WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.600 So we're in a series on the fruit of the Spirit, if you've been with us, and we've 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:11.720 looked at love and joy and self-control out of order a bit. And the fruit of the 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:16.760 Spirit, it's in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, the passage we read at the beginning. And 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:23.320 the fruit of the Spirit are, well, they're a description of a character 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:28.679 that's been shaped by the gospel. And we've said a couple times already that if 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:34.119 you notice in Galatians 5, it's the fruit of the Spirit. And the word fruit 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:42.399 there is singular because it's one fruit in many forms. It's from Psalm 1, this 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:47.039 person, this person who bears fruit is a tree. You're a tree planted by streams of 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:54.560 water and you yield fruit singular in many different forms in season. And the 00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:02.640 first one, love, agape in Greek, that is the fruit of the Spirit. And the rest, 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:09.439 joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, these, the, agape, 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:16.240 agape, love, it is the perfection of all the virtues. So what we're looking at is 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:21.680 the one fruit-bearing person here. They all grow together or they all wither 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:29.320 together and die together. And one of these branches on this fruit tree is 00:01:29.320 --> 00:01:36.000 patience. So let's dive right into patience. We're gonna ask what is 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.200 patience, what's the opposite and the counterfeit of patience, and how do we get 00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:50.160 it and grow in it? So what is it? The word patience pops up 21 times in the ESV 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:54.319 translation, the translation we usually read from here, but it's different 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:57.599 depending on what English Bible you might be reading, and that's because 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:02.799 there are a lot of different Greek and Hebrew, Old Testament Hebrew terms and 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:07.920 Greek New Testament terms that get translated into the word patience. And so 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:12.039 it's a little bit tricky actually because the different words in Hebrew and 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:16.680 Greek have different senses, different ideas behind them, but there are 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:22.240 mainly two that the Bible focuses on, two senses of this word patience. And the 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:28.800 first is a little word called hypomonade. It's in Romans 8, 25 is one of the 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:35.080 main places you see it, and there Paul has been talking about the sufferings of 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:39.960 the present age that we all can feel and see, the sufferings of pain and death and 00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:47.159 whatever else. And he says, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:52.960 it with patience, hypomonade, this one sense of patience. And what he's talking 00:02:52.960 --> 00:03:03.040 about there is a sacred holy waiting. Well, Samwise Gamgee said it very well 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:10.959 when Frodo was looking at a destroyed gondor in the return of the king and 00:03:10.959 --> 00:03:16.560 without hope to carry the ring any further. And Sam said this, it's like in 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:21.919 the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered, full of darkness and 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:26.959 danger they were, and sometimes you did not want to know the end. Because how 00:03:26.959 --> 00:03:31.439 could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:38.120 much bad had happened? But in the end it is only a passing thing, this shadow. 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:42.359 Even darkness must pass, a new day will come, and when it comes the sun will 00:03:42.359 --> 00:03:47.639 shine out all the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:52.560 something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think I do understand 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:57.879 why now Mr. Frodo. The folks in those stories, they had all the chances to 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:03.280 turn back, but they never did. They were holding on to something, something worth 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:10.400 fighting for. Patience for Paul in Romans 8 and a lot of other places in the 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:19.240 Bible is sacred waiting for the return of the king. It's holding on in the midst 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:25.800 of the shadow, waiting for Christ to come back. And so that's one of the primary 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:29.720 senses of patience throughout the Bible. We're not talking about that one 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:36.400 tonight. That's for another day. Because in Galatians 5 they use a different 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:40.600 word and a different concept, a different sense to the word patience. In 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:45.480 Galatians 5-22 it's a very, it's a entirely different Greek word and a 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:50.040 group of words