Patience

God is always watching over us and always concerned about what we are doing and helping us do the things that we can't do ourselves so much of the time. So, well, you know, we live in a world that is so fast-paced, so far different than maybe it was even 10 years ago or 20 years ago, certainly 30 and 40 years ago. Everything around us needs to happen really, really quickly. We've become a nation that is about how quickly can things get done, how quickly can things happen. You look around us and you see that in every aspect of our lives. You know, 20 years ago, maybe many of us had cell phones, maybe many of us didn't. Now we have a cell phone we carry with us everywhere because we need to get those messages really quickly and people need to get a hold of us really quickly. It would be hard to even think about going back to the days where you call an office and a secretary takes a message and maybe it's the next day that someone gets back to you. Wow! How did we ever live? How did we ever have to live with having to wait for 24 hours, maybe, for someone to get back to us? Today we want to be in constant contact. You know, I can remember I resisted smartphones for a number of years and finally gave in because I thought, well, you know, it was just going to be more convenient to know that this email was here when I was in this part of town rather than finding out after I was in another place or back home. Now I check my emails when I'm on phone and it used to be it would be just once a day or twice a day to look at your email now. You know, we check them many times a day and there's nothing wrong with that. It's good to be able to get messages to us. All these things are a blessing and they're an advantage to us, but it's part of what society has become, you know, is that we're very, very quick about what we need to have and that we need to have our information very, very quickly. You know, we look around today and, you know, fast food restaurants have become the norm.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as drive-thru restaurants, but, you know, fast food restaurants were beginning to make their mark on society. Today, you know, people want that food quickly. They want to eat it quickly. They just want to be on their way. No time to rest and relax. And so for many, you know, family dinners have gone by the wayside and getting together with groups of people and just enjoying a dinner is, you know, kind of a thing of the past.

When you go and visit Europe and, you know, go to the feast there, you find that they still have that. They still enjoy their dinners and they see dinners more than the time to just choke down the food you're eating real quick. It's a time to talk. It's a time to bond with other people. Certainly, they have family dinners over there. But here in America, you know, we have to get things done really quickly. Even the way we watch TV has changed, right?

I have a hard time to watch a TV show with commercials in it anymore. We've had DVR, and the reason I have a DVR is I don't want to sit through those two and three minute commercials. I want to get that 60-minute show done in 40 minutes and be on with the next thing. And it's convenient, and I have to say I enjoy it, but it's just one of the things of our lives. We want to get through things really, really, really quickly.

Of course, we can look at finance. You know, when I was growing up, you know, we didn't have—I don't know if my parents had credit cards or not. They didn't use them, but what we wanted was something we ended up—we had to save for it. Even as children, we did our chores, we got our allowances. If we wanted something, we saved our money. We went out and bought it. And that was the way most of society worked, I believe. But today, we all have credit cards. We don't wait. You know, we'd rather pay off the credit card company, you know, rather than wait even for the 30-day time.

We don't have to wait for the 30-days, you know, to have it. And our children grow up with it. It's got to be right now. Right now. We can't wait for it. We can't work for it. We can't do anything with it. We just have to have it right now, and we'll pay for it later. Even our news is quick, right? I get my news, and the last week, I haven't sat down to watch the news at all, given the fact I've been out of town. But I would get these little, you know, one- and two-line things on my phone pop up, so I kind of knew what was going on.

But it was enough, actually, probably. It was probably a waste of time to watch some of the rest of the stuff that was going on. But, you know, we get fast news. We get quick blurbs. And if someone wants to, you know, write a magazine article on, like, in time or Newsweek, that we just have to spend 10 or 15 minutes reading? Who wants to do that? Just give it to me in 30-second and one-minute sound bites, and I know everything I do. And so we see publications going by the wayside, because no one wants to take the time to read anymore. I used to sit on Sunday mornings and read the Sunday paper, and I just thought that was just always so relaxing and enjoyable. I haven't seen a Sunday paper or a red one in, I don't even know how many years now. We can look at it in our personal lives. You know, we have aches and pains, and what do we do? We run to the medicine cabinet. We take a painkiller. We take an aspirin. Whatever it is, we got to get rid of that pain fast. We have an illness come. Oh, we need to have a doctor's prescription. We got to have this over with fast. We can't endure. We don't learn what it is that maybe has caused that thing. It's just fix it fast. And so we have a pharmaceutical industry that has just absolutely blossomed and gone crazy because everyone wants fast relief now. And so we don't have people who look at what they do, how they did, how did they get to that point in their lives? They just keep on living the same way. But hey, if you give me the pill, if you give me the pill, just get rid of that pain. I'll just go on with life. And so we have this in all parts of our lives. We could talk about traffic. Boy, could we talk about traffic in Orlando, right? I mean, that's the one area that they haven't made fast. I mean, if you travel around in Orlando, if you want to get there fast, it's not happening. I put on my GPS, and I see I'm only going 15 miles, and how long the GPS is going to take. And I think, really? I almost feel like I could walk quicker than that. But we live in a society that's that way. You know, we live in a society that is so fast and so speedy-oriented. It can make us become impatient. It can lead to frustration. We can find all sorts of problems that go on. You know? I mean, in talking about draping, we have road rage, right? People just want to get there quicker. And so they end in and out of traffic, and pretty soon you have road rage, and people lose their tempers honking at each other, yelling at each other, sometimes even killing each other. It's mind-boggling what goes on, just because people don't like what happened because they want to get someplace quicker. At home, we do the same thing. You know, we can lose our patience with something, and we can pretty much just, you know, say things we don't mean, because, just like you heard in the sermonette, when we get angry and when we get frustrated, and sometimes it's quick, quick, quick.

