The Power of Patience

Intro

Have you guys ever been impatient about something before?

As a kid we would drive 10 hours to Indiana for the Holidays.

So I was actually impatient yesterday and it made me not so happy, but since I have been studying a Bible passage on patience, I kept telling myself it was okay. So since it was so recent in life, I figured why not share.

In case you did not know, I was raised in a small town, there were 3,000 people in my town, so some of your high schools might be bigger than that.

So in a rural area, we have tractors, we farm some, have cows, but it lead me ti find hunting. So I love to hunt.

Over the last 4 years I have started to hunt turkey’s and they are my favorite.

The only bad part is how early you have to get up.

So I woke up at 4am yesterday, so here is a picture of me and my friend…

We get out and there is a turkey in a tree gobbling, and what we are trying to do is get the turkey to fly over to us.

Well time goes by and he is no longer gobbling at us.

We had been sitting down by a tree since 5:15 and it was 7am.

We had heard nothing in over an hour, though all hope was lost, so I looked at my map, then told him what my plan was.

So I stand up and take a couple steps and about 30 yards away two turkey’s run away.

They were on the other side of a bush and I could not see them.

But if I had just been patient, then I would have ended up getting them.

So we are going to be in James 5 today talking about being patient…

my first point is we have to…

Patiently Wait

James 5:7–8 CSB

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Last week we talked some about suffering.

If you remember, we talked about the rich and how they were oppressing people, which made the people suffer.

So James starts off by tell Christians that we need to be patient in everything.

That Jesus is coming back so we must be patience.

And we jumped into verse 7 for like 30 seconds last week, but we see that there is this picture of a farmer.

Mr Farmer man is just waiting for rain.

And the rain is completely out of his control. I mean yes he could go and water his crops and there are some systems in our modern culture that can do that, but in this time he could not.

So he waits on the rain, hoping that it comes.

But yet he does not know what he is going to get. He could get a hurricane in the middle of Missouri like we got yesterday.

He could have so much water that it floods the plants, and flood insurance wasnt a thing back then.

Or he could get no rain, and in the midst of the middle east all of his plants could scorch and die.

so why do I say all of this, why does this passage make this point.

We must trust God with the things that we cannot control.

Who has ever made the comment, “didn’t see that one coming.”

Maybe some of us with that storm yesterday, just like coming out of no where.

Maybe break ups just come out of no where and you thought everything was good, but it wasn’t.

Death is something that we cannot control.

God puts breath in our lungs, but he can take it as well.

Cars breaking down.

Moments like these are the worst. Sudden things that generally are bad.

I have asked why do more sudden bad things happen then suddenly good things.

And that is because we live in a fallen broken world.

There are some of these things that we can aid in them going the right direction, but most of them we have no control over.

We can have some control over our car breaking down, you know by taking care of it, but sometimes it still breaks.

But the weather on the other hand, none of us have ever had any impact there.

When we have to stop and say, hey Jesus take the wheel.

So how do we trust God in times like this?

Guys this can be hard, but for those of us who are in Christ, we have hope.

We are only enduring human wickedness for a season.

Why do we have to be patient until the Lord comes?

because when he comes he will fix all that we have endured.

all of this suffering.

all of the evil in this life.

They aren’t following us to heaven.

This world is not our home. We have 78 years that we have to make it through.

That might see like a long time, but the people who have been in heaven for hundrends, or maybe thousands of years are laughing because they know compared to eternity, 80ish years is nothing.

But while we are on this Earth, we are to…

Patiently Practice

James 5:9–11 CSB

Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door! Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James tells us that there are some things that we are to practice.

So while we are waiting in this life, knowing and holding onto the hope that Jesus is coming back, what do we do to help us be patient, and be patient especially in a time of suffering.

Do not Groan

We are to not complain about one another.

We all know that we are sinful people and no matter how close we are to people, there are going to be fights.

We are all going through this world, with trials, enduring things we should not have to, and while we are here, we are tempted by sin.

but when we are tempted we cannot turn against one another.

people are going to make mistakes, but we as the family of God have to be there for one another.

To be there we cannot complain about each other.

We have to lift each other up and remind them of what Jesus did on the cross for us.

That we believe in him and him alone.

And because of this that this life is not perminate.

When are are down, other believers should lift us up, not beat us up.

Look at this quote…

Fretting, groaning, and complaining are very easy, but they are ungrateful, unholy, and useless habits.

Charles Spurgeon

They are easy, but useless.

Groaning turns us away from patience.

think about being a kid on a road trip. Are they patient?

No they ask the question that no parent wants to hear, “Are we there yet?”

