Transcript

The scripture reading tonight is from James 5:7-12:

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.”

This summer we’ve been looking at the fruit of the spirit, and the fruit of the spirit is the term the bible uses for a set of character traits — the most famous list is in Galatians chapter 5 where it goes like this: love, joy, peace, patience.

An Impatient Culture

Now, patience is the character trait we are going to look at tonight. We live in a culture that does not value patience. It is almost a culture of impatience.

You know, if you have a computer, they are making billions of dollars and it powers up in 5 seconds. Another computer comes along and does all the same functions and powers up in 3 seconds. You realize the first computer will go out of business soon, it will go bankrupt.

If a company comes along and can get it to you in 3 days and another company can get it to you in 2 days, the first business will be out of business. In a sense, the economy cultivates impatience. It encourages impatience, and we punish those people who can’t give us those extra 3 seconds we need when we are powering up the computer.

New York City really is the epicenter of impatience. We are very very hurried. A niece of ours lived with us this summer — never lived in New York before — and came home one day saying, “New Yorkers run up escalators.” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “That defeats the whole purpose of an escalator. The purpose of an escalator is the escalator does it for you.” I said, “Oh, yes, escalators are wonderful, but for New Yorkers they are too slow.” They’re too slow; I want to be up there faster than the escalator takes me.

I actually heard an ad on WNYC, which is a local public New York radio station, and the ad started like this, the woman said, “I’m a New Yorker; so I don’t like to wait.” Then she went on to sell whatever the product was. At the time, I was working on a sermon on impatience and I said, “There it is.”

We live in a culture that does not value patience, but, of course, all ancient cultures did. All ancient cultures valued patience. Impatient people were shallow. People who didn’t take time to think about things were shallow. Impatient people are reckless. Impatient people make stupid choices. Impatient people miss all sorts of opportunities. Isn’t that right? And, isn’t it true that all of us, certainly by the time you get to middle-age, have some painful memories about the times where our impatience really brought about a big loss in our lives.

So yes, patience is important — even though we live in a culture that does not really value it.

This passage will tell us about how we can get patience. And, it’s written by James. James was the biological brother of Jesus and he was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He wrote this letter and in part of the letter, as you just heard read, he is exhorting patience. And, as we read it we are going to learn several things. We are going to learn what patience is. We are going to learn why it’s so crucial. And, we are going to get some ideas about how to develop it. What it is, why it’s so important, and how to develop it.

2 Kinds of Patience

Alright, first of all, what it is. Now, you notice the passage is basically divided into 2 small parts. The first 2 paragraphs each use a different word for patience and they also use a different illustration.

Patience With People

The first verses, 7-9, he uses the illustration of a farmer. And, farmers show patience. Why? Because farmers plant and they don't expect a harvest right away. Farmers also can't reap too soon; so it’s an example of patience.

The greek word used in verses 8 and 9 is makrothumia — which literally means longsuffering.

An example of the opposite, an example of the lack of patience is immediately mentioned in verse 9, grumbling. “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters.” That’s a lack of patience, don’t grumble. What’s grumbling? When people are frustrating or disappointing to you, how do you respond? Grumbling can be done outwardly, but in many cases you just do it inside. Grumbling is responding to people who disappoint or frustrate you with resentment, negativity, or cynicism.

Now, why is that a failure of longsuffering? Why is grumbling a lack of patience? Here’s a reason, grumbling means you’ve given up on people. Instead of continuing to love them and care for them you give up on them and write them off. This is really important to see. Most of us can recognize a real grudge. Most of us recognize when we hate somebody. If someone upsets us and we get angry with them and we have a grudge, that’s one thing and that’s bad of course. That’s also a lack of patience. But grumbling is much more broad, subtle, and common. Therefore, grumbling is much more dangerous.

You see, grumbling means that because of the way someone has frustrated you or disappointed, disillusioned, or infuriated you, you’ve written them off. You are not longsuffering, you are detached. You are not sticking with them. You are cynical about them. You are grumpy about them.

