Very, very nice, Amanda. Okay, laughs. There we go, Greg. I pulled a Greg; I just didn't flip the switch in my pocket.
Yeah, you have to turn it on.
So anyway, thank you, Gary.
All right, well, we are continuing our lessons talking about the fruit of the Spirit, and today we'll be looking at the gift of patience particularly. But I want to start by just noting that when we talk about this fruit, of course, the source is the Holy Spirit. The source is God Almighty, particularly through His Spirit who dwells in us.
We all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when we are baptized into Jesus Christ. So these attributes are His, and we'll get to the last point eventually, and it's about receiving this. We have to be willing to accept these gifts. It's like the gift of salvation itself; it's being offered. The gift is there. Jesus Christ was, and is, and will always be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And so that has happened, but people have to receive that gift. We have to come to faith; we have to believe it; we have to embrace it; we have to trust in God Almighty and in His Son and what happened on that cross. And then we say Amen to Jesus; we confess His name, and we allow ourselves to be baptized into Him. That's when the reception, that's when the receiving of the gifts, the gift of salvation takes place.
Well, the same is true with these gifts, and I appreciate how Greg titled this lesson "The Gift of Patience" because that's what it is. Oftentimes, I allow myself to get into the trap of wanting to feel certain ways. And so, yes, I want to feel like I'm a person of love, and I want to feel like I'm a person of joy, and I want to feel like I'm a peaceful person, and I want to feel like I have patience.
And you all know I talk about it enough; I don't really feel like I do. But what we're going to see is that we make decisions concerning these. So even if I, in a moment, don't feel loving, I'm still called to choose love. And particularly today, I may not feel patient, but I have the ability, through God's help and His Spirit within me, to choose patience.
And what am I really choosing? I'm choosing the Spirit over self. I'm choosing the Spirit over the flesh. I'm choosing the light over the darkness. I'm choosing God over self. And that's really what it comes down to oftentimes with any of these aspects or attributes of the Spirit's fruit.
And again, that's who these belong to—the Holy Spirit. We deal with patience in a lot of different ways in this life. Sometimes it's something big; sometimes it's something small. We're patient in the waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and I would say that's probably one of the biggest ones, if not the biggest one.
We have to wait; we have to be ready; we have to be patient; we have to be people of forbearance; we have to be long-suffering because we'd like Him to come back in five minutes, right? But we don't know that that's going to be the case. God could allow this world to roll for 5,000 more years, so we have to be patient.
But it could be the small things. One definition of marriage is, in marriage, you commit to live the rest of your life with an individual. You commit to sleeping in a room that's too hot for the rest of your life next to someone who's sleeping in a room that's too cold, right? So it might be something that simple; it might just be the temperature of a room, and we have to be patient.
But it could be something bigger, and we handle situations in life in a lot of different ways. I like the little story; you've probably heard this in different forms. There are many different variations of this, and so it just says "Anonymous."
And I didn't mean to press the button, but that's okay.
All right, there's a story about a man who stopped in the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a couple of items for his wife. He wandered around aimlessly for a while, searching out the needed groceries. As is often the case in the grocery store, he kept passing the same shopper in almost every aisle.
I know we've all had that happen before, almost to the point where it gets uncomfortable enough that you want to just start following them so you're not crossing paths over and over and over again. But anyway, this is the situation, and it was another father trying to shop with a totally uncooperative three-year-old boy in the cart.
The first time they passed, the three-year-old was asking over and over for a candy bar. Our observer couldn't hear the entire conversation, but he kept hearing dad say, "Now, Billy, this won't take long." As they passed in the next aisle, the three-year-old's pleas had increased several octaves.
Now dad was quietly saying, "Billy, just calm down; we'll be done in a minute." When they passed near the dairy case, the kid was screaming uncontrollably. Dad was still keeping his cool. In a very low voice, he was saying, "Billy, settle down; we're almost out of here."
The dad and his son reached the checkout counter just ahead of our observer. He still gave no evidence of losing control. The boy was screaming and kicking. Dad was very calmly saying over and over again, "Billy, we'll be in the car in just a minute, and then everything will be okay."
The bystander was so impressed beyond words, and after paying for his groceries, he hurried to catch up with this amazing example of patience and self-control, just in time to hear him say, "Another time, Billy, we're done; it's going to be okay."
The bystander tapped the patient father on the shoulder and said, "Sir, I couldn't help but watch how you handled little Billy; you were amazing." And the dad replied, "You don't get it at all; I'm Billy."
