Faith & Patience

Intro:

This month we have been looking at the subject of Spiritual Warfare. Today we wrap up the series here are a few key reminders of things we have learned:

You are in a battle.

The one who keeps their eyes on Jesus will overcome.

When you are under authority, you will have authority.

Victory in battle begins with submission to God.

There is power in prayer, and great authority in the word of God.

Prayer humbles the person who prays, keeps our needs before God, seeks a divine response, and strengthens the person who prays.

As we finish our series today I want to talk with you about faith and patience. These two are the undergirding pillars of success in spiritual warfare. James 1:2-4.

James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 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.”

Pause for a moment to pray over the message.

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Submit:

For many just hearing the word patience can make you cringe. Why is that? There is usually a negative situation or conflict with a person attached to the thought of the word. There is frustration in some part of our life brought on by the circumstances we face.

This morning I have come to encourage you. We don’t have to look at testing or trials as a negative thing. 2 Corinthians 4:17.

I think the Apostle Paul said it best in 2 Corinthians 4:17 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,”

For a moment lets push out of our minds the negative reference we have to patience and dig deeper. Again lets consider James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 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.”

This is powerful! The testing of your faith produces patience, and patience at work can make you perfect and complete lacking nothing.

Patience is the ability to take a great deal of punishment from evil people or circumstances without losing one’s temper, or becoming irritated and angry, or with without taking vengeance. It includes the capacity to bear pain or trials without complaint, the ability to forbear under sever provocation, and the self control which keeps one from acting rashly even though suffering opposition or adversity.

Patient endurance makes more sense in the context of eternity. 2 Timothy 2:23-26.

2 Timothy 2:23-26 “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Remember that I told you that when it comes to spiritual warfare our battle is not with people. People who do not know the truth are in bondage to the enemy. They are in the snare of the devil, and many cant see it.

If we react against the person in a situation we will end up fighting the wrong enemy. Remember that the person in front of you has created value. God loves them. He desires to have a relationship with them, and He wants to use you to reveal His love and goodness to them.

The real enemy is the demonic wicked forces that work to use and influence people to bring destruction in the earth. They work to manipulate people to bring fear, hurt, offense, and anger.

With this in mind, testing and patience may not sound pleasant but it is necessary.

1) You and I need to know that the faith we carry is real. Faith untested is a faith that can’t be trusted. We need to know that when tough times come we have strength through God to endure and overcome.

2) We need to recognize that God wants to use us to reach the person in the situation. Patience allows us to fight for the person not with the person.

So the idea of letting patience have its perfect work is more than just being a nice Christian when we feel like people are being ugly. Patience is the tool that reveals our faith. Patience positions us to see others value and fight for them.

The challenge of patience is our perspective.

If we are near sited only to the trial we are facing we will miss the point. We need patience to undergird our faith so that we might receive the promise not simply of a better tomorrow, but of eternal life both for us and those God desires to reach through us.

I believe God wants to give us a better tomorrow, but more than that He wants to take us through a process of transformation that leads to life.

Trials will cause you to have to lean into the richness of His grace and the power His unchanging nature. Tribulations will teach you to walk by faith until you see the strength of His word.

Faith untested is just a theory, because truth faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen. God doesn’t just want us to believe. He wants us to know the greatness of who He is, the hope of His promise, and the depth of His power.

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Apply:

Today spiritual warfare, faith and patience are about receiving the promise.

Jesus came as God’s supreme revelation to the earth. In times past He spoke to us by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews1:1-2). He has promised eternal life to all that would believe upon him (John 3:16-17).

Satan hates the gift of salvation because He can never have it. Hebrews 2:1. Mark 4:19.

He will never have salvation, but you and I can. This is why we must not neglect so great a salvation (Hebrews 2:1). The idea of neglect is rooted in spiritual warfare because the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things, enter in and choke out the word (Mark 4:19).

If we do not give the more earnest attention to the things we have heard, we will drift away. Hebrews 2:1. Hebrews 2:10. Hebrews 2:14.

(Hebrews 2:1). God’s desire and promise is to bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). Jesus fought and won the ultimate battle for our salvation by destroying him who had the power of death, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

In doing this he gave us a heavenly calling and has called us to be faithful (Hebrews 3:1) So he instructs us to beware.

Hebrews 3:12-15 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””

Today we must gain the understanding that Satan works in the trials and testing with the intent to make you stumble. The goal is for your heart to slip into rebellion against God and take you out of the fight.

He doesn’t care how the rebellion comes as long as it drives you from God’s promise. He will use people who are blind to the truth, circumstances, and time to take you off track.

In the trial and testing God uses His word to reveal the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

But He doesn’t stop there. He has compassion on us to help us. Hebrews 4:14-16

“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

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Closing:

This morning don’t allow the testing and trials to deter you. Hebrews 6:10-12

“For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

The hope of the promise we have in Christ is an anchor for the soul (Hebrews 6:19). Don’t give up!

Live like the people we have read about in the word who Hebrews 11:33-40 “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

Persevere, stand strong, let patience undergird your faith and you will receive the promise of God. 1 Timothy 6:12

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Let’s Pray!

that God would give us the ability to persevere.

Salvation