Amen. We're so glad that you're here today. Welcome to Smart on Campus. We love you guys. Glad you're connected there. Everybody connecting with us online, we're so happy to have that connection with you today as well.
We are, in fact, I almost couldn't wait. We're starting a new series today called Love Notes. It goes right along, of course, with February and Valentine's Day and all of that mushy stuff, you know. But we're going to be talking about love as it's revealed to us and described to us in what is often called the love chapter in the Bible. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. You might want to be turning there and holding that for just a moment.
1 Corinthians 13. We find a great description of how God defines love. And all through this series, that's what we're going to be doing because the world oftentimes tries to define love for us in a way that's different than the way God defines love. Love is intended by God to be a blessing to us, to be something that gives us joy and fulfillment in life and not sometimes the way the world presents it or teaches us.
We ought to be living out what we would call love in the eyes of the world. We're going to start out. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 13. The whole chapter is something I want you to go back and read as you have opportunity. We're going to focus on just a few verses here, verses 4 through 8, in those very descriptive terms that Paul uses for love the way God defines love.
Now, if you go back and look in chapter 12, Paul is addressing a problem they were having in the Corinthian church where they were arguing with each other over spiritual gifts and who had the best gift and which gift was the most important gift. They were getting all puffed up and comparing and bragging and all of that stuff. And Paul is correcting that. He's saying it doesn't matter how gifted you are, how influential you think you are, how powerful you think you are. If you don't have love, you've missed it completely. Love is more important than all those other things.
And so then he begins in chapter 13 talking about that importance of love compared to the other things they were thinking were so important. And in verse 4 he says this about love: Love never fails. And at the very end of the chapter in verse 13 he says, now we often use these verses, I do as a pastor when I'm doing weddings because this is certainly a good descriptive way of looking at love in a marriage. This is the kind of love that will hold a couple together, that will strengthen them in their relationship, this kind of love with these characteristics.
But this love applies to all of life as a Christ follower. It will apply to your marriage. It should apply to your marriage relationship. But friendships and parent-child relationships and relationships with friends and family and co-workers, it's the way we're supposed to love because it's the way God loves us. And so we're going to break it down into these individual descriptive terms over the next several weeks and look at defining and living out the kind of love that God wants us to have.
Someone once said this: patience comes to those who wait. I hope you caught that. I couldn't wait to preach this message. I was going to have it later in the series, but I had to just go ahead and do it today. We're talking today about patience as one of the key characteristics of love. Love is what? Patient.
Maybe you read about the kindergarten teacher that was helping one of her students. He was trying to get his boots on and having a really hard time. So she went over, and they really struggled. I mean, she worked up a sweat just getting those boots on that little boy's feet, and he was just struggling too. He was pulling, she was pushing. Finally, she got them on there, and the little boy looked down and he said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked down, and sure enough, they were on the wrong feet.
So she helped him get the boots back off again, and it was just as hard getting them back off again. And so she swapped the positions and really struggled. It was hard getting them back on, finally got them back on again. And she just breathed a sigh of relief, and the little boy said, "These aren't my boots." The teacher said, "Oh, man." So she worked. She bit her tongue, didn't say what she wanted to say. She started pulling off the boots again, finally got the boots off. And as soon as she got them off, the little boy said, "They're my brother's boots. My mom made me wear them today."
She's really getting frustrated, you know, trying to hold her temper, really worked hard again, got the boots back on again, and it really was a hard time again. They barely just got them on. They were so tight. And she says, "Okay, now where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots."
Have you ever had a day like that? A moment like that, or weeks like that, or a year like that? I do pretty well with patience a lot of times, but there are certain things that I have more trouble with when it comes to being patient. Traffic is one of those things for me, just driving in traffic and the way people drive out there and all of that. And now it's like a Mario Kart out there with the potholes and everything. People are just going all over the place trying to dodge the potholes.
And if I get into a traffic jam, it's just hard for me. If I don't see movement, if I don't see things at least progressing a little bit, it's hard for me to hold on to my patience. And so it's good for all of us, I think, no matter where you're at in this process, for all of us to learn more about what God means when he says love is patient.
There's a lot of different ways people have tried to define patience. Actually, the Greek word that is used in 1 Corinthians 13 is an interesting word. It means it takes a long time to boil, taking a long time to boil. I like that when you're thinking about patience. You're not hot-tempered; it's not just right away, you lose your temper. You're more patient than that.
Other people have defined it different ways: the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously. You see, it's not just waiting; it's waiting graciously with the right attitude without losing your temper. It's also been defined as the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate against a wrong. When somebody does something wrong to you, how quick are you to snap back and do something as bad or worse back to them? Patience will help us do a better job with that if we can develop this godly patience.
