Embracing Patience in an Instant Culture

1. "We live in an instant society. And look, it's not bad to have access to things instantly. Like, back in the day, I used to love going to Blockbuster on a Friday night, pulling up with the family, browsing the shelves, grab the VHS, checking out, waiting in that line, rewinding the tape after, bringing it back in three days, you know, and I think that whole process is about as long as it takes to find something on a streaming platform, to be honest with you, right? What do you wanna watch? I don't know, what do you wanna watch? Oh, there's nothing good, you know, there's a million shows now, and none of them are good. Just being real, there's like one or two that are good, you know, you gotta find that one, and you sit there, and the whole time, you're trying to find something. So I do appreciate instant. I do appreciate that I have access. access to my phone that I can text and call and do all the things instantly." [47:43] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Well, we might live in an instant culture, but we're citizens of an agricultural kingdom. It's not about an instant culture. It's about agriculture. And you're like, agriculture? What is this crazy word that you're using, pastor? I've never heard, even heard about that because of the world we live in, right? Everything's provided for us. We got farmers somewhere doing something with drones or whatever they're doing these days, but they're providing us with food or different things, right? We're not always going out and planting our own food, reaping, all that kind of thing. Agriculture. But most of the teachings, if we're honest, most of the teachings of Jesus are centered around agriculture, right? Around the mustard seed parable, around the vine, the branches, around the harvest, fruit, fig trees, sowing, reaping, yeast, leaven, on and on and on, if you look throughout the scriptures. And it creates quite a tension for us as believers, right?" [50:03] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Because we're not called to live in an instant culture, but an agriculture, right? A culture of the kingdom of God, of the word of God. And it's a different way of doing things. It's a different rhythm, planting, watering, growing, harvesting. It all takes time. It's not instant, right? This morning, I planted a seed in this pot. And can you tell, can you see all the growth that's happening? No, you can't see it yet, right? Because we understand the seed was planted. It's going to take some time to grow. It's going to take some time to grow. It's going to take some time to grow. And this one right here, though, how many of you know, I didn't plant this this morning, right? I was provided this. Someone gave this to me this morning, this plant. But they, whoever they were, they did the work. They planted a seed. They waited for it to grow. They did other things to it that I don't know about because I'm not into that." [51:53] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The unforced rhythm is the rhythm of life we establish as we follow Jesus. As we follow him, it's an unforced rhythm. And honestly, there's so many different things we could talk about. We're looking at four different rhythms the last four weeks. But today, one of these rhythms that Jesus calls us to is establishing the rhythm of patience. And some of y 'all are like, yeah, I need, some people were asking earlier, like, what are you talking about today? Like patience. Oh man, I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. I need that. You know, it's for sure. I'm like, yeah, I need it too. Right. Something we all relate with. We all need. But we don't always know how to go about it. So we're going to look at establishing a rhythm of patience. Not just a momentary patience. Not outpatient. How about that? But a rhythm of patience. All right. Look, in an instant culture, patience is countercultural." [52:53] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Patience is going to stand out. When everyone at your work is going crazy or whatever, you're, you're the patience that you bring to that moment is going to stand out. They're going to say, what is it with this person? How, how, how could you like, how could you manage this right now? Then you're, then it's an open door. You're able to share your faith with them. But this week I was reading a book called The Patient Ferment of the Early Church. And a guy named Alan, Dr. Alan Crider, he explores this idea. And the idea that he explores though is how did the early church grow in such a rapid pace? Right. Right. If you think about it from the time of Christ to the time that Christ ascended back to the father, in that first 300 years of the church, there was just this massive amount of growth. People hearing about Jesus all across the world. And what he says is it doesn't, it doesn't make sense that it doesn't line up because the Roman empire was pushing it down." [55:14] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Patience is counter -cultural, but patience reflects the very nature of God. We always want to show people who God is and what he looks like. Patience. That's who God is. That's a huge aspect of God's nature. And by showing the world patience, we're showing them who God is. But that begs the question, what is patience? Because we could all have a different idea, a different preconceived idea of what patience is. We often think of patience as, yeah, that's a nice, like, good quality to have, being patient, being able to wait through difficult things. Or maybe we just think that's something that's, you know, my neighbor needs that. My wife needs that a little bit more, you know, or my husband, you know, whatever, you know, I don't want to call it that. I don't want to call it that. I don't want to cause any controversy in your home, but our spouse, they, you know, they need the patience. I'm, I'm good, but we all need patience, by the way." [57:16] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Patience is being unhurried. It's being unhurried. Do you know people in your life that are unhurried? When they talk to you, they're talking to you. They're not looking around or checking their phone or their watch. Like, they're dialed in. Even if what you're saying is not that interesting, you know, they're still dialed in because they care about what you're saying. They're not hurried. Jesus was like that. Throughout scripture, he was one -on -one with people, listening to them, talking with them. He wasn't in a hurry, right? So patience is unhurried. Patience is also restraint. It's sometimes restraining or pulling back when you're in a hurry. It's sometimes restraining or pulling back when you're in a hurry. You could do something. You could say something, right? But instead, you pull back, and maybe instead of hurl an insult, you pray for that person. It's restraint. Sometimes being patient, holding back." [58:48] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And patience is not simply waiting. You know how I know that? Because you can go to the DMV, and guess what? Everyone's waiting. But not everyone's being patient, are they? You can go to a certain fast food establishment that I won't name because my kids talk about how expensive this place is. You know, all right, I'm not going to talk about that fast food establishment anymore, but we all know when they have the bad customer service, you're sitting there waiting, right? But you're not being patient. You're just waiting. The two very different things. I also want you to know that patience isn't waiting. It's warfare. You might have this idea of patience just kind of, yeah, it's restraint. It's being unhurried. It's being just relaxed. That's valid. But it's also warfare. It's also when we're patient, when we display this to the world, we're actually going on the offensive. We're showing them a better way." [59:39] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "In the midst of the instant society that we live in, God's calling us to establish a rhythm of patience. Not just so we can wait in line at Costco. When the lines are all the way to the deli. When the lines are all the way to the deli. Section. He's given us this patience so we can live a lifestyle, have a better way of living. And I thought about this this week as I was preparing. This message isn't a dine -in message. You know what I'm saying? It's to go. Some messages, you need it right here, right now, for this moment. I think all of them you do to a degree. But for this one, there's something about it where it's about patience. So after these few minutes of us together talking about this, we're not going to have it all solved. It's not going to happen. It's agricultural. You're going to need to take it home. Put it in the to -go box. Bag it up. Put it in the fridge for a little bit this afternoon and then bring it out." [01:01:11] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "The first way to establish the rhythm of patience is to be patient in our practice. Be patient in our practice. Another early church father in 230 AD, Origen, wrote this. Christ followers are not in a hurry. They listen carefully when the word is read and preached. And they patiently call to account straying Christians who attend services irregularly. Even in the 230s. People were irregularly coming. Praise God. You're not irregular. You're here right now. That's amazing. But this was an issue back in 230. But he also says, Christians aren't hurried. When we listen to this, we're not in a hurry. When I'm listening to other stuff throughout the week, I'm in a hurry. I don't want to listen to that." [01:02:43] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)