Patience: Freedom in Waiting

Intro 

I want to start by correcting the record on something I said last week about peace. I said peace might be the most challenging of the qualities in our series for us to live out because it calls us to resign to the fact the God is in control.  

I think patience might give peace a run for its money.  

I can’t stand drivers who drive 40 mph when the speed limit is 40 mph. You’ve got 10 mph leeway. Use it.  

What is one thing that tests your patience the most? Maybe it’s drivers on the road who drive too slow in the pass lane. Maybe it’s seeing people get what they don’t deserve, and you don’t know why God keeps letting it happen. Maybe it’s colleagues you feel are so incompetent or arrogant you can’t stand when they open their mouth. Maybe it’s the sin you find yourselves repeating over and over and you’re at a loss of what to do. Maybe it’s the deterioration of your body and nothing seems to be working, and God can’t heal you quick enough.  

Patience is a thread that binds all of those examples together. Patience is a virtue of the Christian life, but we sometimes are left wondering where it is because we don’t seem to have it.  

The good news is that Jesus wants us to be patient people and he is committed to helping us. The question is are we also committed? If we are committed to following Jesus then we must be committed to growing in our exercise of patience.  

Our focus today is on patience. The fourth of the listed qualities in the fruit of the Spirit.  

Patience can be described as dealing with difficult situation and people without losing our mental calmness, temper, and composure.  

It is the act of waiting. Waiting for clarity when dealing with people and waiting on God with trust and perseverance.  

The truth is no one likes to wait. The advent of tv, microwave, high speed internet, cell phones, social media makes it more difficult to wait. We are being trained to be impatient.

That’s why we must take seriously the divine help that is needed to be untrained from our impatience to pursue patience.  

Everything in our culture is training us to be impatient. You don’t have to wait until payday to get your paycheck, you can get it two days early if you sign up for the right service. You don’t have to wait for the new music or book or iPhone to come out before buying, you can pre-order and pre-save. You don’t have to work a steady job to achieve financial prosperity, we’re told we just need to search for the right investment to hit a jackpot.  

Without knowing it, we are becoming people that are less patient with each other and with our circumstances.  

Jesus wants us to be better.  

There are two questions I'd like to ask and answer for us today regarding patience. 1) Why must we be patient. 2) Where must we be patient. 

We’ll read two texts of scripture today instead of one. The first is foundational scripture for the series. Open your bible to Galatians 5:16-25. The second text we’ll read is James 5:7-11 which will be our main text for today. We’ll read and ask for God’s blessing on our time in the scriptures.  

Why must we be patient 

There are three reasons why we must be patient. Three reason why we must be committed to letting the Spirit of God produce patience within us.  

Here’s the first. Because the end result will be far better than the present. See what James said in 5:7-8. He encouraged the Christians to be patient until the Lord’s coming. He mentioned it twice. In 5:8, he wrote you also must be patient. Strengthen your heart because the Lord’s coming is near.  

This may not sound like a compelling reason to you but when you take seriously what happens when Jesus returns, you might feel different. 

The return of Jesus holds with it great promises of justice, renewal and glory. We wait and endure and are patient in the face of injustice because Jesus will return to right the wrongs of our day. Justice will win in the end. Oppressors and evil doers will get their just due. We will be completely renewed on that day when sin will be no more, and we will be as pure as he is. Then we will receive glory because we waited and didn’t give up. Because we endured the hardship and didn’t give up our faith. 

It is why Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”  

We are patient because we are patiently waiting for the Lord’s return. And the end is far better than the difficulty of the moment.  

The early Christians were constantly instructed to put the Lord’s return close to their mind because it is supposed to have an impact on how they lived. I think because we are so far separated from 2000 years ago and many have manipulated the Lord’s return to their selfish and unbiblical advantage, we stopped thinking much about the Lord’s return.  

If we are actively thinking about the return of Jesus, how do you think that will transform how we exercise patience when people are being difficult or when life is hard? 

We are patient because when Jesus returns, the end will bring with it great promises that will resolve the current difficulties. 

But patience isn’t only looking forward to the return of Jesus but also looks forward to the breakthroughs in this life that foreshadows what is to come in Jesus. Our patience in the present also yields an end that is better than our present even when the end isn’t like the end we have in the return of Jesus.  

For example, consider the story of Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned for 27 years for standing up for what is right. He spent almost three decades in a small prison cell, often wondering if he would ever see freedom. But he remained patient, trusting that justice would prevail. He was eventually released and would go on to lead the very country that imprisoned him. His story had an impact on the world at large. Becoming the leader of an apartheid was far better than his present when he was in a jail cell.  

We are patient because the Lord is coming back but we are also patient because the Lord is at work in our situation. Whether the end is in this life or the next, it’ll be far better than our present.  

