Good morning, everyone! Welcome to Oakwood Community Church. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Todd Gillert and I am a 2007 graduate of the Michigan Theological Seminary. For many years, I've been a member of this church. For those of you that are new today, I trust that you will find that Oakwood is a very friendly church and we're very kind here. I trust that you will see that we care one for another and that we care for you. I trust that you will want to worship with us and praise God from this place.
The message today is entitled "Patience", but patience in America? Is there any such thing? You've been on the streets, you've been on the roads and you know that people are not patient. We have this thing called corporate America, and they do not understand what patience is, nor do they value patience. Most people believe that patience is a weakness, but we need to see what God has to say about patience from the holy scriptures today, because it's vital for our walk with the Lord because we do lead busy lives with schedules and deadlines. Truly, Americans are the only people in the entire world that stand in front of microwave ovens yelling "Hurry up! Hurry up! I can't wait". We have this pop-tart mentality in our country. What do I mean by that? Read the instructions on pop-tarts…Stick in a microwave oven on high for 3 seconds. That's all the time that we have. That's all the patience we have. If you don't believe me, at a rush hour on any day, at a light when it turns green, wait three seconds. See what happens. See if you hear some trumpet calls and it's not the trumpet call of God. They're saying "Get out of my way! We don’t' have time for you!"
Other cultures are a little bit different. They're a little more laid back. I had the opportunity to travel both to Greece and to Israel and there, leaving out of Thessalonica in Greece, I saw some amazing things. They don't have the infrastructure that we have in America. They don't have a lot of roads. Two lane roads, leaving out of Thessalonica, we're in this big tour bus and it's beautiful and I see this car is passing us on the left. I look ahead and I see a car coming straight at us. I say "No way. He's not going to make it. It's not even close." Then something very unusual happened. The tour bus pulls onto the shoulder. The car that's coming at us, just pulls on to the shoulder. It happens time and time and time again. Our bus was doing it. We were driving down the middle of the road. I wasn’t too worried about it, though. We had a big bus. It made it really kind of nice.
How are we in the Christian community? I was considering waiting about 30 second after the music before I came up and took the platform and see if people were on the edge of their seats. "Where is this guy? Where's he at?" Then I thought about my resume, and I'm really looking for a job. Instead, I thought I'd run up here and teach you on patience if that works at all. We're going to be continuing in our series in Galatians 5:22 and 23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
These things are listed on this banner that is over here. So far in this series, we've looked at love, we've looked at joy, and we looked at peace. These are tremendous attributes. These are tremendous inward disciplines to have. We want love and we want love now. We want joy now and we want peace now, but patience, we can wait for patience. In fact, if you look at this list, it's probably the only thing that we don't think that we need or we don't think that we want it. It is the only thing that we really do not want to cultivate in our lives because sometimes patience is seen as weak and we do not want to appear to be weak to anybody. We want to have the answers, but what does God say about patience?
The word for patience in Greek is makrothumia. Now that sounds like it's a lot of fun to say. Can everyone say that with me? Makrothumia! One more time. Makrothumia! To the women out here, if your husband or your loved ones are not being very patient with you, I want you look them right square in the eye, and say "Honey, you need to have a little more makrothumia in your life. You really do." What does it mean? It literally means to be long-tempered as opposed to short-tempered. Our theological definition is this: "Longsuffering (Patience) is that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish." We want to retaliate. We want to go after people that hurt us. We want to punish. We want them to think we are doing something instead of nothing. Continuing on: "It is the opposite of anger and is associated with mercy, and is used of God."
The question is: Is God patient? Often we think he is too patient. The Old Testament patriarchs, the Old Testament prophets, and the Old Testament saints had some real issue with the patience of God. "O, God, why do the wicked prosper and the righteous--they don't--they suffer." Prophet after prophet didn't understand the patience of God. In the New Testament, the disciples asked "God, why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?" You, today, might be asking the very same questions: "Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?" It doesn't make sense. It doesn't seem fair. You look at somebody and say "Wait a minute. I go to church every week. I pray without ceasing. I give unto the Lord. I participate in the worship service and, Lord, I love you. Yet, I see my neighbor here, they seem to be prospering without you. They have a great many things." Oh, I need to tell you the truth about something: The things that they have, you don't need, but the things that you have, they desperately need. They desperately need to walk with the Lord. They desperately need to be considered in this communion of saints. The prophets of old didn't understand that God is working with these people. We have not exhausted the patience of God in our lives. Sometimes, that's why things continue on as they are.
