Preacher: Josh White | Series: Fruit of the Spirit
Phoenix where everything is in bloom you know like it when there’s all the flowers and all the yellow on the trees come down isn’t that wonderful and I don’t know about you I have allergies and so this year I did find that this time you’re going to goes on fast but as everything is blooming I think maybe it’s very appropriate that we have been talking about the fruit of the spirit I didn’t plan that out but they just kind of worked out that way and so far as we’ve been in the lation is and we’ve been going to glaciers we got to Glacier chapter five or six twenty two and twenty three talking about the through the Spirit and so far up to this point in time we’ve talked about three three of the qualities of the fruit of the Spirit and so far we’ve looked at love and joy and last week we looked at peace and we talked about how God wants us to be peacemakers not peace destroyers and so I just want to review those six points just really quick if you have your Bolton inserts from last week or your sermon notes hopefully you’ll remember this I think I wrote down all of that stuff hopefully hoping that it was going to be very helpful for you but the six points are the six ways that we can be peacemakers your peace builders in the world is number one seek to address and resolve conflict rather than adding to them or starting them second is to be careful not to use words in attitudes that easily create misunderstanding in Division the third is that we should be quick to apologize and say we’re sorry even when we’re technically not the ones wrong isn’t that right husbands That’s right do that in your marriages Save Your Marriage number four Don’t jump to defend yourself when things are said or done against you but allow God to vindicate the truth in his own time this was follow the teaching of Christ on how to handle grievances against one another and the sixth is to avoid all kinds of gossip don’t gossip that will help definitely create peace in your life and so how how do you do this last week for those of you that were here this past Sunday did you create peace in your life and in your relationships or were you a peace destroyer hopefully are able to as we talk about these qualities of the for. The spirit on Sunday or your Hopefully you’re more aware of them as you go through the week while speaking of going through the week see I’m on the front end you know I know what I’m preaching on the next week and so I have the entire week to think about this and I wasn’t looking forward to this sermon in particular because it’s on patients and so this week I knew my patients was going to be tried and I think all of us probably have things in our life that we’re impatient about right back to by asked you to name your top five or ten things you’d probably be able to come up with a list including your very irritated when people ask you to create a list of the things that. You get irritated about but it you know Anyway I’m going to share with you a couple of mine I’m sure you can probably relate to this I find myself becoming very impatient at times in traffic I think most people do but there are some times when you’re driving and there’s just so many people on the road and you’re looking at that you’re watching thinking what are all these people doing they should be at home or making the freeways clear for me right sometimes we think those thoughts so traffic I have a problem sometimes being patient with traffic obviously people that have road rage you know you see people just lose it they just snap they have some problems with patients but one of the bigger ones for me and I think all of you will be able to relate to this is whenever you’re standing in a line it doesn’t matter where you are if you’re standing in line it takes ten times longer than you think it should right this last week my family and I we all went to Cosco work Hospital family any possible family here yeah that’s right that’s right across the in Cosco anyway so we’re Cosco and this is on Friday or Thursday I think it was and one of the best things about Cosco for those of you who go to Costco we all know it’s the samples That’s right and so I’m pushing the cart maybe it’s a guy thing I like to drive I like to push the car and I’m pushing the cart and you know how they have the samples they have the samples. It’s kind of out in the middle or not in the middle of the aisle but it’s kind of taking up a portion of the aisle and so you get to the end of the aisle this car like a bottleneck and there was this one person. Pushing her cart and she stops right by the samples and there’s another person behind her and then me and we’re all going and she stops and she’s completely oblivious to the world around her and she was with what do you have here and she gives in this friendly conversation with the lady the sample lady and she starts taking a bite in and I’m sitting there only going and we can’t get through she was blocking the aisle and I was thinking you know should I say something I mean this is taking a mutual long amount of time to should I say ma’am can we get can we just kind of squeeze through a little bit and then I was thinking Josh you’re preaching on patients the Sundays are just just be patient just be patient and that did help but it was hard it was really hard so being patient at the lines of Cosco I have also been convinced through my my my life long history of dealing with this if God gave us a negative spiritual gift the negative spiritual gift to give to me is picking the wrong lines I always pick the slowest line no matter where I’m at if it’s at the bank you know or the bank or the post office isn’t that the worst going to post or the D.M.V. you feel like you’re there forever it’s like you have to mentally prepare yourself when you’re going to these places it’s going to take a long time just kind of calm down. You know I also think that people today probably struggle with patience more than they did in the past and that’s because we have all these modern conveniences that have sped everything up and they’re wonderful when they work but it’s also kind of trained us to become impatient like for instance I was just thinking about this yesterday I saw it on Christmas Facebook page which is really cool Grace Bible College was live streaming the graduation.