Somebody said it this way: it's the ability to count down before blasting off. It's pretty good. The ability to count down before blasting off. It's a lot easier to define it, I think, than it is to practice it. And so with each of these attributes described in 1 Corinthians 13, we're going to go to other passages as well in Scripture where we have more explanation and breakdown of the teaching from God about what that attribute really means according to God.
Today I want to look at a passage in the book of James, if you'll be turning there in the New Testament. If you're in 1 Corinthians now, just go to the right a little ways there. You can get to the book of James. And in James chapter 5, we're going to look at a passage where James is addressing the Christians of that time who were going through persecution.
And any time we're having something unpleasant going on, it tests our patience, right? Whether it's having to wait in traffic or you've got an extended illness or you've got some struggle in a marriage and it's not getting better or you've got kids in rebellion and you're praying for them and trying to give them counsel, they're not listening, right? The longer that goes on, the harder it is to maintain patience, whatever it is that you're dealing with.
And in James 5, he begins to explain to those Christians that are going through that persecution that there's value to being patient through it, even the hard things, that God's using that. He's working through that if you let Him. And you'll be patient through the process, be patient with God, be patient with the circumstances that you're going through.
I want to read through it first and then we'll go back and break it down a little bit, beginning with verse 7.
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains? You, too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door.
Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You've heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is simply yes or no; otherwise, you will be condemned.
Now, I love the book of James because he's so to the point in how he writes. He's inspired by the Holy Spirit, but he has his own style and approach to it, and he is to the point and plain and simple. It's not hard to understand what James is talking about when you read this book.
And so James is addressing this idea that we're going through hard things, and they're letting it, obviously, James wouldn't be addressing this if they weren't letting their circumstances cause them to lose their patience. They weren't handling it really well. And so James is reminding them.
I want to look at three things in particular that James talks about here. The first one is, I believe he's emphasizing how we need to learn the value of waiting. And he breaks it down in a couple of ways here, the value of waiting. The first one is, when you are able to be patient, then you can remain steadfast under trial if you learn to be patient.
Steadfast means you stay steady with where you need to be. You're not wavering back and forth based on the circumstances of your life at the moment. Your faith is the same under trial as it is when everything's going well. That's steadfast, right? It's consistent. It's not up and down all the time. It doesn't mean any of us are perfect at this and we're never going to have ups and downs. Of course, we are emotionally. We're going to feel ups and downs and discouragement and encouragement. We're going to go through those emotions.
But if we have a solid faith, it will carry us through those things and keep us steadfast in our devotion to the Lord. As I was preparing this series and working on this message in particular, I just kept having things come to my mind that people in our church family are going through and have been going through recently.
Remember, Jesus was honest about it. He said in this world, you're going to have trouble. You're going to have trials, struggles. And I thought about our church family, those that I know about. I don't know about all the struggles that people are going through, but I know about a lot of them. There are a lot of people in our church family that are hurting right now and have been hurting for a long time with some of their circumstances that they're going through.
We've got lots of families over the past few months that have suffered loss of loved ones, a lot of them. A couple of families have had more than one death within a short period of time within their family that they're dealing with the loss and the hurt, the grief that comes with that. We've got people that are going through prolonged illnesses in our church family. They've been dealing with it for a long time. They got a diagnosis a long time ago and they've been battling it for a while now and they're having to go through treatments.
And if they've had surgeries, they're recovering from surgeries. If they're recovering from surgeries, a lot of them are going through physical rehab processes that are painful and hard to go through. I mean, we've got people at all stages of that, and it's been going on for a long time for a lot of them.
We've got people dealing with broken relationships, people that have suffered through a divorce, and they're still facing the consequences. People think, oh, we're going to have a friendly divorce. And you say that on the front end, but even in a friendly divorce, friends, the consequences go on after that. If you have children, the consequences are passed on to the children, right? It goes on and on for the next generation and the next generation. They're still dealing with that. The consequences of that is hard. It can wear on you.
Every family get-together, every event, weddings, funerals, you have to be together and all that. It just complicates everything. God's grace is enough, but it's hard, right? We've got families that are going through broken relationships other than divorce with single people that have been hurt by others that they were in a relationship with, and it didn't work out, and there's hurt and grief that goes along with that.
We've got people that have been dealing with couples wanting a child that they've been trying and they haven't been able to have a child. And they see other people celebrating their babies and their births, and we see baby dedications at the church, and here they are sitting there wishing they could have a baby, and it hasn't happened for them yet. It's a struggle. How do you stay patient going through all that?
