Well, good morning everyone. It is so good to see you all
this morning and I would please encourage you to please pray for
the Global Conference on the 10th to the 13th.
And then I know that on the 13th the young people will also
gather at New Gen. in Somerset West.
In fact, on from Wednesday and Friday, the lead couples in the
Western Cape gathered, I mean, Emmanus with a wonderful time of
prayer and input and simply just building relationships with
other leaders across the Western Cape.
It was such a wonderful time we had together.
And also we had Teddy Burger with us.
As you know Teddy is such a wonderful man of God and had
worked with the Lord for many years and I was the founder of
New Frontiers International. So we really had a wonderful
time together as leaders. And the week before, I was at 1
Hope last week Saturday at Gareth's Church, and I had been
asked to speak on loving your neighbor as well as diversity.
And we also had a wonderful time there with Stephen Ryan.
And yeah, just thankful for the Lord, for his faithfulness to us
as a church. If you have your Bibles, please
turn with me to the book of Galatians Chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5. You'll find it in the New
Testament Galatians chapter 5. We will read verse 22, verse 23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. Against such things, there is no
law. I was reminded in preparing for
this message, which I'm going to walk through on the subject of
patience, the fruit of the spirit.
I was reminded that within the African context, and not to
stereotype, but I use this example within my own context
that one of the reasons that I have sort of one of the things
that I've made peace with within my context is that you are never
to expect the bride to be on time.
So when you get a wedding invite from Eric and Tim cool to
somewhere in Cape Town, and I said to you, the wedding starts
at 10. I actually mean at 12.
I don't mean at 10 AM. So if if you're there at 10, I
know that you're Ryan, but but we don't start at 10.
So you sort of know that is going to start at 12.
The only thing that start on time is the funeral that we make
sure starts on time the funeral but not the wedding.
So three years ago my wife and I attended a wedding of our
friend, a good friends of ours and the bride was very late and
and the husband was quite annoyed.
It's quite upset. In fact very hard to see someone
upsetting their own wedding. You hardly see that.
But he was quite upset that his bride was late and keep he kept
on folding and they ignored him. They were no longer taking his
calls. By the way, says where are you?
I thought, what do I say to him now?
I said to him, buddy, you must remember that you know this,
this is, this is your day and this is her day.
And in fact, the bride is always meant to make the grand
entrance. Your job is simply to wait.
So chill and cool down. She'll, she'll come and, and in
fact, she did come and she arrived 2 1/2 hours, but she was
there. But I think the Lord also taught
him something about patience, that he had to wait.
And I kid you not, that as she was walking down the aisle, the
way he was weeping and so happy. It didn't look like that man who
was so upset for his wife, for his bride being late at the
wedding. And at times it is we may find
ourselves as well having to wait on the Lord.
And so as we consider together this subject of patience and
having to work to wait upon the Lord.
And I, I found myself having reading about patience, that
when you read different biblical translations, you find that this
word is translated differently. So if you are using an an old
English Bible like the King James, the go Yee type of
Bibles, you'll find that it is translated long term, long
tempered. If you're using the other
translations, it will not say patience, it will say
long-suffering. But if you're reading the modern
translation, they translated as forbearance.
So you find that this word is translated in different ways and
in different translations. But before we delve into the
message, I want to in fact, just share with you what patience
means as the fruit of the spirit.
So I want you to have this in your own mind as we're going to
walk through this. The first thing I think the
slide should come up is that patience is the ability to
endure for a long time whatever opposition and suffering will
come our way, and to show perseverance without wanting
retaliation or revenge. Secondly, patience is the
ability to put up with the weaknesses and flaws of others,
including other believers, and to show forbearance towards them
without getting quickly irritated or angry enough to
want to fight back. That's hard, right?
That to me it is an indication that patience is a tough word.
It demands maturity. It demands stamina.
It demands strength. Patience is not easy.
Patience is hard and that is why this is a fruit of the Spirit,
because you cannot do it on your own.
You need the power of the Spirit in order to be patient.
The Lord needs to grow this inside of us.
The Tyndale Bible provides another another definition of
patience. They define it this way.
It is the ability to take a great deal of punishment from
evil people or circumstances without losing 1's temper,
without becoming irritated or angry, or without taking
vengeance. It includes the capacity to bear
pain or trials without complaint, the ability to for
bear under severe provocation, and the self-control that keeps
one from acting rashly, even those suffering opposition or
adversity. Patience is hard, but I think
the best example for patience is God himself.
