DO WE WANT TOMATOES OR OAK TREES…
GET UP AND TRY AGAIN?! A GOOD TEAM: PERSISTENCE AND PATIENCE.
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
You can have tomatoes in one season. A mighty oak is just a nut that stood its ground for decades!
TEXT:
Colossians 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Colossians 1:11 (MSG) We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy,
Romans 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Romans 8:25 (MSG) But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Luke 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.
Luke 21:19 (NIV) By standing firm you will gain life.
Luke 21:19 (MSG) Staying with it—that's what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry; you'll be saved.
*Persistence: The quality that allows someone to continue doing something, to keep trying, to continue eventhough it is difficult or opposed by others, to keep trying longer than expected,
*PERSEVERANCE: CONTINED EFFORTTO DO OR ACHIEVE DESTITE DIFFICULTIES, FAILURE OR OPPOSITION, STEADFAST,
*Patience: forbearance, longsuffering, to bear pains or trials calmly without complaining, to bear, to remain calm and not become annoyed when waiting for a long time while dealing with problems and difficult people, to do in a careful way over a period of time without hurrying,
NOW IS THE TIME… DO IT NOW…
JOHN F. KENNEDY HAD A STORY HE LOVED TO TELL: The story about General Louis Lyautey from France. World War 1. The General told his gardener to PLANT AN OAK TREE on his property. The gardener warned the General “THIS TREE WILL GROW SO SLOW GROWING AND IT WOULD TAKE NEAR A 100 YEARS FOR THIS OAK TO REACH MATURITY. The general then replied: IF THAT IS THE CASE, THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE, PLANT THE TREE TODAY!
WHY DOES PATIENCE AND PERSITENCE HAVE SUCH A DIRTY NAME?
WE BELIEVE AN ACCEPT A TERRIBLE MYTH IN THE CHURCH…
When I was a little boy we were in revival at another church. A lady stood up and said: I need more patience. Let us pray for more patience. The next night at the revival the lady stood up and was crying real hard. She explained that while she was at church last night, her husband ran off with another lady. The pastor stood up and said: HONEY, THAT IS WHAT YOU PRAYED FOR LAST NIGHT --- TRIBULATION!
That was a crazy answer. I knew that! First off she prayed that after her husband had run off --- he was already gone. Second off her husband never ran off with a woman because she prayed.
PATIENCE IS AT WORK IN EEVERY BELIEVER. Sure tribulation is part of life.
Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Romans 5:3 (MSG) There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, 4 and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.
EVEN WHEN YOUNG STRONG PEOPLE ARE FAINTING GOD HAS A PLAN CALLED PATIENCE --- WAITING. THERE IS A TERRIBLE DISEASE THAT THRIVES IN THE CHURCH --- WHEN THINGS ARE NOT UP TO OUR EXPECTATIONS WE ARE CHRONICALLY, HABITUALLY DISAPPOINTED AT GOD.
Isaiah 40:27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
GOD IS NOT SANTA CLAUS FOR YOUR WISH LIST!!
LIKE HIM OR NOT LISTEN TO WHAT RICHARD NIXION SAID IN 1986.
As Americans we have many great strengths, but one of our weaknesses is IMPATIENCE. The Russian think in terms of decades, the Chinese in terms of centuries. Americans think in terms of minutes, hours, days, and weeks… BUT IF OUR QUEST FOR REALISTIC LIFE LASTING GOALS, we need not expect OVERNIGHT SUCCESS --- searching for instant gratification --- WE ARE GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED!
FOUR DAYS LATE? OR AN ON TIME GOD? WE SERVE AN ON TIME GOD… OMNI-PRESENT, OMNI-POTENT, ALL-WISE GOD… HEAVEN DOES NOT HAVE TIME IN HEAVEN LIKE WE DO. GOD IS NEVER TOO EARLY, GOD IS NEVER TO BEHIND NOR IS HE LATE, GOD IS AN ON TIME GOD. DO WE TRUST THE PLAN OF GOD.
John 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Ephesians 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
HOW MANY TIMES WILL WE FAIL AND STILL GET UP ANT TRY AGAIN…
At age of 5 his Father died. He quit school at 16.
By 17 he had been fired 4 times.
He married at 18.
He fathered a baby at 19.
By 20 his wife left and took his daughter.
He failed in an attempt to kidnap his own daughter.
At 18 to 22 he got a job with the rail road and he lost that job. He joined the army and was dismissed.
He was going to go to law school, he was rejected.
He started selling insurance, he was a big failure.
He got a job where they sold tires, and was fired.
He had failed so often he decided live was not worth living, so he would commit suicide.
He sat down under a tree and started a suicide note, which turned into a letter stating what he had desired to accomplish in life. He saw there was so much more.
He was a cook/dish washer at 65.
For the first time in his life at 65, he receive a regular check in the mail social security was $105 a month.
He borrowed $87 against his next check of $105 and bought CHICKEN and used his secret recipe and fried chicken in his own rented kitchen and walked from door to door selling his fried chicken.
He made enough money to rent a small place on 25 in CORBIN KENTUCKY.
He became a local famous man for his fried chicken.
One day a long black limousine accidently pulled in the parking lot. JOHN Y. BROWN (Governor) and PHYLIS GEORGE BROWN (Miss America) THE REST IS HISTORY. AN OVER NIGHT SUCCESSFUL MILLIONAIRE THAT TOOK 65 YEARS OF FAILURE!
A millionaire pulled in and ate. He loved the fried chicken and he said I will back you COLONEL HARLAN SANDERS and we will found KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. That man backed Colonel Sanders.
HARLAN WASS AN UTTER FAILURE AT 65, WHEN HE DIED AT 88 HE WAS THE HEAD OF A BILLION DOLLAR GLOBAL SUCCESS.
I MET THE COLONEL SEVERAL TIMES AND SHOOK HIS HAND, THE INSTANT MILLIONAIRE THAT TOOK A LIFE TIME TO FIND SUCCESS.
PERSISTENCE AND PATIENCEMADE HARLAN SANDERS A GREAT SUCCESS. Go to Canada, what do you see? KFC? Go to Israel? What do you see? A FAILURE THAT NEVER QUIT! BY PATIENCE, LONG-SUFFERING, TRIAL AND ERROR… LIFE IS ALL ABOUT HANGING IN THERE LIKE A HAIR IN A BISCUIT.
IT IS ALWAYS TOO SOON TO QUIT.
WHO KNOWS THIS MIGHT BE THE DAY OF OUR MIRACLE BREAK THROUGH?
Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
CONCLUSION: In LONG TERM RUNNING there is a term: it is called SPLATTING. In any long distance foot racing individual gets to a point that the body just refuses to take another step. The person needs oxygen, the muscle are hurting, the term SPLAT means crushed, and squashed… the run becomes a real struggle. These are called splat points. WE HAVE TO CHALLENGE OUR SELF TO DEVELOP AN ATTACK PLAN TO OVERCOME… THEY HAVE TO INCREASE THEIR PACE, TO KEEP PUSHING… You desire to QUIT, the answer is increase your forward step rate.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
