Highlands Fellowship Be Patient Transcript
0:00 I don't know about you, but I have so enjoyed finding James and James in all the different places each and every week that we've had a video. I've loved seeing where they're going to be next and the things they're going to talk about, one because I love those guys. I love both of those Jameses, and I love the book of James. I want to welcome you to church this morning. My name is Tyler, and I'm the campus pastor at the Abingdon campus. We want to welcome you wherever you are this morning, whether you're at Bristol or Marion, whether you're in the chapel or the cafe or the country tent, or joining us online, or right here in person. We are so thankful that you are here with us today. And just like we were reminded in the video this morning, today is the beginning of Love Week. I want to remind you what Jesus says in his words, in John 13:35: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." We believe in serving all year long, but this is a week that we highlight each and every year with great opportunities to invest in our local community.
1:05 I want to start off today by sharing with you that one of my biggest struggles in life, among the many that I have, is patience. They say if you pray for patience, God will give you the opportunity to be patient. I've found that to be true, because I have prayed an awful lot, and he's still giving me a lot of chances to get it right. So if you're like me and you struggle with being patient, I want to share the wisdom that God has shown me over the last few weeks as I've prepared for this message. The book of James has always been enlightening to me, and I'm finding it again to be so good as we've slowed down and worked through it over the last 14 weeks. So if you're lacking patience and you're like me, let's look together at James 5:7-12.
1:58 James 5:7-12: "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 have 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 a simple yes or no. Otherwise you will be condemned."
3:02 We start off that passage with two words that on the surface seem pretty simple, but they might be two of the hardest words to put into practice in your life: be patient. Patience is something we all know we need to have, but we often fail to possess it. It's something we admire in other people, but when faced with the opportunity to be patient, we actually become frustrated with those who have it. As followers of Jesus, we're instructed to be patient. Why should we be patient? It's a defining mark of love according to 1 Corinthians: love is patient, love is kind. And it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Patience is evidence of a life following Christ. I want to say up front that this is one of the things I struggle with the most in my life, so when I'm talking about the kind of patience God wants us to have today, I'm talking to myself as well as to you. Ultimately, I want to offer three main questions as we work through the scripture today: When should I be patient? Why should I be patient? And what am I supposed to do when I'm waiting?
4:27 Let's consider the first question: when should you be patient? James gives the example of the farmer, seeing how he waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. How many of you have ever tried to grow a crop or a plant? It's hard work, and there's a lot of patience, a lot of trust in the waiting.
4:51 I'll tell you a quick story. My two girls love flowers, and they wanted to grow their own, not just plant them but grow them from seeds. So we went to Lowe's and picked out some seeds. This was last year. We found a place in the mulch, dug down, put the seeds in, covered them back up, and I put some Miracle-Gro on top. We watered them and started waiting, patiently waiting. Every other day for two or three weeks I went out and watered these flowers, and eventually some green started to pop up. The kids were getting excited, I was getting excited, and we were watching it grow. It had been probably six weeks, and my parents were over at my house helping us clean up outside. I remembered I needed to water the flowers, so I asked my dad, since he was closest to the hose, if he'd mind watering them. He said he didn't mind, then started looking around and asked, "Where are they?" I said, "They're right there, in the weeds." He walked over, looked real close, and said, "You've been watering these things? Tyler, these are poke weeds. You've been watering weeds for the last six weeks." So I had to tell my kids there weren't going to be any flowers. We dug it all up and started again this year: dug down, planted the seeds, put Miracle-Gro on top, covered it up, watered, and waited. And standing in front of my door this year is a picture I want to show you: beautiful, beautiful flowers.
6:52 So, when should I be patient? I need to be patient when circumstances are out of my control. Once the seed is planted, the growth of the plant is out of our control. The farmer needs the sun, the rain, and the right conditions to see the harvest, and all of those things are outside of his control. A farmer has to learn patience. He knows there's a stretch of time between planting the seeds and harvesting that no amount of will can shorten. Everything comes in its time: the early rain, the later rain, and then the harvest. You cannot rush the process. Can you imagine a farmer who plants wheat, comes back a week later, and says, "Where's the wheat? It hasn't come up yet. It's not working, I'm just going to dig it all up"? No. He says, "If I want a harvest, I have to wait patiently until the crop grows." Even so, as Christians we must work hard and exercise patient endurance even when the harvest seems far away. We need to wait on God and not lose heart along the way.
