In this passage of scripture, Peter tells us a number of things we need to add to our faith, such as: VIRTUE, KNOWLEDGE, TEMPERANCE, and he tells us we also need to add PATIENCE.
Patience give us a difficult time. After all, we are the society that invented:
• Fast food
• Microwaves
• The Concorde jet
• Drive-through service
• Pizza delivery in 20 minutes or less
• Express lanes (Confession time, how many have you ever found yourself counting the number of items of the person in front of you in the express checkout line? Raise your hand).
If you want to get some folks upset these days, all you have to do is slow them down for a few seconds.
Illus: A father, who worked away from home all week, always made a special effort to be with his family on the weekends. Every Saturday afternoon he would take his daughter out for a drive in the car. One particular Saturday however, he had such a bad cold that he really didn't feel like driving at all. Luckily, his wife came to the rescue and decided that particular Saturday she would take their daughter out. They returned, and the daughter immediately ran to her father who was laying down. He said, "Did you enjoy your ride with Mommy?" "Oh yes Daddy" the girl replied, "And do you know what... we didn't see a single IDIOT on the hi-
WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS? For two reasons:
(1) PATIENCE IS CONTRARY TO OUR NATURE
From the moment we’re born, we want things taken care of right away.
For example, when a baby wakes up in the middle of the night and is hungry, it doesn’t lie there and think, “I know mom and dad are tired, so I’ll just wait until breakfast time.” No, the baby cries impatiently until it receives the attention it demands.
Many of us haven’t changed much since those days.
(2) PATIENCE IS CONTRARY TO OUR SOCIETY
Those of you who have traveled to other countries recognize that Americans are wound pretty tight.
Illus: A lonely guy decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. He went to the pet store and told the owner that he wanted to buy an unusual pet. After some discussion, he decided on a centipede. He liked the little centipede because it had all those legs. The store owner placed the little centipede in a match box and sold him to him. He took the centipede home, found a good location for the box, and then decided he would start off by taking his new pet to a restaurant to have dinner.
He asked the centipede in the box, "Would you like to go to Wendy’s with me to have dinner?" There was no answer from his new pet. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked him again, "How about going to Wendy’s with me?" But again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
So he waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation. He decided to ask him one more time; this time putting his face up against the centipede’s house and shouting, "Hey, in there! Would you like to go to Wendy’s with me to have dinner?" A little voice came out of the box from the centipede: "I heard you the first time! I’m putting on my shoes!!"
Everything in our culture is fast. We hate delay.
Illus: I heard about a furniture store that had a sign on its window, “Antiques, while you wait.”
Illus: Max Lucado says, “America, the country of shortcuts and fast lanes. We’re the only nation on earth with a mountain called, ‘Rushmore.’”
Illus: Someone wrote a poem that goes like this, “Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, Never in a man.” (Or is it the other way around!)
As a man, what I want to know is this, “Why is the hour when traffic moves the slowest called the “Rush Hour”? Shouldn’t they call it the “Slow Hour”.
Listen, PATIENCE gives us a difficult time. But God’s Word says we should ADD TO OUR FAITH, PATIENCE!
You and I will have a hard time convincing people we are Christ-like if we live a life of IMPATIENCE!
WHAT IS PATIENCE? Biblically speaking, “Patience is a calm endurance based on the certain knowledge that God is in control."
• Now that is interesting, because in the sermon before this one, Peter told us to add to our faith TEMPERANCE which means we are exercising SELF CONTROL.
• But listen, if we do not recognize GOD IS IN CONTOL then we are not going to have SELF-CONTROL
Peter says that if we are going to be the SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUAL God wants us to be, we need to ADD TO OUR FAITH, PATIENCE.
I want us to look at two Bible characters. One had PATIENCE and the other DID NOT!
We will look at one in this message and the other one in the next message.
I. THE IMPATIENCE OF ABRAHAM
We mortals have a difficult time with patience.
Illus: Did you hear about the Texas school teacher who was helping one of her first grade students put on his cowboy boots?
• He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. Finally, when the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat.
• Then she almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool, as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet.
• Then he announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the tight fit boots off his little feet.
• As soon as the boots were off, he said, "They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear 'em." Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.
• Helping him into his coat, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots."
--- Her trial starts next month.
We are a impatient people.
Illus: One of Calvin & Hobbes comic strips pictured his father sitting at a computer saying, "It used to be that if a client wanted something done in a week it was considered a rush job, and he would be lucky to get it. Now, with modems, faxes, & car phones, everybody wants everything instantly." About that time Calvin walks by holding a microwave dinner, reading the instructions. "It takes 6 minutes to microwave this," he says. “Who’s got that kind of time?"