Quick, quick, quick! It can lead to all the things, you know, that can lead to us doing something or saying something that we'll regret later. You know, it's become a speedy society in terms of Christianity, too, hasn't it? When you look at Christianity, the way the world looks at it, everyone wants things quickly. You know, I won't mention the televangelist name. You've all heard of them anyway. And even repentance. Repentance says something is to take a lifetime, something that before we're baptized, we review ourselves, analyze ourselves, go through the Bible, look and see what's going on. But today, it's, you know, if you can just say this little prayer, Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and ask you for forgiveness, you're saved and you're ready to go. Just this quick little five-second prayer, and you're good to go, is what the world has taught.

Even there, how can we get it done quickly? If I just believe in you, forget all the rest of the stuff, forget about the lifetime, just if I say this little prayer and I kind of remind myself from time to time, I believe in you, that's okay, that's all you need to do.

And so people stay at home and they watch their 30 or 40 minute, 45 minute TV show and think, you know, that's all I've done, done my job with God this week. I've watched a TV show and that's all that God requires of me. So I can go out and watch a football game, cut the grass, go shopping, do the laundry, whatever I need to do the rest of the day. They choose to keep on as their Sabbath. Just get it done quickly.

I wonder if any of that ever rubs off on us. Do we think Christianity is a speedy thing? We find ourselves looking at the world around us and thinking, I've got things to do. I don't have time for this prayer, but if I just spend five minutes in the morning, that'll be fine. God knows I'm a busy guy. I've got to get these things done, so I'll speed through my prayer. I've got to do the Bible study. I need to do that, but you know what? I might not have the time to actually delve into what study is, so I'll just read. I'll read, and the quantity will make up for the in-depth understanding or delving into the Scriptures that takes time. That takes time. It's not anything that can be done quickly. You can't read five chapters in a day and really understand what the Bible is telling you. And so we all have this speed. We may have, rubbing off on us, some of these things that we think just need to happen really quickly. Some people, they don't understand a concept in the Bible, and they get frustrated. They don't give God the time to ask them what it really means. They don't give God time, and ask Him continually. They don't search the Scriptures. They don't ask about it. I don't get that concept. I don't get it. Therefore, I close my mind. I run off to it. I don't like what I heard, and therefore, I just close my mind and I move off on it. I want it speedy. I want to know everything right now. That isn't the way it works. God has called us to a lifetime, a lifetime of learning, a lifetime of repentance, a lifetime of overcoming. It doesn't happen just like that. And so, when we look at the Christianity that we have, it is something far different than what the world around us may have or may define. Patience is one of the things called a virtue by many people. The patience that we exercise every day with each other, out in society, at school, at work, or wherever it is. As I was looking for little quotes on patience, I came across this one that I think is actually quite true. It says, patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can. Found seldom in a woman, never in a man. How true, right? I read that and I thought, well, that's unfortunately the case in so many cases. Let me define patience from the dictionary. Patience from the dictionary. Actually has three different meanings, they say. One is waiting without complaint. Difficult to do. We learn a lot about patience when we're sitting at those two and three minute stoplights. Waiting without complaint. Number two, the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset. That's tough. That's something that we develop over time when we practice patience. It doesn't come automatically. Babies show us that, right? When they're hungry, they want it right now. They're not going to wait 30 minutes for mom to finish what she's doing. I'm going to cry until she gets in here and does that. We all have that innate need to have things done right now. The ability or willingness to suppress. The third one is the ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.

We all have those feelings of anger, maybe, or being annoyed when we have to wait for something. We're sitting at the doctor's office, dentist's office, or whatever, and 30 minutes past your appointment time, you're still sitting there, and you might be tempted to say something. But it's good to exercise patience and not say anything around those lines. Those are all opportunities we have to develop some self-control in those areas.

