THE PLUM OF PATIENCE
This morning we begin the OUTWARD FRUIT, those qualities we will exhibit in our relationships with other people: patience, kindness and goodness.
Let’s look at the plum of patience: I’ve chosen a plum because patience is a plum of a virtue - it is one quality every believer needs more of (except busy doctors!) Also, the plum has kind of a tough, outer skin, but it’s sweet and juicy inside. Patience means having a toughness when trials of life batter us, but a sweetness toward people who rub us the wrong way.
"The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit" Eccl. 7:8 When we come to the fourth fruit of the Spirit, most of us are painfully aware of the fact that we fall far short of the character of Christ in this area. In fact, in our society today, patience is often thought of as a weakness - a possessive attitude, not standing up for one’s own rights as far as privacy and time are concerned. But Biblically speaking, patience is not lethargy, indolence, indifference or fatalism.
I. WHAT IS PATIENCE?
There are many different definitions given for patience. Let me mention a couple of the better ones:
1. Patience is a commitment to persevere
with different people or through adverse circumstances.
2. Patience is a "willingness to try to
understand the awkward people or disturbing events of our lives, tolerance for the intolerable."
There are actually three Greek words
translated patience:
A. Anecho (ana= UP; echo= HOLD) "To hold up under difficult circumstances, to hold back from retaliating against someone who has harmed us"- often spoken of in the Bible as FORBEARANCE.
Eph. 4:2 "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love."
Col. 3:12&13 "Put on, therefore, as beloved of God, tender mercies, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone have a quarrel against any."
B. hupomone’ (hupo= UNDER; meno= ABIDE) - "not losing heart under a great siege of trials"- spoken of Biblically as ENDURENCE
Rom. 12:12 "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"
James 1:3&4, 12 "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have it’s perfect word that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.... Blessed is he who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."
C. makrothumi (makro=SLOW, LONG; thumos= WRATH, ANGER) "slow wrath or long anger, holding out for a long time before giving way to wrath or anger." -Biblically - LONGSUFFERING
God is our great example-
-Ex. 34:6 "The Lord God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth."
-1 Pt. 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promises; but is long-suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
As God has been patient with us in our sin and rebellion, so we should be patient towards others. This is the word used in Gal. 5:22!
II. HOW IS PATIENCE EXPRESSED?
Again, patience is four-directional:
A. PATIENCE IN PROBLEMS
It is very difficult to be patient when
trials and problems come our way.
Instead, we want them to be over as quickly as possible - instant solutions. But God doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes He allows our difficulties to continue for long periods of time to teach us to trust Him more, to teach us to endure, to teach us to be more thankful for the good times. Instead of cursing God for our problems, we should praise Him for the opportunity to grow in our Christ-likeness through them - and trust Him to remove them in His own perfect time.
B. PATIENCE WITH PEOPLE
It is our natural inclination to be impatient with people - to get angry at them for the things they do which displease us, to fly off the handle when they say or do something against us, to express great displeasure when they do things the wrong way.
The three worst offenses: 1) untimely interruptions; 2) negative criticism; 3) harsh words. But God’s Word says, "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Don’t worry because of evil doers. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth." Ps. 37:7-9
Instead of getting upset with other people, we should trust in the Lord and wait for Him to work in their lives. Getting angry isn’t going to help the situation- it isn’t going to make them move any faster or act any different. WE need to accept people as they are, and trust God to make them and us what we ought to be! Forgiveness is also a very important part of patience with people. If others wrong us, we should go to them and if they ask us, we should forgive them and not hold it against them.
1 Cor.. 13:4 "Love is patient...."
C. PATIENCE WITH THE PLAN OF GOD
We seem to get impatient with God in basically two areas:
1. In Prayer - we often pray about something and expect God to answer overnight. Or we continue to pray for a week or a month or a year and get discouraged and give up. What we have failed to realize is that God is not on "human standard time" - He is eternal and He is not in a hurry. We also need to understand that God always answers our prayers: "Yes - now is the time," "No - I have a better way," or, "Wait - I will answer in My perfect time. You persevere in prayer, don’t give up + I will answer you."