When we read the Old Testament we are often find as though God
is angry in the Old Testament, or God is killing people in the
Old Testament or God is killing his own people in the Old
Testament. God of course judges sin and we
see that throughout the Old Testament, but also God is
loving and merciful in the Old Testament.
In Exodus 34, verse 60 says the Lord, the Lord is the
compassionate and gracious God who is slow in anger and
abounding in love and faithfulness.
God is slow in anger. Think about the story, for
example, of Moses at Mount Sinai with the Israelis, Moses being
up on the mountain for 40 days and as it comes down we see the
people of God in idolatry with the golden calf.
At that moment God wants to destroy His own people, and
Moses intercedes for God's people, and God spares them.
And so in the old time we can almost see that God, even though
God punishes his own people, but also God, is patient with His
people. The psalmist puts you this way
in Psalm 103. The Lord is compassionate and
gracious, slow in anger and abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will you harbor His anger
forever. He does not treat us as our sins
deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
God is always gracious, abounding in love, not treating
us as our sin deserves, because our sin deserves the the wrath
of God, and yet God in His mercy spares us.
We see this throughout the Old Testament as the people of God
would constantly rebel against God over and over again, and yet
God will continue to be merciful to His people.
Not only that, God would be slow in anger and the Israelites in
Hosea for example, that when the people of God have gone astray,
we hear this word from the prophet.
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called
my son. But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the bows and
they burned. Incest of images.
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms,
but they did not realise I was I who healed them.
I LED them with codes of human kindness, with ties of love to
them. I was like the one who lifts a
little child to the cheek and I burned down to feed them.
What a wonderful image of God's patience, that even though God
should destroy his people, the judgment should fall on his
people. God says, no, I did not do that,
rather I loved my people. Often God is patient with us.
He does not give us what we deserve.
Rather often as you read the Old Testament, you find that even
the prophets where, where, where like why is God not judging the
evil people? And God says not now.
I will not judge my people now. My hope is that they would
repent and come back to me. These are the pictures of the
Old Testament of a God who does not instantly at times judge his
own people, but rather is patient for them to come to him
in repentance. And so keeping that in mind, I
want to suggest to you three ways till we can be patient as
we consider God who is patient. The first thing I want to
suggest to you this morning is patience in prayer.
It may. It was said before and I say it
again, perhaps God gives us 3 answers to prayer.
It is often yes, no, or wait. All of us to some extent and
know about yes and no. But if we are true to ourselves,
we do not like when God says wait.
It is hard to wait when we are going through financial
challenges. It is hard to wait when a loved
one is sick and conventional medicine is not working.
It is hard to wake when the cupboards are empty and there is
no food and you have to wait. It is hard to wait when you are
single and burning and wanting to get married and you see these
notifications on Facebook of another friend getting married
and you wish it was you. Those moments are hard.
We know about yes. We know about no.
But it is often hard to wait because waiting at times awaken
a sense of confusion to us. And if in our response to
waiting at times, maybe at times unbiblical and so often God
asked us to wait in our prayers. Consider with me Abraham.
God told him that listen, there is a promised son that I'm going
to give you. I want you to, to, to wait.
The sun is coming and Abraham is thinking, listen God, biology
and logic are not on my side. Let me rather do this myself.
And it goes ahead of God and has a son with a slave girl.
That son is not the promised son, it is Ishmael.
God had promised him that just I'm going to give you Isaac as
the promised son and Abraham goes ahead and both.
That story communicates to us both patience and impatience.
Maybe at times we are to like an Abraham when we are not, to
walking by faith when we know God has promised something, but
we think let us run ahead of him and do it anyway.
At times our own impatience may make us to be entitled that I
deserve something. It is my right to have this.
And when we do that, we walk ahead instead of waiting.
There is a call to Christians to pray, but also to wait.
Prayer and patience go together. Perhaps let me remind you that
time spent waiting for God is not wasted time.
God uses that time of waiting and praying to conform us to the
image of His Son. Don't run ahead of God.
Wait upon the Lord. Pray and wait upon the Lord.
The posture of waiting is to wait with the right attitude,
knowing fully well that the God of heaven has heard your prayer.
Therefore, it is not my role to run ahead of him.
Rather, it is to wait. And in my waiting I'm waiting
with the right attitude of prayer.
The psalmist puts it this way. I wait for the Lord.
My soul awaits, and in His word I hope my soul.
I waits for the Lord. More than Watchmen for the
morning, more than Watchmen for the morning, but my soul waits
for the Lord. My encouragement to you is
patience in prayer. Wait upon the Lord #2 it is
patience in trials. So patience in prayer and
patience in trials. James one verse 2 to verse 4
says this. The count it all joy, my
brothers, when you meet trials of various kind.