Patience is mentioned often in the Bible, too. Let me read what the Strong's definition of patience is when you read it in the Bible. This is from Strong's. It says, In the New Testament, it's the characteristic of a man who has not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. He's got a purpose in mind. He's got a commitment, and he's made a commitment. And no matter what happens along that road, he doesn't swerve. He doesn't waver. He keeps his eyes straight on the goal, and he does not allow trial, tribulation, persecution, temptation, or anything to distract him or detract him from that purpose. A patient. The patience he has. It goes on to say, it's also a patient enduring, sustaining, or perseverance. The word that you read, patience, in the New Testament is actually Greek number 5281. It's supomone. And many times in the Bible, it's translated as perseverance in addition to patience. So when you see perseverance and when you see patience in the Bible, it's usually the same word that you're looking at. Let's look at a few verses here in the Bible that talk about patience and perseverance. Let's go back to Luke. Luke 8. This is the parable of the soils. We talked about the parable of the soils within the last month or so. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but just recall verse 15 here in Luke's account, to the parable of the soils. We're talking about that fourth soil, the one that God looks to where the fertile or the seed takes root and grows. And it's pleasing to God. Luke 8 verse 15. But the ones, the seed that fell on the good ground, are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, with a noble and good heart, fair-minded, open-minded, look at the truth, but the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience, with patience.

Patience is a trait that you and I must develop, if we're going to please God. We must develop if we're going to be part of His Kingdom. Romans 2. Romans 2.

Paul talks about it as well.

Romans 2 verse 5.

And again, Paul is writing to members of the Church there in Corinth. In chapter 2, he's actually addressing the Jews specifically that are in the Church there in Rome. Romans 2 verse 5. He says, But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath, in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds. He will render eternal life to those who by patient continuance, patient continuance in doing God, in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. Patient continuance, enduring to the end, patiently plodding along.

Not fast, not quickly, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, the rest of your life. Patiently continuing in doing good. Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6 in verse 11. The author here writes, We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Gotta have faith, absolutely faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. We need patience and faith, patience and faith, to continue in that faith and to continue following what God has called us to, and yielding and growing in love to him. Revelation, Revelation 13.

Revelation 13 is the chapter that talks about the beast power that will be coming on earth. Great beast power that will be unlike any government that we've seen in our lifetimes. Dictatorial will make people do what they want, will want people to worship the God they want, which will actually be the beast power. That the little beast will be encouraging all the world to fall after. And if you don't fall after and follow that beast, there will be ramifications. There will be punishments that are inure to those who refuse to bow down to that beast.

In verse 8 it says this, Revelation 13, verse 8, All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lambs slain from the foundation of the world. Hopefully, you and I, our names have been written in the book of life, and that will continue to be written in the book of life until Jesus Christ returns. If anyone has an ear, he says in verse 9, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here, here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The patience and the faith of the saints. They believe with a deep belief, a belief that has changed the way they live, changed the way they think, changed how they do things, but a patience that has to be there as well, because it won't be an easy time. It's going to be a very trying time when the world is so far different than it is today, when the world is actually against us and we don't live in a time of peace, where today we are protected by laws of the government and the tolerance of the people around us who really don't care whether we go to church on Sabbath on the seventh day or the first day or any other day of the week.

There's a time that will come in when it's going to be far different. What will we do at that time? We will have faith. Will we have the patience to endure through that? Will we wait for God to deliver us through that time? Or will we say, if He doesn't deliver us quickly, if I'm not caught up and taken to a place of safety the first time I have to suffer a little bit of tribulation, then is God there? Because He may just make us wait and be patient with Him because in patience our faith can become stronger and will become stronger. Patience is something that, you know, the way we speak of right now isn't something that we have.

Today where none of us are in tribulation, none of us are being persecuted. We may have job trials and that can be a form of tribulation and persecution. We may have 12 trials. We can ask ourselves, are we patient with God during those times? He makes promises to us, right? He makes promises to us that Jesus Christ is going to return. He makes promises to us that if we endure to the end we will be there with Him and part of His Kingdom when He returns.

He makes promises to us that He will heal us. Do we wait for Him? Do we patiently wait for Him to heal? Do we have other problems, financial problems? Do we patiently wait for Him? Or do also often we take matters into our own hands and say, Well, God's not answering me right now so I have to do this and I have to do that.

Because if that's the pattern we establish for ourselves, when the time comes and it really hurts, if God allows us to live during the time or be around during the time of the beast power, and say, you know, all your money's gone, all the computers where you're concerned, it's all gone, starve. Starve until you can bow down before the beast. If we're not practicing patience in some of the smaller things now and we always look for the quick fix, what will we do?

What will we do at that time? Well, I hope we would remain in faith and realize we stay through to God and in patience wait for Him. Certainly the men in Hebrews went and women in Hebrews 11 patiently waited for God right until their death. And some of them, as you read through there, suffered horrible, horrible deaths. Revelation 14, one chapter over. Revelation 14, verse 12. Here, here is the patience, here is the patience of the saints, here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

They obey God no matter how hard it may hurt in the future, no matter how inconvenient it may be in this day and age, no matter how mad our families might get of us if we don't do this and we don't do that because we choose to keep this abbeth instead, or whatever else it might be. Here's the patience, here's those who continue to strive toward God, no matter what stands in their way, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. That's the faith. That's the faith we've been called to.

And you know, for much of society, much of mankind, until the last 30, 40, 50 years, they lived a life of patience. You know, today when we're hungry, there's nothing in the refrigerator, we run up and go to a restaurant, go to McDonald's, whatever it is we go to, quickly we can get it resolved. People 100 years ago really couldn't do that, right?

