”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such there is no law.”
A small boy is sent to bed by his father.
Five minutes later … “Da-ad…”
“What?”
“I’m thirsty. Can you bring me a drink of water?”
“No. You should have got a drink before you went to bed. Go to sleep.”
Five minutes later: “Da-aaaaad …”
“WHAT?”
“I’m THIRSTY. Can I have a drink of water??”
“I told you NO! If you ask again, I’ll have to come in there and spank you!!”
Five minutes later … Daaaa-aaaaaad …”
“WHAT?!!”
“When you come in to spank me, can you bring me a drink of water?”
I guess we could classify that as patience. “People aren’t very patient are they—particularly in our society?
A man’s car stalled in heavy traffic just as the light turned green.
All his efforts under the hood to get the car started have failed,
and to make matters worse, everyone behind him begins honking their horns.
He finally walks back to the first driver behind him and says...
"I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to get my car started.
Why don’t you go up there and give it a try...
I’ll stay here and honk your horn for you."
Patience....
I’m sure you’ve been in situations where your patience has been severely tested...
Many of us pray like this: Dear God, please grant me patience. And I want it right now.” Do you have patience? The Scripture passage says that patience is an aspect of the Holy Spirit’s fruit.
Patience is a fruit of the Spirit...On the surface that might surprise you because up to this point we’ve been saying that the fruit of the Spirit is just that...
fruit....given by the Holy Spirit in the life of the CHRISTIAN...
We agree that things like love....joy....peace....these are things given by the Holy Spirit... But some of the others...patience....kindness....gentleness...
these are human qualities to strive toward...Right?
We tend to think of PATIENCE as a personality trait. Some people are patient...
some people aren’t. Some think that when it comes to patience, it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not. Some Christians are patient...and some are......well....they aren’t so patient. Even sinners can be patient, right? After all,
there’s an old saying that says "patience is a virtue", which reinforces the idea that patience is something we strive for...something we work at...NOT something we receive by the Holy Spirit.
What is Patience? The NASB calls it patience. The KJV calls it long-suffering.
The Greek word used in the original translation of the Bible is literally translated to mean long temper.
Patience – the quality that does not surrender to circumstances or succumb under trial; it is the opposite of despondency and is associated with hope. Longsuffering - is that quality of self-restraint in the face of being provoked.
A Scriptural study of the word "patient" and its forms...patience...patiently...shows that those words appear 45 times in the Bible...A study of all 45 occurrences of those words will conclude that the Bible speaks about patience in 3 different ways...
First of all, the Bible talks about God’s patience...On the surface...you might think that this doesn’t apply to us...Of course, God is patient...He’s perfect...We are imperfect...We should just go on to the other ways that patience is described in Scripture and forget about this one...
But if we are going to talk about patience, we have to say that God is a patient God. Think of how long He waited for you to accept His Son Jesus Christ. He’s still waiting for some of you. *** Time is of non-essence to God – He waits patiently [mercifully – in order that men might come to repentance] knowing that His day of wrath will come.
We are supposed to strive to be like Christ. Of course, we don’t BECOME God.
But, we ARE supposed to use God as our example...
To keep our eyes on Christ...
to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us so that we can become more like Christ...
So, we need to look at God’s patience...In 1 Peter 3:20 it tells us that "God waited patiently, in the days of Noah..." In the days of Noah, sin had become so widespread that God only spared 8 people during the flood. In spite of the stench of all the sin, God waited patiently while the ark was being built. Aren’t you glad God was patient?
It certainly would have been easy to just be done with the whole mess. I mean it’s only 8 righteous people. Some scholars put the population in Noah’s day to be about the same as the population of the world today. They calculate based on the typical family size in the days of Noah...how long people lived...calculating the rates of growth, and so on. The population of our planet today is about 6 1/2 Billion people.
Can you imagine that? Only 8 righteous people in 6 1/2 billion?!? Think about this mess from God’s perspective. The percentage of righteous people was less that 1/10 of 1%...
Scripture tells us, "The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." Gen 6:5-8 (NIV)
So...God waited patiently..."The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish." If God can see Noah in 6 1/2 billion people then I’m sure that God sees what you are going through today...He hasn’t lost any of His supernatural abilities...
His power hasn’t lessened...God knows what you are going through...
In Ephesians 4:2 Paul says we are to be “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”
Colossians 3:12
“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
These verses tell us that we are to be long-suffering [just like God is towards us!] towards our fellow believers – “We love, because He first loved us.”
