Our Great Need of Patience

Our Great Need of Patience

Our Scripture text this morning will be drawn from James 1 James chapter 1, beginning in verse 1 James 1, beginning in verse 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting, my brethren. Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Look down in verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And let’s mark our Bibles to this passage for our text this morning and acknowledge the Lord and ask his blessing upon the reading of His Word.

Father, as we have opened your word, we read these scriptures and we are reminded, Lord, of how we were memorizing this book just the other year, Lord, and how it was a great blessing to us. And we pray, Lord, that as we look in this passage this morning that you’ve laid upon my heart, Lord, that you’ll help us to gain the full benefit and help us to see with clarity the application of it these words to our lives today. We need your grace, we need your patience, we need your strength, Lord. We are weak, but thou art strong. We pray that you would help those that were not able to be with us today. And we thank you, thank you for those that have been able to come and that you’ve given us the physical strength and even the desire, Lord, to be here. Help us to be able truly to say when we leave these doors today and we walk out and go back our separate ways, it has been good to be in the house of the Lord. We pray that we will receive the encouragement we need today from your word that we’ll receive the correction, even the reproof if needed, Lord, and the instruction in the way that we should go. And Lord, we pray that we will go out and take your word and take your name with us, that we may be able to shine the light, the blessed gospel light to those that are around us. Help us to show forth the praises of the one who’s called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. Bless us now as we continue in this worship service. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

There’s two words that we’ve shared before that are words for patience. They’re often translated patience or something like that. Endurance in the Greek that come from the Greek language, there’s the word hupo meno. It’s the word that has the idea of bearing up under something, abiding under something, remaining under, you know, we might say, not being spiritually claustrophobic. I know that some people, when they get put in that. What is it the. Is it the CAT scan machine or what is the one where you go inside of it anyway? You know which one I’m talking about? Mri, maybe. Mri. You go inside of that and you say, get me out of here. I can’t stand this any longer. And yet sometimes we feel like that into the trials of life. This is getting too much. This is getting too heavy. We need patience. We need patience to stay underneath of whatever God’s put upon us. And that word hupo meno, when it’s translated for patience, we usually see that’s referring to circumstances that God has put us in, situations that God has placed upon us that we cannot change. We are just in this season of life or this crisis that has come upon us. And maybe it’s something that is chronic and it doesn’t seem like there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but we are under it, and we need to abide under that thing. But then there’s also that other word. And I’m not just throwing these Greek words out to be flashy. I mean, you can look them up yourselves. But makrothumeo, I’m pointing them out because this is the idea more of the long suffering. And it usually has the idea of how we are in relation to other people, to suffer long with others, even the idea of forbearing one another. You know, sometimes there are things that we don’t like about other people. There’s some things that people do that we don’t like. There’s sometimes things that it may not even be so much that the person is doing something as there is. Maybe we think about someone like Christy Kidd. Brother Andy mentioned pray for her with having the load of taking care of her parents. We think of others that are going through. I think of sister Velma and how she’s with Kent all the time. And you know, we need patience with the people in our lives. It might not be that the people are doing anything wrong, but because of that relationship, a husband caring for a bedridden wife or wife caring for a bedridden husband or any number of situations, a physical affliction in a spouse or a child. And you need patience with that person and the circumstance all at one time to abide all under that and to suffer along with that individual.

We have need. I have been reminded recently how much I need God’s patience that he gives. I need patience. And James is telling us that when God is trying our faith, he is wanting to produce in us his patience. He’s wanting to put it in us because we don’t naturally have it. He’s trying our faith to bring about this completion of patience in our lives. So patience is worked out in our lives only when we let patience have her perfect work. The passage says this morning, let patience have her complete work in our lives. This is something that we need to allow. We definitely don’t want to take away from the truth that it’s God that must do it. But we have a role to play in that we must yield to allow. Let God have His way in our lives. This is indicating to us that it is very possible that we could resist the work of patience in our lives. We could miss out on. We could receive the grace of God in vain as it pertains to this need of patience in our lives. We could do that. And the only way to get patience is to ask God for it. We can’t get patience by just looking at somebody else. Well, they’ve got patience. I just saw them and now I’m going to have it. No, we’ve got to ask God for it. Where did they get it from? Well, they got it from God, right? God gave them the patience they needed when they were going through it. And we’re going to have to ask God for the patience we need when we’re going through what he’s appointed for our lives. And the amazing thing is that God has not appointed the exact same set of circumstances and trials for any two Christians. Even a husband and wife is not exactly the same. We share some common things, but there are unique things. It’s a difference being a caretaker versus the one who is being taken care of. There’s a different reality there, a different angle, I guess we can say of how God is working in our lives based on which role we’re in. In that there may be a job that we have, that we may be living in the same house with our spouse or our parents or our children, and we may be working a job. And they’re not having to go through that trial, but we’re having to go through it. And there are just a number of things we could talk about as it pertains to God has appointed specific things for each of our lives. And he put that thing in our life not on accident, but on purpose. Why? With the very purpose of heart on his heart, that it would through that we would find and let him put patience in our lives through that specific thing.