One of the saddest scriptures in all the bible in my mind, you'll find in the sixth chapter of Genesis, verses 5, 6 and 7. It's very, very sad. Let me set the stage. The sixth chapter of Genesis is not long after God "Let there be light and there was light." It’s not long after God said “Let us make man in our image and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle over all the earth.” When he gave man dominion, it’s not long after that. It wasn’t long after sin and man was thrust out of the garden for the sin that was there. But did the sin stop? Or does the sin truncate like it normally does? That’s what happened. Cain killed Abel and then we get to a time where men became evil upon the earth and this is what God said:
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only the evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:5-6
Do you realize you can affect God like that? Look at these verses. So what does God do in verse seven?
So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth
Genesis 6:7
Don’t let anyone tell you that sin doesn’t mean anything to God. Don’t let them say that! Don’t let them say that God doesn’t care about sin because He was ready to wipe man from the face of the earth. But you might say, Todd, what does that have to do with patience? I don’t understand. Well, God is patient and God is merciful. From the time that this decree is issued, a child was born and his name was Methuselah. Methuselah. And his name literally means “when he dies, then the end shall come” or alternately “when he dies, then I will send it.” Send what? Destruction that He just talked about. This child is the type. If you were alive in those days, you better pray this child doesn’t die because that’s the sign for the end, for the destruction. Now Methuselah was the son of Enoch and Enoch was the one who didn’t die; he was translated into Heaven. Methuselah was also the grandfather of a man we know as Noah. Noah, and the flood waters. But Methuselah has one distinction that no other man on the face of the entire Earth can say. Methuselah lived longer than anybody in the world. He lived to be 969 years old.
Now let’s put things into perspective. We just celebrated the 232nd of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. Is that right? From the foundation of this country until now seems like a pretty long time, doesn’t it? I would think so. God’s patience for these people was four times the length from 1776 until now. Four times that length. And then, of course, add the length of an 80 year old person. That’s how long God waited to bring judgment on these people.
In Proverbs we’re told:
Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
Proverbs 16:32
I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like to be around people that cannot control their temper. I don’t care if they’re a child, a young adult or an adult. It’s no fun being around them. They act like two year olds at times, and you have to just sit back and say “Well, that’s Johnny.” or “That’s Billy.” “That’s whoever.”
Short tempers have caused some great problems in our society and culture. Domestic violence being one of them. There’s an epidemic of domestic violence in our country as usually men, being the perpetrators, beat on their wives or women. It’s an epidemic in this country. The very people that we swore to love and protect, the very people that we gave our love to and our heart to, we turn against. Why? Well, because we’re not patient. Psychologists will tell you there are several reasons behind it, but I’m here to tell you none of them are good. No matter how you cut it, none of them are good. God did not create us to do those things. He created us to love one another and that’s what He expects.
Additionally, Proverbs 14:29:
A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
Proverbs 14:29
Now how does a patient man display great understanding? Well, we all understand this. If one of our friends flies off the handle and embarrasses us in front of everybody, what do we say? “Give him some time. Let him cool off. He’ll come to his senses.” A patient man has great understanding. Why? Because he stops and he thinks. He thinks before he acts. Because he understands that he is responsible, ultimately, for his own actions.
Why do we need patience? The unforgiving servant recorded in Matthew 18:23:
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants
Matthew 18:23
This first servant owed him ten thousand talents. In today’s economy, that would be 16 million dollars. This is what he owed his master. He was supposed to pay up and he couldn’t, so the master said “Sell him, his wife, his wife, his children and all that he has.” The servant says “No. Be patient with me. Please, be patient with me.” The master was patient with him, but not only was he patient with him, the master forgave his debt.
Now this man with the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders, goes about his way and now he runs into a man that owes him money—100 denarii’s. Fourteen bucks. Fourteen dollars. He grabs him and he chokes him and he says “Pay me!” That man also says “Be patient with me. I’ll give you your fourteen dollars.”
“I will not be patient with you. I’m going to send you to debtors prison. Go.”
The story doesn’t end there as you can well imagine. Word got back to the master who had just forgiven that man 16 million dollars, and you can imagine what he thought about it. “I forgave you this, and you couldn’t forgive your fellow citizen 14 bucks. You wicked servant. You’re wicked.” Normally, this parable talks about forgiveness. We can also see that one was patient with his servant and the other was not patient at all.