8:05 We also need to be patient when people are unwilling to change. I'm sure when I said that, many of you thought of somebody in your life right now. Maybe, like me, you thought of your kids again, because sometimes no matter how much we wish they would get something, they just don't see it. James points to the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of patience in the face of suffering. The job of the prophet was to help people change, to bring them back to God, to deliver God's message, to encourage them to repent of wrong behavior. But the people often rejected the message and the prophet. They would ridicule them and create unnecessary suffering in their lives. Some prophets did this for years before they ever saw any change, if they saw change at all. God is saying, be patient, like the prophets who tried to minister to others. You might have a person, or a group of people, you're trying to reach or invest in. Maybe you're just trying your best to love them, praying for them, sharing God's word and God's love the best you know how, and they just don't seem to care or listen. And God says, be patient with them, just like I have been patient with you. Remember the prophets. Speak on my behalf. Be faithful. Be patient.
9:46 The last one: we should be patient when our problems are unexplainable. We need to be patient when circumstances are out of our control, when the people we're investing in are unwilling to change, and when we can't explain our problems. James gives us the classic example of patience in verse 11: "You have heard of Job's perseverance."
10:14 In case you don't know the story of Job, I'll run through it quickly. One day the angels come to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan is also with them. Remember that Job knows nothing about this conversation. God asks Satan, "Where have you come from?" and Satan says, "From roaming the earth." Then God brings up Job and says, "Have you considered my servant Job?" I want to pause here, because in God's wisdom he can see that what Job is about to go through is going to provide an example of faithful endurance and patience to the angels and to Satan. Satan says, "I know Job, but the only reason he worships you is because he has everything going for him: success and money, a large healthy family, his own health, a wife and servants, and all this livestock. Job is on top of the world. If you let me take away all of these wonderful things, Job's going to turn his back on you. He's going to doubt you and curse you." Satan is essentially accusing Job of idolatry, saying Job loves the stuff God has given him more than he loves God. So Satan gets permission from God in chapter 1, and he destroys Job's children, his servants, and all his livestock. And Job meets this news by falling on his face and worshiping the Lord, instead of hating or cursing God.
12:14 James is giving us these examples of faithful endurance so we can be encouraged when the times come that we need to be patient. There are a lot of good things that will happen in our lives, and a lot of bad things too. Sometimes they don't make any sense. Maybe we'll never understand what we go through on this side of heaven. Some questions about life will never be answered. In all the unexplainable problems Job went through, he maintained his faith in God's goodness, and he waited on God to answer. Even in all the unexplained problems in your life, sometimes all you can do is just trust God and wait on him.
13:04 When you lose someone in your life for some unexplained reason, all you can do is trust God and wait. When you lose your job, or something happens that shakes the foundation of everything you know, sometimes all you can do is trust God and wait on him to answer. A question that gets asked a lot, especially of pastors, is, "Why do you think God allowed this to happen?" or, "Why hasn't God done something about this?" Sometimes the answer is, "I don't know." There are some things that are unexplainable from our perspective, because we don't have the full picture. God does. It's in this place of not knowing where patience and our faith join together.
13:56 So now we know when we should be patient. Let's look at why. The first reason is because God is in control. James 5:8 says, "You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." Now, you might say, "Tyler, you're saying be patient because God is in control, but the passage clearly says be patient because the Lord's coming is near. Those don't really sound the same to me." The beautiful thing about this verse is that it's a picture of God's sovereignty. While there are circumstances we aren't sure how or when, or even whether, they'll be resolved, this verse tells us that the most important thing we're waiting for, standing firm for, and remaining patient for, is that Jesus is returning.
15:05 Jesus says this in Matthew 28:18, a very famous verse: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Our heavenly Father has been, is, and always will be sovereign over his creation. Everything we've experienced in this life will have been worked together for our good. Just like that farmer, we are waiting for the day when the harvest arrives. And 2 Peter 3:10 reminds us that when that harvest arrives, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. It's going to sneak up on us, so we need to be prepared. We have to remain patient and stand firm in our faith, recognizing that God is sovereign and in control. We submit ourselves to God's will, we trust in his goodness, and sometimes we wait.