Here’s the second reason we must be patient. Because God is patient with us. God is patient in his anger and in his judgment. Psalm 103:8 says “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” He is slow to be angry toward us. He’s not quick tempered like your earthly father might be. He’s not on a short fuse like you earthly mother might be. He is slow to anger. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:16, that even though he considered himself to be the worst of sinners, Jesus was patient with him until he came to faith.  

If we experienced the patience of God while we were enemies of God, how much more would we be patient with people in our life who have not offended to the extent we offended God.  

Here’s the third reason we must be patient. Because God is at work in our patience. Notice the analogy that James used in 5:7. The farmer plants and must wait for the rain in order for fruit to be produced. If he is impatient, he gets no fruit. But while he waits, God is at work providing the rain for the growth. Paul says in Romans 5, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance or patience, patience produces character.” In our waiting, in our patience, in our perseverance, in our endurance, God is at work in us producing a character that looks more like Jesus. 

Why must we be patient? Because the end will be far better than the present, because God is patient with us, and because God is at work in our patience. 

When must we be patience 

If we are to be patient, when must we be patient? The bible speaks of two moments that requires our patience.  

The first is in our relationships. Look at what James wrote in 5:9. “Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another.” Do not be so impatient that you grumble and speak unkindly about each other and to one another.  

It is often those that are closest to us that we find it harder to be patient with. Maybe it's because we quick to give others the grace and benefit of doubt that we are unwilling to give to those close to us. Nothing ruins a relationship quicker than the words that come out of our mouth when we are impatience.

Our impatience produces anger, unkind words, and frustration. When our fuse is short we end up not being the best version of ourselves. 

The scripture says patience should be evident in the relationships that we have. It’s why Paul encouraged Timothy to look at his life as an example of how to be patient in pastoring God’s church. It’s why Paul told the Ephesian church to be patient with one another.

How will people who know you well characterize your level of patience with them? Do they experience from you the patience that Jesus has shown to you? 

When we are impatient with people it is because we are expecting them to know when we know and to respond in like manner. We expect them to behave according to our expectations and when it doesn’t happen, we lose it.  

Impatience does not make for a healthy relationship. If anything, it weakens it. What if your dad, or your mom, or your siblings, or your spouse was more patient with you? How much more would you enjoy that relationship? What if you were more patient with your spouse, your kids, your mom, or dad, your siblings? How much more would they enjoy their relationship with you? 

Who in your life would benefit from experiencing the patience of Jesus through you? Spouse? Friend? Or a Colleague? 

God wants to make us into people that are patient, and he has given his Holy Spirit to that end.  

The second place we must be patient is in our circumstances. James ends in 5:10-11 by pointing us to the prophets and to Job. People who experienced great sufferings and were patient in their suffering. They endured and kept the faith.  

We will find ourselves in different situations in life that require us to exercise patience. Whether it’s in the injustice we see, or the suffering of others around us, or the disappointment we carry with our career, family pressure, immigration process and approvals. These are real tests of patience, but God is at work even in the waiting. 

Patience answers the question of where does our hope lie? If our hope lies in the God who holds all power, then we wait on him in hope that one day either in the present or in the life to come, he will do what is right.  

The passage of James we are looking at is actually a response to the section that comes before in 5:1-6. The wealthy are oppressing the poor and getting richer at the expense of the poor. In light of that, James tells the Christians that are likely poor, to be patient until the Lord’s return.  

Whether your body is not working like you want it to, be patient until the Lord’s return when you’ll get a fixed-up body. Whether you are tired of seeing the rich get richer and poor get poorer, be patient until the Lord’s return when the poor will be exalted, and the wicked will be condemned. Whether you are tired of the sin you keep repeating and are at a loss of what to do, be patient until the Lord’s return when sin will be no more.  

We must be patient in our circumstances and in our relationships.

Conclusion 

As we wrap up, it’s important to say that waiting does not mean inaction. It means praying, growing, and trusting while waiting. It also means taking advantage of the available tools and rights that we have as we wait and exercise patience.  

Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9: “Do not grow weary in doing good, for at the right time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” To be patient is to do good. And in due time, if we don’t give up, like the farmer, we will reap a harvest. 

But waiting is hard. Being patient is challenging. But it is also the life we have been called to live and the life we have been freed to live. We are not alone. God is with us through His Spirit. We must go to God in prayer asking for his help to be patient. Don’t try to muster up all your strength to do this. Ask God for help to wait patiently with trust and perseverance.  

We must wait because the end is far better than the present, because God has been patient with us, and because God is at work in our patience.  

Our relationships and the circumstances we find ourselves in are the playing field for practicing patience.  

Who can you be more patient with that you have not been patient with? Where can you be more patient where you haven’t been patient? Take it to God and ask him to help you.