We begin this morning with a brief review of our current series on the Fruits of the Spirit. We began with a look at love. Then we examined joy. Last week we spent some time with peace.
I suggested that we call love the foundational fruit and peace a potentially illusive fruit. But, I would also suggest that we look at these first three fruits as follows: (Overhead 1)
Love is the foundational fruit because God is love and Jesus told the disciples prior to His death and resurrection that love of one another would be a sign of their love and commitment to Him and the Father
Joy is an empowering fruit. As we experience the “joy of the Lord” in our lives, it gives us power to live for Him. It gives us hope because we find joy, which is a meaning giving thing, in living with and for the Lord as He lives in, with, and through us!
Peace is a focusing fruit. As we consider the place of peace in scripture I think we can see peace as a focusing fruit that enables us to focus on the Lord and His purposes and plans.
As we read last week in Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7, we saw that God’s peace comes to us as we place our circumstances and ourselves and needs in His hands. Have you ever noticed someone who was truly at peace with themselves and God? There is a focus to their lives that comes from being calm and secure and relaxed in Christ.
What kind of fruit, then, is patience? It is not an impossible fruit. I suggest this morning that patience is a sustaining fruit. Now, why do I say sustaining?
Think about a patient person in your life. Now, think about a recent situation that person faced regarding a situation that was making you impatient. Maybe it was at home, or at work, or at school, or here, or somewhere else. Think about that situation; recall the emotions of the moment in you. Look at the face of the patient person - what do you see? You see peace; you see calm; you see a sustained commitment to deal with a situation in a positive and constructive way.
How important is patience? Let’s do a couple of fun experiments to find out. I need 4 volunteers to help me with the first experiment. (Get volunteers and do experiment)
(To volunteers) Now, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being little patience and 5 being a great deal of patience, how much patience did it take you to do this experiment?
Now, I need three different volunteers for the next experiment. (Get volunteers and do experiment twice- once for 78 seconds and once for 39 seconds).
(To volunteers) Now, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being little patience and 5 being a great deal of patience, how much patience did it take you to do this experiment?
What kind of pressure did you feel? Did it affect your level of patience? (See end of sermon for info about experiments.)
Now, how many of you felt your level of patience going down and your level of impatience going up during these two experiments? Why?
Waste of time? Don’t see the need for this sort of thing in the worship service? Preach the Bible, Pastor!
What do our responses to these two experiments teach us about patience?
Before we look at Scripture, here are some observations about patience from people across the centuries: (Overhead 2)
St Francis de Sales
Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.
Chinese Proverb
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid one hundred days of sorrow.
Unknown
It is better to be patient, than it is to become one.
What does the Bible have to say about patience? (Overhead 3) It has a lot to say to us. In one of my sources that I checked, there are 40 different verses in which patience or a variant of patience such as patient or patiently, appear.
In Ecclesiastes 7:8 we read, “Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.” One of the characteristics of OT wisdom literature, such as Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, are parallel thoughts. I think that this verse is a good example of parallel thoughts.
Let’s look at the first sentence. “Finishing is better than starting.’ How many agree with this statement? Why?
Starting sometimes is a very hard thing to do. We procrastinate. We need to get all the materials together and go no further. We keep getting interrupted. We simply don’t want to do it.
Now many people are good starters. They intend to do something good. They have a good plan and they are ready to go. But, they don’t finish what we started. They give up. They get discouraged. They get distracted.
But, finishing, that’s another story! What a sense of relief! What a great feeling of satisfaction! What a wonderful sense of accomplishment!
The writer connects patience to finishing and starting to pride. Why might that be? A couple of ideas: First, it requires patience to finish. We can boast and brag about all the big things that we want to do and say that we are going to go – but will we do them? Pride often gets a foothold here because pride often holds us up from either starting, because we are afraid to risk failure, or not finishing, because what we started has gone like we had planned for it to go. Second, what the Preacher, the author of this book is called, is speaking of in this segment of the book is wisdom. Wisdom is a character issue. Wisdom comes with patience. Patience comes, and hence wisdom comes, with finishing. After all how many wise, truly wise people do you know that are also patient people?
But this character issue of patience (and that is what the fruits of the spirit are, character qualities that God expects all of His followers to develop, with His help) also has a very practical side to it as well – our relations with others.
Paul writes in I Thessalonians 5:14, “Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.”
Talk about people who try our patience! Lazy people. Some of us Type A people expend a great deal of energy being patient with lazy people especially those who are behind the wheel and driving in the left lane on the Interstate and refuse to get over. Lazy people try our patience.
Timid people challenge our patience. “C’mon try it! No, I don’t I can do it. Yes you can! I’m right here I’ll help you. No, that’s all right, I’ll wait for you. I don’t think that I can do it!”
All of us have certain fears and we have felt the impatience of those who find those fears groundless. And the opposite holds true as well. Our patience is tried with those who let their fears control them.