Listen, is there anybody that when they come into your sight or you see them again, you inwardly say, “Grrrrr, him, her.” What do you think that is? That’s a serious lack of patience. You’ve given up on them. It’s a serious lack of love. That’s why impatience is wrong, it’s a serious lack of love.

So, first of all, this aspect of patience is patience with people. Patience is when people are frustrating and disappointing to you, you don't give up on them. You forgive them and you are gracious to them. But that’s not all of what patience is.

Patience With Circumstances

One aspect of patience is patience with disappointing and difficult people, but the second paragraph shows us another aspect of patience. “Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You’ve heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought him.”

Now, Job is the example here, not the farmer. Job was a biblical character and Job’s problem was not so much about how he was being treated by people. His problem was how he was being treated by life and God. He didn’t experience difficult people, he experienced tragic circumstances. There was a disaster that wiped out all his wealth and another disaster that wiped out all his children. Then he got a disease and lost his health. He lost his health, children, and wealth. That’s Job.

This kind of patience is a different greek word and notice the english translators reflect this by using a different english word. Here they are talking about perseverance. You have seen those who have persevered. You’ve heard of Job’s perseverance. The word is hupomone which means to hyper-stand in place. Let me give you an example. It would be like being in a battle and your commanding officer says, “You stand right there.” And so you occupy that position and no matter what happens, what they throw at you, or how fierce the attack, you cannot retreat. You cannot give ground. You cannot even lose a step because if the enemy gets beyond you, everything is lost. The town is lost and the army is lost. Something like that. You have to stand there and fight and you cannot give in no matter what! That’s hupomone, that’s hyper-stand.  

One aspect of patience is patience with difficult people, the other aspect is patience with difficult circumstances. When circumstances are terrible, when life goes wrong, when circumstances are disappointing and infuriating, patience is to unflinchingly live the way you ought to live and do the things you ought to do — be the person you ought to be anyway. To hyper-stand is to stay put and not give up.

So here’s the 2 aspects of patience according to James. Patience includes patience with people, responding to difficult people with forgiveness and grace. And, patience is also patience with difficult circumstances and the will of God, responding when circumstances are difficult with courage and trust. Those are the 2 aspects of patience.

Why Patience Is So Crucial

Now, why is this such a big deal? Why does James make this such a big deal? And, it is a big deal. By now, at the common sense level, most people would be thinking, “ok, patience is a good thing and impatience is a bad thing. When you are impatient you can make some stupid mistakes. Yeah, at the practical level, I would like to be patient.” But James does not treat patience as something that is just impractical. James depicts this as a terrible evil and sin. In verse 9 it says not to grumble against one another or you will be judged! He says we will be condemned for our impatience!

You say, “Jee wiz, is impatience really that bad?” Yes, here’s why it’s so bad and serious. Every hour of every day you are going to people and circumstances that are frustrating, disappointing, disillusioning, and infuriating. You are going to be very disappointed or infuriated every day with something or someone. Sometimes it’s going to be every hour. And, when it happens you have to respond in your heart. And, there’s only one of 2 ways to respond when disappointing things happen: you can either trust God or trust yourself.

What does that mean? You can either trust God’s timing, schedule, wisdom or you can trust your timing, your schedule, and what you think should happen. But what does that actually sound like in your heart? Here’s what it sounds like. When really bad stuff happens you talk to yourself and you say, “The Lord he knoweth. The Lord is wise. The Lord is good. I would have never chosen this for myself, but he is. He knows what he’s doing, and I don’t.”

Elizabeth Eliot, in one of her books, writes this about what you say to your heart, “God is God. If he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service, and I will find rest nowhere but in his will. And, that will is infinitely and unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.”

Here’s what she’s saying. If I don’t learn how to trust God in this, I’ll find no rest. Only if I believe I know what God is doing, he’s wiser than me, he knows infinitely, I don’t know what should happen. Only if you humble yourself, because impatience is a huge lack of humility. Only if you humble yourself and say, “I don’t know. Only God knows. God is God and I will find rest nowhere except in his will, and his will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.” So you can speak to your heart like that and you know what will happen? You will become calm and find peace and rest.