that surround it. And the old, in the old English, in the King 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:54.960 James Version, the idea of patience that's being talked about in Galatians 5 is 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:59.039 often called forbearance, if you're familiar with that older way of speaking, 00:04:59.039 --> 00:05:04.199 forbearance. And that means at the surface, well it's the normal sense of 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:09.719 patience that we all think of at a more popular level, it's the ability to 00:05:09.719 --> 00:05:16.199 remain calm and sober and equal and collected when you're being sinned 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:24.919 against. So we read from 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 Corinthians 13-4 Paul says he 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:31.759 defines it. He says the fruit of the Spirit, love, agape, is patient. And it's 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:38.360 the same word that he uses in Galatians 5-22, macrothemia, love is macrothemia, 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:44.560 it's patient. And then he goes on to say he defines it. He says it's bearing with 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:52.800 other people. In other words he's saying patience, this sense of patience is the 00:05:52.800 --> 00:06:04.800 ability to not be easily frustrated. But there's a principle definition 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.759 in the Bible for this idea of patience, this sense of patience. There's a 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:15.080 principle phrase that describes it and it's mostly in the Old Testament. And the 00:06:15.080 --> 00:06:18.960 Old Testament, the Hebrew scholars, when they translate the Old Testament they'll 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.159 use the word patience and a little phrase interchangeably. So sometimes in the 00:06:25.159 --> 00:06:28.000 Old Testament you'll see the word patient and sometimes you'll see this little 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:36.359 phrase and we read it in Proverbs 14, 29 and 30 and it's this, whoever is patient 00:06:36.359 --> 00:06:42.779 or sometimes it's translated like this, whoever is slow to anger has a great 00:06:42.779 --> 00:06:47.039 understanding. And so the principle definition, the principle idea of 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:53.680 patience, the patience of Galatians 5-22, the fruit of the Spirit is being slow to 00:06:53.680 --> 00:07:05.000 anger is the definition in the Bible. Now Jesus in Matthew 18, 23 and 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:13.720 following, he's sitting there and Peter comes to him and Peter says, my Lord, how 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:19.360 many times should I forgive somebody when they sin against me? And Peter says, is 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:24.220 it seven times? Which for Peter was a lot, that was a full number corresponding to 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:28.180 each of the days of the week, right? All week long in other words is what Peter 00:07:28.180 --> 00:07:37.300 was saying. And Jesus says, no, you should forgive 77 fold. Now sometimes it's 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:43.840 ambiguous, it can either say, it either says 77 fold or 70 times 7 and you'll 00:07:43.840 --> 00:07:51.639 see it both ways but Jesus says 77 fold and I think it's 77 fold because the 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:56.379 commentators will tell you there that what Jesus is doing is he's referencing 00:07:56.379 --> 00:08:05.759 Genesis chapter 4 when Lamech, one of the sons of Cain, it says of Lamech in 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:11.120 Genesis chapter 4, the sons of Cain, that anyone who did anything to him, he 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:17.519 would return vengeance 77 fold and it says that when someone would strike him, 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:24.360 he would murder them and return vengeance 77 fold. And so Jesus is saying 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:29.480 here to Peter, how many times should you forgive? Well, Lamech returned vengeance 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:36.200 77 fold and just as much as Lamech showed vengeance to people who acted against 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:39.680 him, so you should show forgiveness in the same manner. In other words, one 00:08:39.680 --> 00:08:45.560 commentator puts it like this, just as in those old days, there was no limit to 00:08:45.560 --> 00:08:51.159 the hatred and vengeance of Lamech, so among Christians there is to be no 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:57.120 limit to mercy and forgiveness. And so Jesus then says, let me tell you a story 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:02.279 to make sense of you when I make sense for you. He says there was a king and 00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:08.600 there was a man who owed the king 10,000 talents, which is well over like a 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:15.480 million plus pounds today, a lifetime's worth of money and it was past due and 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:22.320 the law at the time states that if you can't pay your debts, then you and your 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:26.519 family are to be sold into an as indentured servants into servants and so 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:32.399 the king turned and said sell sell the man and his family and the man falls upon 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:40.240 his knees and begs he says oh king show me macro themia show me your patience 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:47.240 show me your patience and the king says very well and he forgave the man his 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:53.559 debt and let him go in peace and that's the definition that's the definition of 00:09:53.559 --> 00:10:01.199 patience Jesus says. Patience is a willingness to pass over people's sins 00:10:01.199 --> 00:10:08.639 and to show mercy. It's slow to anger, quick to mercy. That's the definition of 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:16.399 patience in the Bible. Okay so secondly, what's its opposite and its counterfeit? 