave [it] to Judas Iscariot, [the son] of Simon." (John 13:21, 25-26, KJV)
I know I'm just thinking out loud but can you imagine the patience it took for the Lord to offer this honor to Judas knowing what was about to happen. He blessed his betrayer. I wonder if any of us would have been willing to do the same. We get upset if our food doesn't arrive in a timely manner at the restaurant on Sunday after church!
Third:
III. We Need to Appraise Our Patience
In the next few minutes I would like to ask you a series of questions to test your patience quotient.
1. How often do you "fly off the handle?"
2. How often do you speak harshly without giving thought to how your words might hurt?
3. Does your temperature rise when you have to repeat something?
ILL - An elderly man had serious hearing problems for a number of years. His family tired again and again to convince him to get a hearing aid. Finally, he relented. He went to the doctor and was fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear 100 percent. A month later he went back to the doctor. The doctor said with a smile, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again." The old man replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to their conversations. I've changed my will three times!"
("Hearing Problems" Crosswalk.com, by Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec)
4. Does being around children upset you?
5. Do people's little odd twists of personality upset you?
6. Do you hold peoples past mistakes against them even though they have obviously changed?
7. Are you able to accept criticism with grace?
8. When you are in a restaurant and the service is slow or not up to your personal standards to you display impatience?
9. When driving and in a hurry do you get impatient when the traffic doesn't move to suit you? Do you resort to honking your horn or worse (road rage)?
A man by the name of Ortberg describes something he calls hurry sickness?
1. The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don't have (87).
2. The truth is look around at our society hurried people cannot love because they are always in a hurry!
3. Ortberg adds this thought about the hurry sickness (lack of patience syndrome): It is because it kills love that hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life. Hurry lies behind much of the anger and frustration of modern life. Hurry prevents us from receiving love from the Father or giving it to His children. That's why Jesus never hurried. If we are to follow Jesus, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives-because, by definition, we can't move faster than the one we are following (88).
10. (I hesitate to even ask this one) Do you use vulgar language or curse words when you get impatient? (Remember Peter when he denied the Lord?) If the answer to any of these questions is yes then you have room to grow in the area of patience.
The question is how can we do that? First:
a. We may need to repent
Impatience is an attitude that leads to sins like anger and discontent so whenever we sin we must repent for there to be the daily, ongoing cleansing that John speaks of in 1 John 1:8
b. We may need to reconciliation
If we have hurt others through our impatience, if we have been unkind in word or deed due to our impatience help us to be reconciled to those we have hurt. This would mean seeking their forgiveness.
c. We may need to make restitution
One of the things that stands out in the life of Zacchaeus was that after he got right with the Lord he displayed a willingness to make restitution. If you can you should. It may not be possible but if you can you ought to try.
d. We need to be completely resigned to the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit so we can grow in patience.
Only the Holy Spirit can help us in this area. Only He can produce this fruit and bring it to full maturity in us.
e. We should request patience in prayer
When you do, hold on cause it may be a bumpy ride for the Bible declares in Romans 5:3 that, ...And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; When we are tried by the Lord we learn to endure without complaint but even better we learn to glory in our troubles knowing that they are sent from God in answer to our prayers and that they are working "...a far more exceeding weight of glory in us..."
