God's Extreme Patience

God is so patient with us. And no matter who you are or what you've done, even if you've cursed the name of Jesus, even if you've gone to other religions or you've dabbled in witchcraft and other spiritual things, God is still patient. He is still patient. Yet, at the end of time, he will judge the unrighteous and that time comes. And for some, that time is gonna come at the end of your life. And we never know when the end of our life is gonna be. I mean, are, medical emergencies that happen. There's cancer that can take us pretty quickly. There's car wrecks that happen. I mean, life is so unpredictable. And you're here today because God has been patient with you. [00:53:18] (52 seconds)  #GodIsPatient

Here he has been patient. He sent prophet after prophet and finally, he sends his son. His one and only son who carries the authority of the father. And and in our story here in the parable, when the son would have come, he would have come with the full authority of his dad, the owner of the vineyard. And so the father says, surely they'll respect the son. And the son the son shows up and what happens? They kill him. The the tenants, they have a calculated rejection of the son deliberately, intentionally, with premeditated thought, they kill the son. [00:42:05] (38 seconds)  #SonRejected

And so in God's patience, in his kindness, in his mercy, he sent prophet after prophet after prophet to direct Israel back to following God. We see that some were beat like Jeremiah and one named Micaiah. I think I just butchered that name. Others were stoned or executed like Zechariah who was stoned in the temple. Uriah was another prophet who was executed. There were Elijah and many others who were hunted down and were persecuted. So prophet after prophet after prophet came to the people of Israel say, hey, remember, you have a privilege and a responsibility. And this culminated with John the Baptist. And what did they do to him? They killed him. They beheaded him. [00:38:51] (50 seconds)  #ProphetsPersecuted

And despite Israel's constant rejection of God and his prophets, his mercy persisted for millennia. Think about that. Israel entered into the promised land in about fourteen hundred BC. When Jesus is telling the story, it's about twenty seven AD. For nearly fifteen hundred years, God has been patient with the people of Israel. He said, you are my beloved. Come back to me. Follow my ways. You think about that? I mean, we lose our patience at the drop of a hat. Even many of you, you do different business deals or you have coworkers that you get frustrated with. And how long does it take for us to, like, lose it with those people? [00:39:41] (56 seconds)  #GodsLongSuffering

She begins to go, greeted by the pastor's wife, and immediately felt her love and kindness despite the fact she walked in with a scowl on her face and was not being nice to anyone around. And you know what happens at this point. She begins to slowly start to pray. After a period of months, finally speaks the name of Jesus and finally comes back to the Lord. And the really cool part about this is that in December, she was remarried to her ex husband. And now baby Ivy has someone that she can call daddy. And as I listened to her testimony two weeks ago, she's now passionately on fire for Christ, following him with every aspect of her life. [00:52:16] (56 seconds)  #BackToFaith

But for others, I wonder, has he been patient long enough for you with you for for something in your life? Maybe some sin or some habit that you have, or maybe God has been asking you to do something. He's laid something on your heart and you keep resisting him, saying, oh, God, I'll I'll do that later. I was reminded as we were singing of the words of Paul in Romans chapter six. He says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? And so as as you sit with your head bowed and your eyes closed, maybe this is an opportunity for you to say, God, thank you for being so patient with me. [00:56:44] (55 seconds)  #TimeToRepent

And then what do we do? We snap. But what does God do? His mercy and his love persist, and that same mercy and love that persisted for Israel persist for you and for me today despite our circumstances. God is still pursuing your heart. He still wants you to come and to follow his ways because Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. The abundant life is found in following Jesus, not in any other thing that our world has to offer. His patience ought to be magnified. Yet still, God goes further and he sends his beloved son. [00:40:47] (44 seconds)  #AbundantLifeInJesus

He shows his mercy time after time, even raising some from the dead. And it just it shows how much the father loves us, that he would send his son to the broken people of Israel. The lowly people, not the elite, the lowly people, those who who needed him and his mercy absolutely flowed. But then, when it comes to the religious elite, they say, nah. We don't need any of that. We're good. But we see the continual love and mercy and the patience of God. Yet rejected by the lit religious elite just as the prophets were. And yes, ultimately, Pontius Pilate was the one who delivered the judgment but only when his hand was forced by the religious elite of the Jews and they crucified him outside the city just as the sun in the story was thrown outside of the vineyard. [00:43:05] (58 seconds)  #MercyForTheLowly