But we are not the only impatient people, it was also a problem with Abraham and Sarah.
Illus: Impatience can get us into a lot of trouble. Did you know:
• People are in jail because of impatience
• People are divorced because of impatience
• People have died premature deaths because they did not know how to “Slow down and live!”
• The reason we have the problem between the Jews and Arabs today is due to the impatience of Abraham and Sarah
God promised them a Son. God always keeps His promises, but the problem was that Abraham and Sarah thought God was slow in keeping His promise, so they decided to help Him out!
Let me show you several things in the Word of God concerning Abraham.
A. ABRAHAM RECEIVED GOD'S PROMISE
Look at Genesis 15:2-4, we read, “And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
God made a specific promise that he would have a child. But you know the story, as time went on, Abraham and Sarah became impatient with God and felt they needed to help Him out. They felt like God had forgotten the promise He had made and they took matters into their own hands.
But Abraham and Sarah are not the first to do this, it is something that all of mortals are guilty of doing.
B. ABRAHAM REJECTED GOD’S PROMISE
After God had delayed the promise as far as Abraham was concerned, he decided to have a child by Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden.
Illus: The great preacher, Phillips Brooks, was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. "What’s the trouble?" his friend asked. Brooks said, "The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!"
How many times have we been frustrated with God because of our inability to see what he is doing? We want answers now.
We need to remember that God’s timing is not always our timing.
Illus: A.W. Tozer once said, “The wheels of God’s justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.” God has everything figured out, we just have to be patient and allow his will to work itself out.
That is why David wrote in Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
It’s so easy for us to get impatient and mess up the plan of God for our lives. Only God knows the damage that has been done by impatience. People get impatient and give up too soon.
Illus: Have you ever heard someone going through a difficult time in their life say:
• I am going to quit going to church
• I am going to quit reading my Bible
• I am going to quit praying
None of these things do any good…I QUIT!
It could be that if they had held on a little longer they could have seen the hand of God in their life. But they got impatient and quit to soon.
Illus: A chaplain who was ministering to a seriously wounded soldier was requested by the dying man to write a letter to his former Sunday school teacher. "Tell her I died a Christian because of what she taught me in that class in church. The memory of her earnest pleas and the warmth of her love as she asked us to accept Jesus has stayed with me. Tell her I'll meet her in Heaven."
The message was sent, and some time later the chaplain received this reply: "May God forgive me. Just last month I resigned my position and abandoned my Sunday school pupils because I felt my work had been fruitless. How I regret my impatience and lack of faith! I shall ask my pastor to let me go back to teaching. I have learned that when one sows for God, the reaping is both sure and blessed!"
Can you imagine how much better:
• Our churches would be if people had Patience
• Our marriages would be if people had Patience
• Our society would be if people had Patience
• Our parenting would be if people had Patience
How many times has a lack of patience led to an argument or a misunderstanding?
I’m certain there would be less complaining and fewer arguments in the church today, if we had Christians that were patient in their dealings with others in the congregation.
Conclusion:
I have a feeling that I am not the only impatient person here today. I found a test this week called the Patience Test. It tests to see if you are an impatient person. It says you are too inpatient …
• … if you ever left a restaurant because a server took too long to take your order
• … if when reading a bedtime story to your child, you have skipped a page or two to expedite the process
• … if you have put your makeup on or tied a necktie while driving to work. If you’ve done both you have another problem
• … if when you see a yellow light, your tendency is to accelerate instead of brake
• … if while at a wedding reception, you have wanted to reconfigure the long line at the buffet
• … if you ever asked yourself during a sermon, how much longer is he going to talk
… if you have ever cut through a parking lot in order to miss a stoplight
• … if your three children think their first names are “Come on”, “Hurry up” and “Lets move it.”
Are any of those a reality in your life? We are impatient people aren’t we?
Illus: Virginia Brazier describes our age as:
• The age of the half read page.
• The age of the quick cash and the mad dash
• The age of the lamp tan
• The age of the brain strain and the heart pain and the cat naps till the spring snaps and the funs done
Christians need to recognize that we are to be different from the lost world. One of the ways we are to be different is by showing that WE HAVE OUR LIFE UNDER CONTROL, because WE HAVE CONFIDENCE GOD IS IN CONTROL!
If we are going to be the SPITITUAL INDIVIDUAL that God wants us to be, we are going to have to ADD TO OUR FAITH ---PATIENCE!
I. THE IMPATIENCE OF ABRAHAM
A. ABRAHAM RECEIVED GOD’S PROMISE
B. ABRAHAM REJECTED GOD’S PROMISE