You know yesterday for all of the graduates and I was just thinking wait a second this is two thousand and eighteen I graduated in one thousand nine. It’s been twenty years since I graduated from college but it just reminded me when I was in college the first couple of years this was before e-mail was out and so last couple years I was a grace we had e-mail but the first couple years if you wanted to correspond with when your friends I mean long distance was out of the question it was like twenty cents a minute remember that number was the case in order to correspond with your friend you had to actually take out a piece of paper you actually had to write a letter to your friend put it in a novel Oh put a stamp on the on globe and then you did the math again you think I’m putting this in the mail it’s going to take about three days for them to get it maybe one or two days for them to read it in and to respond in another three days for me to get it so once you put the letter in the mail you’re thinking I’m not hearing anything for a good seven to ten days. Days now we correspond with each other immediately and how many of you like to text people I mean it’s so convenient if you text someone and it takes them more than three to five minutes to respond to you know what do you think you know what are these people doing you know they should stop their life and they should respond to my texts immediately you know what I’m talking about don’t you guys are patient with text too as well. You know that’s communication communication is so much faster also when it comes to purchasing things in the olden days if you wanted to buy something what did you have to do You had to actually save up and then buy it with the money that you do have today you can just sign on the dotted line and you can get things immediately or if you sent something or sent away for something a catalog order how many days would it take for you to get it maybe a week or two now there’s Amazon prime shipping two days isn’t that the break the best invention in the world but if you don’t get it right away we get so impatient Well I think everyone here can relate that on some level we’re all going to struggle with patience but patience is what God is wanting to produce in our lives and so we. For we begin what I want you to do is I just want you to kind of think about your own life think about yourself and just ask yourself or tell yourself if there are certain areas in your life right now before we go through the sermon on patients that you know that you really struggle with being impatient or maybe even better yet what is the name of the person or the group of people that really cause you to be and patients and as we go through this message today maybe God will teach you something that you really need to learn but before we do that I just want to just spend just a minute just opening prayer here.
Dear lord i’m as we go through the fruit of the spirit we realize it is so important to you that we are reflecting your character you want to produce these things in our lives and so father as you’ve taught us in your word you are the vine and we are the branches and so Lord I pray that today this morning that you will use your word to cultivate this quality in our lives and bring to mind any people or situations where we truly need to practice patience with prison Christ name Amen. Well good definition for patience many of you already know what patience is but patience means being long tempered you have a temper and it can be short it means being long tempered on the books that I am using to help me as I’m starting on the fruit of the spirit kind of broke down patience into two different ways that we apply it and that’s the second the third point on the the sermon of today but when we’re talking about being patient we usually apply that to either situations or people those are the two things that we need to be patient with let me give you a definition for how we apply patience to situations so a definition for patience is a fruit of the Spirit as it applies to situations is this. It is the ability to endure for a long time whatever opposition and suffering may come our way and to show. Perseverance without wanting retaliation or revenge so when you’re going through different situations it is the ability to endure for a long time without wanting revenge or retaliation that’s what it means to be patient now when it comes to people there’s kind of a slightly different definition are obviously very similar but this is the definition it is the ability to put up with the weaknesses and the four evils of others isn’t that if I like that word for evils try to work that into a sentence this week so the ability to put up with the weaknesses in the foyer bills of others and to show forbearance towards them without getting quickly irritated and angry enough to want to fight back so that’s what it means when we have patients with people and with this quality in particular we need to understand that this is the fruit or the produce of what God wants to manifest in our lives and I think this is this is so important for all of these but we have to understand that when we’re talking about the fruit of the spirit we’re talking about qualities that God have God is a patient God and he’s wanted to take that quality and make it manifest in our lives and so we need to understand first and foremost the reason why we need to be patient in situations and patient with others is because God is patient God is a patient God And so we’ll start with that we’ll look at some passages that teaches about God and his patients and I think um it’s the best way to start because we need to think correctly about patients. If you think of patients sometimes when we attribute it to a person another human being sometimes we think of people that are passive and we think that people are passive are weak and so sometimes patience is equated with a weak person all right maybe you’ve done this in the past maybe I’ve done this in the past but patience is just the opposite because patience is not about we can. Patience is about someone who is strong patience demands strength and stamina and it depends on our ability to exercise control over our emotions a weak person lets their emotions rule over them and make them put themselves first but a strong person will be patient and they will not let their emotions control them and so patience is all about strength so let me share with you just a couple ways in which God reveals his strength in his patience in a couple different settings The first is God reveals to us the strength as a patient God in his anger God is an angry God meaning that he it has this right just indignation against sin and unrighteousness and let’s look at some of these passages the first one is an Exodus Chapter thirty four.