So however we need to handle ourselves, it is acceptable and something we should try to do. We are called to patience, and the first thing we'll look at is the fact that God is patient. And of course, we already know this because patience is part of the fruit of the Spirit; it's a godly attribute.
So Romans 2:4: "Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"
And so some take God's patience to take advantage of it, and Paul's saying, "No, no, no, no, no; it's meant to lead you to repentance. It's meant to lead you to a changed life."
Paul will express this a different way, of course, just a few chapters later, where he says, "Shall we sin all the more so grace may abound?" And of course, the answer to that is no; the answer is God forbid.
We read in 2 Peter 3:8-10: "Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance."
We'll read verse 10 in a second, but this is one of our first examples here in looking at God's patience and realizing, you know, if God is willing to make that decision, being the perfect and awesome God that He is, we certainly ought to be willing to make that decision, being sinners, being people who are in as much need of patience as all the people around us.
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed."
Peter's giving his readers here a reminder, and of course all of us, that this will not go on forever. It may seem like forever to us because it may go beyond even our own passing, but there will be an end.
And so it is worth making the decisions of love, joy, peace, patience, and we'll continue with the other five throughout our quarter. But it's worth making those decisions, and it's the godly thing to make those decisions. It is the spiritual thing; it is the Holy Spirit thing to make those decisions.
These are gifts from God. I want to feel certain ways, and I'm kind of motivated by feelings. You guys kind of know that; we're all kind of different people. But I'm motivated by the touchy-feely kind of stuff, and so I want to feel loving, and I want to feel loved, and I want to feel joyful, and I want people around me to be full of joy, and on we go through the fruit.
But it's God's stuff. God is the one who gives these gifts. The passage that was read for us: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
When we go back to Galatians 5, when we look at the fruit of the Spirit, it is contrasted with the works of the flesh. Paul is trying to get the people in the churches of Galatia, and of course through time all of us, he's trying to motivate us to shift away from the flesh, self, darkness, and shift over to the light and the Holy Spirit.
He's trying to get us to shift to the things that are godly, and this is a work we continually strive for throughout our lives. But notice there will be an effect when we submit to God. Things happen when we submit to God; there is real change.
The Bible didn't talk about fake change. The Bible doesn't talk about people maybe, in my case, just feeling a certain way. Let's move people to feel like this. No, there's real change. It means that I and you, it means that we treat people differently. We are filled with the Spirit, and His fruit should be evident in our lives.
And so we behave differently. We allow that worded in Matthew 5; we allow the light to shine; we don't hide it. We allow it to change what's going on around us. This is how Jesus can say something like this. We can't imagine it if we're being persecuted, if we're being abused, if we're being treated incorrectly by the world around us or whoever it may be.
You know, we do not consider that a time to rejoice, but Jesus can say, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Well, how is this possible? Well, part of it is patience, long-suffering, forbearance. We can handle things because we know the end. We can handle things because we know God and His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. We can handle these things because of God in us, because of His Spirit. We can rejoice.
So one more passage here before we move to some contrasting attributes. In Hebrews 11:13 and verse 16, right in the middle of the great faith chapter, why were these people able to do what they did? "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city."
An eternal vision will help us with every aspect of spirituality, and particularly when we want to show to the world the Spirit's fruit.
Well, patience, forbearance, long-suffering—these things are contrasted with a few attributes in Scripture, and we're just going to look at two of them. We're going to contrast it with anger first, and we read in Proverbs 14:29: "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly."
So if we are patient people, we are not going to have inappropriate, worldly, fleshly anger. So whether it's at a restaurant or a supermarket or maybe fighting over the thermostat in the house or whatever it might be, if we're patient, if we allow the Spirit to control that decision, if you will, then we're not going to burst out in anger.
It's just not going to happen. Anger—they're not exactly antonyms, but with patience, there is less anger. With less patience, there tends to be more anger. And so allowing this attribute of the Spirit's fruit to live in us and for us to make those decisions, that our decisions of patience will keep us from being angry people.
And the same is true with pride. When someone lacks patience, there's probably a little bit of hostility, and there may be a little bit or a lot of pride. When we choose things that are against God's will, such as impatience or hate or a lack of joy, then we're putting ourselves above God.
We are determining that how we want to feel or the decision we want to make is more important than what God has laid out for us. Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 says, "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools."
We want to be patient rather than proud, and this also mentions the anger. We want to be patient as opposed to angry.
