The Ability To Go Through Trials And Troubles Without Complaining
“and to temperance patience”
Hebrews 10:36
I. Introduction
A.
Faith gets us into
God’s family, and forms the
foundation upon all the rest of our life
B.
Virtue keeps us from
getting trapped and
defeated by sin by having limits to how we now will live
C.
Knowledge gives me
answers for the problems I go
through, and for the uncertainties in those troubles – in other words, if I
could just KNOW some things, the devil cannot scare me and easily defeat me!
D. Adding temperance brings me under God’s control when I want to do wrong!
E. But I still need something more – and it is patience, because this old flesh does not yield fast enough, and this brain does learn fast enough, and this heart doesn’t yield far enough, and prayers don’t get answered fast enough
F. Patience – not frustration is what I will direct towards each and every one of my troubles and trials, and I will find strength in waiting on the Lord
II. What is Biblical Patience? (Pr 13:12) What does the Bible teach about patience?
A. Patience – It is a hard word to live!
B. We easily understand its meaning – in simple words, it means waiting, and not getting upset while we are waiting! That’s patience!
C. The opposites of patience are: haste, stress, worry, anxiety
D. Signs of impatience include: irritability, on edge, stressed-out, frustration
E. Somebody described it this way: "Patience is the quality that does not surrender to circumstances, or succumb under trial; it is the opposite of despondency and is always associated with hope.”
F. Delay is something that we don't like to endure. When we want something, or expect something, we want it, and we want it now! Actually we wanted it 10 minutes ago! We live in the most impatient generation ever!
1. How many times has your impatience got you in trouble? Have you ever made a wrong choice because of impatience? Ever jumped into something in a moment of impatience? Bought something you knew you should have prayed about before hand?
2. As a Christian, we should be patient. Some people seem to have this naturally, most of us don’t. If we Christians have any patience in our lives, it will have to be because of the Holy Spirit. Most of the time, most of us are revving our engines and “stripping our gears” to get going when we ought to be patient, and waiting on clear signals from God.
G. Truth - Patience is a result - a fruit - of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- Galatians 5:22-23.
1. The moment you became a Christian, the Holy Spirit began a divine work to produce Christ's character in you. Regardless of who you are, the Spirit works from the same model, Jesus Christ. The Spirit looks to Christ in order to find the blueprint for your character.
2. The Spirit will immediately begin helping you experience and practice the same love that Jesus had when He laid down His life for His friends.
3. The same joy He experienced will now fill you.
4. The identical peace that guarded the heart of Jesus, even as He was being beaten and mocked, will be the peace that the Spirit works to instil in you.
5. The patience Jesus had for His most unreachable disciple will be the patience that the Spirit now develops in you.
6. The kindness Jesus showed toward children and sinners will soften your heart toward others.
7. There will be a goodness about you that is only explainable by the presence of the Spirit of God.
8. The Spirit will build the same faithfulness into you that led Jesus to be entirely obedient to His Father. T
9. he Spirit will teach you self-control so that you will have strength to do what is right and to resist temptation.
10. All of this is as natural as the growth of fruit on a tree. You do not have to orchestrate it on your own. It automatically begins the moment you become a believer.
11. How quickly it happens depends upon how completely you yield yourself to the Holy Spirit's activity.
III. The Difficulties of Patience
A. Patience is not in our nature – it is not natural to be patient
B. Patience must be learned – like a class in Algebra – not easy thing to pick up
C. Patience is ONLY developed by troubles, and delays, and disappointments – not by just reading a book about it, or hearing a lecture about it
D. Patience is a humiliating attitude, not a confident attitude – you will look like you don’t know what to do – while everyone else is just grabbing a piece of the pie, you are waiting for God’s direction in your life, and His blessing
IV. The Work of Patience (James 1:2-4)
A. It Perfects us – Polishes us – is supposed to remove the rough edges
1. Without patience, love has no foundation – love must endure to be true
2. Without patience, life becomes just a string of disappointments instead of a series of steps to Christ-likeness
3. Without patience, prayer becomes DEMANDS only instead of requests
4. Without patience, child-rearing becomes drudgery and depressing – you have to patiently teach them, and love them, and stay on them
5. Without patience, the Bible becomes long and hard when reading
6. Without patience in soul-winning, souls to you will become unworthy and deserving of hell in your eyes – “if he doesn’t want the Gospel, then he deserves hell!”
B. It Proves Us – proves that we are for real
C. It Pleases God – Paul and Silas were at rest, even though in prison – so they sang and preached and enjoyed the evening (Acts 16) – and bare fruit!
V. The Ways God has Designed Patience to Work on Us (Rom 8:28)
A. Through Troubles (Rom 5:3,4)
1. Family troubles – deep, hurtful troubles make a better person out of you, if you see PATIENCE at work instead of the devil! AMEN!