We've got single people that would love to be married, that would love to find a godly spouse, and they're praying and they're looking, and maybe they've tested the waters a little bit and it just hasn't worked out, and they still don't have that spouse. They thought they'd be married by now, and it's been a long time, and they're still not married, and they're wondering what's wrong. Why is it just happening for me?
We've got people dealing with financial burdens that seem to go on and on and on. There doesn't seem to be any end to it. They don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. They're really trying to get back on top, but something always keeps happening and sets them back again, and they just can't seem to get a handle on it, and it's just weighing on them month after month with the bills that are due, and they don't know how they're going to pay all their bills.
We've got people there dealing with children that are in rebellion and it's breaking the parents' hearts, and they're wanting to see their children come back to the Lord and come back and be part of the church family and use their gifts and abilities to honor him, and it's just not happening, and they're trying to be patient and hold on and keep praying, but it's hard when you don't see any results yet.
Patience is a tough thing. We've got people that are in families where a spouse or a child is deployed in the military, and you haven't heard for a little while how they're doing, and you're wondering how everything's going for them, and you don't know if they're going to get back safe or not.
We've got people who have made a commitment to go back to school because they didn't finish their degree, and they're trying to get that done because they think it'll bless their family, but the financial part of it is hard and the time element is so hard, and they're trying to work it in and still take care of their family and raise their kids and all that, and they're trying to better themselves, but it's just too much some days.
How do you stay patient and steadfast when you're going through all of those things? We've got part of our family, a man that was in an automobile accident, paralyzed from the waist down, and he's been going through effort after effort after effort to be able to walk again. He's made a little progress, but he's not there, and he's still not able to walk on his own.
Do you stay patient and steadfast when it's not happening, according to your plan and your schedule, your hopes, your dreams, of what you thought it was going to be like? Only godly patience can help you do that, can get you through that, and it's only because you love God like that that you're willing to be patient through those things.
You see, that's an attribute of love; patience is. Love is patient. If you love God, you'll be willing to be patient. If you love your spouse, you'll be willing and committed to being patient. If you love your children, you'll be willing and committed to being patient. If you love your friends and your family and your coworkers, you'll be willing to be more patient with them.
It doesn't mean you're going to be perfect at this, but you'll be steadfast in your faith because of your love for God and your love for others connected to your love for God. And he adds an element to this to remind them of something really important. There's value in being patient. You need to remain steadfast under trial. Patience will help you do that, but he adds another element. The Lord's coming is near.
Now, near to us means every generation has thought this. If the Lord's coming is near, it means within my lifetime or at least within the next few years or within the next few months or maybe this week he's going to come back. And if you're really anticipating the Lord's coming, it could be a really exciting thing until another day goes by and another day goes by and a week goes by and another year goes by.
And when he said this, it was almost 2,000 years ago. And he said the Lord's coming is near 2,000 years ago. Right? So what does he mean? Why should we be patient? Why does he even tell them 2,000 years ago the Lord's coming is near?
Well, there are a couple of elements to it here. The translation of the Lord's coming is near means it's at hand, okay? It's right there on the precipice. You can see it, you can taste it, you can smell it, right? It's right there. It's near. And in our perspective, the way we measure time and the way we measure our lives, near seems different than maybe the way he's talking about it.
The Lord's coming is near is that idea that everything on God's part is ready. Everything on Jesus' part is ready. He's at the door. He's ready to come. As soon as the Father says, go, he goes. And it will happen in an instant, in a moment, and there won't be any in-between time. And that's the point he's making is stay patient, hold on, because at any moment Jesus could appear.
Isn't that a little motivation to stay on track? What do you want to be doing when the Lord appears? Where do you want to be? What activity do you want to be involved in when, bam, there he is and there's no more time? There's no more opportunity to get it right, to get on track, to get back to where you needed to be all along.
So that's why he's saying it will help you to be patient when you understand the Lord's return is at hand. It could be at any moment. That's some good motivation there, right? So the Lord's coming is near. He's always near, but it especially refers to His coming again.
Now, that phrase also means He's near you all the time, which means that you're not going through this by yourself. He's right there, too. You're hurting right now. Can He understand what it's like to hurt? Yeah. You feel lost right now. Did He experience loss? Yeah, He did. You're facing temptation right now. Did He face temptation, too? Yeah. The Bible says He was tempted and tried in every way that we are, yet without sin.
So if we need some help with this, who's more than qualified to help us? Jesus is. And can we find Jesus if we want to look for Him? Yeah, He's right there. He's been there the whole time. He's near to all of us. He says, "If you seek Me, you will find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart." He's right there for us. You just have to seek Him with your sincerely seek Him, His help, His presence, His power, His provision. The Lord is near.
