Tis the Season for Patience

Good morning and welcome. I am so glad that we can be here together to worship and to celebrate the coming of our Lord in just two weeks. Isn’t that crazy to think about. We will be celebrating Christmas in just two weeks. It comes quickly doesn’t it.

Well time seems to move faster for us as adults at least. I can remember as a kid thinking that time would never move forward.

Kids and patience

Does anyone know any kids that are actually patient? I don’t know about you but they are a rare breed. Most kids aren’t every satisfied if their parents tell them to be patient. They don’t want to wait they want it now.

Think about it.

Riding in the Car....Are we there yet?

Waiting to go somewhere special…Is it time to go yet?

Waiting for Christmas…they sneakily search the house for Christmas presents.

For my kids one of the challenges is spending their money. Now my kids are good about spending their money on things they want and being patient to get what they want. However, at Christmas time it gets hard.

We have encouraged them for the last several years to wait till after Christmas to buy anything because they don’t know what they will or won’t get.

That doesn’t always end well.

Isaac last year when we were in Pittsburgh visiting my mom saw something at the mall that he wanted. I tried to tell him to wait. I tried to convince him he should wait for Christmas but he wasn’t willing to listen. He was set on buying this item.

The problem i was facing is that I already had it at home. I was stuck in the position of trying to convince him that he couldn’t spend his money. There was no chance i was winning this battle so I had to give in.

I told him why I was asking him to be patient and had to ruin a Christmas gift. He ended up paying me for the item and he still bought it. He just bought it from Dad and I had to go buy another gift.

I was a little frustrated. Sometimes, we just have to learn to wait.

That had me thinking about patience in the Bible.

Stories of Patience

If you start reading this book you will see that there are a lot of stories about patience.

Think about it.

Noah—Had to wait for the flood and than had to wait for the flood to stop

Moses—Had to wait for the Pharoah to free the people and than he had to put up with the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness

Job—Do we even want to talk about the patience he had in suffering. He is the Gold standard.

Early Church—Waiting for the Return of Jesus

The early church and the apostles thought it was happening soon. Yet, 2000 years later we are sitting and we are still waiting. Wondering when is he coming back. We have to now practice patience.

Yet, we shouldn’t be surprised by this because we are called to it.

Let us turn together to James chapter 5.

We will be reading versus 7-11 this morning.

James 5:7–11 NIV

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting 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 one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! 10 Brothers and sisters, 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 count as 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.

Patience

One of the things that you will find out about me as we continue to worship together is I like definitions. I am a firm believer that for us to understand something properly we need to examine the words closely. That includes at times looking at definitions.

Patience—The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

One of the aspects of Patience that was so striking is the connection to the negative. While patience is viewed as a positive attribute it is connected to enduring the negative. Maybe that’s why we can see it as a strong Characteristic of God.

Characteristic of God

Have you ever thought about that before. God is Patient. He is waiting and tolerating the mess that is his creation. He is putting up with us and not getting angry. It really changes the way you think about what it means that God is patient.

I couldn’t think of a better example of this than one of the Parables of Jesus. Matthew 18 Jesus as usual is answering questions and Peter asks an interesting question. He asks Jesus how many ties he is to forgive. Many of us know the answer...

Not seven times but 77 times.

Do you think you could keep track of forgiving someone 77 times?

Got to be honest I would probably forget after a couple times and loose track. However, Jesus follows up this answer with an interesting Parable that shows the patience of God.

Matthew 18:23–27 NIV

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

He took pity on him and canceled the debt. That is the God we serve. He has patience for his creation and doesn’t want to bring ruin on us. He provides us with opportunity that we don’t deserve to make things right.

This sets it up for us to see that we are...

Characteristic of Humanity

We are called to be patient. This isn’t only true of the passage in James remember.

James 5:7 NIV

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

We find it elsewhere in scripture. In fact it is used in the description of the most excellent way. The best way that we can live. The way that God treats us. In love. Paul writes to us about love and shares this.

1 Corinthians 12:31 NIV

31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

This is what the Master showed his servant in that parable that we read. Yet, Is that how the servant lived?

Let’s look at the end of the story.

Matthew 18:28–35 NIV

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

The truth is that we have been shown patience and there are times we fall horribly short of what we are called to. The cost of not living a life that is filled with patience is costly. We can not be so foolish to think that we can live that way and expect the same level of patience from God.

We are warned this by James as well when he says...

James 5:9 NIV

9 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

The Judge is standing at the door and we can not be so foolish to think that we won’t face judgment if we act like this unmerciful servant. We instead are to live a life where we don’t grumble against one another.

Don’t Grumble

This was an interesting passage of scripture to study. This idea of grumbling or complaining.

Did you know that Jesus complained. Now wait a minute that can’t be right. Jesus wouldn’t ever complain about anything.

Mark 7:34 NIV

34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”).

Those words “Deep Sigh” is was to groan or to complain. The root of the Greek word is similar to what James is speaking about.

Don’t Grumble

Now does that mean that we can like Jesus groan.

Yes and No.

The difference is not the complaint but the action connected to the complaint. Jesus was a complaint to God of why does this man have to suffer. In many ways it is viewed as a prayer of despair or compassion on this man.

Jesus was complaining because he hated seeing the man this way.

James is talking about complaining that is confrontational. This is a complaint that happens when we think that people could do better and be better or we expect more.

Or like the unmerciful servant we attack others because we aren’t happy about a situation despite the grace and patience that we had been shown.

Patience is an Action

Too often we think of patience as a passive thing. We sit and wait. One of the most powerful images that James presented as we wait for the return of Jesus is the example of the farmer. The farmer is waiting but that doesn’t mean he isn’t working. I have never known a farmer who doesn’t have a busy day. There always seems to be work to do on the farm.

Even while the farmer waits for the rain that the Lord has promised and the harvest the work is to be done.

The Harvest is coming and the rains are coming because we know that God is faithful and he will deliver on his promises. We know because we can see that the scriptures are lined with examples of God coming through.

Noah was delivered from the flood.

Moses freed his people and lead them to the promise land

The Israelites returned form exile.

Job was delivered from suffering.

The Messiah came.

The Holy Spirit came.

Jesus will return.

While we wait though we must realize that the Lord’s coming is near and that we can’t sit idly by and just wait or get frustrated with others or the situation that we find ourselves in. Instead we are called to live out our faith to be active in our patience and to be seeking God. To be living out our faith. To be both patient in the hardship that the world puts us in and in trusting that God will deliver us.

We can rely on the fact that he is faithful and he will keep us until than. that gives me a great hope in knowing and makes the idea of patience easier knowing that the Judge is near not because I fear him but because we know that While he is Judge he is also.

James 5:11 NIV

11 As you know, we count as 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.

That is the hope that our perseverance and our patience will be rewarded and blessed with mercy beyond what we deserve.

Let us Pray.