THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS PATIENCE
2 Pet 3:8-15
One night a truck driver stopped at an all night restaurant
in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The waitress
had just brought out his meal when 3 bikers came into the restaurant. For some reason they zeroed in on him to
apparently pick a fight. One grabbed
his hamburger, another took a handful of fries and the third took his coffee
and began to drink it. Instead of
getting mad and going at them the trucker picked up his check, left a tip, paid
for his meal and walked out. The
waitress watched him leave and went to serve the bikers. One of the
bikers looked at her and said, “not much of a man is he?” The waitress replied, “not much a truck
driver either, he just ran over 3 motorcycles in the parking lot.”
The driver knew how to practice patience -- even if it was
short lived.
I will be the first to admit, that of the 9 aspects of the
fruit of the spirit, this is probably the hardest one for me to live. I am not near as patient as I would like to
be or even should be. I’m not the only
one either. How many people have got
upset at McDonalds when it takes them 3 or 4 minutes to have your meal
ready? Or maybe you have sat
impatiently by microwave complaining
about how long it takes to cook something?
Our culture is impatient.
People speed as fast as they can to save 2 minutes on their driving
time. We can’t stand it if we have to
wait in line if there are more than 2 people ahead of us. We are an impatient people -- but we also
know it is the wrong way to be.
Hopefully this sermon will help us learn Christian patience.
PRAYER
I.
Patience With Others
A.
Sometimes our impatience leads us to act in a way that is not
Christian.
1.
It involves people we deal with all the time.
a)
People at work, home, church, school, the grocery store.
b)
No one is immune from our impatience
2.
It’s usually those little things that get us too.
a)
Constant little frustrations
b)
distractions.
c)
They all build up until we act or react in a way that isn’t
consistent with our profession of Christianity.
3.
Let me give you a story that illustrates this perfectly.
a)
A minister in Texas was to speak at a conference one day. He started off late because he had forgot to
set his alarm and so rushed like crazy to get ready. In doing so he cut himself shaving. That only made him more late and more frustrated. To top things off his shirt was all wrinkled
and had to quickly iron it. He ran out
the door, jumped in the car and sped down the road. Right through a stop sign.
As luck would have it, a policeman saw it happened and pulled him
over. In anger and frustration the
minister jumps out of the car and shouts, “go ahead give me a ticket. Everything else has gone wrong today.” The policeman calmly replies, “Sir, I used
to have days like that too, before I became a Christian.”
b)
That hurts, doesn’t it?
B.
Solomon had some advice for us in Proverbs.
1.
Prov 14:29 - A patient man has great understanding, but a
quick-tempered man displays folly
2.
Prov 15:18 - A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a
patient man calms a quarrel
3.
Prov 19:11 - A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his
glory to overlook an offense.
C.
There are ways we can learn to deal with others patiently
1.
First, remember that the person you are dealing with may have
something going on that you don’t know about.
a)
One of the preachers in Indianapolis told me about a time when
he had absolutely terrible service from a waitress one day. Well rather than complain, and leave a penny
or something, he left her a great tip and his card with “hope you have a great
day” written on it. That evening, this
woman called him and crying apologized for her terrible service and then told
him several things were going on that day at home. Last I had heard, he was setting up a Bible study with her.
b)
We don’t always know what is going on in their lives and a
little patience on our end could be a wonderful salve to them.
c)
Another man tells about being on an airplane with a young man
and a baby in the back. It was a long
flight and the baby was crying incessantly.
Finally someone said, “why don’t you just take that baby to it’s mother
and shut it up.” After a moments pause
the man apologized and said. “The
baby’s mother is in a casket in the cargo hold.”
d)
Before you get too impatient with others, realize there may be
more to the story than what you are seeing.
2.
A second way to learn patience is to ask ourselves, “what
would Jesus do?”
a)
It’s a great question to ask.
b)
You may not always like the answer you give yourself, but you
will never go wrong trying to do things as Jesus would.
3.
3rd, pray before loosing your cool that you will keep your
cool.
a)
This is one I have had to work on and it has helped.
b)
I am by natured pretty hot tempered. I have to really bite down not to react like I would want
to. I started getting my anger under
control when I started praying to God to help me when I feel the anger building
up. It’s just a couple second prayer,
but when I am getting impatient in line, or with the kids, I try to quickly
say, “God, help me to stay calm.”
4.
All three of these actions will help us be more patient with
others.
II.
Patience with the Church
A.
Our society as a whole is impatient with institutions, not the
least of these, the church.
1.
That impatience with the church is as old as the church
itself.
2.
We have seen the reformers in every age and many times rightly
so.
3.
But the way we deal with the church needs to be an attitude of
patient love, not belligerence.
B.
We need to be patient with the church’s traditions
1.
I would like to see us do away with some traditional ways, but
I need to be patient and realize that some of these changes will take a long
time to come about.
2.
Traditions are not always bad, they lend strength and identity
to us, but we also need to make sure we don’t make our traditions gospel.
C.
We also need to be patient with the church’s decisions.
1.
They may not always be our decisions.
a)
The standing joke with me is that I really wanted us to get
nice chairs instead of pews. I lost.
b)
I know some want to see us do some things in worship that
others are just not ready for yet. Our
elders have said, “a little at a time”
c)
That probably wasn’t the answer that they wanted to hear but
accepted that.
d)
Others may not like the decisions made about who we do or do
not support in missions etc.
2.
The church is made up of people who have different opinions
and make mistakes.
a)
We won’t all be happy on every issue, but be patient with the
church’s decisions and support them fully unless they are unscriptural. Then see the elders or myself.
b)
When we practice patience with the church it will have a great
effect on our ability to show God to the lost.
D.
Eph 5 gives us a couple of ways we can be patient with the
church.
1.
READ Eph 5:25-27
a)
First we need to realize that Christ loved the church and all
her imperfections enough to die for her.
(1)
If we can imitate that love, we will have no problem being
patient with the and mistakes the church sometimes does.
(2)
She isn’t perfect because you and I are not perfect.
b)
Secondly, there will be a day in which we are presented to
Christ without stain, wrinkle or blemish.
(1)
Look for the church as it would rather be instead of what it
is right now.
III.
Patience with God
A.
Many of us are wrestling with God.
1.
We are baffled by his silence.
2.
Impatient with his slowness.
3.
We are in a hurry and God isn’t. We sometimes forget that.
B.
And so we begin to wrestle with God
1.
The greatness of God is found in his patience with us.
2.
2 Pet 3:9 - The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as
some understand slowness. He is patient
with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
3.
Vs 15 - Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.
C.
The Christian patience is rooted in understanding that God’s
time is always the best time, the right time, the only time.
1.
We want to force God to act now.
2.
What audacity to think we can force the hand of a God who could
smash us with his power.
a)
Who kept his promise to mankind on the cross.
b)
He could have destroyed us, but rather stooped down to win us
by His love.
D.
Want a sure fire way to grow in patience with God?
1.
Get to know him better.
a)
Study and meditate on his work
b)
Spend more time in prayer.
2.
When you get to know him better.
a)
You see his nature more clearer.
b)
And you have less doubt when and how long it should take for
God to do his work.
IV.
Conclusion
A.
For many of us, patience is the toughest aspect of the Fruit
of the spirit.
1.
We want things right now.
2.
Guess what, you can have something right now. You don’t have to wait patiently for this
one.
3.
You can have your sins taken away.
B.
One last thought.
Aren’t you glad that God isn’t as impatient with us as we are with
others?