Now, the other thing you can do when bad things happen — instead of trusting God — is you can trust yourself, your wisdom, and what you think should happen. What does this look like? When bad things happen you don’t say, “I’m going to trust myself.” You don’t say that. What you say is this. “Not again! That’s not fair! I can’t believe it! I deserve better than this. What does he or she think they are doing?” That’s what it sounds like to trust yourself.

You say, “But that’s my typical internal conversation.” Yes, of course it is. You know what everyone deserves. You know what should have happened. You know exactly what has to happen, otherwise it’s just a disaster.

Every day you are presented with people and circumstances where you have to either trust God or trust yourself and that leads to something. Trusting God leads, eventually, to rest, calm, peace, the ability to forgive. But the more you choose to trust yourself the more you are filled with resentment, self-pity, cynicism, anxiety, restlessness, with ulcers, and eventually heart-attacks.

Do you see why this is so important? Every day and every hour you have the choice of going down one path or the other. And, the path is invisible. It happens in your heart. It doesn't happen out in the world. The grumbling typically doesn't even show on your face. The cynicism and self-absorption from everything that is going wrong typically happens all inside. Yet all those little decisions every day toward more self-absorption, unhappiness,  and self-centeredness— toward what C.S. Lewis calls the hell of eternal autobiography. Constantly looking at yourself and what you are getting — always thinking about yourself.

Do you see why patience is so important? Whether you are going to be patient or impatient with the circumstances of today is a battle for your soul and it’s happening inside. And, I must tell you one other thing. Your heart is not on your side. Your heart is not neutral in this. Your heart will naturally go in the direction of self-pity and thinking you know what is best or should happen. Your heart does not have humility and it will take you down.

No one has ever depicted the place where this takes you better than C.S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce. It’s a work of fiction and I refer to it often because it’s full of case studies that are great for sermon illustrations. It’s a story about a bus full of people from hell who go to the outskirts of heaven. The people who are in heaven who knew these people from hell come out and invite the people from hell to go into heaven. Most of the people from hell don't even want to go into heaven for various reasons. C.S. Lewis doesn’t think this has or will ever happen, but he uses this story to say some penetrating things about the human heart.

In the book there are 2 narrators who are talking about all these cases, and there is one case in particular that is important for what we are talking about tonight. There is one woman and she’s from hell and meets up with another woman from heaven who comes down to try and invite her into heaven. But she doesn’t even hear the invitation because she won’t stop talking.

She says, “Oh my, I’ve had such a dreadful time. I don’t even know how I even got here at all. I was coming with that Elenore Stone. We were supposed to meet at the corner of Sink Street and I made it perfectly plain because I knew that if I wasn’t plain with her I would have to meet with her outside that dreadful woman Bank’s house. After all the ways she’s treated me, I’ve wanted to tell you because I’m sure you’d tell me I acted rightly. No, no, I’m not done. I tried living with her when I first came down there and it was all fixed up, she was going to do all the cooking and I was going to look after the house. I thought I was going to be comfortable after all I went through but she turned out to be so absolutely selfish — not a particle of sympathy for anyone except herself.”

And she keeps talking until she’s out of earshot. The 2 commentators hear her say this and the first one says, “I’m troubled because it seems to me that that soul isn’t the type of soul that is in damnation. She isn’t wicked. She’s only a silly old woman whose gotten into the habit of grumbling.” The question came back. “Well, the question is whether she is grumbling or just a grumble.” “How can there be a grumble without a grumbler?” he responded. The answer came back, “You’ve had this experience. It begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself so distinct from it — perhaps even criticizing it. You can still repent and come out of it at that point, but there may come a day where you can do that no longer and then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even enjoy it. It’s just the grumble going on and on forever, like a machine.”

Self-pity feeds on itself and anger feeds on itself. Eventually, you get to the point where you cannot hear anything except your own autobiography. And, what Lewis is saying is that it’s bad enough that people get locked into a prison of self-reference in this life — becoming impatient, self-absorbed, and always unhappy. Even in this life you can be a miserable person, but what if when you die your soul keeps on going, which is what the bible teaches. Eventually it will be hell and your heart is already inclined in that direction. Your heart is not on your side.