So go read your bible sexes Chapter thirty four
and here in Exodus thirty four this is right after Moses I got up on Mount Sinai and he had thrown the first two tablets on the ground smashing into pieces and God is a little upset and he Moses going back up so you have God right on the next two sets of tablets and Moses is asking God to reveal Himself show yourself to me and this is how God describes himself and reveals himself to Moses So Moses or season X. in Chapter thirty four beginning in verse four.
Just start there to kind of get some context so verse for Exodus thirty four. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first and he rose early in the morning and went up the Mount Sinai as the Lord commanded him and he took in his hands and two tablets of stone the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord the Lord passed before him and proclaim And so this is God revealing himself in describing himself to Moses and ultimately to us. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding instead fast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands for giving in equity and transgression and sin but will by no means clear the guilty visiting the inequity of the fathers of that on the children in the children’s children to the third in the fourth generation you know usually when we think of God in the Old Testament and maybe rightly so to some extent we think of might and power and wrath but this is how God first and foremost describes himself he curled calls himself first and foremost a merciful and gracious God and he says that he is slow to anger that means he is patient. And God sure picked the perfect group of people to display his patience the stiff necked Jews another passage I’ll just read this for you Psalm one hundred three and it’s kind of echoing what we see here in Exodus thirty four but it’s almost three verses eight or ten says the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love he will not always chide nor will he keep his anger forever he does not deal with us according to our sins no repay us according to our iniquities so time and time again it’s so wonderful that we can go on the Word of God We can see stories about God’s So his. Patience his incredible patience with this people well how quickly do you get angry some of you here might say yeah you know I’m a patient person something is that you know I feel like I was just bored angry I do some things you just make me fly off the handle well if you have a problem with your temper this might be a specific area that God is really trying to produce in your life his character while another way that God chose his patients in is in is forgiveness patience has a lot to do with how much we are able to bear and carry in fact a person when a person snaps and they lose their patience they say I can’t stand it any longer it’s all about the low that they were able to bear and carry for a specific amount of time and we see that God is patient in this way because he chose to bear and carry the sins of all mankind fact it’s very interesting that one of the Hebrew words translated to forgive it literally means to bear or to carry. So when it says that God is forgiving it means that he is choosing to bear or carry something of ours. I want you to turn over to Isaiah fifty three This is one of the the best messianic prophetic passages in all of the Old Testament in fact probably in the entire Bible Isaiah Chapter fifty three
and it’s interesting I never noticed this before but here in Isaiah fifty three it talks about the weight that God chose to carry and to bear for us and in so doing he forgave this shows us the extreme patience of God Isaiah Chapter fifty three will begin in verse four.
Just notice how many times it talks about God carrying or bearing our sins Isaiah fifty three for IT SAYS Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crucified for our iniquities upon him the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we like sheep of gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And then look at verse twelve.
