February 22, 2004
Title: The Fruit of the Spirit is...Patience.
Text: Galatians 5:22-23
Introduction
1. A man noticed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her cart.
As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies ...
and her mother told her no.
The little girl exploded into a huge fit,...
and the mother said quietly, "Now Missy, we just have half of the aisles left to go through--don’t be upset. It won’t be long."
In the candy aisle, the little girl began to shout for candy...
When mom said she couldn’t have any,...
she began to kick her mother and scream....
The mother said softly, "There, there, Missy, don’t cry--only two more aisles to go and then we’ll be checking out."
When they got to the checkout aisle, the bratty little girl began to reach for the gum...
when her mom told her she couldn’t have any...she began to scream all the louder...
The mother patiently said, "Missy, we’ll be through this checkout stand in five minutes and then you can go home and have a bottle and a nice nap."
The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her.
He said, "I couldn’t help noticing how patient you were with little Missy," .
The mother replied, "Oh, no, my little girl’s name is Francine... I’m Missy."
2. A man and his wife are awakened at 3 o’clock in the morning...
there’s a loud pounding on the door.
The man gets up and goes to the door
where a drunken stranger is standing in a pouring rain...
He says, "can you come out and give me a push"?
The man of the house says, "No way...It’s three o’clock in the morning!"
He slams the door and goes back to bed.
His wife asks him, "Who was it?"
He told her, "Just a drunken stranger asking for a push"
"Did you help him?" she asks.
"NO, I didn’t-it’s three in the morning and pouring down rain out there"
His wife says, "Well, you’ve sure got a short memory...
Can’t you remember about three months ago when we broke down on vacation?
and those two guys stopped to help us?
I think you should help him."
The man realizes he will get no sleep with his wife & his conscience nagging him...
so he does what his wife wants and gets dressed ...
and goes out into the pouring rain
and calls out into the dark "Hello-are you still there?"
The drunken stranger says, "Yes,"
The husband asks him, "Do you still want a push?"
"Yes, please, I’d be ever so grateful!" comes the reply from the dark.
"Where are you?" asks the husband.
The drunk man says, "Over here on the swing".
3. A man’s car stalled in heavy traffic just as the light turned green.
He must be like me...because all his efforts under the hood to get the car started have failed,
and to make matters worse, everyone behind him begins honking their horns.
He finally walks back to the first driver behind him and says...
"I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to get my car started.
Why don’t you go up there and give it a try...
I’ll stay here and honk your horn for you."
4. Patience....
I’m sure you’ve been in situations where your patience has been severely tested...
In fact, we will even joke about it (like we have tonight)...
you’ve heard it said, "Lord, give me patience...and give it to me NOW"
and yes...patience is a fruit of the Spirit...
Let’s read it in our text: Galatians 5:22-23
Body
1. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit...
A. on the surface...that might surprise you...
because up to this point...
We’ve been saying that the fruit of the Spirit is just that...
fruit....given by the Work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the CHRISTIAN...
we agree that things like love....joy....peace....
these are things given by the Holy Spirit...
but some of the these others...patience....kindness....gentleness...
these are human qualities to strive toward...
B. We tend to think of PATIENCE....
as a personality trait...
some people are patient...
some people are impatient...
it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not...
some Christians are patient...
and some are......well....they aren’t so patient...
even sinners can be patient...
There’s an old saying that says "patience is a virtue"...
Which reinforces the idea that patience is something we strive for...
something we work at...
NOT something we receive by the Holy Spirit.
so, in preparation for this sermon...
I did a Scriptural study of the word "patient" and its forms...
patience...patiently...
Those words appear 45 times in my Bible...
and I studied all 45 occurrences of those words...
and I came to the conclusion...
that the Bible speaks about patience in 3 different ways...
2. First of all, the Bible talks about God’s patience...
A. On the surface...you might think that this doesn’t apply to us...
of course, God is patient...
He’s perfect...
We are imperfect...
we should just go on to the other ways that patience is described in Scripture and forget about this one...
but hold on there....let’s be patient!!
B. We are supposed to strive to be like Christ...
Of course, we don’t BECOME God....
that was the temptation that befell Adam and Eve...
that was the sin that cast Satan out of heaven...
But, we ARE supposed to use God as our example...
To keep our eyes on Christ...
to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us so that we can become more like Christ...
C. So, it behooves us to look at God’s patience...
1 Peter 3:20 tells us that "God waited patiently, in the days of Noah..."
In the days of Noah, sin had become so widespread...
that God only spared 8 people during the flood.