They had to patiently plant crops in the summer. 100 years ago, all of mankind's history up until recently, they had to plant crops. They had to patiently wait for those crops to germinate, grow through the summer, work to bring them in from the fields, preserve them so that they had food throughout the winter and during the spring season when the plants were growing.

They had to patiently wait. They had to rely on God. They just couldn't have a quick fix. If they didn't do the job, they didn't do what they needed to do. Life was tough. Life was tough. They didn't have the quick fixes that we had today. And so through their lifetimes, they learned something about patient endurance and waiting and seeing God and waiting for the earth to produce its bounty.

You look at wars, you look at wars through history. Some of those wars went on forever and ever and ever. Today, if we don't win a war in a week, it's like it's a long-standing war. The country is involved in a very long-standing war now. But, you know, we talk about, you know, we could quickly end this and we could quickly end that. If we just drop this bomb here, if we just do that, we could end this war quickly. They couldn't do that through history. Nothing right about war. It is certainly from Satan, certainly from Satan, as you read in James. But when they had wars, they would go through the winter months. They would just have to wait. You would read about sieges and how they would conquer these cities that had fortresses. And they would sit out there and they would just simply starve a city into submission. They would just wait and wait and wait.

That was the way life always was. Today, it's not that way. Even as we watch our news and see what's going on around us, there's just not the patience that's built into society anymore. But it's something we have to have, something that we need to build into our lives. Let's go back to James. James 5.

Excuse me. James 5.

And verse 7.

James writes about patience as well. Therefore, he says, Be patient, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Don't be patient for just a week, for 10 years of your life, for 20 years. Be patient until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. Waiting patiently for it, until it receives the early and latter rain. They learned patience in everyday life. It mirrored what they were doing in their spiritual lives. Be patient. Be patient with it. Verse 8, he repeats again, You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

Verse 10, my brethren, as he is talking about patience, he begins to give us a few examples of what it means to be patient and what we can learn from. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. You'll remember those prophets of old. Jesus Christ would talk about the prophets of old, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Elijah. If one thing that you can look through them, they weren't well received by the people of their time.

Jeremiah spoke for 40 years, admonishing Judah, turn back to God and repent. They didn't want to hear it. They cast him aside, did all manner of things to him. Jeremiah was not a well-liked person. He wasn't popular in Judah. But for 40 years, he patiently did what God told him to do. Did he get discouraged?

Yes. He got discouraged along the way. You read of some of his conversations and prayers with God. And you can see, as you and I would be, too, I keep doing this, and the people hate me. None of us want to be hated. And yet Jesus Christ said, you know, you will be hated if you preach the truth, by all nations, for my name's sake. Jeremiah was hated. He endured. He patiently waited for God for 40 years. Judah never did listen to him. But he endured during all that time. Ezekiel the same thing.

You know, Ezekiel had to do many things. I mean, you read about what God had him do. Lay on your side for 390 days. Things that we wouldn't even consider doing today or never enter our mind. He did it. He patiently did what God asked him to do.

He may have asked himself why, but if God said do it, he just did it. He just did it. He wasn't well-liked either. People didn't like him. You look at Elijah, he was there during the time of King Ahab and Jezebel. And even though he proved that God was the God of Israel, was the God and supreme over the bales of the earth, they hated him and wanted to put him to death. I didn't want to hear the truth. He patiently, he was patient through all that, kept his faith in God, kept his eyes forward and didn't take the easy way out.

He patiently kept doing what God said to do. So when James says here, take the prophets, they spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. And so as God's church grows closer and closer to the time, and you and I grow closer and closer to the time that Jesus Christ will return, and society takes a turn in attitude, and as the more, if we want to say, conservative or biblical views of things, become more and more onerous to people when they hear it, when they hear the words of the Bible and they say, we don't want to hear that, that is against everything we stand for, because it is a society that is becoming more and more lawless and setting their own standards rather than adhering to anything of the Bible, and certainly even morality of, you know, the long-standing morality.

You know, they will have an attitude toward us, and God says when that time happens, look back at the patriarchs, look back at the prophets of old. They were an example. They were an example of suffering and patience. Faith, yes.

Patience, absolutely. In verse 11, he says, indeed we count them blessed, who endure? Those people of the Old Testament that we read about, you know, we look at them and we say, wow, we want to be like them. For instance, you've heard of the perseverance. There's the 5281. You've heard of the patience of Job. That's a saying in the way he has, the patience of Job.

So where it comes from, you've heard of the patience of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very confassionate and merciful. Well, we look at Job and we say, what an example. What an example. Here's a man who lived his life by the Bible's own words. He was blameless.

Satan came and said, let me try him. Let me take them things away from him. Let me make his life a little bit miserable. You've blessed him and he deserved those blessings because he's obeyed you and he's listened to you, but let me try him a little bit. And let's see how loyal to you he is. And God said, okay. God said, okay.

And you know the story of Job, how he endured horrendous trials. He lost everything. Except his wife and his life. He suffered immensely through that time where he had boils from head to toe. He never knew why during that time. He never knew why. As he reviewed things in his mind through 42 chapters of the 38th era of Job, it was like, I did this. I did that. I did everything right. And God even said, Job, he's blameless. And Job patiently endured, even though he didn't know why.

