Exploring the Profound Concept of Patience in Scripture

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical

words that have great significance to our faith.

The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where

once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are

familiar with in scripture.

So come along with me.

Let's study the Word of the week.

Pastor Josh here.

The word of the week is patience.

I want to look at this word that we see in scripture quite frequently

and see what it means for us.

See what the Bible is saying when it tells us to have patience.

And sometimes the word patience is considered a bad word

to some people, right?

None of us necessarily enjoy exercising patience in our life.

But the true question is, what does the Bible have to say about

patience?

Because what the Bible says about patience is what God has to

say about patience.

And so patience in our culture is sometimes accepted only when things

are going our way.

But you know what?

The true test of patience is not when things are going our way,

because when things are going smoothly, just according to plan,

patience is easy to show in our life.

But the.

The true test of patience comes when we feel like there is

something being done negatively against us or we've been

wronged, or maybe we're just inconvenienced or we are in pain.

Maybe, maybe you could fill in the blank of, of why your patience

is hard to demonstrate in your life.

But really what we're seeing in that case is that our hearts are

holding the truth of what we really believe and who we really

are.

And so when we're put to the test, when the pressure comes in

and when we're squeezed tightly, what is truly inside is

going to be revealed.

And so some people think we have a right to lose our cool or

lose our patience.

And sometimes we even justify it as.

As righteous indignation as some say.

But the Bible speaks of patience being a necessity in the

Christian life.

It's actually one of the marks of the Spirit guiding our life, you

know, when we're saved.

The Bible says that we are now indwelled by the Spirit.

And so we have a choice to make as a believer.

Are we going to allow ourselves to yield our will to the

flesh, and that's the desires and the pleasures and what we want

to have happen in our life when it comes to the physical realm,

or are we going to yield or submit to the Spirit?

And that's what God wants for us?

And that's.

That's The Holy Spirit guiding our life or, or filling us, so to

speak.

And so the Bible says in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22.

Galatians 5:22

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

And in the King James it says long suffering.

But that literally means to be patient.

It means to suffer long, to allow things to happen and to be

patient through the difficulties.

And so one of the marks of a spirit led believer is patience.

The Bible says in other places.

One place that you could look to is in 1st Thessalonians, chapter

5, verse 14.

And it speaks of this idea that as Christians, patience should

be produced through our lives.

And so first Thessalonians 5:14 says, now we exhort you brethren,

1 Thessalonians 5:14

talking to Christians, warn them that are unruly, comfort the

feeble minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

Meaning this, you're going to deal with people that have all different

needs.

We see here in this case, there's people that are unruly, there's

people that are feeble minded, there's people that are weak.

All different reasons in where our patience is tested.

But the Bible says, and kind of summarizes there at the end of

verse 14 in 1st Thessalonians 5, be patient toward all men.

And so patience reveals where we stand before God.

Patience reveals our faith.

Now all of us have faith.

We've talked about that before here in our Word of the week studies.

All of us have faith in something.

Sometimes the faith is in ourselves.

Sometimes our faith is in something materialistic.

Maybe it's even in an emotion or a feeling.

But patience is going to reveal that our faith is in God and

in his way, in his plan and his timing and his power and his

grace in our lives.

And so most people consider patience, at least in our society,

that it's like this, waiting or maybe just having tolerance towards

a situation.

But if you really look deeper into that word that's used in the

Bible as patience, it's actually an inactive word.

It's a, it's an active word.

You could even look at Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

It says, wherefore, seeing we also are compass, compassed about

with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight,

and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with

patience, the race that is set before us.

And so we actually see that it's an active thing.

And so how could patience be active?

Well, one can run a race with patience.

And so biblical patience is persevering to a goal, the goal of

godliness, the goal of being Spirit filled the goal of enduring

difficulties, waiting for God to keep His Word.

And sometimes a word that's linked to patience is hope.

And again, hope can be misinterpreted when it comes to our

society today, because sometimes we think of hope being

this thing where we're crossing our fingers and just maybe

this will happen.

But biblical hope is a confident expectation that God will

keep His Word.

And so patience is the same thing.

Patience is demonstrating our hope.

So if I believe that God will keep His Word in this situation,

if I believe that God is going to stay true to me in my life according

to His Word, then I will have patience.

So if you look at it this way, if a Christian has hope in God, he

will be patient in the Lord as well.

And patience is.

Is a spiritual discipline, just like all the other things the

Bible calls us to have in our life.

It's not something that's just gonna happen naturally in our flesh.

Sometimes it takes a process, development, experience, right?

I think one of the passages of Scripture that comes to mind for,

for me would be Romans, Romans chapter five.

And I think sometimes as humans, as even humans that believe

in Jesus Christ, we can see patience as something that's negative,

right?

Like, oh, I never want to pray for patients because that just means

God's going to send me trials.

But if we see the opportunity for patience as just that, an opportunity

to grow, we'll have a different perspective when we exercise

patience.

And so I want us to see Romans chapter five.

We're gonna start in verse one, and we're gonna see this.

This context of what it means to have patience and why God desires

us to have patience.

So it says In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, therefore, being justified

Romans 5:1

by faith, and so we are declared righteous by faith in God.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we're justified by faith through Jesus Christ.

We know that to be true.

We believe that is the gospel.

And so therefore, as believers, we have hope in Jesus

because He has justified us in.

In what he has done for us.

So verse two.

By whom?

So through Christ also, we have access by faith into this grace

wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

So the Bible says, because of our access to God through Jesus Christ

and because of his grace through our faith, we can rejoice

in having hope.