Says Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he jelled divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors and so when we think of patients really don’t often equate it with forgiveness and burying one another or another person’s weight but we should because this is what the Bible is teaching us and so when Paul mentions to us of the fruit of the spirit is something that God is going to produce in our life and patience is one of those things he’s teaching us about the strength of God and God a strong because he is patient and God put upon Himself our sins and He did not deal with our sins immediately and I can definitely say and I’m sure most of you can say as well that I’m sure glad that God is still patient with me even today and he doesn’t deal with me the way that I deserve and you can all probably say the same thing and so we see God’s patients and the way that he deals with all of us well why how does this translate into our lives how can we take the strength of God his patients and have it manifest in our lives well there are two main ways and so let’s look at those right now and the first way is dealing with situations because we’re all going to go or sit through situations where we are persecuted or something is how. Opening and we are called by God to be patient once you open your Bible stuff first Peter chapter four.
First Peter chapter four in this passage is specifically talking about how we should be patient during times of persecution and persecution for being holy and God’s children and not for our own foolish mistakes so first Peter chapter four beginning in verse twelve
first Peter chapter four beginning in verse twelve.
Talks about the persecutions that a Christian is going to have to endure first Peter chapter four beginning of verse twelve it says. Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice in so far as you share Christ sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed if you are insulted for the name of Christ you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you but let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or as a meddler if any one suffers as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God and if it begins with us what we what we what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God and if the righteousness is scarcely saved if the righteousness scarcely save what will become of the young god the in the sinner verse nineteen is I think the key verse in this passage says therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will in trusts their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. That’s kind of a hard verse to read especially if you’re going through a very difficult time it says that we are to entrust our souls to a faithful creator In other words Be patient be patient this verse this is this passage tells us a few things it tells us not to be surprised when we’re suffering it also says do not retaliate it also tells us to not give up but it says during those times if you’re suffering for doing God’s will in trust your soul to our faithful creator be patient you know Paul says something very similar in second Timothy three sixteen over there if you will second Timothy Chapter Three beginning in verse ten.
Second Timothy Chapter Three beginning in verse ten
and Paul says basically the same thing that Peter says in terms of anticipating suffering he says You however have followed my teaching my conduct my aim in life my faith my patience my love my steadfastness my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and I Kone I’m in that list which persecutions I endured yet from them all the Lord rescued me indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted verse twelve is a verse that. You know probably for most of my life and probably for most of your lives I always thought that this was a verse that was probably going to bring comfort and encouragement to other people not people living here in the United States of America but people that lived in different times in different locations and in different parts of the world because up to this point in time if us as we’ve been living here in the United States we haven’t had to really suffer for our face in Jesus Christ however you can tell the things are changing quite fast and there is a lot of animosity towards people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and so maybe in our lifetime and maybe even within the next several years you and I might have to endure suffering for the name of Jesus Christ and some of you are thinking well I do already I mean how many of you are persecuted or ridiculed at work because that you believe in God that you believe God created everything and there is actual truth some of you might do are suffering there are by family and friends you know when it comes to suffering and it I guess no one really wants to go through a time in our lives that will be suffering persecution is it harder to see it coming or is it hard to be right in the middle of it I’m not sure the answer to that it’s kind of like the heat here in Phoenix is it hard to be right in August when it’s going to be one hundred ten degrees every day or is it hard to be right now at the end of April when you. No it’s coming right I’m not sure of the answer to that question but the the fact is there’s a very good chance that you and I even living here in America the United States of America we might have to suffer and endure for our faith and this passage is teaching us one thing above everything else that we need to endure it and that we need to be patient. Well whether you’ve experienced persecution or not on this final application for patience is something that we all need to deal with and that is other people we have to apply patience with other people and patients means forbearance with others and means putting up with the things that other people do or don’t do when we wish that they would act a different way and forbearance is when you choose to forgive people rather than holding a grudge over them you know there’s a funny little poem and I’ll read this to you maybe some of you have heard this before but it says it goes like this to dwell in love with saints above that will be glory but to dwell with Saints boat but to dwell below is Saints for you know all that is a different story Amen that’s true that sometimes is unfortunately very true and you know the longer that I’m in ministry I’ve been in ministry now for twenty years I can’t believe it’s been that long but I’m more convinced that this is kind of one of the points of being being the Body of Christ it’s