Now, James says, because we’re jumping down a little bit in the text here. Down in verse 19 we read. James understands that it’s possible we could go through these trials and we might not be that man in verse number 12 that we always ought to be, or that woman. We might not endure the temptation. Well, some temptations we haven’t endured. Well, sometimes the Lord had to bring us back around to that thing again because we did not face it well like we should have the first time. You know, Moses. Look at Moses. He was supposed to lead the people of Israel out, but he wasn’t ready the first time. The Lord brought him back around to it, didn’t he? He brought him back around to that thing again. Now notice in verse 19, one of the key things about going through trials that we’ve got to keep in mind is this. We have got to be swift to hear. We’ve got to be slow to speak and slow to wrath. It’s very easy for us to get upset when the pressure gets applied. And that’s what trials, the word trial or tribulation comes from the word tribulum. It’s the idea of pressure, the squeeze, the weight of trial is bearing down on you. And that’s what you got to get under, right? You got to get under that. How can we get under it? By faith. Lord, you’re testing my faith. I know it. I know you’re testing. You told me you’re going to test my faith. And I’m getting under this, not because I think I can bear up under it, but I am going to patiently wait on you in this trial. By your grace, I know that I don’t have the patience. But Lord, I’m trusting you’ll give me the patience I need as I get under whatever it is you’re putting on my life. You’ve put in my life, this person, this circumstance, these combination of circumstances that involve people in my lives. I want to suffer. I want to bear up under this suffering, this testing, this trial, this tribulum. By your grace, do I believe that when trouble comes to my life that I am being tempted to sin? I can’t believe that God’s tempting me to sin. We read this morning. I cannot believe that God. Oh, yes, the devil certainly would desire at all times for me to trip up. He wants to see me fail. He wants to see me get angry. He wants to see me get upset with life and throw in the towel and just be all out of sorts. You know, even the world recognizes they need to calm down, right? Even whether or not they do it or not. Whether or not they do it is one thing, but how many of these things do people sell on T shirts and little sayings where it says, keep calm and da da da da da. Keep calm and da da da da da. Well, we realize that when we lose our calm and we lose our cool, it’s not what the Lord wants us to have, but it’s our natural. It’s my natural tendency. It’s my natural tendency. And maybe some of us do better with our temper than others. But let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempteth he, any man. Don’t put any blame on God if we do not take the trial. Well, don’t think that God has put this in your life to cause you to go astray. No, God put it in our life to cause us to lean on him and to find his strength in the middle of the pressures of life. So he’s not tempting us to sin. He’s testing our. He’s testing our faith. And when he has tried us, when he has tried those who trust in him, they will come forth gold. And you know, you cannot help but be humbled by the Lord through that process. You cannot. If you’re looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, you will not. There is no other solution than to be humbled and realize, I am weak, but he is strong. I am nobody, but he is the God of the impossible.