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:21.639 Well what's the opposite of patience? The opposite of patience is impatience. Easy 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:28.319 enough. Point three right? Well no it begs the question what is impatience? What 00:10:28.319 --> 00:10:34.559 is impatience? And we can go back to 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul says love is 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:41.559 patient and then he goes on and he says love is not irritable, it's not resentful, 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:48.960 it's not rude, it bears with the faults of others meaning that impatience is 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:56.240 quick to irritability, quick to resentfulness, quick to rudeness and an 00:10:56.240 --> 00:11:00.960 inability to bear with the faults of others. In other words it's being easily 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:09.280 annoyed, easily frustrated, it's a lack of agape is what Paul says and being 00:11:09.280 --> 00:11:16.080 irritable, prone to frustration, quick to rudeness, all of these are actually 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:22.320 categories of anger, their degrees of anger and that makes sense because we 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:27.560 saw that the Bible defines patience as being slow to anger, quick to mercy and 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:34.200 that means impatience then has to be what? It has to be quick to anger, slow to 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:39.560 mercy. Patience is slow to anger, quick to mercy and impatience is quick to 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:48.559 anger, slow to mercy. John Chrysostom he's a usually considered the best 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:53.119 preacher of the first 500 years of the church or something like that. He lived 00:11:53.119 --> 00:12:02.119 from 349 to 407 AD and he writes a lot about patience and anger and he says 00:12:02.119 --> 00:12:09.239 that the opposite of patience is anger and he says this he writes on anger 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:14.560 unrestrained by the patient heart and that's what he says he that is in a 00:12:14.560 --> 00:12:21.200 passion of anger is like a drunken man who is vomiting but even more than a 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:25.560 drunken man who is vomiting the angry man's veins are distended his eyes 00:12:25.560 --> 00:12:32.159 inflamed his bowels racked he vomits forth words far more filthy than that 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:38.039 food everything he utters is crude nothing is duly digested since his 00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:43.159 passions won't allow it. So Chrysostom is saying he's using a metaphor and he's 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:48.759 saying that just as when you're I was last Sunday if you happen to be here and 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:53.319 I'm sure Derek said it when you are sick and you you have to vomit your 00:12:53.319 --> 00:12:58.240 body will not not allow your body forces you to right the muscles push the 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:03.599 toxins out of your stomach and you don't have a choice and Chrysostom is saying 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:09.240 that the impatient person who has let their anger go uncontrolled for much of 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:15.960 their life gets into this situation where like the inability to control your 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:21.120 sickness you're unable to control your anger and when you're acted against in 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:25.040 an annoying frustrating situation or even in a situation where someone 00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:31.920 sins against you it rises up out of your control and what he's getting at there 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:40.919 is that impatient starts in small ways as being easily annoyed easily frustrated 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:46.639 the the eye rolls and things like that but it grows because these are all 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:50.959 small types of anger and anger is addictive and it gets bigger and bigger 00:13:50.959 --> 00:13:54.000 and this exactly what we learn we talked about this actually in our in our 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:00.839 wisdom series there's a proverb that's about just this Proverbs 1919 a man of 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:06.600 great wrath will pay the penalty for if you deliver him you will only have to do 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:11.560 it over and over and over again meaning that a man of great wrath will keep 00:14:11.560 --> 00:14:14.879 getting into the same situation over and over and over again because his anger 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:21.280 is uncontrollable I was heard a pastor this week illustrate a point about the 00:14:21.280 --> 00:14:26.920 addictive nature of anger in the impatient heart and he he read a letter 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:33.279 from a psychology today article and this was a letter to the editor a letter to 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:39.879 a counselor from a reader from a listener and he wrote this dear counselor 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:45.279 you told a mother last week that had a three-year-old with anger problems to 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.959 kick the furniture to let him get it out of his system we've all been there 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:58.280 before huh my younger brother used to kick the furniture when he