Why was he going through that? As he tried to put together in his mind, but he never, he never turned on God. He never cursed God like his wife encouraged him to do. Curse God and die. She said, just get it over with. Why are you going through this pain and agony? He didn't do that. He patiently waited for God. God had something else in mind for him, but he didn't know what. But he patiently endured. And as we look at the men of the Old Testament, men whose names we know well, we see, they all had to practice patience.

Job had faith in God. Men like Abraham and David, they had faith in God. You know what else they had?

They had patience. They had patience. Every single one of them. Let's look at Abraham. Let's go back to Hebrews 6. What we find is patience and faith, they go hand in hand. Hebrews 6.

We read verses 11 and 12 earlier. Let's continue with what the author here is writing. He talks about inheriting the promises of God through patience in verse 12. And in verse 13, he gives the example and draws us back to Abraham. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could square by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so, after he had patiently endured Abraham, he obtained the promise.

God said, Abraham, I'm going to give you a son. One son. And from that son, you will become nations.

Abraham waited, and he waited, and he waited. Somewhere along the line, perhaps they became a little impatient, and Sarah decided, We should take matters into our own hands. What God must mean is this. He's not going to give me a child. Abraham, go into the handmaid in Hagar, have a child by her. That must be what God meant. Abraham listened, took matter into his own hands. We know the result of that.

Ishmael was born. It created consternation of the family. If you read and understand the families, the effect on the Middle East, we know that we still suffer from that consternation today. Abraham learned, you wait for God. You wait for God. If you want God's promises, you wait for Him. And so, after Sarah had long passed, lost since, passed a childbearing age, Abraham still had faith, and he still patiently waited for God.

Patient endurance. When Sarah was thinking, I'm not going to have a child, Abraham kept believing. He patiently waited for God. And after he patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

He believed in God. We know he had faith. That faith was certainly in full display for God and everyone and God later on in Isaac's life said, take him and sacrifice him. And Abraham didn't hesitate, he just went out and was ready to do it until God said, no, now I know. Now I know, Abraham, that there's nothing that you won't withhold from me.

He patiently waited. God could have given him a son at that very moment. When he saw him going to, you know, saying, you know, let's go to Ishmael or let's go to Hagar and have a son by her. God could have had Sarah become pregnant at that time. He let them do it. They learned the lesson. He patiently, patiently waited. And God gave him the promise.

David had the same thing. Remember the story of David? He was anointed king when he was, what, 17 years old? His parents had even, his father had even overlooked him. And David went in the slew Goliath in faith.

They're in the king's court with Saul.

David might have thought as a young man, I'm going up there, I'm going to be coronated, king. God's given it to me, and I'm going, it's going to happen soon.

It didn't happen soon.

If I remember correctly, it's 13 years later when he was finally coronated and officially became king.

God gave him the promise that he would be king early.

But he had to wait for a number of years before he received the promise. And twists and turns in his life that he could have never imagined at the time that he was anointed king.

He went to Saul and may have thought, you know what, he's going to receive me, he's going to be happy with me, things are going to be great here. It was just the opposite. Saul hated him. Saul wanted him dead. Saul didn't want him to be king.

And so David never saw, or saw, after he was anointed king, I'm going to be running for my life. The very man I'm going to replace is going to be the man who wants to have me dead.

So I'm not king over Israel. I'm running from Israel. I'm running for my life.

Did he ever turn on God? Did he ever give up?

Did he ever say, well, God lied to me. The promise he made, he must have changed his mind. No, through it all, he kept his eyes on it and he kept doing what God said. He turned to God for strength.

He knew the Scriptures. He searched the Scriptures. He allowed God to work in his heart to give him the patience that he needed to endure that entire time that he was waiting for the kingship.

And during that time, he learned an awfully lot. He learned an awfully lot about patience that stood him through, stood him well the rest of his life.

And when he wrote the Psalms, so many times you read about waiting for God.

Wait for him. Don't take matters into your own hands. Don't rush it. Wait for him. If he said he's going to do it, he'll do it.

But let him. Let's go back and look at a few of the things that David wrote.

Back in Psalm, Psalm 25, among the many things, just a sampling here, Psalm 25.

And verse 5.

I'll pick it up in verse 4, the beginning of the thought here. Verse 4, Show me your ways, O eternal. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me.

For you are the God of my salvation. On you I wait all the day.

I wait for you patiently.

May not be exactly what I wanted it to be. May not be the way that I wrote the script. May not be how. May not be when.

But I wait for you.

Chapter 27, Psalm 27, verse 14.

Wait on the Lord. Wait on him. Be of good courage. And he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say. Wait on the eternal.

Be patient with him. He certainly is patient with us.

Psalm 62.

62.

Verse 1, Truly, my soul silently waits for God.

Silently, my soul waits for God. From him comes my salvation.

I can't rush it. I have to do it the way he says to do it.

