“I Have To Wait For What?”

Pastor Jim Lowe III

Sunday Morning,  9:30am Stream

05/01/22 (1st Sunday Message)

 

 

 

{All scriptures are NIV84 unless stated}

 

 

What Is Patience?

 

The fastest way to talk about it is by using children.

 

Patience is that thing ANYONE with or around small children know well.

 

We try and teach our children that they can’t have everything they want now.

 

We have to tell them some things they have to wait for.

 

 They want to eat when they want to eat.

 

  They want snacks when it isn’t snack time.

 

 They want tv when they want tv.

 

 They want to play when they want to play.

 

 They want the car to magically teleport to wherever you’re going.

 

  “Are we there yet?”

 

My son had his birthday in March…and he is already asking for the next one.

 

 He really wants that!

 

 Like many kids…he wants what he wants.

 

And if they do NOT get what they want…they can respond in different ways.

 

 They can cry.

 

 They can keep asking.

 

 They can throw a tantrum.

 

We do our best to let them know that just because they want something now…

 

 This doesn’t mean it’s the best time to give them what they want.

 

We tell them things like:

 

 “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait”

“Patience Is A Virtue”

 

We also find that as we get older we find ourselves dealing with the same thing.

 

We want what we want when we want it.

 

We’re ready for that promotion.

 

We’re ready for that next opportunity.

 

We’re ready for our investments to make us multi-millionaires.

 

We’re ready for that spouse.

 

We’re ready for that house.

 

We’re ready for our full healing or recovery.

 

We’re ready for something.

 

We’re All Waiting And Ready For Something

 

And we have sayings to help us with the same thing.

 

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

 

“A Watched pot never boils.”

 

“We have to learn to walk before we can run.”

 

We have to remind ourselves of this because it helps us to control just operating on impulse.

 

Just like peace, there are ways we can practice patience anywhere.

 

You can look up ways anywhere

 

Patience (New Bible Dictionary)

Biblical patience is a God-Exercised, or God-Given Restraint In Face Of Opposition Or Oppression.  It Is Not Passivity.

 

1st part:

 It’s a God-exercised or God-given restraint.

 

 The ability to restrain yourself.

 

 The ability to NOT act on your impulses just because they’re there.

 

2nd part:

 Restraint in the face of opposition or oppression.

 

 Opposition or oppression..

 

 This means against ourselves and others.

 

 Our impulses can go against our better judgment.

 

 So we RESTRAIN ourselves from our impulses…

 

  We allow our God to give us restraint against the impulses we have.

 

  Our thoughts are the opposition.

 

Patience Is An Internal Fight Against Ourselves.  This Is Why God Helps Us.

 

With all of the things we want…

 

Some things are good to have now.

 

Some things we should to wait for.

 

Being patient in oppression means when others do things to us.

 

When people say things to you.

 

When people do things to you.

 

 And you hold yourself back from attacking them.

 

Can you hold your cool when people test you?

 

How Good Is Your Patience?

 

Who can hold their patience in these scenarios?

 

When You Miss The Light Because The Car In Front Of You Was On Their Cell Phone?

 

The car in front of you doesn’t move.  You have to blow the horn and by the time they realize it…the light has changed back to red.

 

How good is your patience?

 

When You’re In A Checkout Line And The Cashier Gets Into A Long Convo With The Person In Front Of You?

 

You went in with a game plan.  You knew what you wanted.  You got it.  You only planned to be there for 45 seconds.  Yet you’re stopped by something beyond your control.

 

How good is your patience?

 

You Have A Co-Worker Who Means Well, But Is Terrible At Communicating.  They Have A Problem With Something You Did.

 

We all know people who sound like they want to fight all the time.  The worst is when they don’t mean harm.  Can you be patient in situations like this?

 

Why Should We Build Our Patience?

 

For our impatient people…why is it necessary to build patience?

 

Why Should We Build Our Patience?

1. It Helps Us To Have The Nature Of Our God

 

What does this mean?

 

Ephesians 4:22-24

22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

v. 23-24

To be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be LIKE GOD in true righteousness and holiness.

 

God desires us to resemble him.

 

How Is God Patient?

 

Nahum 1:3

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. 

 

God is “slow to anger.”

 

 another way of showing restraint…also showing patience.

 

Scripture says he WILL punish those who are guilty.

 

But he will do it eventually.

 

God being “slow to anger” means towards us he isn’t QUICK to anger.

 

He doesn’t pop off.

 

God Shows Restraint With Us!

 

Psalm 86:15

15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

 

Think about all the things we do God tells us not to.

 

Think about all the times God has been patient with us!

 

Exodus 34:5-6

5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

 

The Lord tells Moses he is slow to anger.