So we start out from James learning the value of waiting. But then he gives us, I love the way James does this. He gives us examples. That's part of what he does through the whole book is gives us practical examples where we can understand what he's talking about.
So then he talks about the second thing that he really emphasized here is two signs of impatience that he sees in the Corinthian church that's happening right now, two signs of impatience. And this gives us something we could test ourselves with. OK, if we want to see if we're really because sometimes we claim to be patient people when we're doing these things that show we're not really being patient.
OK, here's one sign of patience, of impatience: grumbling. He talks about the Israelites in the desert, the way they grumbled. Do you realize that there was a whole generation of Israelites that grumbled in the desert that did not get to go into the promised land? Wow. They could have. They witnessed a lot of amazing things that God did. But as soon as things didn't go the way they wanted them to, they started grumbling against God and against Moses, who was leading them out.
Think about it. They went through the plagues and saw God take care of them through all the plagues. The last one, of course, the 10th plague was the death of the firstborn. And if they put the blood over the doorpost of their house, the death angel passed over their house. That's how they got the celebration of the Passover. Death did not come to their homes. God was showing them if you're covered by the blood of the lamb, you're going to be protected and covered and cared for.
And so those families experienced that. And they saw all the other plagues and how God took care of them and how he got Pharaoh to let them go. And then they got to the Red Sea. And what did they start doing? Grumbling and complaining. "Brought us out here to die, Moses." Like God couldn't handle this one after they just went through the 10 plagues and saw everything God had handled already.
But this is different, God. You brought us out here to die. We would have been better off staying in Egypt. All they did while they were in Egypt was what? Grumble. Complain. We don't belong here. We shouldn't be here. This is not right. We're God's people. We shouldn't have to suffer. And when God delivers them, what do they do? They grumble.
Then they saw them part the sea. They crossed over on dry land. That wasn't the end of it. Then they saw them pull the waters back and drown the Egyptian army so they couldn't pursue them anymore. And they got off to the other side and they sang God's praises until they had to travel a little bit again. And they didn't have all the stuff they wanted in the food they wanted like they wanted it. And what'd they start doing again? Just press and repeat, right? It's just over and over again. It just happened over and over again. That cycle.
They would grumble and complain. God kept His promises and God was faithful. They would come back and thank God and praise God. And then as soon as any bad thing happened again, what are they doing again? Grumbling and complaining. Boy, it's easy to point the finger at those Israelites. They were just such bad people. They should have gotten it better than that. They should have understood.
And here we are knowing that Jesus died on the cross for us at the first sign of trouble. What do we do? Grumble and complain. That's why James is saying, guys, you need to be patient in the face of suffering. Persevere. Hold on. God has proven Himself to you over and over again. Quit your grumbling.
But you know what? We don't just do it with God. I see it in marriages all the time. We planned so much for the wedding, that wedding day. We want it to be perfect and everything just go well. It's a beautiful ceremony. You know, we want everything to be great and then we have to actually do life together. You know, you go home with each other and you spend all that time with each other. It's not like dating anymore.
In fact, we now have a culture that so lacks patience that we won't even wait to the wedding. We're going to go ahead and be sexually active. We're going to go ahead and move in together. We're just going to jump ahead all those steps. We're not patient enough to do it in the order God says to do it. And then we still grumble and complain even when we jump ahead and do it our way.
And the divorce rates when we do it the other way are actually higher than they are with the people who did it God's way. We just thought we were going to do it better. We grumbled and complained God's being too demanding. He's asking too much of us to wait. So we're going to do it our own way, the way the world's doing it, because that'll be better. And it's proven to be worse in lasting marriages.
Now, again, God's grace is sufficient. If we didn't follow God's plan, there's grace and there's forgiveness. But couldn't we learn a little patience through the process? When we understand God, God is faithful to his promises. He says grumbling and then he talks about something else that he warns them not to do.
And it's confusing a little bit the way we use the term today. He says in verse 12, "Above all my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Just a simple yes or no." And when we say swear, in our culture today, we're usually talking about using what we call curse words, right, swearing. And that was part of what this is talking about.
Because oftentimes when they swore on an oath, they were to add emphasis. They would use words like curse words or something like that, like Peter when he denied Christ. If you read the record carefully, he denied him three times. And the last time he did it with what they called cursing in one translation because he used language that was very in their culture at that time, not welcome in the public circle very much.
Today, we use it that way, too, with cursing. But in this culture, in this context, when he says don't swear, he's also talking about swearing on earth. Like, "I swear to God, I'm going to do this," right? "I swear to God, I'm going to stick with this this time. I swear to God, I'm going to be faithful to my man. I swear." He said, just do it. Just do what you say you're going to do.