Well, as we stated at the beginning, we need to accept this gift, and that could be tough. It can be very hard to allow things to be rip-roaring around us and to stay steadfast in the midst of that. It can be a very hard thing to do.
Our perfect example, of course, and always, is Jesus Christ Himself. Think about the things going on around Him—the chaos in the garden when Peter pulls out a sword and cuts off Malchus's ear. I mean, it is wild; it is crazy in this moment. Jesus calmly, maybe with a little bit of elevated volume, tells Peter to put the sword away.
But Jesus, right in that moment, takes Malchus's ear and puts it back on, heals him. Can you imagine being one of those soldiers? That's just a side point. But Jesus shows great patience.
And what about actually on the cross? Jesus is suspended there, the Lamb of God. He is suspended there bearing the sins of the world, including ours, and He's telling—He's praying to the Father, "You know, forgive them; they don't know what they are doing."
Being spit at, cursed at, Jesus was patient. He did not allow anger to overtake Him. Obviously, He did not allow pride to overtake Him, and pride with the Son of God would be maybe not being willing anymore to submit to the Father whom He had been willingly submitting to. But He didn't have those things, and of course, Jesus never sinned.
Jesus was willing to be patient as opposed to all the other things He could have been. We have been given this same gift, and we need to accept it. We need to receive it. Again, it's like salvation. Sometimes we would love to think everyone will be saved, but the Bible has clearly told us that's not the case.
Jesus did, yes, pay the price for all the sins of the world, but people have to accept the gift. We have to continue to accept the gift of salvation, and we need to accept the gift of patience. It's there for us to take hold of; it's there for us, but we need to receive it.
And how do we receive it? By making the decisions that are appropriate, by allowing the Spirit's will to be greater than our will. Colossians 1:11 says, "Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy."
And I love that because the Spirit's fruit works together. All those attributes are one; they are all what God wants for us. And so, yes, we might be going through something, and we are being patient in it, and we are enduring, but we are called in those moments—and there are some ways in which you could consider this whole life one of those moments—but we do it with joy.
And so as we close today, let's look at this entire paragraph here. Let's look at verses 9 through 14 because this same section, as it talks about our growth and our being able to withstand certain things, it gives us the reason. It talks about the cross; it talks about what Jesus did for us.
"So from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Why? So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light."
And what has happened? He has delivered us, saved us, liberated us. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness, and He's taken us and He's transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
If you're in Jesus Christ today, if you have confessed the name of Christ and you've been baptized into Him, if that's true, you are forgiven; you are redeemed; you are justified; you are sanctified—all these wonderful ways in which God communicates to us our liberation, our salvation, our deliverance, the shackles being taken off, our freedom.
It's in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. Don't let anyone trick you into thinking that there's some other way to the Father. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
And Jesus told His followers more than once, "I'm going to send the Counselor; I'm going to send my Spirit; I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you." And we receive Him in baptism.
And so as we think about this, if you're in Christ, this is all true for you. We still need to continue to receive, but if you're not in Christ, these gifts are available to you. God is patient with you; He's waiting for you to accept His Son, Jesus Christ.
And then you will be transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, into the kingdom of light. You will then have redemption, and you will then have forgiveness of sins, and you'll have eternal life. You'll have a home forever.
Now, I have some good friends, and this is all true as opposed to other things I've told you, okay? I have good friends who want non-Christians—and I think we all do; we just don't think about it sometimes—but they really feel it's important that if someone is about to come to Christ, or if someone is contemplating this, if someone's outside of Christ, it might seem very overwhelming.
And even for those of us in Christ, sometimes life is overwhelming, and we don't think there's really any hope in succeeding spiritually. But let me just tell you, if you're not in Christ and you want to come to Christ today, you are not going to be left stranded.
Jesus didn't leave His physical disciples, the ones right with Him back in the first century; He didn't leave them stranded. He said, "No, actually, you're going to want me to go so I can send the Spirit."
Well, if you come to Christ today, you're not going to be left stranded either. You'll have some brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is a great encouragement and great help. We love each other who are part of this congregation, but you also will have God's Spirit within you.
When one is baptized into Christ, he or she receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. You will have help. Everything we're talking about this summer in these Sunday morning lessons—this is all God's stuff. This is the Holy Spirit helping us, and this is just one little verse we're looking at out of Galatians 5.
God is on our side, and if you come to Christ today, He'll be on your side. He will help you navigate this crazy life. And so if you're not in Christ and you would like to be today, we invite you to come forward as together we stand and sing.
on Nov 05, 2023