Patiently live. Allow him, through the rest of my life, to change me.

Make me aware of things that need to be changed. Deepen my understanding. Deepen my faith.

Create the opportunities that those things can happen in our lives. Patiently enduring through each one of them. Allowing God to work his perfect work.

Psalm 130.

Psalm 130.

And verse 5. I wait. Verse 5. I wait for the eternal. My soul waits. And in his word, I do hope.

I keep that in front of me. I wait for God. And because I wait for him, I have hope too.

Oh, there's a lot we learn. There's a lot that we develop when we develop patience and practice that in our lives.

And don't try to have the quick fix. But let God grow us. How, where, and in the speed that he will develop us.

Patiently waiting for him. Patiently looking to him. Patiently being loyal to him. Patiently seeking his truth.

Patiently studying the Scriptures. Patiently meditating. Patiently doing the things because the faith of God and our walk with him is not a speedy, speedy thing.

Speedy, speedy often is of Satan who wants things now. Through God, he spends time. And as he spends time and as we patiently allow him to do that, it becomes us.

Can't become us instantaneously, but over a lifetime or over years of yielding to God and trusting in him.

And so you see the patience and faith of men like Abraham and David and Job. And you can name several others. You can talk about Daniel and how he patiently waited for God and the time that he was thrown into the lion's den.

He didn't take matters into his own hands and say, well, well, well. Oh, well, let's reason. Let's reason about this.

He was patiently waiting for God, and God saved him. Same thing with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Same thing for us if we do what he wants us to do.

And patiently let him do the things in his life he wants to.

So we have plenty of examples as you read through the Bible. People who have faith and patience and who have exercised that in their lives. They're there for examples for us to learn from.

There's examples of people who didn't wait for God. You can probably think of a person who didn't wait for God.

Remember one very well-known example, Saul, right? Saul didn't wait for God. Saul didn't obey God. He decided he was going to take matters into his own hands.

Let's go back to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 13.

1 Samuel 13. Verse 8.

As Saul is facing war and he's looking for God's blessing, and Samuel told him what to do, told him to wait for seven days, and then he would be here.

Let's look at verse 8. Saul. Saul waited seven days. He did what he was told. According to the sign set by Samuel.

But Samuel didn't come to Gilgal. He wasn't there exactly when Saul expected him to be. He came a little later.

He waited seven days, but Samuel didn't come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him.

Wow! People are leaving! What do I do? Samuel said, wait, but he's not here. I've got to do something. I can't have these people scattering from me. I've got to do something.

So Saul said, bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me. And he offered the burnt offering. And it happened.

Now he shouldn't have done it. He should have waited. And he knew better. Now it happened as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering that Samuel came.

Don't you hate when that happens? You do something. You think, man, if I had just waited ten more minutes or another week, all this would have been cleared up.

It happened as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering that Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him, then he might greet him.

And Samuel said, what have you done? What did you do, Saul?

Saul said, well, when I saw that the people were scattered from me, and you didn't come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Micmash, I said, hey, I've got to take something.

You didn't answer. You didn't come at the time I expected. God didn't answer at the time I expected. He didn't do it the way I wanted.

I had to take matters into my own hands. Forget the promises. If it wasn't done the way I wanted, in the time I wanted, how I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted, I had to take matters into my own hands.

I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I haven't made supplications to the Eternal. Therefore, I felt compelled.

Though everything in me said, you've got to do this, Saul. Go ahead and do it. You need to do this.

Ah, but he didn't patiently wait. Therefore, I felt compelled, and I offered the burnt offering.

Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly.

Shame on you, Saul. You were supposed to wait for God. He knows what's going on. He knows when he was going to be there. He knew your job was to wait for him.

Your job was to wait for him. You have not kept from the commandment of the Eternal, your God, which he commanded you.

For now, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

He didn't come. He didn't answer in the time you expected, and if you had just waited.

If you had had the faith and if you had had the patience. If he had seen that in you, he would have established your kingdom forever.

But now, verse 14, your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart.

The Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

He didn't patiently wait.

And so he did not receive the promise that God said he would give him if he had just waited.

If he had just simply been patient with God and not been detracted from what God had called him to because, I have to do it now.

I have to do it now. Everything's going to fall apart. If I don't do it now, God is more than capable of working in our lives.

God is more than capable of working in our church. God is more than capable of doing everything we need.

But he gives us opportunities to learn how to be patient with him.

And to keep our eyes focused on him. And to trust in him. And to have faith in him and believe him.

Something in the days ahead, or the years ahead before Jesus Christ returns, we may well learn how important that patient endurance is.

So patience and faith go hand in hand, as we see. Let's go back to Hebrews 10. And as we read through the Bible and the Old Testament and the examples, even in the New Testament of people, we see the patience they had, the faith they had, the trust they had, the reliance they had on God, and how they committed themselves to him.

And as you read through Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, you see that in the lives of the men and women that are recorded in there. Let's look at Hebrews 10, the verses leading right up to Hebrews 11, which we commonly refer to as the faith chapter.

Hebrews 10 and verse 35.