Then Paul says, “Take tender care of those who are weak.” Now what kind of weak does he mean? Does he mean physically weak? I think so. Does he mean emotionally weak? Yes. How about mentally and emotionally weak? Absolutely.
People who are weak do drain us. Granted, some of the weakness in their lives comes because of their choices. But some also comes because of the choices of others. But, in every case Paul’s instruction to the Thessalonian Church is be patient with all of them.
Patience is demonstrated in the daily rub of life. It is demonstrated, or not demonstrated, as we deal with people who are lazy, timid, and weak. But, Paul says, and more important God says through Paul, be patient with every one of them!
We are to warn the lazy about the consequences of their laziness. But we do so, patiently.
We are to encourage the timid as we help them gain confidence and peace. But we do so, patiently.
We are to tenderly care for the weak even when their needs and demands are high and draining. And we do so patiently.
Finally we need to understand the importance of patience in the larger picture – as followers of God.
Let’s look at our main text, Colossians 1:11, “We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need.” Paul’s prayer, God’s desire, is that we have the patience and endurance that comes from the Holy Spirit. God wants us to have the spiritual strength so that we have all the patience and endurance we need to live with and for God consistently.
One of the concerns I have these days is that there is such a generational gap in the church. Younger followers are not connected like I believe they need to be to older and more mature members. We need to learn from the long time followers of Christ. We need to understand how they have made this verse of scripture a reality in their lives. We need to learn and understand how the fruit of patience sustains their walk and life in Christ.
I have come to believe that there is a purposeful order to the fruits of the spirit. I believe that they are listed the way they are for a very important reason. (Overhead 4)
I suggest that we consider that kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness flow out of patience. Think about it for a moment. Are not these next fruits descriptive of someone who is patient? But, where does patience come from?
How about love, joy, and peace? Think about Jesus during His earthly ministry. Now, He did get angry a couple of times when He visited the temple. He did get upset when the lack of faith kept showing up in those He led and cared for.
But, His love for those He came in contact with, and us as well, is clearly seen. We see it in His weeping in John 11 prior to His calling forth Lazarus from the grave.
We see it in His desire to let the children be close to Him. We hear it in His voice after the resurrection as He says, “Mary” to one who was grieving His death.
Jesus was also full of joy. We have to read between the lines of scripture somewhat to find it, but it was there! I think that He spoke of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son with great emotion in His voice. Emotions of joy that perhaps made His voice swell with tears of joy and love as He told in familiar ways of His father’s love.
And there is the peace present as well in the crowded and storm-tossed boat as His disciples cried out in fear. There is peace in the tension and conflict of His arrest as He calms them down and keeps Peter from doing greater harm.
As a result of all of these snapshots we get a clear look at the patience of God as expressed in His son, Jesus.
Patience is essential for consistency in our relationships with Christ and with others. The fruit of patience is an expression to the long haul in our commitment to Christ.
So, how does patience take root in our lives? (Overhead 5)
1. We make the commitment to become patient and not just once – every day.
2. We continue to let love, joy, and peace take root in our lives and grow.
3. We ask God to help us become more patient. That probably means that some changes may have to take place. For example, if we know that on Friday’s we are going to be following a certain person on our route home and that person’s driving makes us loose our patience, then maybe we take a different route, or leave earlier.
4. We continue to ask God to fill us with His spirit.
As we conclude I ask that you place yourself in a posture of prayer; eyes closed, heads bowed.
A lot, may be most, of the challenge to our patience comes from the fact that most of our time is not our own. Our patience gets tested because we are subject to someone’s agenda – teacher, supervisor, family member, or occupational reality.
The patience that God wants to give us through His spirit can help us deal with this tension in our lives. I think that when we are able to express true Biblical patience with one another and those outside of the church, God is able to work in the lives of those that we are in daily contact with because when people see someone who is a patient person that builds credibility in their eyes and creates questions in their minds about what make you tick.
How is your patience IQ today? Does it need to be raised, strengthened, and improved? God wants to help us in this area. His power can truly help us be more patient. But, we have to want it and ask for it. How about you this morning? With the uplifted hand, do you acknowledge your need for greater patience in your life and witness? Let God help you. The altar is open for prayer and seeking God in this area. Amen.
(Experiments one and two were taken from the FW Friends Games Leader Guide (Group Publishing) for the week of September 21, 2003)
(Experiment one required the use of paper plates that were folded like tacos, a golf ball, and a couple of marbles. The group of 4 stood side-by-side and attempted to pass the balls from one plate to another without dropping them.
Experiment two required the use of a stopwatch. The volunteers were asked to sit and then stand when they believed that 78 seconds and then 39 seconds had passed.)
(Sources of quotes - www.motivation-inspirational-corner.com)
(Overheads are available from this sermon. Please e-mail me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and ask for 092803svgs)