16:16 The second reason is because God rewards patience. Verses 10 and 11 say, "Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered." James is saying we consider those who have remained faithful and patiently endured, who have persevered through many trials and circumstances in their life, as blessed. Now, I don't know about you, but my first thought is that James has this a little backwards. That's not how I grew up, and that's not how my experience has taught me about what being blessed looks like. Blessings are supposed to be good things that make life more pleasant and comfortable: a new truck, finding a $20 bill, enjoying a beautiful sunset on vacation. Sometimes we place our security in the wrong things. We're convinced God is only granting us material blessings, and that having those things is a sign we're in right standing with God, or that we're doing things right.
17:36 I want us to look quickly at Jesus's words in the Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus talks a lot about what kind of person is considered fortunate or truly blessed in the kingdom of God. Matthew 5:3-10: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God."
18:28 These are called the Beatitudes, and there are eight of them. When we look at them individually, a few things start to stand out. The six in the middle all seem to make promises for the future: they will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, they will be filled, and so on. But the first and the last seemingly relate to the present: "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." What could that mean? I think Jesus means to tell us that these six promises in between are blessings of the kingdom. In other words, these six things are what you can count on when you're a part of God's kingdom: comfort, inheritance of the earth, fulfillment, mercy, seeing God, and adoption into God's family. You don't have to pick and choose any one of these. They all belong to the kingdom of heaven. So why do the first and last use the present tense, with the assurance that theirs is the kingdom of heaven? I think the assurance being in the present, and these promises being in the future, is Jesus's way of saying that in some sense the kingdom of heaven is present with believers right now, but the full blessings of the kingdom will have to wait for the age to come.
19:57 So why is this relevant to what James is talking about in verses 10 and 11? If we continue just a few verses beyond the Sermon on the Mount, James's words actually echo Jesus's words in Matthew 5:11-12. Jesus says, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." It's interesting that the response to insult, persecution, and people bearing false witness against you is not to defend yourself or attack them, but to rejoice and be glad, patiently waiting and understanding that God will be the one who restores justice. Jesus has given us the full assurance of the kingdom of heaven now, and the full assurance and promise forever to reward our patience through the blessings of his kingdom.
21:11 So the first one is that God is in control, and the second is that God rewards patience. Now let's look at the third reason: because God is working things out. Go back to verse 11: "You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." Let's finish out Job's story. Remember he had just lost all of his children, his servants, and his livestock. Everything is gone, and Satan actually doubles down. He returns to God again and gets permission to afflict Job with boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Job's wife tells him, "Just curse God and die." And his friends question him and offer him bad advice for what's going on in his life. Then Job eventually cries out to God: "I'm crying out to you, but you're not answering me. Your attention is on me, and it feels like cruelty to me."
22:23 And God finally answers Job by reminding him that he is God and Job is not. He asks him this question: "Where were you, Job, when I laid the earth's foundation?" Why does God ask him that? Because God wants him to trust him as God, not to completely understand his ways. If we were to understand everything fully, it would take away our opportunity to trust God completely.
22:46 At the end of the book, Job expresses one of the most powerful statements about God's providence in all of the Bible when he says, "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." And for that faithfulness, God had mercy on Job and gave him twice as much as he had before, and he blessed him with more children, because God is full of compassion and mercy. This statement from Job reminds me of what Paul writes in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
23:35 A couple of things about this verse: not all things are worked together for the good of every person. There are two things that need to be true for this promise to apply: that you love God, and that you're called according to his purpose. Paul says in effect that if you don't love God, you can't claim this promise, and if you're not called according to his purpose, you cannot claim this promise. Job had a true love for God, not for his blessings or his gifts, but for God himself. Love for God is desiring God himself beyond his blessings, beyond his gifts, beyond what he gives you. It's delighting in him beyond what he gives you. It's the posture of a fully surrendered heart, to be satisfied in God and to trust God, believing that no matter the circumstances, God is working things out in our lives, because we love him and we're seeking his purpose, his will, and his kingdom.
24:35 So we've talked about when to be patient, and we've talked about why we should be patient. We still have this question swirling about what we should be doing while we're waiting. Speaking for myself, I'm not very good at waiting. It feels like you're stuck, like you can't make any progress. To be quite honest, it makes me anxious. Waiting can feel or seem like we're just standing still and doing nothing. But the kind of waiting we as Christ followers need to participate in is not one of standing still. It's not inactivity that gives up trying to work toward the right things. We have work to do while we're waiting. So we are called to wait expectantly.