got mad he is 00:14:58.280 --> 00:15:03.879 32 years old now and he still kicks the furniture what's left of it but he is 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:10.120 also kicking other things he's kicking his kids and his wife and anything else 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:16.080 that gets in his way and the person that was referencing that talked about how 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:20.360 the article discussed that how in the 60s and 70s in the psych psychology world 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:24.680 they were really emphasizing that in order to defeat anger you need to have 00:15:24.680 --> 00:15:28.399 these moments where you actually are allowed to let your anger out and you 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:32.039 kick the furniture you break something or whatever and then that of course the 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:36.600 counselors realized later what the Bible teaches us and Proverbs and that's that 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:39.759 it doesn't work at all like that because anger is addictive that's what 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:43.159 impatience grows and it rolls like a snowball and it gets worse and it 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:49.560 works worse and it's in the example that this writer is talking about here so the 00:15:49.559 --> 00:15:57.479 opposite of patience is a snowball of anger but wait a minute but wait a minute 00:15:57.479 --> 00:16:03.879 the counter what's the counterfeit and here's what we have to say if impa if 00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:10.359 patience is being slow to anger quick to mercy and impatience is being quick to 00:16:10.359 --> 00:16:17.039 anger and slow to mercy what we're not what we're not saying here is that 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:27.599 patience follow me wait for it patience is not not not anger in other words too 00:16:27.599 --> 00:16:33.360 many negatives and that's in us in other words the ideal a patient person is not a 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:41.519 person who never gets angry patient people a patient heart also gets angry 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:48.879 because what was the definition of patience slow to anger but not not angry 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:55.720 not never angry the patient person has to get it must get angry just listen to 00:16:55.720 --> 00:17:01.079 Paul in Ephesians 4 he says at the beginning of Ephesians 4 be entirely 00:17:01.079 --> 00:17:08.200 humble and gentle be patient bear with one another in love and then just a few 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:14.799 verses later this is what he says and be angry and do not sin so patience is 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:22.480 being slow to anger but it's not not being angry here's John Chrysostom again 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:27.360 talking in the same book about about patience and anger and he says this he 00:17:27.360 --> 00:17:36.400 who is not angry when there is a cause to be angry also sins for unreasonable 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:45.040 patience is the hotbed of many vices it fosters negligence and so look if the 00:17:45.040 --> 00:17:50.720 opposite of patience is inpatience and inpatience is being quick to anger the 00:17:50.720 --> 00:17:56.960 counterfeit of patience what might look like patience on the surface but isn't 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:04.080 patience at all is when a person never never gets angry never gets angry 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:11.839 because of a total passivity a total apathy in life that they always are 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:17.879 calm on on that they're never angry at all but and it's a result of apathy not 00:18:17.879 --> 00:18:23.759 love CS Lewis says it well that the ultimate form of hatred is not rage 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:32.240 but apathy apathy can masquerade as patience someone so calm never angry 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:35.440 about anything Lewis says if we don't get angry about anything then that means 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:40.960 we don't love anything and anyone who loves has to get angry sometimes and 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:45.200 that's why the definition of patience is not never getting angry but slow to 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:52.559 anger quick to mercy you know there's so much to be angry about isn't there 00:18:52.559 --> 00:19:05.960 there's so much to be angry about abortion for example and abuse frivolous 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:11.720 blasphemy of God in the pop culture so much there's so much for a Christian to 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:18.599 be angry about and so wisdom which we spent a long time on last semester with 00:19:18.599 --> 00:19:24.439 patient people truly patient people are wise because they know they're slow to 00:19:24.439 --> 00:19:31.639 anger but they know when to get angry and they know how to get angry and they 00:19:31.639 --> 00:19:35.599 know where to express anger and when to express anger and who to express anger 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:45.919 to Jesus again Jesus example you know Jesus would turn away a harsh word he 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:53.360 would turn away an insult with a gentle with gentleness he would say when you 00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:58.080 get slapped in the face be patient and turn the other cheek and give them the 00:19:58.080 --> 00:20:03.960 other side as well and then he would walk into the temple and he would flip 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:10.039 over the tables and chase out the moneylenders with a whip in his hand 00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:13.840 patience is not never getting angry it's being slow to angry quick to murder 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:17.759 