How do we get patience? The bible says that tribulation will give patience. In that case, I don’t want any! Give it to someone else! I don’t want tribulation in my life! I’ve got enough stuff going on in my life; I don’t need any more put on my plate. The economy is terrible. Gas prices are going up. I can’t take on any more. Give someone else patience. I don’t want it!
Tribulation will give patience. You can get patience different ways too. You don’t have to get it the hard way. You can pray to receive these things in the spirit. God will give them to you. He’ll give you an opportunity to work on patience. He’ll give you an opportunity with your family. You could start right there. You can be patient with your spouse. You can be patient with your children. You can then extend out to your neighbors and to the people you work with. He’ll give you an opportunity because I firmly believe that God gives us the tools we need, so that when tribulation comes, and it inevitably does, we’ll have the tools we need to deal through these situations.
James:
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.
James 5:7-8
Here, we’re talking about seasons; spring and autumn. It takes time to cultivate patience. Farmers know that crops don’t grow overnight. About the only thing that grows overnight is weeds. Sometimes I think we have spiritual needs in our soul that we need to rip out and cultivate this ground, so that good fruit can come forth from it instead of just weeds. The quick fixes are not the best. We need to rely upon the patience of the Lord.
Lets look at a couple of examples of patient people in the New Testament. Noah. We’ve seen the movies. We’ve heard the stories. Building an ark, waiting for rain, but Noah was a very patient patriarch. He listened to the call of God, and over the years when God didn’t speak to him again, he continued on the same path.
Abraham is commended for his patience, also. He’s one we might look at and think “Hmm, I wonder why?” He was promised a son when he was 75 years old, and he waited 24 years before he received that son. There’s one thing I want you to remember. If there’s anything in this sermon I want you to remember, it’s going to be this: though you think God is not listening to you, God has a purpose and a plan for your life. You may not be able to see it right now, but you need to, in faith, watch how God weaves the web for you. I want you to understand that God is faithful to his word. What he says he will do. We need to be patient because God will do what he says he will do. Besides, he’s patient with us and patient for a very, very good cause.
There’s times and seasons for everything under heaven and every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:?
We may not know what God’s purpose is because there’s a lot he says about patience. Lord, we all need patience in this society
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness. He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Peter 3:9
What’s Peter saying here? The reason that you’re sitting here today, the reason you became born again is because God was patient with you. The reason that I’m standing today preaching is because God was patient with me. It’s very simple, God’s patience, he has a plan. Not only for you, but for those that are unsaved because he wants to draw these people to himself.
One of the blessings of patience:
Bear in mind, that our Lord’s patience means salvation. (We just talked about that.) It means salvation just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
Peter 3:15
Paul, remember him? Saul of Tarsus? He wasn’t a man that you would revere in the first century, I can tell you that, till he became the apostle Paul. He took Christians in chains to Jerusalem for punishment, for death. He didn’t like Jesus or his followers. He didn’t like them and he was on a mission to exterminate them. He consented to the stoning of Stephen. He’s not a person you would think God would bring into his fold. He is type of person that we would scream out “Why are the wicked prospering and why are we suffering?” The apostle Paul was brought in because of the patience of God. If he could be patient with us, can’t we be patient with other people as well?
Patience does not mean idleness. We are patiently waiting for the Lord to return. We talked about that earlier. In doing so, we are called to preach the gospel.
Go ye therefore teach all nations, baptize ye them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you. Lo I am with you always, even until the ends of the earth.
We’re called to go, do and teach. He’s got a plan for you. He’s got a calling and a walk for you. He wants us to be faithful to that. He blesses those that when he returns he finds the doing. He doesn’t want them asleep or slumbering. We don’t just sit back and think “God, I can patiently wait. I’ve got a nice easy chair here.” We can be busy people and still be patiently waiting. We can be busy people and patiently do things with our families. We can be very patient people and we need to understand that.
2 Timothy 4:2, talking about pastors:
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
2 Timothy 4:2
Now, here, patience is preceded by a word. It’s called great. I imagine if you would’ve talked to pastors from a lot of churches, they’ll understand why great is in front of patience in this thing, because sometimes we need great patience in dealing with people. Sometimes we need that. God gives us patience and he gives it to us liberally.