 

Moses knew this at this point.

 

The Israelites had been enslaved for over 400 years.

 

The Lord sent Moses to bring them out.

 

Moses told the Israelites they would be released.

 

Through all of that…through all 10 plagues.

 

The parting of the sea…

 

They would grumble and speak against Moses and God all the time.

 

These people were supposed to be going to the promised land.

 

Yet every time opposition came up.

 

They couldn’t hold their restraint.

 

They were not patient with Moses, or with God.

 

God Shows Restraint Even To Those Unwilling To Wait On Him

 

But even when the people lost their cool with God…

 

He was long-suffering with them.

 

He was slow to anger.

 

What would we have done?

 

This is how God desires us to be.  More like him.

 

Why Should We Build Our Patience?

2. It Teaches Us To Rely On God

 

Being patient causes us to have to WAIT.  As in wait on God.

 

The best way to talk about this…from someone who had to go THROUGH it.

 

 S.N. We should thank God for us to be alive in this day and time.

 

We can go back and read these stories and use them as encouragement about our   God.

 

 In biblical times…they didn’t have anything but their faith.

 

 Think of what Job went through.

 

 Job became the poster for what trials look like.

 

 Who knows how difficult that was for him…with no story to hold on to.

 

But God has allowed us examples.

 

THAT’s why your bible is so important.

 

You’ll see the stories of all the people who had to wait on God.

 

David had to wait 15 years to be King.

 

Moses had to wait 40 years to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

 

Joseph had to wait 30 years enslaved for God’s plan to come to pass.

 

Rebekah had to wait 20 years to give birth to Jacob and Esau.

 

Let’s use one we all know for quick reference.

 

Abraham

 

In Genesis 12, God tells Abram to leave everything.

 

 Go where I show you.

 

 He will make him into a great nation and will be blessed.

 

 Abram took his wife, Lot, his servants and everything and left.

 

 Abram was 75 here…and had no children.

 

 How can he be made into a great nation?

 

God Told Abram He Would Be A Great Nation At 75

 

Genesis 15:1-6 (ESV)

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 

 

Reward?  You’re going to give a great reward?

 

2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 

 

Abram says what type of great reward can you give me?  Whatever you do give me will go to someone else.

 

4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

 

And Abram believed the Lord.

 

How Many Of Us Truly Believe God?

 

How many of you know that part of believing is trusting?

 

We know that while Abram believed God.

 

Sarah became impatient.

 

She took matters into her own hands.

 

She acted on her impulse to want a family of her own.

 

She developed her own plan.

 

She convinced Abram to get her maidservant pregnant.

 

But this wasn’t the child God was promising.

 

Genesis 21:1-3

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

 

Abraham was 100 when Issac was born.

 

Sarah was 90.

 

Yes they were BOTH old.

 

Yes they had both been waiting 25 years.

 

But God promised them a son.

 

It may seem like it takes forever for God to do certain things…but if he promised it.

 

If we can LEARN to rely on him…

 

We know he’ll come through.

 

God Has Not Forgotten You!

 

Abraham learned to RELY on God.

 

That’s why when God asked him to sacrifice Issac…

 

Abram was going to do it.

 

God STILL had promised him children.

 

If God had to raise Issac…he’ll do it.

 

If God had to give Sarah another child…she’ll do it.

 

That patience taught them to RELY on God.

 

 

Why Should We Build Our Patience?

3. It Helps Us Deal With Each Other In Love

 

Ephesians 4:1-3

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

 

Paul is talking.

 

He states that he is a prisoner for the Lord.

 

And he is URGING us to live a life worthy of the calling we have.

 

Be humble, be gentle…

 

Be patient!

 

Colossians 3:12

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

 

This is needed in all situations…

 

But it is VITAL in personal relationships.

 

While You Are Teaching Patience To Your Children, You Have To Be Patient With Them!

 

Don’t destroy your children because you run out of patience with them.

 

Patience Is Vital In Relationships With Others

 

Be patient with one another.

 

Parents, children, spouses, significant others, friends.

 

They are who they are, not who you want them to be.

 

They will probably never match our near perfect image of them.

 

Being Patient With Others Helps You To Love Them Better!

 

In recap:

 

Things have a place.

 

Things have a time.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 

6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 

 

Just because WE are ready.

 

Doesn’t mean it’s time.

 

God is the one who sees all.

 

God is the one who we should look to.

 

God is the one who will cause his will to come to pass.

 

When we get impatient, we only complicate the problem.

 

We aren’t being like God…

 

We make mistakes…

 

We hurt others.

 

We should learn to build our patience.

 

1. It Helps Us To Have The Nature Of Our God

2. It Teaches Us To Rely On God

3. It Helps Us Deal With Each Other In Love