Sermon on patience to the Church at Market Street February 2 2020
Communion Service 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Scripture: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
I have been taking us through a “sermon series” on the “Fruit of The Spirit” When Jesus was ready to leave this earth, HE talked about sending one greater than He, through which more could be accomplished.
Also, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin-through the life of the believer-when the believer bears fruit.
I told you that we are the Church that meets at Market Street. I told you that when we believe that Jesus is the Christ-the Son of the Living God and we are obedient to Him-we receive the gift of the Holy Spirirt.
The Holy Spirit plays many roles in the Christian’s life, and in this series we are talking about the Good fruits that God wants us to bear and how we can join the Holy Spirit working in our lives to accomplish the bearing of GOOD Fruit
Patience in the lives of Christians can actually hold the door of salvation open to non-believers, just as God is long suffering with us-so should we be patient.
Hopefully, we will exercise patience in a way that brings Honor and Glory to our God.
Patience-makrothumia- literally translated long to suffer-slow to anger. Something generally we are not.
People are not very patient are they?
Particularly in our society, I think we honor the type “A” personality who is aggressive and takes charge, because he is the one who gets the job done. Quite frankly, that kind of personality is not very patient-
Many of us pray like this: Dear God, please grant me patience. And I want it right now.
I remember the story of the young father who came to the minister and said, “ I need God’s help to be patient with my wife, with my kids, with the people at work”; he said “could you pray for me.” The minister started, “Dear God, please bring this young man through many different situations and trials, suffering and tribulation into this man’s life…STOP the young man yelled I want patience not more stress.
Patience has to be developed and it happens when we are disciplined to exercise patience and we yield to the Holy Spirit who is indicating to us that our present situation is a prime place to exercise patience.
I promise you if you pray for patience God will give you people and put you in places that you can get plenty of practice time developing your patience.
We learn patience by practicing being patient, when we understand that God is transforming us into His image as He gives us trials and situations in which we can practice our patience.
You see our lives on earth are merely preparation for perfection; it is just training on how we will live forever in heaven. Boot camp is tough, but it can save the recruits life.
JONI EARECKSON TADA wrote:
Christians do you understand you are in boot camp of the army of the Lord? What you are going through at this current time is because you are in the Potter’s hands, the refiner’s furnace and He is making you into the image of His Son, IF you will allow Him to.
I just read that Joni had a clean bill of health after suffering with cancer treatment, but then in 2018 the cancer came back- What did Joni do- she exercised patience. Patience with the doctors, the nurses, the chemo-therapy, patient with everyone and every procedure.
The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord.
I hope we can do better than these people did:
I love this story:
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 failed, & a chorus of honking horns behind him made matters worse. He finally walked back to the first driver behind him & said, "I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to get my car started. If you’ll go up there & give it a try, I’ll stay here & honk your horn for you."
Or how about this story- An elderly man is stalled at the traffic light- the light turns green and the lady behind him is flicking him hand gestures and screaming obscenities out of the window. A police officer pulls up and puts her in hand cuffs. Astounded she asks,” why are you arresting me?’
The officer said, “Well I read the bumper sticker that reads Follow me to Bayside Baptist Church and I figured you had stolen this car.
Or maybe we need a little prodding from someone- like this husband so we can exercise the patience that can bring honor and glory to God and help hold the door open so others can be saved.
He and his wife are awakened at 3 o’clock in the morning by a a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger standing in the pouring rain is asking for a push.
"Not a chance" says the husband- "It’s three o’clock in the morning!"
He slams the door and returns to bed."Who was it?" asks his wife.
"Just a drunken stranger asking for a push" he answers.
"Did you help him?" she asks.
"NO, I didn’t-it’s three in the morning and raining out
"Well, you’ve got a short memory" says his wife. "Can’t
you remember about three months ago when we broke down on vacation and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him."
The man does as he is told and gets dressed and goes out into the pouring rain and calls out into the dark.
"Hello-are you still there?"
"Yes," comes the answer.
"Do you still want a push?" calls out the husband.
"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.
"Where are you?" asks the husband.
"Over here on the swing" the drunk replies.