25:28 So let's consider the farmer here again. He doesn't give up when the crop doesn't come right away. He keeps working: he's watering, he's pulling weeds, he's fertilizing, he's taking great care. God bless our farmers. Farming is hard work. I spent two summers raising tobacco, and it's backbreaking labor at times. Why does the farmer do all of this work? Because he has hope and the expectation of the coming harvest. He knows the value that is coming, and he depends on it. Isaiah 49:23 says, "Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed." We need to continue the work with expectant hearts, because we understand that our hope is in Jesus and God will deliver on what he has promised. That's our hope. That's our expectation. We need to wait expectantly.
26:34 Another way that we're called to wait is to wait quietly. Verse 9 says, "Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door." As believers, we're all in a family, the family of God. And guess what? We're all sinners. We're imperfect people, people with flaws, different personalities, temperaments, and emotions. We're often tempted to express just how difficult it is to love one another by complaining and grumbling against one another, and sometimes when we're waiting, it just adds to the tension.
27:16 Listen, I love my wife and I love my children with everything I have. There is nothing in this world I wouldn't do or give up for them. But I've also waited with them in line at Disney World, and I've been in traffic jams with them. And waiting creates pressure. It creates tension, and it makes people say things they shouldn't say. You know, I'm still waiting on a few apologies, actually, for some of those things, and maybe I owe a few. We get frustrated with one another and we begin complaining, gossiping, and grumbling. And James says, don't do that. Don't do that.
28:00 What should we do then? We should encourage one another. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
28:23 Wait quietly. Wait expectantly, because there is a day coming when Jesus is going to return and fulfill our hope and establish his perfect justice over his creation. Until that day, we are to be patient by encouraging one another, loving one another, and waiting confidently in full trust of the God who created us, who loves us completely and desires to fulfill his purpose in our lives.
28:58 Guys, I know waiting is not easy. It is not easy. Being patient is not easy. But waiting and being patient on the things of God, on what he's going to do and what he's promised us, is going to be worth every moment. Would you pray with me this morning?
29:23 God, we are so thankful for your word, for how your word is revealed to us and speaks to us. God, you know our hearts today. You know where we struggle. I pray that as we consider how we care for, encourage, and love one another, we would grow to be patient, to have the same patience you've given us, the same mercy and grace you've poured out on us, that we would have that with each other, and that the world would know that we are your disciples because of our love, because of our patience, because of the fruit that comes from your Holy Spirit working within us. God, help us to be people who understand that we can't control everything, but you are in control. You are working these things out. Help us align our hearts and our minds to your will and your way, to seek your purpose above our own, to lay down any selfishness or self-seeking, and turn it toward you and your kingdom, that we would wait expectantly for you to deliver what you've promised, and that we would wait quietly with one another, encouraging and spurring one another to good deeds.
31:04 God, I know that we're going to see this week that there are people out there during this week of service who are going to pour their heart and soul out for you, to love and encourage and spur one another on. God, we're so thankful for the opportunity to serve you.
31:20 And God, if there is somebody here today who doesn't know you, who is struggling to be patient, who's struggling not to complain and not to grumble, and they start to understand that this is not the way they want to live, God, they can't do it on their own. I hope they would know that today you offer the opportunity to come into their life, to offer your Spirit, and through your Spirit you pour out things like patience and kindness and gentleness. I hope you stir their hearts toward you.
32:00 And if there is anybody here today, you can pray this with me right now: God, I admit that I've fallen short of your glory, of your standard, of what you've called me to. I admit my sin, knowing that it separates me from you. God, I believe. I believe that you love me. I believe that you died for me. I believe that your Son went to the cross and suffered under my sin, and that he was raised on the third day to defeat it forever, to break me free from the bondage of sin and death, and to place my hope and my expectations in your kingdom to come. And God, I commit my life to you today.
32:53 If you've prayed that, we celebrate with you today. All of heaven celebrates with you today. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would invade your life in such a measurable and visible way that you would start to see these things come to life: patience and love and encouragement. And if you need help, we want to help you. We want to connect with you. But God, ultimately we want to offer ourselves to you. We want to offer our lives as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to you, so that we can worship you. That's all that we have. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your patience and your love. It's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.