iLove_Patience
iLove: Patience
Thesis: God’s patience is critical to our salvation and empowers us to endure towards a good end
Goal: That some should surrender to Christ and all endure
Text: Topical
Introduction
Title Slide
A. Setting Up the Series
1. We’re starting a six week series on relationships
a) We’re using a list of important relationship building virtues that Paul (an Apostle, someone who was a leader in the early church) recorded in one of his letters
b) The list is commonly called the fruit of the Spirit:
Slide 1
(1) He lists nine. We’re going to look at six.
(2) We spend a lot of time talking about the first three as opposed to the last six
(3) We don’t talk much about patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control
2. I need you to be patient with me for one more minute while I explain a new technology:
a) If, during the message, a question comes to mind, pull out your phone and text it to this address: questions@fcch.org – instead of the phone number, type in this address and then your question in the text field
b) I’ll check them during the week. Then I’ll answer them in different ways; the Next Step Newsletter, my blog or in next week’s sermon
B. This week’s virtue: Patience
1. Bible Study
We have hundreds of people in small groups all throughout the church studying the topic of patience – if you want to join in, go out to the small group registration table after service and jump in!
2. Patience is a virtue that we really want other people to possess
a) We want other customers to be patient while we monopolize the salesperson’s attention
b) We want other commuters to be patient while we look for the quarter we dropped at the toll booth
c) We want our family to be patient with us because “God’s not done with me yet.”
Transition: My study of patience revealed that it is slightly different when applied to God than to people: first God
I. Be glad that God is patient
A. Defining Patience as It Applies to God
Slide 3
Patience is the strength that God exerts as He holds back His anger in order to rescue our souls.
B. Patience is the very nature of God
Slide 4
The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.” (Exodus 34:5-7 NLT)
1. Phrase: ‘slow to anger’ is the same Greek word that Paul uses in his description of the fruit of the Spirit – the word we translate as patience.
2. Being slow to get angry is good but why is God is angry?
C. Why’s God angry?
God’s anger is focused on what Christians call sin:
1. Totally ignoring God, mostly ignoring God or rejecting Him outright
2. Using Him to get what we want out of Him
3. Making Him into what we want Him to be instead of accepting Him as He truly is
4. Anything that uses people for our own gain, callously ignores their needs, cheapens their dignity and disregards their worth
5. For the most part, sin is mutiny – saying to God, “I don’t want you, need you nor will I follow you. I want to be in charge of my own destiny – like we have the power to do that
D. God’s anger rises to the defense of justice, people and His own worth
1. Isn’t this what we want? A God who does get angry
A God who sticks up for Himself (not one who is pushed around by humans), a God who rises up in anger against cruelty and justice?
I watch the news and see the report of the woman who languishes in her car in a ditch for 8 days while the police do nothing to help her husband find her – I get angry – that’s not right
Problem: if God unleashed His anger every time someone sinned, who would survive?
2. What we don’t want is a God whose anger is arbitrary or uncontrollable
That’s like returning to Greek mythology. There’s nothing there but fear. Am I good enough? Will I survive? Am I cursed or forgiven? What will happen to me?
E. God’s anger is controlled by the force His patience
Slide 5
“I (Jonah) knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”. (Jonah 4:2 NIV)
1. God sends a man named Jonah to a city of people who have tried His patience to the breaking point (because God does have a breaking point) to tell them that they are a wicked people and He’s had enough
2. Problem is Jonah doesn’t want to go. Why? He wants them punished – He knows that if they turn around, God will restrain His anger by His compassion and relent
F. God is patient because He is waiting for something, rather someone, you
Slide 6
And remember, the Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. (2 Peter 3:15 NLT)
1. Paul tells us that God held back His anger against sin for centuries as He waited through human history for Christ to come – then He poured it out on Christ as they found the means to bring justice and compassion together
2. Then look at your own life, how much did endure as He waited for you to surrender your life to Christ?
I was 17 when I finally surrendered my life to Christ – have people raise their hands by decades: 20, 30, 40 or more?
3. Then look at your life again…how much does God continuously endure, every day as He works out that salvation in your life every single day?
Transition: When applied to God, we should be glad because His patience saves our souls from His anger.
Communion – God’s patient love that brought about our salvation
! II. Thank God That You Can Be Patient
A. Defining Human Patience
Pt. 2 Slide 1
Patience is the power that enables us to endure difficult circumstances while waiting for a relationship to be repaired, a promise to be delivered, a goal to be reached.