The author here says, Therefore, do not cast away your confidence. Where is our confidence? Confidence better not be in ourselves. Our confidence better be in God, right? Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance. You need to wait. You need to endure to the end. You have need to develop this in yourself.

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

What's the will of God? Living his way, obeying his law, letting it be written on our minds and hearts, having faith, believing, yielding, led by the Holy Spirit, patiently waiting.

For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and not tarry.

Don't lose heart. Don't take matters into your own hands. Don't think, oh, he's not coming, whatever. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

If he gives up, if he says, you know what, I don't think this is going to work the way it is. I've waited long enough. You know, Peter, Peter talks about that in 2 Peter, right? Some count the Lord as slack. He hasn't come. Oh, all these years we've been waiting for him and whatever, and he's still not here. What's wrong? But if anyone draws back, God says, my soul has no pleasure in him, but we, you and I, brethren, you and I are not of those who draw back to perdition, who draw back to the second death, who go back to the world.

We encourage each other. We encourage by God. We patiently wait for him, no matter what comes up our way, and no matter in the good times or bad times we stay with him. We are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Those who believe to the saving of the soul. Patiently waiting, developing the faith, doing the things that we know to do. If we go back to James, James 5, where we were earlier, as he talks about patiently waiting for God, James 5.

I read through verses 8 and 9. Let's go back to verses 8 and 9. Verse 7, of course, he tells us, be patient. Verse 8, he says, you also, you also be patient. He says, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Establish your hearts. How do we establish our hearts? Well, that's what Strongs is talking about when he talks about patience. You have your purpose. You know what your goal is. You know what the truth is. You establish your heart on that. You make sure that what you are doing and cultivating in yourself with God's Spirit is you are committed and determined to follow Him. You know it's the truth, and it is you. And it becomes you. How do we establish our hearts? Oh, we know how to establish our hearts. We pray fervently, not just to punch a clock or feel good about ourselves if we did however long a time we established for ourselves. Oh, we read the Bible. We study the Bible. There's a difference. We meditate. Not a fast process because meditation takes time.

It takes time. David didn't meditate and come to all the truth that he did just by reading a few Scriptures in the Old Testament and then sitting down and writing it. He meditated on it in nighttime and daytime and whatever we had time. We fast. We fast. And maybe we don't have all the answers or all the understanding in one or two times that we fast, but we patiently wait for God to show us the truth and to correct us and to instruct us, just as it says in 2 Timothy 3.16, that that's what his word is for, that it'll do all those things. But we have to patiently do it and seek Him. We do all those things. We'll talk about another one when we get to verse 9, but let's go back to Luke 21 for a minute. Luke 21. Luke 21. Speaking of the end times, Luke's writing on the end-time prophecy or the Olivet prophecy. Luke 21, verse 11, goes through several verses here that he talks about our role in that. Luke 21, verse 11, it says, Delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. Well, that happened to some of the people in the early New Testament times. It'll happen again to those of God's people. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Verse 14, Therefore, settle it in your hearts, that when at the time comes, not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. God will provide what we need. We don't have to study. We don't have to make up our outline, put it in our wallet, and say, well, the time comes that I'm going to stand before a magistrate or a king or whoever. I'm going to go right down my list. God will give it to you if you've been patiently putting His word in your mind and heart, and patiently cultivating His Spirit and letting Him live through you and guide and direct you. Verse 16, You'll be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, a trying time. Few things more painful in life than to be betrayed by a friend and a family member, but those are times that lie ahead of us. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. Verse 18, But not a hair of your head shall be lost. Verse 19, By your patience, possess your souls. By your patience, possess your souls.

Patience that we've developed between now and the time that Jesus Christ returns, the trust, the reliance on Him, the determining that no matter what happens, no matter what illness, no matter what financial crisis, family crisis, or whatever else, we will not be deterred from what God has called us to, but by patient endurance we will stay with Him and we will yield to Him, and we will seek Him. By your patience, possess your souls. Something that you can contemplate there as you think about it. You know, God says you'd be patient with Him. He knows what He's working. He's not slack. We know why God hasn't sent Jesus Christ to earth yet. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And receive eternal life. He's patient with us. You know, I look back at my life and I am so thankful that God has been patient with me. At any point in time, He could have said, forget Him. He's not getting it. I'm tired of dealing with Him. I am so thankful He was patient with me.

1 John 4, 19 says, we love God because He first loved us. We need to be patient with God because He was first patient with us. And we need to develop what that is in our lives. So one of the ways we become patient and build that along with the faith that goes hand in hand with our life with God, is all the other things being led by the Holy Spirit. You know, lest anyone think that I'm omitting anything. Let's go back to James 5, and He makes another comment here in James 5.

Be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Verse 9. And then He says, don't grumble against one another, brethren. Lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. Now why in this little discourse on patience would He say, don't grumble against one another?