2. Financial troubles – they may completely break you, but usually, that is what you needed – don’t get mad at God, and at the world – get another job and WORK, and let PATIENCE reign instead of bitterness
3. Friend troubles – maybe lost friends, and are alone for a while… let it be for good – let God speak to you, just to you!
4. Physical troubles – you get upset, but the Lord is most assuredly working on you – you just need to be PATIENT! Be a patient and let God work!
5. Folly troubles – that’s where we get into trouble because of sin in our lives – and we have to learn to patiently re-earn trust, and patiently work through what brought us down, and patiently keep getting up and going on for God
B. Through Time – lots of it (James 5:7; Eccl 3:10)
1. The older we get, the more we see how MUCH time it took to change us
2. And now, many of us wish we had so much more time to be changed
3. Let the Lord take as much time as He thinks necessary like He did with Abraham (25 years)!!!
4. Without patience you will miss what God has planned for you (Jer 29:11-13) – THAT is the real need of patience – most Christians lose out on what God has in store because they won’t patiently wait for God to bring things to pass (Ps 37:5)
C. Through constant Testings (James 1:12)
1. Like in school – God constantly will be testing to see if you are really growing in your patience, or becoming impatient and bitter and cold!
2. For most of us, it doesn’t take much testing to find out how far we have to go!
3. God gives us tests to make us BETTER Christians, not BITTER Christians (1 Peter 1:7; Job 23:10)
VI. Examples of Patience AND Impatience
A. Job (James 5:11; Job 1:20-22)
B. Abraham (Heb 6:13-15) – got impatient, yes, but he DID receive the promise of God for a son named Isaac
C. Noah had to be patient for one hundred and twenty years or he would have given-up. Think about it. We don’t know if Noah knew how to saw straight or even nail straight when God told him to build that ark. So part of these years may have been learning periods for Noah.
D. Joseph lived many years in slavery and separation from his family. He could have visited them while he was in charge of Egypt but he was where God had placed him and God blessed his patience.
E. Jesus (1Peter 2:23) – perfect patience and rest through everything
F. Israel at Mount Sinai (Ex 32:1) – rushed back into idolatry
G. Mary and Martha gave up on Jesus because He did not rush to come heal their brother, Lazarus (John 11)
VII. Areas that Need Lots of Patience
A. Tribulation – When you are going through the valleys and the battles, and the troubles of life, learn to wait on those troubles to pass (1Peter 2:20,21) – they will pass
B. Delays – When heaven is silent, learn to wait on the Lord (Ps 27:14) and on answers to prayer (Ps 40:1) – He WILL answer
C. Injustices – when things just aren’t going right – you need patience, and wisdom to know what to do without being destructive and too aggressive
D. Battles – When you feel like someone/everyone is not interested, wait on them to respond to the Gospel (2Tim 2:24-26), pray for them, and press them again another time
E. Giving-up – when you feel like everything is against you, make sure you just patiently wait on the Lord to Come (2Thes 3:5) – He will not be 1 second late
VIII. How to Add Patience to Your Attitude
A. Let God Develop it in you - Allow God to put you through the hard times
B. Learn to pray through the trials – run your race with patience (Heb 12:1,2)
C. Work patiently (Hebrews 10:36) The only time that “success” ever comes before “work” is in the dictionary.
1. If we are going to build this church, we must do it patiently
2. If you are going to win a soul, you have to do it patiently
3. If you are going to read and study your Bible and learn your Bible, you will only do it patiently
4. If you are going to get victory of sin in your life, you will only do it patiently!
D. Thank God for everything – especially IN the trials (1Thes 5:18)
E. Look ahead (Heb 11:16) – not back, or down
F. Desire the Crown – there is a reward for Christian Patience (James 1:12)
IX. Conclusion
A. Have you ever felt like God was taking too long – way too long?
B. The truth is, Yes, He is taking HIS time, but He is working all things out beautifully
C. Thankfully, there are some serious Rewards for waiting.
1. Waiting for the right marriage partner
2. Waiting for the completion of school – don’t rush ahead
3. Waiting for yourself to grow-up – don’t get impatient
D. What does patience do for you?
1. Waiting renews our strength. Don’t let stress rob it of you again
2. Waiting prepares us for another race
3. Waiting teaches us to trust God
4. Waiting shows the world you are a strong Christian
E. God has a plan and purpose in making us wait. Though we may not understand why. It is best not to rush the washing machine. Don't skip any cycles. A Christian song writer said “we'll understand it all by and by!” Another said, “Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand, but I know who holds tomorrow, and I know He holds my hand.”
F. Have you made you reservation for heaven? Are you sure your ticket is right?
G. Salvation is not something to be laid-back about – your sins are serious in God’s sight, and need to be dealt with before it is eternally too late!
Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church,
Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland