Building Godly Character: Patience

Patience is a Godly virtue.

Colossians 1:11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

There are people who have absolutely no patience. You ever met someone like that.

In the year 2000 if you bought something on Amazon, it’s speedy delivery was 8-12 days. That was the year 2000. In 2005 They launched 2 day delivery. In 2009 they said that they could do same day delivery. To now I know that this doesn’t happen in Port Crane but they have drones that will deliver your package in 30 minutes. To the point where when supply and demand around the holidays slows the pace of deliveries down we complain. I remember when I was a kid if you ordered something in a catalogue it was amazing but you had to wait like 2 months to get the order.

Thank God that He is patient.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Imagine if God wasn’t patient. ZAP! Another one bites the dust. Quite literally. I would have been dust a long time ago. God waits he plays the long game. Keep praying for your kids because if it takes 50 years for them to get saved it was worth the wait. When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be

There are many examples of PATIENCE in the Bible.

Can you think of any?

Joseph was 17 when he was sold as a slave.

Genesis 37:2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

I tell you in America we are in a hurry to do everything. We rush kids getting a phone. The moment you turn 16 you have to drive. You need a car You need a new whatever. We want what we want and when we want it. Think of Joseph’s story. He had to be patient. Between the time he was sold as a slave to the time he became the prince of Egypt was 13 years. Imagine if you had to wait 13 years to get your quarter pounder at the restaurant.

Joseph was 30 when he became the prince of Egypt.

Genesis 41:46 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

I wanted the world right away after high school. I had two passions I really wanted to pursue. The LORD and math. But I must tell you I was impatient. When I went to college I saw the time it would take to get a masters degree in either discipline and elected to only get a bachelors degree. Today I wish I could go back and be patient.

1 WAIT on the LORD.

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

Wait for it. Have you ever tried to tell a 2 year old to be patient. Wait honey Dad is in the middle of something. They just stare at you with those big baby blue eyes. And ask you the same thing every two minutes. How about now Daddy.

Patience is worth it.

Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.

You know that Lamentations 3 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible. This prophet Jeremiah who has been through so much. So much more than we have been through. I have a tendency to wine when a day doesn’t go my way. I forget to look at the big picture. I believe that God is in control with all my heart. We as Christians in a church turn into toddlers when things don’t go our way. Oh the price of gas. Oh things are so bad around us. We have nothing to talk about compared to Jeremiah. He waited forty eight years after the fall of Jerusalem and never was able to see men like Nehemiah and Ezra coming back. Talk about patience and to say in the real darkest of times. Your mercies are new every morning great is your faithfulness.

I will tell you. There are times that I go over to some saints house in our church. You know a Godly woman I’ll name a few later. And all they can do is sing praises of the goodness of God and I know that there life is hard. Let me tell you what they know how to embrace patience. Just wait God will take care of me and then they see God’s goodness. Praise God. Then I have gone over to someone who looks as if they don’t have a thing to complain about in the world. They are flying on top of the world from the world’s stand point and it’s like they search under the cushions for things to complain about to not be patient about. Which kind of person are you?

Planting seeds takes time.

James 5:7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

I try catch things from preachers and one of things that I have tried to catch is the late Charles Stanley’s message about sowing and reaping. You reap what you sow, more than you sow, and finally and most important for us to understand is later than you sow. Man Christian Camp was easy. I was trying to win young people to the Lord and convince them to live for Christ. Every day I get a testimony of the fruit that ministry produced. Here is this pastor that wasn’t saved when he started going to camp but today he is the pastor of a church. Here are missionaries serving God that got saved at camp. Lots of stories like that. Do you know what it takes a lot more time in a country church to see fruit. But God knows! Wait patiently on the LORD.

2 Don’t get impatient.

Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Trust God and just keep being patient remember the story of Job. He had to wait and wait and wait to get his family his health and wealth back. You need to be patient.

Don’t take matters into your own hands.

Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Remember the story of Moses, Hebrews said that he refused to be called the king. He esttemed the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. But he took matters into his own hands “He looked this way and that” killed an egyptian and buried him in the sand. He wasn’t patient. God would make him wait another 40 years to lead the people out of Egypt it would be another 40 years before the people crossed the Jordan something he would never do because he was impatient and struck the rock.

3 Patience and Prayer go hand in hand.

Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

I don’t believe this is just about being patient. Patient people make the best burglars and super villians. But patience in the ways of the LORD being patient is worth it.

God hears you, just be patient. He will answer!

Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.

Learn to be patient until the LORD gives you His undivided attention.

Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.

Dad’s you get it. You want to spend time with your kids, but the minute you get involved in a big project. That kid is at your shirt tale. DAD DAD DAD

Come on kid be patient! It’s time to be patient. God’s not too busy to spend time with you but he knows the value of patience. Wait! It will be worth it when he gives you his full attention

Learn to be still.

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Do you know what I have learned, just wait. God is better at taking care of it than we are. Think about Abraham and Sarah. They had to wait a long time for that baby. Every time Abraham tried to take matters into his own hands he got himself into trouble. Weather it was with Pharoah or Abimalech.

You need to exercise patience.

James 1:3–4 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Patience is something that you learn it doesn’t come on you magically with fairy dust. Maybe you need to do this. Keep a prayer journal. Seriously. Right down what you are praying for. Keep record of what God is doing in your life. Have long term prayer needs as well as short term. Watch God work. Pray that God will provide your meals this week help you to speak to someone about him first. Move it up to longer term needs like praying about a new job. That is what I did when the LORD laid it on my heart to get out of camping and pursue pastoring. I didn’t go LORD make me a pastor tomorrow) no I prayed. God I went to be a school to be a pastor in your time and your way lead me. He did but it took years. But I think God did it at the right time for the camp the church and myself.

Patience is about proper focus.

2 Corinthians 4:17–18 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Keep your eyes fixed on what you are doing now so that you can be patient.

Remember Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Job and many others had to wait.

God keeps His promises, just be patient.

Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

Has this ever happened to you. You are sitting in a restaurant or at a store or on hold on the phone and you are about to lose your patience and your wife says to you. Maybe they forgot about us, go ask them again. Ugg.… Or who has been made a promise only to have someone back out on you. there was one man I knew I love him and everytime I saw him he promised the world. I can do this I can get this I have these resources he rarely delivered. God isn’t that man just be patient he will keep good on his word.

4 Patience is rewarded.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Are you down and out like Job, do you feel the nation is crumbling around you like Jeremiah. Are you waiting on a child like Abraham? Do you feel the world is against you like Joseph? Do you feel like you should be rushing the LORD like Moses? You can’t go to many pages in the scripture without finding someone who needed to learn what patience is all about.

Patiently wait to see Jesus.

Luke 2:36–38 Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

I want to see Jesus. I want to see Him right now. I like the song, I’m going to heaven and I can’t wait, but the truth is that I can. God has me here, NOW! When will I see Jesus, exactly when he means for me to. I have come to a conclusion. The LORD Jesus could call the church home at any time. I long to see Jesus. 1 Timothy 4.7-8 are some of my favorite verses. I long for his appearing. But I can wait. There was a time when I tried so hard to figure out the rapture of the church. Listened to messages read books, tried weird calculations you know like dividing the circumfrance of the great pyramid to the integral of the angle of the lunar shadow on the summer solstace at stone hendge. I am just kidding I didn’t do that but I was excited about the rapture today. But I have come to the conclusion, Jesus said he’s gonna come when he’s gonna come. I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t have to be the kid in the back seat going. ARE WE THERE YET? I just know that he is going to come when I don’t expect it.

Let me tell you what Scott Willson was like as a kid. I waited for my grandparents to come from NC. I sat on the living room couch and looked out the window with anticipation wasting my entire afternoon looking out there and I didn’t make one difference as to when they came. And when they came it wasn’t that fun any way I was like twelve and they were older. I didn’t really know them. It wasn’t bad it just wasnt’ what I expected. But this October I get home from something or wake up in the morning I really don’t know which it was and I go down to the basement and things are wierd and out of place in the house I start to yell at my daughter Kyleigh when I discover that my kids snuck home from south carolina for a long weekend and didn’t tell me because they wanted to surprise me. I cried like a baby it was one of the best surprises I had in my life there were lots of hugs and we had so much fun Playing games going on hikes it was wonderful. That is what I want the rapture to be like. I want him to call me like a thief in the night to find me surprised in a good way. Busy doing the Father’s business for a glorious reunion in the sky. Wait on the LORD.

The best things are worth waiting for.

Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

What are you waiting for? If it is truly worth it, it is worth the wait. I know kids that want the latest and greatest phone now. When they get what they want when they want they become spoiled and unappreciative. How many of you are savers? I have learned to be a saver. I have saved up for things I want. You know what happens to me when I save up for something. I tend to be more financially responsible with my choice. I tend to appreciate it more and I tend to not become disassifyed with it quickly.

Heaven is worth the wait.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I have told you before. I save the marshmallows for the end when I eat lucky charms. That is the way I do everything. I eat my vegitables first and my steak last. I don’t mix them when I am eating. I know I’m strange. I excercise in the morning and read in the afternoon. I save gift cards I get at Christmas until december of the next year. But I ‘ll wait so much more for heaven. Give me the momentary suffering now, I know that I can endure if I know heaven is on the other side.