I think it tells us two things. One, God grows us in His body, right? If we're sitting at home all by ourselves and we think it's just us and God and no one else, and we don't need to have need of a congregation or a body, it's very patient. It's very easy to be patient with ourselves. But we learn a lot. We learn a lot about God's way of life. We learn a lot about God's plan for us as we are in a body with each other. Can't discount it. It is all over the Bible from the beginning to the end. And when we become impatient, what's the first thing we do? You heard it in the sermon, actually. You heard it a little bit when I was talking about how things can get, you know, in a speedy society. What happens when we become impatient? Oh, we can say things. We can snap at our lives. We can snap at our children. We can snap at each other. We can get angry. We can get upset. We can say things that maybe we regret later. And if we do say things we regret later, we should go back and we should acknowledge it to each other. When we're impatient, words happen. And what is James saying here? You know, you be patient, brethren. Don't grumble against one another. You be patient with each other, too. Be patient with God like He's patient with you. You be patient with one another. Not everyone is perfect. Not everyone is just like you. Not everyone sees things exactly the way we do. Everyone is in a different stage of development. You be patient with one another. Just like God is patient with you and me. And we learn that as we're with each other. We learn to be patient and not to count down and say, what is that person doing that for? Why didn't He know better than that? And grumble against Him and complain and say, ah, you know what? He should have known better. You know, we all have times that I'm sure we can look back on and say, I should have known better. I should have known better and why was I so thick-headed that I didn't get it? So God is saying when you establish your hearts, oh, you have a relationship with Him, you develop a relationship with each other, too. You become one with each other as God and Father, as Jesus Christ and God the Father are one, and just as we are to be one with Him. Don't grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Those are pretty strong words when you read them. Don't grumble unless you be condemned. You work with one another. You become one. You encourage. You exhort. You bear with one another. You identify each other's needs. You're there. You're developing the agape that God says He wants us to have and we must have and should be developing as we are letting Him lead us by His Holy Spirit. Be patient with one another.

Well, let's go back. I hope I've opened your eyes maybe a little bit to how important patience is and something that we could be developing in our lives, maybe reviewing a little bit as we head toward the Passover season as well. Let's go back in conclusion and look at a few more verses about patience here as we close. Let's go back to Romans 5. Romans 5. And let's just read down through Romans 5 here for the first five verses. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, we glory in tribulations. We glory in those things that happen to us. Such a foreign thing to us as humans, but if we saw them as God sees them, time to develop, time to grow in faith, time to grow in patience, time to develop the character that God would develop in us. Not only that, we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces what? Greek 5281. Tribulation produces patience or perseverance. When you see perseverance, most of the time it's patience. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. What does perseverance develop? It leads to character, and character leads to hope which doesn't disappoint in verse 5. God to develop it, God to develop it, God wants to see us in it, it often comes through the tribulations, trials, and tests of life. Do we learn to wait for God? Are we patient with Him, or do we have to have the quick fix? The quick fix that the society would have us have. Habakkuk. Let's go back to Habakkuk, minor prophet. After Nahum, after Micah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. Habakkuk 2. And verse 3. Oh, beginning verse 2, I'm sorry. Habakkuk 2, verse 2.

But at the end it will speak and it will not lie. What God says is absolutely true, it will happen. Though it tarries, though it may not come when you want, though it may terry, wait for it. Because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Patiently, wait, patiently put your trust in God. Right, Isaiah, Isaiah 64. You get into the latter chapters of Isaiah. You see many of them are prophetic, speaking of the time and fulfillment of the Holy Days. As you read through those chapters, you can see the return of Jesus Christ, the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth. And you can kind of follow the Holy Days as fall Holy Days in some of these latter chapters. Isaiah 64. Let's begin verse 4. We're going to read down to verse 4. Oh, that you would ram the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence, as fire burns brushwood and as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things for which we did not look, you came down. The mountains shook at your presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides you who acts for the one who waits for him. Quite a promise, quite a promise that God makes.

Finally, let's conclude over in Romans 15. Romans 15. As we develop the patience through no matter what God tells us, whether we don't know why, whether it hurts so bad, we can hardly stand it, whether it's things that we didn't expect, no matter whether the trial or tribulation or whatever goes on for so long. And just like the people that you read about in Revelation 5, it says, how long, eternal, how long do we wait? We wait until God says. We wait until God does what he wants. You know, before we go to Romans 15, let's go back to James 1. There's a scripture I want to read before we go there. James 1, verse 2. Speaking of the trials that we go through and the things that we all endured our lives, James 1, verse 2 says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. There he's saying the same thing that Paul says, the same thing that Peter says, the same thing that Jesus Christ says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what? Produces patience. That's why God does it. But let patience have its perfect work. Let it work. Let patience have its perfect work. Why? That you may be perfect, that you may be complete, that you may be spiritually mature and complete, lacking nothing. Let it work. It's purpose in you that you are lacking nothing. Okay, Romans 15, verse 4. Whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And as you read through the Scriptures, you see the patience that is in there. You have the comfort that always comes when we read the Scriptures. When we are troubled, when we are distraught, go back and read the Bible and you'll find comfort. Verse 5, now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. There's the together part again, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore receive one another just as Jesus Christ received us to the glory of God.