In spite of the stench of all the sin...
God waited patiently while the ark was being built...
aren’t you glad God was patient?
It certainly would have been easy to just be done with the whole mess...
I mean...it’s only 8 righteous people...
some scholars put the population in Noah’s day to be about the same as the population of the world today.
They calculate based on the typical family size in the days of Noah...how long people lived...calculating the rates of growth, and so on...
the population of our planet today is about 6 1/2 Billion people.
Can you imagine that?
only 8 righteous people in 6 1/2 billion?!?
Incredible!!
Think about this mess from God’s perspective...
I ran the numbers...
the percentage of righteous people
was less than 1%...
in fact, it was less that 1/10 of 1%...
it was .00000000123%...
Scripture tells us, "The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." Gen 6:5-8 (NIV)
So...God waited patiently...
"The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish"
D. If God can see Noah in 6 1/2 billion people...
then I’m sure that God sees what you are going through today...
He hasn’t lost any of His supernatural abilities...
His power hasn’t lessened...
God knows what you are going through...
3. Which brings us to the next way that patience is described in Scripture..
A. Patience with others...
if God can be patient with us...
then shouldn’t we be able to be patient with one another?
No...
in reality, we CAN’T be patient with others...
NOT WITHOUT THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT in our lives...
which produces the FRUIT of PATIENCE!!
B. Patience is a God thing...
people talk about the "patience of Job"...
because Job was faced with so much tragedy in his life...
but Job certainly had his moments of doubt...
In Job 6:11, Job says, "What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?" Job 6:11 (NIV)
C. We are unable to be patient...without the power of Christ...
In 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Paul says, And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone."
Notice who Paul is talking to...
He says, "brothers"...
these are fellow Christians...
fellow believers...
He is NOT calling SINNERS to be patient...
He is calling CHRISTIANS to be patient...
and Paul is calling them to "be patient with EVERYONE"
Not just fellow Christians...
but EVERYONE...
D. "But Pastor...you just don’t know what it’s like at my house..."
"But Pastor...when someone drives like an idiot...
i just get so mad"
"But Pastor...I’m Irish"
I don’t want to sound like a broken record here...
but you’re right...
you can’t be patient...BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS...
IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT...
WHICH PRODUCES PATIENCE IN THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN.
In 1 Timothy 1:15 & 16, Paul says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life"
When patience produced by the Holy Spirit...is displayed in the life of the Christian...
it serves as an example for those who don’t yet know Him....
But what happens when we "lose our patience"...
well, if we call ourselves Christians...
and we lose our patience...
we do damage to the Name of Jesus Christ...
Tim Hancock (in our revival services)
mentioned about a Christian getting mad and throwing his golf club...
doing damage to the Name of Christ...
he talked about a personal incident where he became impatient with a fellow basketball player...
and felt compelled to go back and apologize to the man...
He shared that the man said, "that’s okay"...
but Tim said, "you don’t understand...it’s not between you and me...it’s between me and God"
When we exhibit IMpatience...
that isn’t of the Holy Spirit...
and it just shows that we have just taken back controll of our lives...
we’ve taken over the stearing wheel from the Holy Spirit...
and told Him to go climb in the back seat and read a book for awhile.
E. So if you are a Christian...
and you struggle with being patient...
then your REAL struggle...
is in allowing the Holy Spirit to be in control of your life.
4. And finally, the last way that patience is described in Scripture...
A. The Bible talks about God’s people being patient with God...
waiting patiently for the Lord’s soon return.
James 5:7-9 says, "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!"
B. We need to be patient...
because Jesus is coming back soon...
we need to wait patiently...
we need to be patient with the Lord...
He certainly has been patient with us!!
Conclusion
1. I’ve got to be honest...
I think that those "patience" jokes are funny...
and the reason that we find them funny...
is because we can relate...
we’ve been there...
we’ve flown off the handle...
we’ve become impatient...
2. It’s okay to joke about patience...
but in our joking...
let’s not take it lightly...
some people really struggle with this...
and the reason it is such a struggle...
is because they are working at it with HUMAN effort...
patience will never be accomplished by human effort...
and self-control...
it is only accomplished by GOD control...
3. If you struggle with patience...
then your REAL struggle is a spiritual one...
and you need to come and meet with the Lord...
allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in your heart and life...
so that the fruit of patience begins to bloom and grow in your life...
4. So, let me ask you tonight..."How does your garden grow"?