So patience, endurance. David talks about this. Psalm 37:7. Psalm 37:7. David knew something about pressure of circumstances and people in his life didn’t He. He knew a lot about pressure. In Psalm 37:7, what does he say? He says this. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. We just saw that movie on Friday night. Haman seemed to be prospering in his way, didn’t he? He was getting his way. He thought he had it made in the shade. Fret not because of him that prospereth. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Do not fret because of him. Don’t fret yourself in any wise to do evil, because that wouldn’t be patience, would it? That would be you taking matters into your own hands and trying to manipulate the outcome in the way you want it to be, rather than waiting on the Lord. Now, sometimes the Lord gives us direction that we need to do something. If he gives us direction in His Word and gives us principle and command, we need to do it. And we don’t need to piously say, I’m waiting on the Lord when He’s made it clear, you need to do something. Here’s what you need to do. I’m not talking about those circumstances, but what I’m saying is not trying to, you know, what are we told in the Scriptures to make space for God’s wrath? You know, give place to wrath. I will avenge, I will bring vengeance, saith the Lord. In so many words. I’m not exactly quoting it correctly, but you know the passage, but let patience have her perfect work. We’re told here in this passage this morning back in our text in James, we see, let patience have her perfect her complete verse number four, work that ye may be complete, perfect, and entire, wanting, lacking nothing. This is the need of patience, folks. I have need of patience that I need to let patience run its course, so to speak. Don’t interrupt the process you’ve ever seen on your computer where it says, do not close this page out. The process is if you close it out, it will not complete the process. Well, don’t abandon and don’t get impatient with what God is doing in your life, because he’s working patience. Just know that God loves you and he would not have put this in your life. Sometimes we get in the wrong mindset when we start thinking, why me? Why does this have to happen to me? Why not some other time or somebody else or something? Why do I always seem to catch this? And why does that always have to happen to me. We need to let patience have her perfect work. Well, we know why it’s happening to us is because God the Lord loveth whom he chasteneth. The Lord loves us so much. We might say Pastor Peacock used to say when his parents chastened him, I wish they didn’t love me so much. You know, I wish they didn’t love me so much. Sometimes we might feel like that, Lord, haven’t I learned enough? Haven’t you taught me enough this week or this month or this year, in this season? The Lord knows what we need. He knows the way that we take. We must never think that God has appointed more than we can handle by his grace. Let me just go ahead and tell you I have acted like that. I have acted like the Lord has put too much on me at times. And thank God he rebukes that thinking. Thank God he corrects that mindset. But we have need of his patience. The Lord will never put on us more than we can bear through his grace. He’ll put on us more than we can bear in our own strength, but not more than we can bear in his strength. As we rest in him, as we wait on him in his provoke vision. He gives us every breath we take. He gives us the ability to think the thoughts that we are able to think.

Parents need Patience as parents, we need patience. We need patience with children who might be slow at learning something we’re trying to teach them. We need patience because the Lord has patience with us. Because we’re slow sometimes at learning the things he’s trying to teach us. We need patience with our children when they break things, when they make honest mistakes, and even when they make they just directly disobey. We still need patience with them, don’t we? We need patience with our children. We need patience as they transition from one stage of life to the next. When they go from baby waking us up in the middle of the night to crawling to walking and discovering a whole new set of circumstances that now we’ve got to address because they can things that they couldn’t reach before. They can get to places they couldn’t get to before. We need patience with toddling children that weaned children. We need patience with kindergarten age children, elementary age children and middle school children and high school children. We need patience with all the changes of life that come through those stages as husbands. As a husband, I need patience with my wife. I need patience when sometimes she might forget something. My tendency, the scripture even indicates to husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Don’t be impatient with your wife when she forgets one thing. Think about the nine things she remembers. And if she was that way with you, she’d probably say you forgot 2 out of 10. So the thing is, be patient with your wife. She has a lot on her. The tendency is to be bitter, but I must love two are better than one. If one fall, the other can help them up. It’s so much better when we’re working together instead of against each other, right? Be patient, my wife. The wives need patience with their husbands. Thank the Lord that He provides it. They need to be a help to their husbands, not working against their husbands. My point is not to spend time on husbands and wives. But there’s many areas where wives need patience. Maybe the wife wants to try to change the husband in some way. But God, whether it’s the husband with the wife or the wife with the husband, God is the one that’s got to do the changing. Sometimes we work so hard to try to change something that we actually harm what God is doing in the life of our spouse. Children need patience. Children need patience. You know, what’s the classic thing children say? When are we going to get there, right? How long is that going to take? Where’s my supper? All these things that children tend to say. We need patience as we walk day by day in this world, don’t we? And we rub shoulders with people. We need patience at work, with our our coworkers, our boss. We need patience with people on the road. We need patience with people we meet as we’re out and about. Sometimes people don’t mind sharing their opinion with you about things you didn’t ask for opinions about. We need patience with people. We need to let our moderation the scripture tell Philippians 4, 5, let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. What’s that moderation? We could say it’s sweet reasonableness, gentle forbearance, gentleness and reasonableness in our dealings with people. That’s not spinelessness. It’s selflessness. Not being selfish, not asserting yourself in a way that puts other people down, or just a bull in a china shop kind of attitude. But instead patience and moderation toward all men. Not being hostile and indifferent towards people, but being sympathetic, being reasonable towards them. And this moderation toward all men should describe our character because we know the Lord is coming back. What if the Lord would come back right in the middle of this conversation I’m having, right in the middle of this, you know, driving down the road? And how am I reacting to people on the road? I want to have a good spirit. I want my moderation to be known unto all men, because the Lord is the one that gives it to me. It’s not any reasonable and patient and gentle forbearing spirit that I have is not from me anyway, it’s from the Lord. In the previous verse in Philippians 4 we mentioned verse 5 and in verse 4 it says, Rejoice in the Lord always, always. And again I say, rejoice. Your patience and joy are always tied into each other. I want to rejoice in the Lord. I want to wait on the Lord. I want to rejoice in the Lord always, even when he puts heavy things on me, because I rejoice in the fact that he knows best and he loves me, and he would never put on me more than I can bear by his grace. Rejoice in the Lord. If we’re rejoicing in the Lord always, our spirits will be so filled with praise to him that we won’t have time and the energy to getting angry about things right and getting upset with the circumstance the Lord has put on us. We’ll be thanking him for what he’s done in the thing, in placing that thing upon us.