1. Paul understood that patience is the power to endure:
Pt. 2 Slide 2
When he prayed for Christians, he prayed that we might: “…live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way…” Then as he described that life he included, “…being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…” (Colossians 1:9-12 NIV)
2. Patience comes because the Spirit of God gives every Christian the ability to be patient in every circumstance.
We become patient as we cooperate with God in difficult circumstances that try our patience. Did you catch that? There are two critical elements to gaining patience:
a) Trusting in God’s power within you
b) Accepting difficult circumstances as the means through which God will make you patient.
Transition: Let’s unpack that:
B. Imitate God’s Patience by Loving Difficult People
Pt. 2 Slide 3
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT)
1. Two Secrets
a) Secret One: We are all difficult people, at one time or another – sometimes the difficult circumstances that try our patience are caused difficult people
b) Secret Two: Patience gives us the power to love difficult people the way that we have been loved by God
2. Story: A Boy and An Impatient Waitress
Many years ago, a ten-year-old boy walked up to the counter of a soda shop and climbed onto a stool. He caught the eye of the waitress and asked, "How much is an ice cream sundae?"
"Fifty cents," the waitress replied.
The boy reached into his pockets, pulled out a handful of change, and began counting. The waitress frowned impatiently. After all, she had other customers to wait on.
The boy squinted up at the waitress. "How much is a dish of plain ice cream?" he asked.
The waitress sighed and rolled her eyes. "Thirty-five cents," she said with a note of irritation.
Again, the boy counted his coins. At last, he said, "I'll have the plain ice cream, please." He put a quarter and two nickels on the counter. The waitress took the coins, brought the ice cream, and walked away. About ten minutes later, she returned and found the ice cream dish empty. The boy was gone. She picked up the empty dish—then swallowed hard.
There on the counter, next to the wet spot where the dish had been, were two nickels and five pennies. The boy had had enough for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave a tip.
Pat Williams with James D. Denney, Mr. Littlejon’s Secrets to a Lifetime of Success, (Revell, 2000), p.80
Transition: The boy would have been justified in not leaving any tip. Patience helped him endure her difficult attitude so that he could love her. Patience also empowers us to face difficulty. Therefore…
C. Don’t Be Discouraged by Difficult Circumstances
1. Trust God to Deliver on His Promises in His Time
Pt. 2 Slide 4
Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider 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. (James 5:10-11 NIV)
a) Patience empowers us in difficult circumstances to wait for God to deliver His promises.
Job and the prophets knew God’s promises
b) Story
The Chinese bamboo tree does absolutely nothing--or so it seems--for the first four years. Then suddenly, sometime during the fifth year, it shoots up ninety feet in sixty days. Would you say that bamboo tree grew in six weeks, or five years?
Transition: Don’t be discouraged by difficult circumstances, trust God to deliver on His promises also
2. Trust God that He is Doing Something Good in Your Life
Pt. 2 Slide 5
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3 NIV)
a) The model that Christ set for us with the cross
b) Patience empowers us to endure difficult circumstance while we wait for God to do something important in our lives
(1) Our suffering may be an inspiration that causes someone else to surrender to Christ
(2) God may lead us into difficult circumstances so that we can see His power more clearly
(3) Suffering is a way in which God refines our character and teaches us what is truly important in life
c) Story
Carey's first Indian convert
Krishna Chandra Pal lived a life of "firsts." He worked near Serampore as a carpenter and heard of Jesus while working for some Moravians there. By the time he met Carey and the other Serampore missionaries, he had broken from formal Hinduism into a sect that embraced the theism and egalitarianism of Islam.
One day, while going to the river to bathe, Krishna slipped and dislocated his shoulder. He sent his children to the mission house, where he knew the medical doctor, John Thomas, was staying. As Thomas took care of the shoulder, he spoke with Krishna about the healing of his soul and gave him a tract in Bengali.
After that, Krishna called frequently at the mission. William Ward and Felix Carey read and discussed Scripture together. Soon Krishna told Thomas, "I am a great sinner, but I have confessed my sin and I am free!"
"Then I call you brother," Dr. Thomas said. "Come and let us eat together in love." This caused a great stir among the Indian servants, for by eating with Europeans, Krishna had broken caste.
Despite being mobbed and called "traitor!" by fellow Indians, Krishna was baptized. He was the first native convert in seven years of missionary labor and prayer.
Krishna's wife and sister also made commitments to Christ, as did his four daughters; a neighbor, Gokul, and his wife; and a neighbor widow. They formed the first indigenous Christian community in that area, and not surprisingly, the group experienced spiritual growing pains: feuds, jealousies, and instances of immorality.
Eventually, Krishna Pal went on preaching tours with the missionaries. He was the first native missionary to Calcutta. There he preached at a dozen or more locations weekly and visited numerous homes to evangelize both poor families and servants of the rich. He was the first writer of Christian hymns in the Bengali language.
"William Carey," Christian History, Issue 36.
Wrap Up