Right? But when we're impatient, not only do we swear like that, but we swear the way he's talking about here too, which is God, if you do this, I swear I'll do that. We try to make a deal with God. "God, you get me through this. I promise I'll go to church all the time. God, you provide this for me. I'll start giving to the church the way I'm supposed to give if you provide this financially that I need right now."
We make deals with God, or we try to make deals with God. And what James is saying is, don't let your impatience cause you to start trying to finagle like that. Just do what you're supposed to do to start with. Just be the person you're supposed to be, that steadfast, faithful person, no matter what circumstances you're facing. Then you don't have to make any deals, right? You're not even tempted to make any deals.
To swear on any oath. You committed your life to Christ, so now what are you going to do? I'm going to walk with Christ. I'm going to follow his teaching. I'm going to be actively involved in the life of the church because I am the church, right? That's who I am. You don't have to make any deals after that. You just live out that life.
And so patience is valuable because it's what allows you to live that out. And you won't have that kind of patience without the kind of love he's talking about here for God and for others. When you love God this way, you're more willing to be patient through the hard things and the struggles. And you're less likely to be a grumbling, critical kind of person and a person who's swearing.
And it does apply, the way the language is used here, to bad language too, to the using words that you shouldn't be using. We live in a culture today that's one of the most harsh, vocally harsh cultures I've ever seen in the history of people on Earth. Where cuss words are used just casually all the time in everyday conversation around little kids all the time. As if there's no problem with it, it's no big deal.
And yet James oftentimes connects the heart and the tongue together in his teaching. You know, what comes out of your mouth originated in your heart. It reveals what's in your heart. Be careful of the words that you use. Use only words that are building up and encouraging, not tearing down and destroying.
And so we do need to guard our language, even when we're impatient. The reason I bring that up is because a lot of people start using language they don't normally use when they get impatient, right? When they've had to wait and it didn't go their way, they start cursing about it. Have you ever seen a driver that's lost a, you know, road rage? Yeah.
Only they don't go, they don't just stop at the cursing, they go to physical violence many times. That's what impatience will do to you. A lack of loving with this characteristic of patience will cause you to do things like that that harm yourself and harm others. That's why it's so important.
Well, then James also, in this passage we just read, gives us three examples of patience that he would like for us to remember. I love that because I learn a lot that way by example. That's part of how I'm a learner like that. When you tell me something, I want to understand the words, but I also want to see or hear or know how does that look, right? How is that played out?
So he gives us some examples of people that demonstrated the kind of patience he's talking about that is connected to love, okay? He uses the example of the farmer. Remember? Look at the farmer, he says. He waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. Could he control the autumn and spring rains? No, he could control part of the farming process, couldn't he?
There are some things he was supposed to do if he's going to raise a crop. What are some things a farmer is supposed to do? Plow the land, plant the seed, right? Take care of the plants when they start growing. Harvest when it's time to harvest. The farmer has a part here, but can the farmer control everything else? No. Just like in life, that's what he's talking about when we love God, there's stuff we're supposed to be doing because we love God.
So we need to be doing those things. But we do those things with the understanding that we can't control everything else. We can only control us doing what God teaches us to do. You can't even control anybody else doing what God tells us to do. Who's the only one you can control with that? Yourself.
Now you could teach and you could encourage, but you can't control the response of the other person. That's one of the hardest things about parenting, right? And loving your kids. You teach, you instruct, you try to set the example, and they will still many times choose to do it a different way. You can't control that. And God didn't tell you to control that. That's not even your job.
We really wear ourselves out mentally and physically trying to control stuff that God didn't give us that assignment to do. We're not the ones in control of those things. Sue Ann and I talk about this all the time. We tend to complain about the weather all the time, don't we? We just had all the ice and snow and the cold weather. I don't like cold. I don't. I'd rather have heat any time. I'm more a 90-degree person than I am a zero-degree person by far. I just I like heat better than I do the cold.
The temptation is always when it gets cold. What am I tempted to do? Complain, right? Go to the beach. That's good. I'm going to write that down. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's I think that's a good answer. No, I do like to go to the beach. But here's the thing. I live in a place where it's going to get cold sometime. In fact, I live on a planet that was created by who? And he created it with what different temperatures and seasons and rains and dry spells and cold snaps and heat waves. He created it with all of that.
He's the one in control of that. Instead of me going around grumbling and complaining, I need to learn to appreciate God's magnificent creation and understand that he's got a plan and a purpose for everything and he can work all things together for our good, even the hard things that we don't like. There may be some value to me learning to have to deal with the cold sometimes. I haven't figured it out yet, but there may be some value to that.