We need patience with our Brethren, don’t we? Ephesians 4 Look over there with me. Ephesians 4:1 Patience with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We absolutely need patience. I therefore, Paul says, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, that macrothumao, that long suffering patience, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, submitting ourselves one to another, not insisting on our rights, we need to forbear one another in love. It tells us here we need to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit with this meekness of Spirit, with this patience of Spirit one with another. We need to learn to stay calm even if conflicts arise between brethren. Misunderstandings arise between brethren. We need to know the Lord’s calmness and patience in that. We don’t want to stir a pot that doesn’t need to be stirred. We don’t want to provoke one another to wrath, but instead we want to provoke one another to love and to good works. That’s what the Lord’s called us to do. And so all of this is with the consciousness that the Lord is near. The Lord’s coming is near every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. Look at the privilege we have to be the sons of God. And his coming is soon. Are we grateful that God has granted us that we are called the sons of God, that we are his sons? Are we grudging one against another? Brethren, remember, the Judge stands at the door. We’ll give an answer to him for what we’ve done with his grace. Have we let patience have her perfect work? I think a lot of the judgment seat of Christ will be tied up in this. What have we done with. How have we received. Have we received the patience and let it have its perfect work in our lives that the Lord would have for us to have in us?

Be patient. Chapter 5 says verse 7, James 5, 7, 7, 8, James 5, 7, 8. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience. There’s that Makrothumao. He has long patience with us. He’s waiting. He’s waiting. Certainly there are souls to be saved and there are saints to be completed in that patience. He’s waiting for that till he received the early and the latter. Rain. Rain is needed to grow the crops, right? Be ye also patient. Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Oh, we’ve been planted plants by the Heavenly Father, but we’ve got to come to the maturity for harvest, right? That’s what the Lord’s looking for. We need to be patient with physical infirmities the Lord places upon us. We need to be patient when we get interrupted by people. We need to be patient when God sends weather that interrupts our plans or some other circumstance that interrupts our agendas. Oftentimes God’s will is found expressly in when we yield to the interruption. Patience. We need patience with the next step in God’s will. I think about somebody like David Bergman and how he needs patience from the Lord with the next steps for his life. But we all need that, don’t we? Because we’re all going through different seasons and stages of life. Give thanks to the Lord. Though your testing seems long in darkness. He giveth a song. What is that song? Rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth each step of the path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. We can’t blame God for the circumstances or for our impatience. We need to thank God that He is working in our lives and he’s trying our faith. And know and know that if we will just yield to his work, if we will humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, he will bless and exalt us in due time. And he will use us. He will use us in the lives of others around us. But if we are swift to hear, and if we were slow to hear and swift to speak and swift to wrath, we may actually end up doing the devil’s bidding with our lives. We will fight against what God wants for us. So let us not do that. Let us be patient. Let us call upon the Lord and say, lord, I need your patience. Each of us are going through different sets of circumstances. We know and are in contact with different people in our lives in different areas. But the Lord, the Lord has put us right where we are so that he can glorify Himself in our lives as we let patience have its complete work in us.

Gracious Father, we thank you for these reminders from your word this morning. And oh, how I need these things in my life, Lord. I need patience with your dealings. I need patience with my wife and with my children. I need patience with the brethren. I need patience with those that are without as we go out in our daily lives in this world. I need patience, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to rest under what you place upon us and take your yoke upon us and learn of you. We know that you’re meek and lowly and we will find rest if we will just submit ourselves to that yoke that you put upon us. Bless us now as we continue and close this service with a final hymn and prayer in Jesus name, amen.