Every time something bad happens you have the choice to trust yourself or trust God and trusting yourself is the path to this and your heart is going there unless there is an intervention.

Developing Patience

So what are we going to do about it? How can we develop patience if it’s that important? Here’s what we can do about it. I want you to see 3 hints here on how you can develop patience. You develop patience in the present by looking to the past and looking to the future.

The Present

First of all, you develop patience in the present but where? Well, who is our illustration here? It’s Job. He learned patience and perseverance. Why? Because he was suffering, and, from what I can tell, that’s the only way to learn patience — through suffering. But you don’t learn patience from suffering just by being stoic and having a stiff upper lip. That’s not learning patience, it’s hardening your heart.

If you want to see how patience it developed in suffering, look at Psalm 77 sometime. It’s not one of the more famous Psalms, at all, but it’s a really instructive Psalm. The Psalmist starts out by describing all the problems he sees and then suddenly he says, “but I will meditate.” He’s freaking out and then he says, “I will meditate” — which means that hard things are happening but I’m going to process them through prayer and meditation. I’m going to think about the truth of God until I get patient. You say, “What truth?” Ok, let’s move on to the past and the future.

The Past

In particular, I’m talking about the cross. If you want to learn patience, look at Job but also look at the one to whom Job points. Job was an innocent sufferer, sort of. When I say, “sort of” I mean Job wasn’t perfect, but he was better than most. You could put it like this. Job was living a better than average moral life, but he a worse than average circumstantial life. His circumstances were worse than average and his moral life was better than average. So he had a right to complain. “You know I’m living a better than average moral life, but I’m experiencing a worse than average life. That’s not fair.” And, it wasn’t fair, and he wrestled with that. So you could say he’s a relatively innocent sufferer. He did not deserve the life he was having.

But only Jesus Christ is the true Job because only Jesus Christ is the absolutely perfectly innocent sufferer. Only Jesus lived a perfect life, only Jesus was totally innocent, only Jesus loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and loved his neighbor as himself fully and completely. Only Jesus Christ deserved a great life and he got a terrible life. He was misunderstood. He was poor. He was rejected. He was betrayed and denied. And, finally, he was arrested and on trial for trumped up charges, tortured, and killed. Even his father abandoned him.

But through all that agony and pain Jesus was perfectly patient. He was the only innocent sufferer. You see, Jesus was the true Job. He was the only one who deserved a great life and got a terrible life, but during that time he was perfectly patient, absolutely patient. Why? You might say that all the forces of darkness and evil were coming down on him and he stood his ground. It’s almost like he knew that we were behind him and if the darkness and evil got past him we would be lost and so he obeyed. He said, “Not my will but yours be done.” There’s patience.  

He was honest, “Father let this cup pass from me, but not my will but yours be done.” There’s patience. He stood his ground, hyper-standing. All the forces of darkness came down and he didn’t flinch an inch. He went to the cross; he obeyed his father. And on the cross when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” that’s not, by the way, a defiant complaint — it’s the agony of lost love.

So why did he do it? Why was he perfectly patient? Read the book of Job. Job learned patience by the end, but throughout the book he is impatient. He was doing lots of impatient things like insulting God and railing against God. Oh my word! Job only learned patience at the end. He was blessed because of God’s mercy; he didn’t earn that blessing.

But why was Job forgiven for his impatience? Why can you and I be forgiven for our impatience? Here’s why. When Jesus went to the cross he died for our sins. He took the punishment we deserve. That’s the general, but let me give it to you more specifically. Jesus Christ, through his perfect patience, atoned for our impatience so that the Father can be endlessly patient with us, never giving up on us, never letting us down, or pulling back from us — even when we fail him.

Jesus Christ, through his perfect patience, atoned for our impatience so that God can be infinitely patient with us. You talk about longsuffering, look at Jesus Christ. Oh my goodness! You talk about holding his ground — even when all the forces of darkness were coming down. Now, take that and meditate on it. When troubles are happening take that and what you can think is this: if Jesus Christ was perfectly patient when God was actually abandoning him and he did it for me, then I can be patient in these situations for him.