it's being wise it's knowing when to when to get angry righteous anger 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:23.599 righteous anger does not create evil it dispels evil and that's exactly what 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:31.279 Jesus was doing in the temple he Jesus anger was never evil anger but it was 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:36.799 always anger that dispelled evil and so Paul gives it a simple phrase a simple 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:41.480 answer the patient person gets angry and when they do they speak the truth in 00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:47.720 love they speak the truth in love and they they do it in order to restore 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:52.039 restore the circumstance redeem the person and what that means is that 00:20:52.039 --> 00:21:00.360 patience means not is a big no to passive aggressive anger that hides itself 00:21:00.360 --> 00:21:06.079 under the surface appearing to be patient and creating deep tension in a 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:11.960 relationship over time and it's a deep no to losing one's temper on the other 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:18.319 side but it's a yes to anger that's pointed at dispelling evil to restoring 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:22.159 the circumstance for a person speaking the truth in love that comes out of a 00:21:22.159 --> 00:21:27.599 patient patient heart Paul Paul is saying okay so thirdly and finally and 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:35.359 briefly how do we get it how do we grow in it well look the first thing is that 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:38.559 it's the same thing that we've been doing saying with all the fruits of the 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:42.519 spirit and that's that when you when you go through the fruits of the spirit you 00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:52.319 have to be willing to evaluate yourself and ask what where am I here with 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:59.799 honesty with openness willingness to admit where we are with patience or 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:07.759 peace or joy or whatever it is and repent of our issues in that domain and we 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:14.919 may very well need to ask somebody else where we are because if you struggle 00:22:14.919 --> 00:22:20.359 with impatience and easily irritable easily annoyed quit to be frustrated 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:24.559 quick to be angry if it's snowballed and it's become something that's more 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.720 characteristic of a regular issue with anger in your life then it's so 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:33.600 incredibly hard to face up to it it's so incredibly hard for me to say to my 00:22:33.600 --> 00:22:37.400 wife that I know that I struggle with impatience as we're talking about this 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:45.759 afternoon just the question am I an ear and am I an irritable person man it's 00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:51.839 tough to say yes and be honest with ourselves if we are and so it's hard to 00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:56.440 own we need we need we might need help and there are people in our lives that 00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:04.400 can tell us that for sure secondly we have to look at God so we said from the 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:11.080 first week that the fruits of the spirit are the communicable attributes of God 00:23:11.080 --> 00:23:16.080 meaning this you know just like the the doctors will say that there are 00:23:16.080 --> 00:23:20.840 communicable diseases and you can communicable disease of course is one 00:23:20.840 --> 00:23:25.519 that you can catch and that's a bad thing but with God his communicable 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:29.400 attributes they're the attributes of God that you can catch that you can take 00:23:29.400 --> 00:23:32.879 hold of that you can get that can you can actually become like God you can 00:23:32.879 --> 00:23:36.599 truly be the image of God and the fruits of the spirit those are the communicable 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:41.839 attributes and from the beginning to the end of the Bible from Leviticus to Peter 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:50.480 we get this command be holy as I am holy and it's God saying look Christian take 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:56.599 take hold of the communicable attributes and fight for them and change and grow 00:23:56.599 --> 00:24:06.599 up into them and learn patience and here here's look at God Exodus 346 God 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:11.519 passed in front of Moses proclaiming the Lord the Lord compassionate and 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:18.360 gracious slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness compassionate and 00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:24.879 gracious God patient slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness he's 00:24:24.879 --> 00:24:32.159 a God of deep love and he's a God of deep patience he waited he he has he did 00:24:32.159 --> 00:24:40.559 not exhaust his anger on anybody he what he waited he waited he waits do you not 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:47.519 know that he shows his patience and kindness in order he waits that we might 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:52.440 repent that we might have a season to repent this is what God is like and so 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:59.920 be holy as I am holy we have to look at God but but thirdly and finally the the 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:05.000 only way we're gonna get to be holy to be like God as he is holy the only way is 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:11.680 that we actually have to first see the source of