one of the points of being church and having us come together and me together you know yesterday as I was going over my sermon and I and I saw the grace from a college as having their next graduating class it just made me think of all the changes over the last twenty years and just the changes in our culture and even a change in my perception of what ministry is supposed to be like I remember when I graduated from Grace Bible college I was you know Webby high in the years I was excited to get my first church and and all the thing all the rage of church at that time was all about the Church Growth movement there’s all these books and seminars and you can go to saying the. Church is about getting bigger and I was kind of towards the tail end of the Church Growth movement eventually everyone realized that’s not the point of church at all sometimes churches do grow and sometimes they don’t but that’s not the point of church at all and lately I think it’s been a healthier focus on church meaning the point of church is to be healthy but one thing I’ve always noticed and I think if anyone has been involved in ministry whether as a lay person as a paid staff member we’re always kind of answering the question in our mind you know why are we doing this what is the point what are we supposed to be focusing on that’s why we have a mission statement we existed you grace from a church of Phoenix to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ to the teaching incursion of God’s word that’s why we exist but one of the reasons why we do this is not to become big and successful whatever that means it’s so that you and I have an actual time to practice the fruit of the spirit with each other because when we get to be around each other we’re going to eventually annoy each other right and so we have to put our own things aside and we have to deal with the foibles of other people I love that we’re going to use it again so many times I can I want where I want to look at three last passages the first one is in first US alone Ian’s five and something that I notice especially I’ve noticed this before but as I’m going through this right now the fruit of the Spirit usually in all of Paul’s epistles you get to the very end of Paul’s Epistles and he goes through something similar he gives a whole bunch of really quick commands make sure you do this don’t do that do this treat each other this way he does this in almost all of those officials and maybe a great summary that we can wrap on all of these are pistols and these these sections of the Apostle Paul is basically he’s he’s giving us unique ways of allowing the fruit of the spirit to manifest in our relationships with each other and so as we go through first US alone eons and again in a fusions in the kolache is what I want you to do is as we read through the. Brief quick in succession commands of the Apostle Paul just notice that he’s essentially saying Let God producing you the fruit of the Spirit so Notice how all of these are being played out first US alone beginning in verse twelve.
First US alone instructor five beginning verse twelve he says we ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you who are over you in the Lord and him on a shoe and two esteem them very highly in love because of their work be at peace among yourselves that’s all we talked about last week and we urge you brothers admonish the idol encourage the faint hearted help the weak and be patient with them all see that no one repays any one evil for evil but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone rejoice always pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you you know verse fourteen is its own sermon. I’m not going to do this right now obviously but it’s loaded we have three different groups of people that Paul is telling the people in tussle Annika to practice patience with he says to the idle to the people who are standing around doing nothing to the faint hearted those who are not brave they are not able to get out there do it and those who are weak I physically they need other people to help he says these these qualities come to deal with these groups of people and he says be patient with all of the people that you come in contact with patience is needed as we deal with every single person in every single church. Another one I’ll read this one for you know how to turn to the Colossians passage but only thesis for verses one and three through three it says I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called and then here we get a list with all humility with gentleness. With patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and so that’s what church is about for us to come together and say we are eager to maintain this bond of peace that we have and to do that we all have to yield ourselves to the work of God in our lives and allow him to manifest the fruit of the spirit and really put our our selfishness aside while last one I want you to go to cautions and it will be done with this one this or final passage for today kolache in chapter three.
Beginning in verse twelve cautions chapter three.
Beginning in verse twelve
Paul says to them
put on then as God’s chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another for giving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so also you must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And I think this is probably the best passage to end on because again we are reminded to be patient and then Paul gets specific look at verse thirteen again says bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another what are you supposed to do forgive one another as the Lord has demonstrated his patience to you and forgiven you so you must also forgive let me read that that definition of patience again the ability to put up with the weaknesses and foibles of others and to show forbearance towards them without getting quickly irritated or angry enough to want to fight back.
Does this describe any relationship that you have with another person today or another group of people where you need to practice patience with them and to forgive and it’s so perfect that God says that we are to practice these things just like God practice them with us remember patience is God’s quality it’s God’s power and his strength displayed to us and so he is wanting to take his power his character and he’s wanting to manifested in our life and when he does it means that we will be patient we will be patient in situations and we will also be patient with people. And so this week let’s go out there and be strong and by that I mean Be patient this close in prayer.