If you see Jesus Christ atoning for your impatience and saving you through his infinite patience, ultimate suffering, the true Job, that will make you into someone who can be patient and not afraid. Jesus, through his perfect patience, atoned for you so God could be infinitely patient with you to the end — no matter how you live. Even when you fall down he will be patient with you because Jesus did that. If you meditate on that, it will send you down the right road toward that right end state.

Whenever I say, “Look patience means you are forgiving and gracious to difficult people and you are also courageous and trusting of God in circumstances,” people say, “How do I do that? Why should I trust a God who allows such suffering in the world? Why should I trust him?” Because that’s the essence of patience.

Johnny Erickson, who is a Christian quadriplegic, suffered a lot. This is what she says, “Jesus is worth trusting. Period. End of argument. After all, when they hang you on a cross like meat on a hook, you have the final word on suffering.”

This God did not stay in heaven and just sort of look down and kind of plan our lives. No, he comes into the world and he’s hung on a hook like a piece of meat on the cross. He knows what our suffering is like. He cares about us; don’t say you can’t trust him. Look at him, look at Jesus Christ trusting God under infinite pressure for you. That will make it possible for you to trust Jesus Christ when you are under finite pressure.

The Future

And, here’s one more thing. Here’s how you develop patience. When troubles happen, you meditate and pray. Meditate first of all on what Jesus Christ did in the past, but, lastly, what he’s doing in the future. He’s coming again. Be patient because the Lord is coming. Why is that an encouragement? Oh, to know how it ends!

Listen, I’m going to make a confession and I know some of you are going to be mad at me, and then I’m going to defend myself with God. Ok, watch, nothing is up my sleeve. When I’m reading a novel, I like to read the ending before I read the novel. Why? I want to know who’s alive, who's dead, and how things work out. I don’t like the suspense. If I know how it ends, I can handle it; I don’t get upset or nervous.

Some of you artist types will say, “That’s terrible. You know, we work hard to craft these narratives; you need to read it the right way.” Ok, here’s my defense. God does it too. You say, “What does it mean that God does it too?” He tells you that in the end he’s going to come back and he’s going to heal the whole world. Resurrection from the dead. He’s going to make everything right. You trust in him and all the deepest desires of your heart will be fulfilled on that day. On that day every injustice will be put right.

He tells you the ending of the novel! What’s the novel? The history of the world. He tells you the ending so that you can handle the suspense of the middle part. Yeah, it’s tough and it’s difficult, but you know that in the end justice will be done. You know in the end you will be fulfilled, and that’s the reason he says to be patient. Why? Because the Lord is coming.

So think of it like this. Do you want to be patient? I’m trying to show you that patience is of the essence. It’s a battle for your heart every day — the struggle between patience and impatience. Do you want a happy life? You need to learn how to be patient.

How do you get patience? One is you look at God the creator and let it humble you because impatience is a lack of humility. Say, “I don’t know.” Secondly, look at God not just as creator but as redeemer, atoning for you through the cost of the cross. That warms your heart to love for others because impatience is also a lack of love — a lack of love for God and a lack of love for other people. But, thirdly, look forward. Get enough hope. Realize that everything is going to be ok in the end because impatience is also a lack of hope. It’s a lack of humility, it’s a lack of love, and it’s a lack of hope. But God is creator, God is redeemer, and God is coming again as the world healer. Meditate on that when you face troubled times and you will become a person of patience.

One of the ways you can talk to your heart is to meditate on a hymn by William Cooper. Memorize it so you can say it to yourself. Let me read you just the last part of it. “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to error and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.”

Let’s pray. Our Father, we need patience but we see that patience is hard. It takes fighting. It takes reminding ourself about God the creator. You being the redeemer. You being the world healer. We have to look to the past to Jesus Christ, the true and ultimate Job, the only innocent sufferer whose patience saved us. And, we look at that and we think about the future and our blessed hope and we know that if we bring to bear all these things in our hearts we can learn patience and we can keep ourselves from moving down into the hell of eternal autobiography. We ask that you would help us in all these ways. We ask that you would make us patient people looking to the one who was patient for us and with us, Jesus Christ, and it is in his name we pray. Amen.

Resources

Sermon: Tim Keller, Patience