Heb. 10:36 "You have need of patience that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise."
Ps. 40:1 "I waited patiently for the Lord, and He heard my cry."
2. In the Lord’s Return - we want Jesus to come back yesterday - Yet God has things to accomplish, otherwise, Christ would have already returned. One of the things God is accomplishing is the salvation of His children. What we need to understand is that we see one tiny speck of a gigantic picture. God’s perspective is much greater than ours and we need to trust Him in this!
James 5:7&8 "Be patient therefore, brothers, unto the coming of the Lord. Be patient, establish your hearts - for the coming of the Lord draws near."
D. PATIENCE WITH OURSELVES
Since the Lord is patient with us, we need to be patient with ourselves! This does not mean complacency. We accept ourselves as we are, not so that we stay the way we are; but so that we can slowly but surely become all that God would have us be. Progress is slow. We don’t become perfect overnight - there is a long time between spring and fall, between planting and harvesting. Being patient with ourselves means acceptance, moderation and relaxation.
Patience= Perseverence - Edison failed over 3,000 times before finding an effective filament for a lightbulb.
Patience is the "ability to keep on keeping on." Patience and hope are inseparably linked together!
1 Thess. 1:3 "Remembering without ceasing your labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
Rom. 15:4&5 "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus."
The greatest example of patience is JESUS.
*In His temptation - He was patient in not receiving His Kingdom before God’s time. God’s way was through teaching and service, suffering and sacrifice:
*With His slow-hearted apostles
*With His crafty enemies
*With His death:
1 Pt. 2:23 "When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to the One who judges righteously."
Heb. 12:1&2 "Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnessed, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
III. HOW CAN PATIENCE BE DEVELOPED?
A. PRAY - We can ask God for it-
Whenever the temptation comes to be impatient, we can stop, turn our thoughts to God and pay: "Lord, give me the patience not to get upset with this situation, this person, myself or You."
Col. 1:10&11 "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy."
B. PRODUCE - Depend on the Holy Spirit to produce this fruit in our lives, by yielding the control of our lives and each situation to Him, allowing Him to be patient through us.
C. PRAISE - We can develop the habit of thanking God for everything that happens, good or bad, and then trusting Him to work out all the details in His perfect time.
D. PRESSURE - Patience comes through practice and we only get to practice when we’re under pressure. So when pressure comes in our lives, instead of viewing it as our enemy, let’s look at it as a friend who has come to make us more like Christ. As the pressure builds, so must our dependence on God!
So, during this week, let’s keep our eyes open for opportunities to grow - not only in love, joy and peace, but also in patience - patience in problems with people, with the plan of God and with ourselves personally.
Patience is such a vital quality for a Christian - because it produces strength of character, dependence on God’s faithfulness, and greater opportunity for witness to others.
Bob Wieland finally crossed the finish line on Thursday, November 6, 1986, the New York City Marathon’s 19,413th and final finisher . . .He recorded what race officials said was the slowest time in marathon history: four days, two hours, 48 minutes, 17 seconds. But he was greeted like a champion by race director Fred Lebow, who at first had written Wieland off as a dropout. Wielnd was the first to run a marathon with his arms instead of his legs! He was a 40-year old Californian whose legs were blown off in a Vietnam battlefield 17 years before that race. When he finished, Wieland shouted, "We love New York!" and repeatedly pumped his arms in the air. He claimed his finisher’s medal and explained why he did it: "For the same reason as 20,000 other people. It’s the greatest marathon in the country." He also cited three specific reasons: to show his born-again Christian faith; to test his conditioning and to promote the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, of which he is a member. He said, "Success is not based on where you start, it’s where you finish, and I finished. The first step was the most difficult, after that, we were on our way home. The joy has been the journey."
Paul the Apostle said it like this, "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
~Pastor Jim Westervelt
gracefellowship3@earthlink.net
~CHURCH WEBSITE (new and still in progress):
http://www.ourchurch.com/member/g/graceworship/