The patient person is a person who is still, still means he is not doing anything.
He is still because he knows God is God and God is sovereign- that means a patient person knows God is in control.
The patient person knows he is to be praying, while God accomplishes the work.
The patient person accepts a difficult situation without giving God a deadline to remove it.
Now I am not saying that Christians are to do nothing, God told Moses at the Red Sea why are you hanging around, it is time to quit praying and start moving. Yet, the patient person will wait til God speaks or acts before he starts moving.
What the patient person has that impatient people do not have is, the patient person knows what action to take-because he has waited on God to lead.
Because the patient person is probably close to God, because patience is supernatural- any of you who have or have had children in your home can back me up on that. We need to understand that it is the fruit of patience when we bear it – that causes the world to know there is something different about the Christian.
That difference in us through the power of the Holy Spirit is what convicts the world of the sin in their own life and can bring them to salvation.
A patient person can lead unsaved people to Christ, because we set aside what is happening to us or someone we love and we focus on being patient.
It is easy to lose our patience when someone we love is in the hospital, maybe just brought into the emergency room, but if we will pause and remember God is in control, we can be patient with people who no matter what they do seem to be incompetent to us.
Incompetent, because they are dealing with us or somebody we love.
You can bet your bottom dollar, that 9 out of every 10 people medical personnel deal with are impatient. Do you understand what a contrast our lives can be, when we discipline ourselves and show patience while in the emergency room or the hospital. Oh we say, I deserve better than this! You know what we deserve is death.
I know what you are saying, well its only minor surgery when it is happening to somebody else. If it is happening to me it is a major event and how dare you require me to be patient.
I don’t GOD does!
In closing:
I look at the patience of Jesus on the night before His death.
JESUS IS THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF PATIENCE
In the 26th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we see Jesus coming to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Leaving the rest of the disciples by the gate, He takes Peter, James, & John with Him into the inner recesses of the garden, & says to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here & keep watch with me" [Matthew 26:38].
Listen to HIS words again!
"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here & keep watch with me"
Then Jesus went on a little farther by Himself & prayed. Luke 22:44 says, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly; & His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."
Then when Jesus came back, He found Peter & James & John sound asleep.
Hello! I think I would have said, “What is up with you jug heads.” Or like I am so over you guys-whatever!
Now how would you react to that? Here Jesus was experiencing the most terrible night of His life upon this earth, & they fall asleep, not once, but 3 times.
And yet Jesus treats them with love & patience & kindness.
Or how about after Peter’s betrayal do you see anywhere in the Scripture where Jesus was impatient with him.
I know it was the patience of Jesus that enabled Peter to be the pillar of the church he became.
It is certainly the patience of God who is long suffering- that means in the Greek (having put up with us for way too long) that has allowed you and me to be saved.
How many times should God have just cracked that lightning bolt from the sky and fried me right where I was.
But God suffered for me so that I might be saved!
It is in 2 Peter 3:9, where it says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Do you see that when you are patient with someone who deserves to be hit in the head with a ten-pound hammer you are like God and your patience shows them the God who lives in you and leads them to God.
Church, pause right now and ask yourself- Who is that God has given me, placed in my life that I need to be more patient with-
Think about it the next time you want to demand that something happen and it better happen now!
The door to salvation is open to the world because the Lord is patient, if He were not, trust me He would have destroyed, us a long time ago.
Do Not Christians and I repeat do not slam the door of salvation in somebody’s face and close them off from everlasting life because you are impatient?
If we are patient with others they see Jesus working in our lives. If we are impatient-they say, “If he is a Christian I don’t want any part of his Jesus.”
Some of us need to be patient with God. I spoke with a dear Christian sister not too long ago- who said, “She was ready to go home.” She was ready to turn the page so to speak and graduate to heaven and receive the treasures she has stored up, while here on earth.
Church I get that, I really do. But even when we are ready to go home-we must be patient with God because HE has more for us to do. It could be your prayers-maybe for Pastor Joe or maybe it is just your presence in the assembly because your spirit is so united with God that it lends power to His preacher.
Patience in all aspects of the Christian’s life holds the door open for salvation to a misguided and watching world..