For you know that the testing of your faith produces
steadfastness, and that steadfastness have its full
effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing. The Bible is clear that those
who believe in Christ will will face hostility and difficulties
in this world. Christ Himself is an example of
the one who suffered and faced hostility in this world.
Therefore, brethren, we too are going to face hostility in this
world. Notice this passage does not say
if it says when there is a trial that has your name and it has my
name, but it is simply a matter of time.
Be reminded, therefore, of these implications as we think about
suffering and waiting. Number one for the believer,
Suffering should be no surprise. We have been warned by Jesus and
the apostles over and over again that we ought to expect trials
of various kind, and they are not nice and they're quite hard.
But the Bible says expect this. In fact, it's first Peter
chapter 4 that reminds that we ought not to be surprised about
the present's suffering as though something strange was
happening to us. Is no expect trials.
Expect that life is going to be difficult and hard at times #2
the Bible reminds us that we ought not only just expect
suffering. But as a believer, we are not to
retaliate. We are to follow the example of
Christ who did not fight back, not even in words.
Believers must be reminded that the attitude of Christ to
suffering was not that of fighting, was not that of
violence, was not that of speaking back, but it was the
one of humility. It is easy time to feel like I
want to retaliate, I want to speak back, I want to fight.
But the posture of the believer is not to retaliate, it is to
follow the example of Christ in humility.
And I know you have the strength and the power to fight.
But may I say to you, let us follow the great example of
Christ and humble ourselves even when we know that we have the
resources and the tools to be able to fight back #3 the
posture of suffering is to be reminded that when believers
suffer, they are not to quit. We are not to, but rather and
doing, brothers and sisters, we are going to fit hatred,
discrimination. Some people in countries are
even facing imprisonment. People in countries are being a
horrendous way because of their faith in Christ Jesus.
To them this is not just a theory.
To them, it's and we too, as we wait upon the Lord, we should
pray for that very same courage that the Lord would help us to
patiently endure. We do not plan when we're going
to get cancer. We do not plan when our son and
our daughter is going to rebel. We do not plan when their
husband or wife taps out of marriage to say I'm I don't want
this anymore. No one plans that.
It just happens. Trials meet us on the way.
Be reminded of Job, for example, that when tragedy strike him, he
lost his children, he lost his wealth, he lost his livestock,
he even lost his health. His relationship with his wife
was affected and his friends said to him, repent, but what
have you done to God? He lost everything in an
instant. And Satan is saying to God, you
have a transactional relationship with Job, Take away
everything from him and then we'll see if he'll still serve
you faithfully. Job loses everything and he
still says my Redeemer lives in spite of losing everything.
This sometimes is life. But even in this moment of
suffering, we ought to be patient as these things happen.
And therefore, how do we then respond?
The text gives us an answer as to how we ought to respond to
this child. You said respond with joy.
Stefan spoke about that last week.
We respond with joy. And the other answer it gives,
it says, it says that that steadfastness have its full
impact. In fact, when you check the root
word of steadfastness, it actually means patience,
endurance, being patient under immense pressure.
So can I ask you this morning, is there anyone in this room who
is under immense pressure and suffering and difficulties and
you're just going through difficult trials?
Is there anyone like that this morning?
I'm sure there are many. Thank you for raising up your
hands because life at times can simply be difficult.
And church, let's let's be reminded when we go through
trials, we must never deny that our trials are painful.
We are never to to simply try to fake this.
Whenever I try to say everything is going well, when we know
things are not going listen, at times things are just not going
well. That's it.
Life is just hard at times. We never to deny that that
trials can be painful as they painful as they are.
They can also be profitable because they they, they sanctify
us in one sense, conforming us to the image of the sun.
But yes they are difficult in the hard.
I remember my my brother's wife's uncle had a had an
accident few years ago and man who was fed running and had a
good job had a car accident and in that accident it paralysed
him completely until he could not do anything by himself.
Nothing was working. He needed 24 hour care.
In an instant his life changed. Life can be hard and you would
visit him in hospital and he would be crying all the time
because he just realized that I'll never be able to do
anything for myself again. Life at times can be difficult
when we are not to deny that, but also often the trials will
also bring us to perfection through patients.
Patients in prayer, Patient in trials #3 Patients in community.
The Cyprian of of of cottage said the the following.