There’s no way we can talk about patience, and there’s no way we can talk about having love and joy and peace, unless we get a hold of the things that glue them all together. Patience is the glue for love, joy and peace. You say “Wait a minute! Three weeks ago we were told that love is the glue that glues it all together. Two weeks ago, joy was the glue that glued it all together. Last week it was peace that glued everything together. Today, it’s patience that glues it all together. How can this be? Who’s right?” Well, we’re all right. These things are interconnected. This is the fruit of the spirit. These are attributes and disciplines of the spirit that we need to have. For without patience, there wouldn’t be love. You say “Wait a minute. Wait a minute! I think I just heard enough. What do you mean without patience there wouldn’t be love? God is love.” Well, God is patient.
In our relationships, we understand that love grows, don’t we? The longer we live, the longer we understand that love is patient. Oh, that sounds like something, by the way. If you don’t believe me that we can’t have love without patience, let’s look at the scripture. 1 Corinthians 13:4:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is incredible. All of these attributes are incredible. They’re all things that we could seek to get in our lives. Rembrandt’s famous painting, The Prodigal Son, I want to tell the story of the prodigal son today, recorded in Luke 15.
The prodigal son; he wasn’t a very patient person. He didn’t even want to wait for his son to die to get his inheritance. He went to his father and said “Father, give me my inheritance.”, so his father divided it up. His son couldn’t even wait for his son to die and he went off to see the world, probably much like our children do today. He lived it up. His father had a lot. His father had a lot of money, so he went off to another world. This man was not only impatient to get the money; he was impatient in spending it. He lived high. He lived all the joys and wonders of the world. He had friends—many of them. He had money, but then the money faded and so did the friends. How do we know this? Because the bible tells us that when this famine came in the land, he didn’t have anything. When this famine came, nobody would give him anything. That’s what the bible says. “I won’t give you nothing.” Now he’s in a faraway land wondering how he’s going to eat the next day. Well, someone hired him to feed pigs on a farm. Now to a first century Jewish man, that could be like the biggest insult you could ever think of: feeding pigs. They were an abomination to God. First century Jewish people understood this. “This is the worst job in the world! You just insulted me!”
Then, as time went on, this man came to his senses. This son came to his senses. He says, “My father’s servants; they have more than I do. I know I will go unto my father’s house and I’ll say ‘Father, I’ve sinned against you and against Heaven. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Please, take me in and treat me as a servant. Please.’”
He made his way home. It was a long journey. On the other end of this is the father who patiently waited for his son, day in and day out. He looked on that horizon each and every day wondering “When is my son going to return for I love him?” He keeps an eye on the field. He keeps an eye to Heaven. “God, bring him back to me.” His son was very important. You parents know what I’m talking about; when your teenage children are out till 11, 12, 1, 2 in the morning. You’ve got one ear to the door. You want to hear when they come home. You teenagers out here; don’t let them fool you—they’re listening. Why? Because they love you and you are the most important thing in their world when you’re out and gone and need to come home. They want to make sure you’re safe. I thank God for cell phones because it makes things a little easier in today’s world. You can get a hold of them and you can let that fear be erased out of your life.
Here is the prodigal son coming home. The father sees him from a great distance. That’s how we know the father’s been looking for him. At a great distance he sees his son and he runs to him. The son has no strength. When he gets to the son, the son says “Father, I’ve sinned against you and I’ve sinned against Heaven. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as a servant.” Can you imagine if your child did that to you: after coming home living, perhaps, a poor lifestyle? They came home and to ask you as a child, a son or a daughter, and they thought they had destroyed the relationship forever. Look who restores the relationships; it’s the Father. It’s God who restores our relationship.
This father could’ve said “Well, son, I told you so.” He could’ve given this guy a great lecture, but that’s not what he did to the prodigal son. The father said to his servants “Bring the best robe and put it on my son. Bring him a ring for his finger, shoes for his feet! Hurry up! My son is home! Kill the fatted calf! We’re going to have a party! We’re going to celebrate for my son was lost and now he’s found. He was dead and now he’s alive. Rejoice!”
God’s like that with us too when we return to him; we’ve become found. It’s an incredible story. If we look at this picture can we see love, joy, peace, patience? Look at it closely. Look at the beauty of that and all that it has to say.
In closing today, I’d like to end with this story. This is a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in those fateful hours as he prayed to God. A year and a half ago, I was in the Garden of Gethsemane and I was praying at that rock that is depicted in this picture. On our tour, we were in a hurry. We were very busy. We couldn’t stop. We couldn’t be patient. If you turned around and looked, there’s Jerusalem right behind us. There’s the Temple Mount. You look to the left, you’ve got the city of David. You’ve got Gordon’s Calvary; you’ve got the old city. It’s an incredible place! Here we are in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you look up from there, a mount of olives. We just don’t have time and if you remember the story, when Jesus brought his disciples to this garden, he told them to watch and pray; stay there and pray. He went on further in the garden and he started to pray. After an hour, he came back and found them sleeping. He said, “Couldn’t you even pray with me an hour?” This is what Jesus said to his own disciples. Not even for an hour. He went away and did this three times. He came back three times, and they were sleeping. “Couldn’t you pray with me for an hour?”
