You’re Never a Failure Unil You Quit
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Intro
I am so glad that you are here tonight. We are in part 4 of the series The Fruit of the Spirit.
Here is the theme verse for the series. There are 9 of these.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Paul is focusing on what the HS wants to do inside of each of us. He wants to build strength in us from the inside out. We want each of you to fall more in love with Jesus and allow him to grow these in each of us.
I want to be open to anything the Lord wants to do in my life. So today
Today our fruit is Patience.
Today our fruit is Patience.
How many would say that patience is your strong point?
First we are going to look at what Biblical Patience is and then we will learn how we can live it out.
Patience is the mystery fruit. It’s like when you eat something and it wasn’t what you expected. Patience can be like that.
Here is what I mean. When I said the fruit is patience today, many of you expected a nice message on how not to be annoyed by people who are annoying. Traffic Anybody with me?
Look at this word…
Makrothymia - Endurance, steadfastness, perseverance, patient in trial, Long-suffering
Makrothymia - Endurance, steadfastness, perseverance, patient in trial, Long-suffering
I know no-one wants to come in here and talk about suffering especially long-suffering. But life has many trials and tribulations in it that require us to have this trait of long suffering. (Endurance, steadfastness, perseverance, patient in trials…)
I wish I could say that you don’t need patience. I wish we didn’’t need this quality in our lives, but we do. When we receive it, he will give us the power and his strength of his patience to step into a journey that has suffering in it and come out on the other side.
Here is the thing about patience.
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Perseverance is patience.
Patience is our pathway to maturity.
Patience is our pathway to maturity.
On the other side of the trials is maturity. IOW, we will gain in maturity and be lacking in nothing. Most of us would say we want to be complete, but there is a process to get there.
God doesn’t cause the trials, but he uses them to grow us.
1. Patience allows us to Wait for God.
1. Patience allows us to Wait for God.
We hate to wait. Anybody with me. I would rather go to another restaurant than wait in line at the one I went too. Most of us hate to wait.
Amazon - we will pay to have it now…
Microwaves - ovens worked just fine, but we wanted it NOW
Elevator button that closes the doors… disconnected but our brains needed something to make your minds think the door was closing faster.
Life includes waiting. Your Christian walk requires waiting.
Apple drives me crazy. The will announce the new iPhones and then not allow you to buy them for a month… come on somebody.
Why are we waiting? It’s an act of faith to wait.
Let go of our timeline but get God’s timing.
Let go of our timeline but get God’s timing.
We all have a time line and we like our timeline. We don’t like to wait for God’s timing because we like to be in control. But when we release that and wait on God, we are trusting him to provide what He wants.
Another thing waiting does is it helps us to
Let go of our plan but get God’s provision.
Let go of our plan but get God’s provision.
We love to produce for ourselves but when we trust God… it is always better. Live like this with your hands up receiving from God.
Another thing waiting does is it helps us to
Lose control but get God’s covering
Lose control but get God’s covering
We love to get saved but we struggle with the Lordship part of it. Making him Lord means his way is our way.
Some of you are in a waiting season. The fear in waiting is… is the answer to my prayer going to happen… is there hope on the other side… is there healing on the other side…
We have to learn to dig in and trust God because if we bail out on His timing we miss what he had for us.
Charles Spurgeon said,
“If the Lord makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: It tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes.”
2. Patience allows us to endure through trials.
2. Patience allows us to endure through trials.
You can make … you can endure it.
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.
These are people who have gone through it. Here is the word we need.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”
He is with us in our trials. We just studied Joseph and his story is a great story about God using suffering to do something great. We are still in our story… we see the end of his, but not ours.
Summarize Joseph’s story. He goes through 22 years of trials but then came out on the other side as the 2nd most powerful man i the world.
Patient in the pit
Patient in the pit
If you are in a pit, be patient in the pit… like Joseph.
Joseph was betrayed… maybe you have been too.
Patient in pain.
