Today, I’m going to begin the message like a lawyer presenting his opening argument:
If I haven’t already offended you today, there is a strong possibility that I will offend you or say something you strenuously object to.
That is ok, if the result is that you crack open your bible, and prove me wrong. Because, I believe as a preacher, it is my objective is to inspire you to read God’s word!
This week, I googled “should be pray for patience” and after about 5 seconds without a search result I literally thought to myself “why is this taking so long?”
Is that crazy or what? True story!
You know what, that 5 second delay, just may have been the answer to my question!
I had a doctor’s appointment @ 9 am. I got there early, and at 9:15 they still hadn’t called me in to see the doctor, so I left!
Who does he think he is, gonna make me wait for 15 minutes? So I showed him!
Today’s message is titled “God’s Waiting Room”.
Just to clear the air: I live 40 miles from that doctor’s office. I stayed put till they called me, ok?
Here’s the thing: If we’re willing to wait on the doctor, until he sees us, regardless of how long it takes, shouldn’t we do the same for God?
Depending on the source, there are 33-70 verses in OT/NT that use some form of the word “patience”.
I’m going to be conservative today and only look @ 33, so here we go:
First passage is found in:
1 Samuel 13:8–12 “Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at (MICK-Mash)Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.””
1 Samuel 13:13–14 “And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.””
Just to explain, Samuel did arrive on the 7th day, but Saul had impatiently decided to take matters into his own hands.
Re-read: And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
I can’t help but wonder, had I waited just a little longer, what the Lord would have established in my life.
For @ least a couple of years this message has been percolating. You’ve heard me say it before, God works on the messenger, while the messenger works on the message.
It started when someone exclaimed “I never pray for patience”, and that struck me as so counterintuitive.
So, I’ve been picking up bits and pieces over the last couple of years, and I have prayed that this will make some resemblance of sense to you.
And it is so crazy, but the last couple of weeks, everything seems to point to patience!
Maybe you are one of those who is of the mindset/believe that we shouldn’t pray for patience.
Or maybe you feel you need more patience,
Or maybe you are one of the few who are exceedingly, abundantly blessed with so much patience, that after today’s message the rest of us can line up and allow you to pour some on us!
I’d like us to look at that word patience for a couple of minutes.
The world definition is: the capacity, habit, or fact of being patient.
Ok, thank you very much!
Let’s look @ the word patient, and maybe that will become a bit clearer: Able to accept or tolerate delays, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.
Ok, now we are getting somewhere!
Patience is a noun, and patient is an adjective; which modifies a noun.
One word that describes patience is habit. Habit of being patient.
Got me to thinking, is there such thing as a “natural habit”?
In other words, can we naturally be patient?
First of all, I couldn’t find a definition of “natural habit”.
So, can we naturally be patient? I don’t think so.
Here’s why I say that. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. If we have patience, it is because we have been given the gift of patience by the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Now, let’s move to a biblical explanation of patience, as it applies to today’s message.
Patience is the ability to bear trials, suffering, or injustices, without complaint or bitterness.
It involves waiting on God, trusting that He will act in His own time and according to His will.
Patience requires us to be patient with other people, showing understanding and grace, even when they are difficult.
Charles Spurgeon said “Patience is a grace as difficult as it is necessary, and as hard to come by, as it is precious when it is gained” Re-read it.
In other words:
It is difficult and necessary, hard to come by, and precious when we obtain it.
Church, the Holy Spirit calls us to be patient!
We’ve looked a little bit about patience, let’s look at impatience.
In the many tidbits I’ve gathered about patience, I’ve also put together some thought about impatience. Here’s the concise version:
Impatience is unprofitable, dishonorable, and damaging.
It has never brought us reward, or any good and it never will.
It is unloving, unkind and self-focused.
Tell my motorcycle story, then say that impatience was:
Unprofitable- I got a ticket
There was no reward, for blowing down that residential street, and it was definitely self-focused. It was all my fault for being late, not anyone else’s.