In the meantime, I need to be steadfast and patient in my love for God and my love for others, regardless of the weather, right? And so should all of us. So the farmer gives us a great example. He has certain responsibilities just like we do as Christ followers, but we can't control everything. So let's just do what we're responsible for with a good attitude, without grumbling and complaining.
Let's stay steadfast. Let's be patient, even when it's not going the way we want it to go and the time we want it to go. The farmer can't control all of that either, but if he's patient and he just does the stuff he's supposed to do, then God is responsible for the increase that comes. And he has to trust that with God, just like we do.
And then he uses the example of the Old Testament prophets. Sometimes we think of Old Testament prophets and we think, wow, what great godly people. They just had amazing lives and they were so influential and people just listened to them and learned from them. You haven't read much of the Old Testament if that's all you think about Old Testament prophets. Almost all of them were persecuted. Almost all of them had hard lives. Almost all of them had to make great sacrifices to do what God had called them to do, to speak out for him as a prophet on his behalf.
Now there were times when they were honored too, yes, but there were times when they suffered great persecution. In Hebrews, it reports in Hebrews 11, some of the things they went through: they were tortured, ridiculed, flogged, thrown in prison, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, had to hide out in caves. They were poor, many of them in destitute, yet they were commended for their faith and they didn't even see the coming of Jesus in their lifetime.
And they still stayed steadfast in the role God had given them, were patient through all of that mistreatment that they endured. Most of us haven't faced anything like that, friends, and yet we're wishy-washy in our faith. We're not steadfast in our walk with Christ at the least little trouble that comes our way. We're bailing out. We're not continuing to walk in the path God has called us to.
Friends, if we love God, truly love God, one sign of loving God is being patient in suffering. Steadfast and true to our commitment to him. Same thing is true in a marriage, friends, or a friendship. When things get rocky, if you really love scripturally, then you're willing to stay steady, steadfast, hold on. It doesn't mean you say everything's okay. It doesn't mean you act like the other person if they're doing something wrong that that's okay. That's not what this means.
It means you control yourself in that relationship to be what you're supposed to be in that relationship. It might not work out even then, but what have you still done? You've honored God. You've stayed steadfast. You've been what God called you to be through that process. That's what God is calling us to in godly patience.
I love this third example too that he gives. You've heard this phrase probably a lot if you're around church people especially, but a lot of people not even connected to church will use this phrase. Some of them don't even know what they're talking about. The patience of Job, right? He talks about Job here. He mentions Job and the patience that Job had.
Job, I want you to go back and read the book of Job, not for an uplifting fun day, okay? It's not going to take you there. It's going to be hard to see all that happens. Satan got permission from God to go and test and try Job, and Satan put him through it. He put him through so many hard things, and I just want to summarize a couple of things though that God did in response to that.
It tells us some numbers here in the book of Job. Go back and read it later. It says he had 7,000 sheep that Satan took from him. God gave him back how many? 14,000 sheep, doubled it. It says that he had 3,000 camels. Back then that was a valuable thing. God gave him back how many? 6,000 camels. He had 500 yoke of oxen. God gave him how many back? A thousand yoke of oxen because he was patient, right? He held on.
He had 10 children, and God took those. I mean Satan took those from him, but God gave him back 10 children. Why didn't he double that? Because God is gracious and compassionate. Right? He wanted to bless them, not hurt them, right? All of these examples teach us something we need to remember with our love for God and being patient through the things we have to go through.
All suffering is temporary in this world. I don't care what it is. It's temporary because this world is temporary and everything in this world is temporary. Only three things will remain out of this world: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of those things is what? Love.
Hold on to your love for God. Be patient as you go through the struggles that you're going through because it is without question that these things are not going to go on forever. God has something so much better planned. I love how the scripture talks about it over and over again in Romans 8 verse 18. He says this: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
He's not making light of our present suffering, but what's coming after this is so much better it doesn't even compare with whatever suffering we've had to go through. You don't know how bad it is for me, pastor. Well, God does. And He's the one that said, what I've got for you after this is so much better you won't even be able to compare it with what you're going through right now that's so temporary.
I love what He said in 2 Peter 3 verse 8. People were already, even as Peter wrote this letter, they were already saying, why hasn't Jesus come back yet? Why? God said He was coming back. Jesus said He was coming back. He's not back yet. God didn't keep His promise. They're already complaining about God not doing this. And Peter's answering that. He says, do not forget this one thing, dear friends. For the Lord a day is like a thousand years. A thousand years is like a day. Time means nothing to God. It does to us. And God knows that.
And that's why He's with us through all of this. And that's why all of this is only temporary because He knows time matters to us. But to God it doesn't. He's eternal. He always has been. He always will be. There is no time passing for Him. So we don't have to think the way the world thinks when it comes to the coming of Jesus.