He cannot have God for his father who does not have the
church for his mother. To simplify what he's saying,
there is simply this. There's nothing as individual
Christianity. Those who are saved, they become
part of God's unified church. That's all he's saying and
therefore church, we must be reminded that even community
patience is needed. We are born into a community,
into the family of God and most of our Christian experiences in
the life of the local church. Since this is the case, loving
God and hating one another or loving God and through to the
message of Jesus Christ in community.
Ephesians forces one verse 123 says they say therefore a
prisoner of the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the
calling which you have been called with all humility and
gentleness with patience, bearing with one another in
love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. The phrase one another speaks to
community. It also means, in fact,
forbearance with one another. Church test.
Let me slow down here. As a community and as a church,
we must be able to put up with things other people do or don't
do. It means as a church, we must
make an effort to bear with others, even those who annoy you
or irritate you. Can I repeat that?
Bear with those who annoy you or irritate you, Bear with them.
Forbearance actually means that I'm not only bearing with other
people, but also I am choosing to forgive other people.
That word also means I'm I will not hold a grudge against
another in the community, but at times I am choosing to overlook
something unkind that they have said rather than fighting back
with harsh words. For parents is learning to be
patient with others because you are aware of your own
shortcomings and your own weaknesses.
You too have weaknesses. You too people have to be
patient with you. Therefore, be patient with
others as well, including those you may not get along with as
well. As we gather in the community,
be reminded that the church at times will face conflict.
In fact, we see that in Acts chapter 6 when the Hellenistic
Jews feel like their widows are not being looked after by the
Hebrew Jews and the apostle says, OK, guys, we need to do
something. Let's get this man.
That we're going to help that ministry as deacons.
First conflict that we are seeing there in that particular
gathering. So conflict is inevitable.
Sometimes it will happen that they strive in the church.
These things we are not exception because there's
people, but we are called even in those moments, to be patient
with one another. We live in a world of social
media where you can simply comment and speak your mind, no
matter how harmful your words are.
It is seems, though, in our culture that the virtue of
patience is missing. We are so impatient, and perhaps
we are impatient with ourselves. We are impatient with our
friends, we are impatient with our kids, we have patience with
our husbands or wives, we're impatient with our colleagues,
and we may be even impatient with our employees.
And you quickly get annoyed. We need the help of the Holy
Spirit. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
Our patience will always be tested in the context of the
local church, but not just what the writer says in Colossians 3
verse 3 bearing with one another and if anyone has a complaint
against another forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgave
you, so you must also forgive. We live in a fallen world.
The devil there is the flesh, and so often we must be reminded
that because of that we will sometimes be impatient with one
another. Can I even say more strongly,
will at times might even sin against one another.
But can I ask you this morning to heed the words of the Apostle
Paul that even when we sin against one another, that we
maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace?
In other words, when we are impatient with one another, we
disturb our unity in the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, be patient with one another.
Can I tell you why we ought to be patient with others?
And for bear with others is because God has been patient
with you and I God did not treat us as our sin deserve.
And God has not stopped. He is impatient with us even
when we sin against Him, God is still a patient with us.
Maybe you've been asking God for forgiveness on the same issue
over and over and over. And yet God has been patient
with you, forgiving you, receiving you, loving you.
Therefore, do the same to others.
I close with these three questions that I'd like you to
consider for yourself. Number one, in what ways has God
been patient with you in your Christian experience #2 in what
ways do other people have to be patient with you #3 in what
situations make you most likely to be impatient with others at
such times? How can you show the fruit of
the Spirit in your life in patience?
My praise that you'll reflect on these questions and ponder on
these questions. My praise that the Holy Spirit
would help you to bear with others.
Therefore, church, be patient in prayer, be patient in trial, but
also be patient in community. Father, we thank you this
morning to be reminded of patience.
That patience is hard, Lord, it is not easy because it caused us
not to retaliate. Patience caused us not to fight
back. But patience caused us to lean
in, Lord, to trust in You that when we feel like speaking up
harshly to others, that we may be reminded in those moments
that this is not the fruit of the Spirit.
Rather, we ought to bear with others.
We ought to be forgiving to others.
We ought to be loving to others. We ought to be merciful to
others. Help us, Lord Jesus, even in our
homes. That's that.
This becomes practical in our homes and our families, even in
our marriages, in our workplaces, in our community
here as a church, to be those who are patient with one
another, because you are patient with us.
Therefore, Lord, help us to follow your example of patience.
Help us, Lord, to follow in your footsteps as the one who was
humble, the one who was spat on and yet never spoke a bad word.
And so, Lord, we please ask you help us.
May the Holy Spirit help us. We ask this Lord, in your name,
Amen.