Patient in pain.
Maybe you have been hurt by someone else… an injustice towards you. Listen. god is with you and can and will heal you in the process.
Patient in the process.
Patient in the process.
You may be in the process right now. You are in the middle of a journey where there are many ups and downs… sometime it seems like more downs. Addictions… health issues… endure.
Patient in promotion.
Patient in promotion.
We have a generation that want it now. They don’t want to begin at the bottom and work their way up, they want to start at the top. It’s good to have passion and dreams because the opposite it to not care.
Joseph in his immaturity wanted it all right then, so he told his brothers.
At the end of the day, God’s promises are real and will happen on his timing.
Patient in reconciliation.
Patient in reconciliation.
Joseph was 22 years patient in reconciliation with his brothers. Now, most of us have not had siblings that tried to murder us or sell us into slavery, but many of you have had hurts even from those who are close to you.
we just have to trust God to work in the middle of this. I know we have things we would like to do to those people… believe me. But if we will trust God, he can do something on the other side that will promote health and growth in us as well as something special in that other person.
That’s what happened with Joseph. Here is something from Joseph’s life we can use today.
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
we can endure any trial with this promise. There is no dead end street with God. He can and will redeem it all. He will use whatever is happening in your life for good.
So if you are in a trial today, hold onto this verse. Here is what we need to know…
If we don’t quit, we win.
If we don’t quit, we win.
To often we quit before we get there. We have to endure.
9 And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.
Don’t quit.
3. Patience enables us to forgive each other.
3. Patience enables us to forgive each other.
Even when someone has done us wrong, patience gives us the ability to forgive.
13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Patience pushes us to Jesus. It reminds us that when we are being patient we are becoming more like God who shows us patience all the time.
When Jesus told the disciples that they had to forgive someone over and over again, they asked for more faith. Forgiveness is hard.
Tim Keller said
“Forgiveness is a form of voluntary suffering.”
“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
How are we going to live this out?
How are we going to live this out?
check out this passage.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
Example of having someone look at me…
Peter walking on the water.
Focus on who Jesus is.
Focus on who Jesus is.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
He is faithful in our past, our present and our future. We can’t look somewhere else. Peter when he began to sink, Jesus saved him.
in 1 Sam 7, the Israelites made a stone and made an Ebenizer. They could look back and see that God was faithful. Make on for yourself. Journal back all the times God has been faithful in your life.
Focus on what Jesus has said.
Focus on what Jesus has said.
There are so many promises in the Bible. God has given us His word.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
The watchmen were on the walls always looking. He waits on the Lord more than the watchmen are watching on the wall.
Get you a verse from God’s Word and apply it to your situation. It will help you persevere.
Focus on what Jesus has done.
Focus on what Jesus has done.
When God is asking us to be patient, he is not asking us to do anything that he has not already done.
15 But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
Is anyone beside me glad God is a patient God? God has been so patient with me for years. In every situation that I felt hopeless, God was right there. He has endured with me and He will endure with you.
I am so grateful today that God is a forgiving God. We didn’t choose Him, He chose us. He has forgiven us and out of that we can forgive others.
We are never more like Jesus than when we are living in patience.
We are never more like Jesus than when we are living in patience.
God has called us to this and he will be with us through the process.
Jesus could have been born ready for ministry, but he didn’t. He was born as a baby and had to grow in every area of life. When he began ministry at age 30, he stepped into 3 years of enduring suffering… temptation… betrayal… but he endured.
While he was on the cross… He forgave those who were killing him.
When we forgive those who hurt us, we become like Jesus and it becomes a light for the world.
Prayer time
Salvation -
You cannot have fruit of the Spirit without a real relationship with God through Jesus. If you are ready for a real relationship pray with me.
Sinners prayer
Fos those of us who are in a situation where we need this kind of patience, raise your hands.
God cultivate patience in us as we go through the process. strength to wait to endure to forgive. do this inside of us. Thank you that you are an awesome god.