But He goes on to say this. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. Instead, He's what? Patient with you. Not wanting anyone to what? But everyone to come to what? Oh, there's a plan in the delay. There's a purpose in the delay of the coming of Jesus. He's wanting to give more and more people the chance, the opportunity to turn from sin and be prepared when Jesus comes back.
And He's giving us, the church, more and more opportunity to share the good news of Jesus, to help more and more people get prepared for the appearance of Jesus. He's just giving us another day to get more people to be ready for the coming of Jesus. But He does say this. Look, He went on to say this. But the day the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. The day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt with heat. But in keeping with His promise, we're looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
So then, dear friends, since you're looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you the wisdom that God gave him.
The greatest example of patience that we could ever have is the patience of the Lord with us. Had He not been patient with me, He would have destroyed me a long time ago. Had He not been patient with me, I would have been condemned to hell forever. But He extended me patience. He gave me the opportunity to come to know and follow Jesus. When I've gotten off track, He's given me the opportunity to repent and get back on track again. He's done that for you, too.
You see, why did God do that for me and for you? Because of His love. That's why God is patient. Because He loves us. And so if we're going to love like God, then we're going to have to have His help to develop and maintain patience in how we deal with each other and things of the world that don't go our way.
We need to develop a strong, steadfast patience in continuing to walk with the Lord and trust Him through anything and everything that we have to face in this temporary world that we're in right now. Because our lives are so much more than just this temporary existence. We're all going to exist for eternity. We all are living eternal souls. And this is just a speck of our lives compared to the rest of it.
Let's hold on for this time. Let's be patient with this time. Let's do the right thing in this time as we look forward to the rest of our time in the presence of God, in the new heaven and the new earth where there's no more sin, there's no more curse, there's no more death, there's no more dying, there's no more sickness, there's no more pain. All of that's going to be eliminated in that new world, that new existence.
Let's hold on long enough to get to the reward that's waiting for us on the other side. I want to close with a story. You may have heard it. There was a lady who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. And she knew that she didn't have much time left. She could see it progressing. So she called her pastor to come over to the house to make the final arrangement. She wanted to be involved in making the arrangements for her funeral and everything.
So she went over the songs that she wanted to have sung, and she went over the scriptures that she wanted to have read and what she wanted to wear and all of that. And it got time where she thought she'd covered everything, and the pastor got up to go and said, "I assure you, we'll take care of those things and do the service the way you want, and it'll be a great witness."
And the pastor started to leave. She said, "Oh, wait, wait, one more thing I almost forgot. When I'm in the casket, I want it to be an open casket, and I want people to pass by, and I want you to do something for me. Make sure you put a fork in my right hand."
And the pastor was really puzzled and said, "A fork in your right hand?" She said, "Yeah, I want to have a fork in my right hand as people pass by the casket and look at me in the casket there." She said, "I could tell you're puzzled by that. I want to tell you why. I said, my grandmother told me this, and I really loved it, and I want to give that story to other people.
Said, I can remember as a little girl growing up that I'd go to church socials, and I would go to family reunions and big events where we had a lot of food and everything, and we would eat, and the main course would be cleared away, and someone would lean in and say, 'Hold on to your fork.' She said, 'I knew what that meant. That meant some good dessert was coming, right? Hold on to your fork because something good is coming.'
She said, 'When people pass by my casket and they see me holding that fork, they're going to be confused. They're going to wonder what in the world's going on. Pastor, I want you to tell them to hold on to their fork because the best is yet to come. Hold on just a little longer.'
Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you that in Christ we know the best is yet to come. Oh, there's blessing here. There's joy here. There's good things here. But there are hard things too, Father. It's the curse of sin. It's the problem of sin in the world that's brought all of this suffering and this pain. But Jesus came to be the cure for sin. And He's given us the answer that we need so that we can know with confidence that if we will hold on and be patient because we love you and thank you for what you've done, then the best is yet to come.
In Christ, we have so much to look forward to here in this world and in eternity. Father, I pray if someone is ready to take that step to surrender themselves to the call of God in their lives, I pray, Father, that your Spirit would lead them to take those steps even today. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
So we stand and sing today. We invite you. If you have a decision you need to make or next steps you need to take, just come right up front while we're standing and singing. Everybody have a seat, please. Come right on up here with me. If you would, come up to this mic. Paul, if you would, get this mic for me here. Thank you. Step right around here. Tell everybody your name.
My name is Doris Moblin. Doris comes today already a baptized believer in Christ. She comes to make Lake Shore her church home family. We're so excited. She's coming to take this step today. Doris, I know you come as a believer for our benefit. I'm going to ask you to repeat a profession of your faith, right?