Some other instances of impatience:
Do you, or anyone you know, finish other peoples sentences because you want to hurry them up so you can say what you want to say, obviously what you have to say is infinitely more important than what they are saying!
That is dishonorable
It can damage a relationship
It is unkind and unloving
Now, back to patience. We looked at how grammatically, it is a noun.
However, biblically it could be considered a verb. A verb denotes action.
Reminds me of (biker story).
That truck driver put his patience into action!
I’d like to look at the other 29 verses on patience today, as I wrap this up.
The first mention of the word patience in the bible is found in:
Psalm 37:7 “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
This is not a call to be inactive, but to depend actively on the living God.
The believer who waits patiently for God’s timing has nothing to fear or be envious of.
As followers of Jesus, we must set the tone for patience. Listen to what Paul says in:
1 Thessalonians 5:14 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.”
Paul is instructing us that as followers of Jesus, we reflect the Spirit of Jesus, when we :
Warn the lazy
Encourage the timid
Help the weak,
and wait for it...BE PATIENT WITH ALL! and meet them @ their needs.
Y’all this is discipleship. In my opinion, there can be no discipleship, without patience from the Holy Spirit.
For me, I believe Paul follows this up with a “how-to”:
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing,”
We have to rely on and trust God in our patience.
Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.”
The Hebrew transliteration of this is “Waiting I waited”.
The emphasis of this is about a confident trust in God.
When we wait on the Lord like this, we might expect:
Him lifting us out of despair and
Setting us on solid ground. Regaining our bearings
Romans 15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope.”
The knowledge of scriptures, sets the foundation for so many things, and patience is one of those. The more we know God, the more we trust Him in all things, great and small, and there is resolve in knowing He will get us through it.
I’d like us to go back and look @ Gal 5:22-23, as it relates to two other passages:
Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;”
Colossians 3:12–13 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
A couple of quick thoughts here:
I love how Paul includes 3 fruit the 9 fruit of the Spirit here. He also “pairs” kindness and patience together in these three passages. Re-read all three.
It’s almost as if Paul is saying “you can’t help being kind if you are patient”, and conversely “you can’t help being patient if you are kind”
Think about your favorite teacher, or favorite relative: Were they patient with you? Were they kind to you?
Think about how we could change the world around us, if we “clothed ourselves” in patience, never mind the other 4 of mercy, kindness, humility and gentleness.
When clothing ourselves in patience, we may have to try on a few sizes to determine what fits us best.
By that, I mean we may need to determine where we are in our journey in the fruit of the Spirit harvest.
The best fruit must be ripe, to get the most benefit from it’s nutrients. For something to ripen, it must be nurtured.
Keep in mind that our timing is not God’s timing, but that He does keep His promises.
2 Peter 3:8–9 “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is patience toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
In our journey of growing patience through the gift of the fruit of the Spirit,
remember this:
Hebrews 6:12 “that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
I believe the author of Hebrews, is admonishing us not to get bored and impatient, but watch those around us who through faith and patience, inherit the promises.
Those are always those around us, watching our lead, and we must be ever mindful of this, as we disciple others.
So, back to my google question “should we pray for patience”. I believe we should pray for the Holy Spirit to give us the gift of the fruit of the Spirit, which includes patience.
What do we do while patiently waiting on the Lord? We serve!
Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.””
We should be like Jesus and serve.
Ask Ashley, Roman, Jimmy, Dan or me. There is alway a place right here @ CPC to serve.
I don’t know if anyone took advantage of the opportunity to serve in the nursery today, but Ann sent a text out last week of the need for someone in the nursery.
This is going to sound harsh, but until we become connected in our church by serving in our church, we aren’t truly connected.
Pray about that will you?
And until we are truly connected with Jesus, we can do nothing.
John 15:5 ““I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
We’re all in God’s Waiting Room, each waiting for something different. Let’s serve Him and others while we wait, together.
