Sermon Tone Analysis

Patience - Accept No Substitute

Galatians 5:22, 1 Samuel 9:2-10

Series: Fruit of the Spirit, the Evidence of Maturity

 

Galatians 5:22…, 1 Samuel 9:2-10 His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

One day Kish’s donkeys strayed away, and he told Saul, “Take a servant with you, and go look for them.”

So Saul took one of his servants and traveled all through the hill country of Ephraim, the land of Shalishah, the Shaalim area, and the entire land of Benjamin, but they couldn’t find the donkeys anywhere.

Finally, they entered the region of Zuph, and Saul said to his servant, “Let’s go home.

By now my father will be more worried about us than about the donkeys!”

But the servant said, “I’ve just thought of something!

There is a man of God who lives here in this town.

He is held in high honor by all the people because everything he says comes true.

Let’s go find him.

Perhaps he can tell us which way to go.”  “But we don’t have anything to offer him,” Saul replied.

“Even our food is gone, and we don’t have a thing to give him.”

“Well,” the servant said, “I have one small silver piece.

We can at least offer it to him and see what happens!”

(In those days if people wanted a message from God, they would say, “Let’s go and ask the seer,” for prophets used to be called seers.)

“All right,” Saul agreed, “let’s try it!”

So they started into the town where the man of God was.

(NLT)

Patience is not a virtue in our society.

We’re the society that invented fast food, microwaves, the Concorde jet, drive-thrus, pizza delivery in 20 minutes or less, and express lanes.

Confess, how many have you ever found yourself counting the number of items of the person in front of you in the express checkout line?

I bet almost all of your pet peeves revolve around impatience of some kind or another:  Long lines anywhere,  waiting for hours at the doctors office,  slow service at McDonald’s,  long sermons, slow drivers in the fast lane, or just traffic in general.

Speaking of traffic, here’s a question for you: why is the hour when traffic moves the slowest called “Rush Hour”?

Rush hour is revealing about our patience level.

I have a story about that: A woman had her car stall in heavy traffic.

The cars began to back up as she tried again and again to start it.

A chorus of honking horns blared behind her.

She got out to look under the hood as the honking continued.

Finally she walked back to the first driver behind her & said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to get my car started.

If you’ll go up there & give it a try, I’ll stay here & honk your horn for you."

We might think impatience is a quaint little quirk in our character, but today we’re going to find it’s more insidious than that.

Hiding just under the surface of our impatience, is a caldron of anger, selfishness, a spirit of entitlement and something dysfunctional about our relationship with God.

\\ 1. THE COST OF IMPATIENCE - A LESSON FROM SAUL

King Saul was the very first king of the nation of Israel.

After the period of the Judges the nation demanded a king and even though it God desired to have only himself as their king, the people persisted and God decided to grant their request.

The prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel.

Saul was a tall man, of impressive bearing.

He led the country to its first military victory in years over one of its oppressive neighbors.

Everyone’s happy.

But there’s a problem in Saul’s inner life that is going to grow and spell disaster for him and the people around him.

Another oppressive neighbor taking advantage of the kingless Israelites were the Philistines (Sampson).

But now, with a king, the Jews have a new sense of boldness, and desire to throw off the oppressors.

So they start border skirmishes with the Philistines.

Word gets to the Philistines that the Israelites are in full revolt and aren’t going roll over for them anymore.

So they say, we’re going to teach these upstarts a lesson.

So, the Philistines mustered a huge army against Saul’s brand new regime.

Needless to say, there’s the Israelites are afraid, and a large part of Saul’s army loses its nerve and goes into hiding.

Despite these worsening odds, Samuel has charged Saul to look to God for protection and victory and not trust his own power or lack thereof!

As an expression of that trust, Samuel has told Saul clearly… to wait for him for 7 days and he would come and offer the sacrifice and officially invoke God’s blessing on them and victory would be assured.

But he’d have to wait, with the Philistine army breathing down his neck, with deserters fleeing left and right and the remaining army shaking in their boots.

With every day that passes, every hour, another deserter, and the chances of victory are growing slimmer and slimmer.

Saul waited impatiently for 7 days and finally he took charge and said, “that’s it, Samuel’s not coming, bring me the burnt offerings and let’s get on with it already!

If we need a priest, here I’ll play Samuel, let’s, offer up the sacrifices, sing a few songs, pass an offering plate, sing 5 verses of “Just As I Am,” close in prayer – then we can go already?! I’m losing men by the second, come on, come on!

Let’s go! Time’s a wasting here, folks, if we need holy water sprinkled on us before we go to battle, here, give me the Mt.

Shasta Spring Water bottle… let’s GO!!!!!

Do you see a little impatience, perhaps?

Yes, but the most important thing is what the impatience is pointing to in Saul’s heart.

That’s made clear in the next part of the story.

Just as Saul was finishing the burnt offerings, Samuel shows up.

He smells cooked lamb and he’s a little suspicious.

Saul comes trotting out to meet him and bless him and Samuel says, “what on earth are you doing?”

And you can just imagine this look on Saul’s face: I am so busted!

And so Saul stammers out his excuses: When I saw I was losing my army from under me, and that you hadn’t come when you said you would (he came on the 7th day like he said), and with the Philistines were poised to come down on me here, and I haven’t yet come before God asking for his help… well, I just took matters into my own hands, I guess.”

Many things are revealed in these excuses that relate to our own justifications for impatience:

1.

We justify impatience for the sake of good sense.

Saul said, “I was losing my army I just did what any sane person would do.”

When you think about our own impatience, how many times is it not justified under the same grounds: I was just using good sense.

a.

I got a foolish loan because we have all these needs that just have to be purchased.

b.

I quit my job and hurt my family’s finances because it’s not reasonable to endure my boss for any length of time.

c.

I rushed into a relationship with a person I don’t really know because I’m lonely and waiting isn’t reasonable.

2. We use an excuse of piety for our impatience.

That sounds even better than good sense, Saul said, “I can’t go to war before I’ve said my prayers!

That would be wrong!”

Just like that, some of our impatience is excused on spiritual grounds: \\ a.

I know God wants to bless me with this, so I’m just going to go out and get it.

b.

I need guidance from God in this area, and so I’m just going to lean on my horoscope or consult this mystic, because I need an answer right now, and I know that’s what God would want.

c.

I have a vision from God to do great things, and God’s not showing up when I expected him to, so I’m going to just push it along myself a little bit, play amateur Holy Spirit and manipulate things to achieve great things for God!

Friends, we’ll excuse impatience in the name good sense, in the name of piety, and we say, it’s not a big deal.

I’m impatient for all these good reasons.

I want to get things done, I want direction, healing, and protection.

But underneath, the motive, reveals something out of whack.

Look at Saul.

As he is sputtering out his excuses the real reason comes out of him.

He said to Samuel, “I took matters into my own hands..

I felt compelled to do it, I just had to.

I needed to take control of the situation.”

If we could clarify what’s behind our own impatience, there it is.

We take matters into our own hands.

Now whose matters has Saul taken into his own hands?

Who has he wrenched control away from?

He took control from the God who loves him, who seeks his best, who is powerful enough to care for him, and nurture him.

That care and protection is not good enough for Saul and it’s not good enough for many of us.

We can’t relax in God’s control.