That brings us to the next way that patience is described in Scripture..Patience with others. If God can be patient with us, then shouldn’t we be able to be patient with one another? No! Does that surprise you? In reality, we CAN’T be patient with others...NOT WITHOUT THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT in our lives...which produces the FRUIT of PATIENCE!
Patience is a God thing. People talk about the "patience of Job" because Job was faced with so much tragedy in his life. But Job certainly had his moments of doubt... In Job 6:11, Job says, "What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?" Job 6:11 (NIV)
We are unable to be patient...without the power of Christ. I found the answer to this in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul says, “And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone." Notice who Paul is talking to...He says, "brothers"...these are fellow Christians...fellow believers...
He is NOT calling SINNERS to be patient...He is calling CHRISTIANS to be patient...and Paul is calling them to "be patient with EVERYONE"
Not just fellow Christians...but EVERYONE...
"But Pastor...you just don’t know what it’s like at my house..."
"But Pastor...when someone drives like an idiot, I just get so mad"
And you’re right...you can’t be patient...BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS...IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT...WHICH PRODUCES PATIENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN.
In 1 Timothy 1:15 & 16, Paul says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life" When patience produced by the Holy Spirit...is displayed in the life of the Christian it serves as an example for those who don’t yet know Him.
So God is patient with us, Jesus set the example of patience. Patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit. As a Christian, we should exhibit patience. How patient are you with other believers?
What happens when we "lose our patience"? Well, if we call ourselves Christians
and we lose our patience we do damage to the Name of Jesus Christ...When a Christian gets mad and throws a golf club it does damage to the Name of Christ...
When we get upset and are impatient with someone, we need to apologize because whatever it is, it’s not between you and that person...it’s between you and God."
When we exhibit impatience...that isn’t of the Holy Spirit...and it just shows that we have just taken back control of our lives...we’ve taken over the steering wheel from the Holy Spirit...and told Him to go climb in the back seat and read a book for awhile.
So if you are a Christian and you struggle with being patient then your REAL struggle is in allowing the Holy Spirit to be in control of your life.
And finally, the last way that patience is described in Scripture...The Bible talks about God’s people being patient with God...waiting patiently for the Lord’s soon return. James 5:7-9 says, "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!"
We need to be patient because Jesus is coming back soon. We need to wait patiently. We need to be patient with the Lord. He certainly has been patient with us!!
As believers:
1. How are you handling situations in your life? …. Are you impatient with God? …. Do you complain to God and demand that He intervene and remove your trials?
Patience is enduring the trials that come into your life – waiting and not murmuring towards God because you know and understand that God is sovereign and still in control and that every thing is working out in accordance to His will and that sooner or later His day of vengeance will come upon those who are treating you in such an evil manner.
2. Are you seeking God’s mercy toward others? All too often we forget that God was patient with us and redeemed our souls despite all of the wickedness that we did, are now doing, and will do in our lives. We need to be praying to God that He will continue to be long-suffering and show mercy to others. Especially to those who are treating us in an evil manner.
3. Are you being patient with others in the church? How we become puffed up in our own minds. Instead of seeing ourselves as being superior over others and becoming impatient with those who have not grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord – let us humble ourselves instead and become patient with those other brothers and sisters in Christ and encourage them in their service to the Lord. Let us be as patient with them as God has been patient with us.
If you are a Non-Believers, if you have never accepted Christ as your personal Savior, you really should be very thankful for the long-suffering of God today. Don’t you realize that His long-suffering is keeping you from facing His wrath? Aren’t you concerned that you are standing at eternity’s door and that you may be required to enter in at any moment? I urge you not to try God’s patience any longer.
Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
Paul wrote, “Behold, now is “The acceptable time,” behold, now is “The day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2b)
We think that those "patience" jokes are funny...and the reason that we find them funny is because we can relate. We’ve been there. We’ve flown off the handle. We’ve become impatient...
It’s okay to joke about patience. But in our joking let’s not take it lightly. Some people really struggle with this. The reason it is such a struggle is because they are working at it with HUMAN effort. Patience will never be accomplished by human effort and self-control. It is only accomplished by GOD control...
If you struggle with patience then your REAL struggle is a spiritual one and you need to come and meet the Lord. Allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in your heart and life so that the fruit of patience begins to bloom and grow in your life.