patience the source of patience 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:18.200 and you know we all know this we've all felt this that that patience which is 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:24.320 just the flip side of the coin of forgiveness means swallowing and 00:25:24.320 --> 00:25:31.759 absorbing people's sin against you people's irritability people's lack of 00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:37.400 social awareness of people's in hospitality people's rudeness and 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:41.519 resentment that's what patients it's swallowing it it's absorbing it it's 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:45.480 letting it go deep down into your gut and faith and and eating it yourself 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:51.480 taking it into your own body and absorbing the wrath and the anger from 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:59.160 other people that's what it is but how how could you possibly do it and just to 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:06.519 close we read from 1st Timothy 1 12 to 17 and that's Paul's little testimony to 00:26:06.519 --> 00:26:11.319 Timothy and he's addressing there the question that people are asking how do 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:16.559 I know that Jesus is trustworthy to save that he really can do what you're 00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:21.200 telling me he can do and that's forgive my sins and bring me into the hope of 00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:27.000 everlasting life and this is what Paul says Paul says let me just put it in 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:32.759 colloquial terms he says look let me tell you about what happened to me he says 00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:38.599 at the beginning verse 12 I deserved God's anger and then he goes on this 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:46.680 list of all the things he was he says I blasphemed in other words I used God's 00:26:46.680 --> 00:26:53.839 name as a curse and I looked at Jesus Christ and I said he is not God that's 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:59.240 what Paul saying I blasphemed him and then he says I persecuted and he's 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:04.519 referencing there acts 8 3 where he says I ravaged the church which is a Greek 00:27:04.519 --> 00:27:11.079 word that's always used for a wolf meaning I treated the church I went after 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:15.640 the church I went after Jesus Christ and anybody who claimed him like a like a 00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:22.440 with an animality with a ferocity like of a wolf hating them what he's talking 00:27:22.440 --> 00:27:28.640 about is an absolute impatience and he says in other words he murdered anybody 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:34.759 who would claim Jesus he murdered them and then he says I was the unyielding 00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:42.240 opponent of God he ridiculed the cross he pointed and spit and said you're a 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:49.080 joke he ridiculed the cross just like in Matthew 26 and then he says and here's 00:27:49.080 --> 00:27:57.240 why you can trust him because of me look look at did I did you hear what I who I 00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:03.160 was and he says I am literally the worst I was the worst and this is what he says 00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:09.319 verse 16 I received mercy for this reason this is why God has has given 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:14.519 me mercy for this reason that in me the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might 00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:23.640 display his perfect macro themia his his perfect patience see you think if you 00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:27.920 want if you want to know what patience looks like you look at me you know what 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:37.080 I was and you know that Jesus Christ used me to display perfect patience he was so 00:28:37.080 --> 00:28:43.200 slow to anger with me even when I pointed at him and spit at him and said 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:51.960 you're not God he he showed his perfect patience with me Jesus Christ was so 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:58.400 patient that on the cross he absorbed it all the very definition of patience 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:04.720 he absorbed it he swallowed every bit of it the blasphemy the hate the anger 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:13.200 the murder the unyielding opposition he swallowed it and it killed him and then 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:20.440 he conquered it and it's in the fact that he conquered it he conquered the 00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:28.160 impatience that you can be truly patient it's that victory the ground of that 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:35.759 victory that can truly make a person patient because he was patient first 00:29:35.759 --> 00:29:41.960 which means patience has an immense power it has a deep power to save that's 00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:49.160 exactly what the gospel is the patience of Jesus Christ to save and patience 00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:56.640 can patients can change other people's lives and your daily encounters it can 00:29:56.640 --> 00:30:02.320 it could be a shocking mercy in somebody's life when you show them deep 00:30:02.320 --> 00:30:09.800 deep patience slow to anger quick to forgive them it might bring them to faith 00:30:09.800 --> 00:30:15.519 let's pray father we ask now that you would give us all patience that we would 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:22.519 be slow to anger quick to forgive like the Lord Jesus Christ we pray for this 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:46.240 in Christ's name Amen