We can have hope.

And that's that idea of confident expectation that God is

going to keep his word.

Now let's look at verse 33.

And not only so, but we glory or another word Is rejoice.

We glory in tribulations.

Whoa.

That is something that is contrary to a popular belief, so

to speak.

We can rejoice in difficulties.

Hmm.

Why?

Biblically speaking, knowing that these tribulations, knowing

that tribulations are difficulties, Trials worketh.

And the verse three, if you're following along with me, you're gonna

see it worketh.

Patience or endurance.

So this idea of patience is having endurance in a difficulty.

Because as we go through difficulties and as we see God working

through these difficulties, and as we see God providing and preparing

and protecting us in these times of trial, we will see patience

happening.

And as we exercise patience, it says experience.

So the idea of this would be as we grow in our patience, we grow

in our Christian character.

We grow in the experience of being more and more like the Lord.

Not perfect, but we're able to exemplify the attribute of patience

in our life.

And so patience experience and experience hope.

And so the trials produce patience and endurance.

And the trials, though it teaches us patience, also teaches

us experience experiencing God, experiencing His character,

his love, his grace, his forgiveness.

And through all that, the Bible says that that produces hope.

That's all we all really want is hope, right?

Hope in something.

The Bible says we can find hope in the lord in verse 5.

And hope maketh not ashamed.

So that hope that God gives us leads us out of shame.

It doesn't lead us to a place of brokenness, it leads us to a place

of edification, of being built up in the Lord.

Why?

Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

So if you've been following us there with the.

What the Bible is saying is that as we grow in patience, the

end outcome of that would be we understand God's love more.

Kind of counter intuitive, but really something that I think is

important for us as Christians to understand.

James 1 talks about the same principle, knowing this, that the

trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect

or complete and entire, wanting nothing.

And so part of the Christian growth process, the necessity of

Christian growth is the necessity of patience.

Our patience can be developed, it can be strengthened only by trusting

and relying on God's will in our life, God's timing, God's way

over and over again.

We see the call in Scripture to seek the patience that only God

can give, seek the endurance that only God can give.

So we go back to idea of running the race.

We could run the race with patience, but run the race with endurance,

we're tempted to quit.

Sometimes we're tempted to give in.

The Bible says don't give in.

And we even see some examples in James.

James chapter 5, verse 10 talks about this idea of an example.

James 5:10

Now we know the greatest example of patience is Christ though,

no doubt about that.

You can look at his life and study out his demeanor and his reactions

to folks, his reactions to being betrayed, denied, hated, persecuted.

But then we see James 5 going on and talking about, take my brethren,

the prophets.

So, so there have been people who have exercise patience.

So it's not impossible.

He says, remember all those prophets that came before you, their,

their example.

And James 5, 11, the next verse, behold, we count them happy,

which endure.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the

Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

Meaning you're not alone in this process of seeking after patience.

You're not alone in this process of confident expectation

that God is going to keep his word.

There's been people like Job, there's been people like Abraham,

there's been people throughout all of scripture, throughout all

of history that have gone on the same process as well.

And so you're not alone in this process.

And the Bible says that patience gives us joy.

Philippians 4.

4.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say rejoice.

And so it's, it's having the perspective of, of the truth.

We remember the promises of God, we remember the goodness of

God, we remember his faithfulness to us, not just in our

own lives, but throughout all of history.

God is faithful.

And if God is faithful to those that have come before us, and

if God has been faithful to us in our life so far, he will continue

to be faithful and he will continue to build in us patience.

And so when you're tempted to not be patient, if you're tempted

to exercise the flesh, if you're tempted to exercise an impatient

spirit, go back and remember what God has done for you.

Go back and to remember the examples that came before you and

go to a place in your life where you allowed the spirit to take

control.

Really the, the Bible speaks of that struggle of the flesh and

the spirit.

When the Spirit is in control, we exercise patient endurance.

When the flesh is in control, we're impatient, bitter, angry, short

tempered.

And the list goes on and on.

And so really the first step for this is, is to have a relationship

with Christ and the spirit indwelling you.

And the second step is asking the Lord to give you wisdom as James

says, when you lack wisdom, ask him, he will give it to you.

And so pray, ask the Lord to give you patience.

And I know that's maybe counter intuitive because maybe you've

even heard before, don't pray for patience because God's gonna

send you trials.

But let me tell you something, the trials are gonna come no matter

what.

I wish that wasn't the case, but the truth is the trials are gonna

come.

And when we see the trials as something that's gonna build us stronger

in the Lord and help us understand his love more, we're able

to understand the importance, the necessity, the gift of patience.

So I hope that this has been encouraging for you here today, challenging

for you as it's been for me.

And I hope that all of us can rely on the Lord more to have patience

in our life, to have that endurance, to have that long suffering

heart spirit as he's been long suffering and patient with us and

you really, truly God's the greatest example of patience.

He should have judged us a long time ago, but yet he's still

in his love and his grace, patient, patiently waiting for more

and more to come to Him.

And so let's think about that as we move forward with this idea

of patience.

Next week we'll be back looking more at another Word of the

Week.

I hope that you can continue along with us and I'm so thankful

for this podcast and the folks that are listening to this podcast

appreciate your willingness to support and to share and to serve

together.

So God bless you, have a wonderful week.

We'll come back next week with another word of Hey, I really appreciate

that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,

Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us

on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBC Podcast,

you can contact me directly at Josh [email protected].

stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper

into words that impact our life according to scripture.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

We'll talk to you soon.