They are not being patient, they are groaning.

It is the same with us, we do not need to groan about other people’s flaws, sins, or whatever it might be.

Because we know that God who is the ultimate judge is coming.

2. Gain insight from prophets.

The prophets remind us that patience does not mean inactivity.

We are waiting for Jesus to come back.

The prophets were waiting for Jesus to even come in the first place.

They were seen as crazy in so many ways because imagine before Jesus if you were saying how a man from the sky would come down, live a perfect life, and save the world.

If you were saying these things people would think you were crazy, but that is what they did.

But through their obedience, they received power from God, God talked to them, and people listened.

But through all of this the prophets were doing things. They were showing action.

They were telling people all about Jesus.

They were waiting patiently.

We know this because some of them were waiting over a thousand years.

But they had action.

Guys, I am not sure that you have picked up on the theme of James, but it really is “faith that works.”

So he reminds us of the prophets. They had action, but they never saw Jesus.

The prophets did not reap the benefits of what they were teaching, because none of them met Jesus on Earth.

But James brings this up to say hey, it is the same for us.

We have to have action in our patience.

We have to tell people about God.

Grow in him.

Read our Bibles.

Do the Spiritual disciplines…

because just like the Prophets, we do not know if we will see Jesus come back.

If we do, I want to tell as many people as I can about him.

If not, then when I die, it will be a happy day, not a sad one.

3. Blessed are the ones who have gone through trials.

We have all gone through something hard.

Some of us probably harder than others.

So how do we react when life throws us a curveball… joy.

It cannot get much harder than this.

When things happen to me, I do not want to be joyful.

I want to complain, groan, spiral, lose hope, all of these things.

So why does the Bible tell me to have joy.

James 1:2–4 “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

We are blessed when we go through trials because of how we grow.

That we can be mature.

That we can lack nothing.

Knowing that God uses our trails to help transform us.

And it is hard to do that in the moment.

We cannot see it.

We ask God why did you do this?

God how can you use this for good?

God why me?

But God works in mysterious ways. We do not always know what he is doing, or why things are happening.

but like we said earlier, we are to trust God in the things that we cannot control.

Look at this quote…

Patience is endurance in action.

Warren W. Wiersbe

Through our trials, we have to be patient.

When we are, we are enduring.

We are not giving into the pattens of this world.

We are allowing God to use us.

Because we see James’ example of Job.

I actually studied Job this semester, I am still in college for those of you who do not know.

I have to endure my last day of class tomorrow.

But I wrote a 9 page paper on the book of Job like last month.

But Job was a holy man who feared God, but Satan came to God and said hey the only reason he believes in you is because you have blessed him with a lot.

so everything gets taken from him to prove that he will still follow God.

Some things that I learned in this research.

Obedience does not determine outcome.

What I mean is it does not matter if you are chasing Jesus so hard, and are the holiest person on the planet, life does not care. It is still coming.

But also, God hears us even in our trials.

God does not move in Job’s life for a season, Satan takes everything away, his friends tell him he is wrong and he must have made God mad, he has no family to be comforted by.

Job calls out to God, and he goes through phases where he asks “why God?” but he always goes back to saying he is good.

Then at the end of the book, God shows back up and talks to Job and he mentions some of the things that Job said… because God still heard him.

Then Job is restored and God blessed him with things again.

So guys, when God fears far, keep trusting him, because once again, you have no idea how he is moving.

but we have to know to do these practices while we wait.

Lastly we are to…

Purely Proclaim

James 5:12 CSB

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “yes” mean “yes,” and your “no” mean “no,” so that you won’t fall under judgment.

Lastly James ends with verse 12.

It seems like James just randomly switches topics, but he does not entirely.

He wants our yes to be yes, and our no to be no.

This goes back to oaths and controlling the tongue.

both things that we have covered in James before.

God is the only one who should be lifted up.

In talking about oaths we should only swear on God because he is above all else.

But what James is saying is to be patient when you do these things.

You should not need to swear.

Your yes and no should be enough and you should be consistant in living in a way that honors Christ that people do not need you to make an oath.

That simple and honest communication is always good.

So how does this tie into what we were tlaking about when it comes to enduring things.

It is controling your words and what you say.

Controlling what you can control, controling how you live your life.

Jesus said the same thing in the sermon on the mount.

He is saying, if you swear by anything else you are giving exalting them when you should be exulting Jesus.

So in conclusion,

We are to wait patiently on the Lord’s coming, but have action in the process. Even through suffering, we have to trust in God.

He is coming, and we have to make sure our life is right before he gets here.