Now, I’m in the Garden of Gethsemane, and I’m praying. Everybody on the bus is saying “We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go. Get on the bus!” Renee is there with us, also, and she’s wanting to stay in the garden like I did. We were the last ones on the bus, and I’m sorry to say we didn’t stay an hour. It profoundly affected me as we left there. I remember writing in my paper to Dr. Mayhew, Professor of Archeology, and Professor of Old Testament Studies at the Michigan Theological Seminary. I remember writing to him about this incident. We were in the Garden of Gethsemane; I was praying and praying until I was practically dragged away. Two thousand years ago, Jesus’ disciples couldn’t give him that hour, and I know it’s 2000 years later, but I would’ve liked to have given him that hour then.
We need to be patient, because sometimes if we are not patient, we miss some of the greatest joys in life; things that may never happen again. It’s time to be patient.
That’s my message today. I trust that there’s something you can get from this message. I trust that it will impact you on a level that you can use in your daily walk whether you’re patient with your family or with others. I had to hurry to get back on that bus; that’s what kept me away. So tell me, what’s keeping you today from following after God; for trusting the Lord for salvation? What’s holding you back? Why can’t you give an hour to the Lord today? What is it in your life? We need to stop and think about that because these are the things of life and these are the things of God. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for this message on patience. I pray that people here will understand your word and be able to use it in their lives and they will grow strong in the Lord and they will understand that you were patient with them and they need to be patient with others. I ask you bless these people here in Jesus’ name. Amen
Praise team! At this time, I would like the elders and their wives to come forward. We’re going to do something today because the Lord has been patient with us. We have been saved. You might be here today any you might want the Lord in your life and you might be say I don’t know how. Jesus said “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” You look at that banner and at those attributes and you say “I need those things. I do not have the abundant life that I need. There’s a problem. There’s a sin in my life today. How do I get rid of it? How do I dump the sin? Just how does that happen?” The bible in Romans 3:23 says:
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
The Lord knows this. Sin is that which separates us from a relationship with God almighty. There is a penalty to pay for sin:
Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23
We don’t like to hear that today, because people are dying all around us, but the good news is that verse doesn’t stop. It says:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Romans 6:23
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
We are told we are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves. We’re not good enough to get into Heaven. Jesus Christ paid the penalty and price for our sins. That’s why he came. Sin is an incredible issue in our life, and we need to deal with it. How we deal with it is through the shed blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He came through the earth, as the prophet said, and he took upon Him your sins and mine and laid them on a cross. We need to trust and believe in Him.
Romans 10: 9-10:
If thou shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shall be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation.
Roman 10:9-10
That’s where we need to be today. The Lord took our sins to the cross.
He’s asking you to come today. Make that commitment to the Lord. In Revelations, he says “I stand and knock. If any man hear my voice, open the door! I will come in and sup with him and he with me. The Lord’s knocking today. You may have though today was an ordinary service when you came here, but the Holy Spirit has grabbed you. He’s been very patient and he says “Let’s go forward. Let’s start a newness of life.
Let’s bow our heads for a moment of prayer for a minute. Heavenly Father, I thank you Lord that you came to this earth 2000 years ago and you paid the penalty and price for my sin. I repent of my sin and I ask for forgiveness. Lord, I’ve sinned against you in thought, word and deed. I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I desire to have the peace with you through the shed blood of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I trust in you for salvation. Save me now, Lord. Let me be a vessel unto you. Work in my life. Let me be the person that you, Lord, want me to become. Come into my heart now. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now the elders are her for more than just one reason. The bible says if there are any sick among you come to the elders. They’ll pray for you. That’s their job. They like to do it. That’s their ministry. That’s why they’re here: to meet the needs of the congregation. If there’s any sick among you, if there’s anything that you have in your life that you want the elders to pray with you for; for your family, for health, for your neighbors, for job situations. They’re here to pray. As the music plays and as Tracy closes out the set, I would like you to come forward and pray with the elders, and tell them your needs, because Oakwood cares, and we care for you.
