Real Faith Has The Power Of Patience

Real Faith Has the Power of Patience

Series: Real Faith (Book of James)

Brad Bailey – November 22, 2020

Intro

Let me add another warm welcome to you today. It’s now been over 8 months since the current coronavirus pandemic created a season limiting our ability to meet safely indoors. This week I shared my sense of what the most recent news reflects ...in terms of this long strange season of life. As the news reported that two vaccines have shown really high efficiency...and should actually begin distribution before the end of the year. And I expect that the results of the election will be settled and slowly land. And as such.... we may be coming up and over what we could call the “summit of uncertainty” as we head into the new year. A vaccine is likely going to be in distribution with some form of schedule ...and there will be an emerging clarity of political power and policies. So we could head into the new year with a significant potential for businesses and schools to begin having a solid basis to make decisions and plans. However.. it is still a long descent. Most estimate that distribution of vaccines will take until June to have reached the wide effect needed. So my sense is that we may soon begin to feel that we are on the descent...but it is still a long descent. We will have several months in which we have less uncertainty... but still experience limitations and losses...the underlying changes and challenges.

The slow descent from January to June will be served by growing in one virtue that is often hard to grasp...which is patience. We need the power of patience. The simple truth is that the past 9 months have been hard. I imagine every one of us feel tired of this season of constraints and closures. We feel a unique sense of pandemic fatigue. And we may feel frustrated. And when we get frustrated... we want to direct it at some source we can identify... and it adds to the way we can begin to lash out at others.

So I want to invite us to take a deep breadth...and listen as God speaks to us today from the Biblical Book of James. Written by the half brother of Jesus...who had become one of the most respected lives and leaders in Jerusalem...known for his maturity of faith. And he wrote that which was to be circulated and spread to all those who had been scattered and were facing hardships. And we come to these words in chapter 5... verses 7 through 11.

James 5:7-11 (NIV)

?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. 8  You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9  Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! 10  Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11  As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Six times in the passage I just read it talks about the word patience or perseverance. James is writing to people who have been scattered from Jerusalem. These are lives that have come to know the Messiah...their savior... and it is beyond what they ever understood before. It has begun to profoundly transform their lives. But now they have scattered and are facing a lot of hardship. They’ve already lived under the oppression of Rome... with it’s taxes and pagan beliefs... and now their commitment to Christ has meant they are not being welcomed by family... or treated fairly in work.

So James identifies just what they need... patience... the power to wait patiently. I would venture to say ...that many of us are not great at patience... at waiting patiently through hard times. I would venture to say that in general...we are at the forefront of human lives who have been shaped by expediency. We hate to wait. We are those who have been shaped by wanting fast food... the fast pass... and faster internet. We hate to wait.

Most of us find it hard to be patient when we we’re waiting in traffic... waiting in a shopping line...waiting at a doctor's office.... or waiting on hold.

And now we are waiting for a pandemic to be over.

So what a perfect time for God to speak to our need for patience. How timely that we come to this point in James... this focus on patience...which of course is something God speaks about throughout the Scriptures.