I believe that Jesus is the Christ. He's the son of the living God. And he's my Lord and Savior. Amen. God bless you. Welcome, Doris. We're so glad to have you here. Thank you. I'm going to ask you, if you would, to wait a few minutes after the service. We want to get your picture and celebrate with you, okay? Thank you. Welcome again, Doris. Thank you.
This time, Paul's going to come and lead us in a time of communion around the Lord's Table.
Well, good morning, church. How are you doing? We want to thank you again for being here with us today. It's a joy to have this time together. If you'd like to continue worshipping through the giving of an offering, we have offering boxes available, one in the back of the auditorium over here, one in the hallway. As you exit, there's a slot in the top there. You can drop your offerings down in the top slot there.
You can also give online at LakeshoreChristian.com. Click on the gift tab there. You can also scan the QR code in your bulletin shell. It will take you to that page where you can give online as well and mail in offerings to the church office. No matter which method you use, it's still an act of worship and honoring God and putting the kingdom of God first and allowing us to fund the ministries of the work of the church.
And so we thank you for your support for that. In the bulletin each week, we've got a sermon outline that you can follow along with and take notes on. On the other side, we've got announcements. There's some good things coming up. Next Sunday, we're going to have a Valentine photo station. It's just for fun. Come in next Sunday. We'll have it set up out in the lobby cafe area. Stop by and have some pictures made and enjoy just maybe dressing up a little bit for Valentine's Day if you want to do that.
You don't have to, but if you want to have some fun with that. And we want you to know that you are certainly loved as a part of our church family here. We don't just for Valentine's Day, but all the time. We're glad you're a part of us.
Also coming up, they just opened up registration for elementary week of camp for all weeks of camp out at White Mills Christian Camp. That's the camp that we use and take our kids to in the summers for the camp summer camp program. Registration is open now. We have volunteers and staff that will be going for elementary week one, which is the first week in June.
Now, that's a week that fills up many times. So the sooner you get registered, the better. Now, here's what the camp is doing too. If you go ahead and register your kids before February the 11th or by the 11th, they're giving out prizes every day to those who registered early. They're doing drawings from those that have registered and you can win prizes. So it's just a little incentive to get in that early registration there as for elementary age kids there for that week.
But they have other programs as well. And then we've got also opened up now registration for our summer youth conferences. The C.I.Y. mix for our middle schoolers and move for our high schoolers. That information is in the bulletin as well. And registration is set up through our kiosk and our website for White Mills and for C.I.Y.
So you could go ahead and get your young people registered for that. Just a reminder, we've got a midweek podcast that I do on Wednesdays. We'd love for you to subscribe to the podcast. You don't have to listen to it live. It's live at noon on Wednesdays, but you can listen to it any time after it's posted then. I would encourage you to do that.
Also subscribe to our YouTube channel. We've got well over 800 people subscribe to our YouTube channel. I'm sure there's some of you that have not done that yet. But it's a good way for you to go back and watch this message. If you didn't catch it that Sunday, you were out of town or something. It's a good way for you to see the live stream if you're sick and at home and can't be here or whatever the reason might be.
And you could go back and catch lessons that maybe you missed in a series and catch the whole series and get caught up on all of it. So I would encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel and to the podcast there.
Just remember all year long we're celebrating 50 years as a church and we'll be doing a special remembrance on November the 17th. We'll be honoring the history of the church and all the different stages that the church has gone through and changes that we've gone through. Relocating the campus and all that. We'll be giving you kind of overall history of the church and thanking all those that have helped me make that possible.
I've been a part of that throughout the years. So we hope you'll save that date and make plans to be here as a part of that celebration and invite others to come along and be a part of that celebration too. But you don't have to wait to November 17th to invite somebody, right? You know that, right? Right. You go ahead and invite people now. Go ahead and be encouraging them to come and visit with you. Be your guest here at Lakeshore.
We're glad you're here today. If you are a first-time guest and you haven't done so already, stop by the information counter before you leave. We've got a gift bag we'd love to give you to thank you for being here with us today.
Let's all stand together. We'll close with a word of prayer.
Father God, we thank you again for your patience with us. That you are patient enough to give us the opportunity to be saved through Christ. We don't deserve that and we haven't earned it. It's only because of your love for us that you've extended that patience to us. Help us to use the time we've got to invite others to come along and be blessed by Jesus in their lives too.
Thank you for being patient for those we're praying for, those that we care about, that we're trying to get to that place where they know and accept and follow Jesus. Use us, Father, with whatever time you allow us to have to reach as many as we can. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
on Feb 05, 2024
