Lord, Please Hurry up and Give Me Patience!

Well, this morning we're going to be looking at a section of Scripture in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I'd invite you to turn into your Bible to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And go ahead and keep that open for this morning as we spend some time looking through a particular passage in Romans 12.

And if you didn't bring a Bible or you don't have one, there should be a Bible in front of you, a pew Bible, and feel free to use that.

If you don't have one, take that home with you.

Be our gift to you.

We think it's really important that everybody has their own copy of Scripture.

And so we would love it if you would take that and claim it as your own if you do not own a Bible.

But we're in Romans chapter 12, starting at verse 9.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

I'm going to read 9 through 21, just kind of give us a context.

Mainly going to be focusing on one section in Romans 12 here, but I want to give us the whole kind of context of what's going on.

We'll explain a little bit more later on as we move forward here in our time together.

But let me read Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 9.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Let love be genuine, abore what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope.

Be patient in tribulation.

Be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another, and do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will pray, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not overcome evil or excuse me, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Here ends the reading of our passage this morning, and I want to draw your attention here to the screen as we uh have a chance to uh kind of kick things off here with a lighthearted video for us.

Why is it hard to be patient?

Because you want to do fun things, and then you have to do something bad a snap on, like take out the garbage.

Like I really have to.

Some things I'm so excited they can't really wait because I'm very young.

I can only wait like two minutes for something to happen.

Then I'm dust after that, I'm dust so unpatient that I can't stand it any longer.

I don't necessarily like being patient, but when I know I have to, I do.

If you weren't patient, then like you would just say, I want it done right now.

No mom.

I want dinner right now or else.

It would kind of turn into a bossy world.

Sorry about that here.

I got one of my slides up there.

Ahead of time.

There we go.

Technology.

Um, talking about patience this morning, why is it so hard?

The kids uh mentioned in the video, patience is difficult.

It is incredibly challenging at times, this whole concept of patience, especially when we lived in uh a rather fast-paced society in which we live where just about anything we want, our heart's desire can have in any moment, right?

I mean, if if I want to watch a movie, I don't have to go to the store and buy it.

I mean, I can stream it from my uh TV and I could just instantly watch it.

We want to watch, I don't know, let's go online and see what we want.

If I want to listen to a new song, in fact, there's a new uh album that came out of a worship band that I had been kind of watching and was really curious about what this uh album was gonna sound like.

I didn't have to go to the store and buy it.

I could instantly just start streaming it and listening to it the moment it came out.

We live in such a fast-paced society that we've become conditioned to want to have things when we want it and how we want it immediately.

And that's just the culture in which we live.

And it becomes incredibly difficult then to practice patience.

Our obsession with immediate gratification, I think, can really be seen when traveling.

I don't know how many of you have traveled recently or um uh at all, really, but if you go to an airport and you're walking around, you can see if a flight is delayed or something happens where someone is even inconvenienced, but a few minutes, you look on their face, watch them, observe them.

Oh, I can't believe this.

I gotta wait.

Uh oh, you know, this is such an inconvenience.

And we've been conditioned in our society, like I said, to want things immediately, how we want it, when we want it.

In fact, as I think about this whole concept of being patient, I have yet to meet someone who would describe themselves as one who is patient.

I would venture to say that patience is something that we all desire more of in our lives.

I know I do.

I know I've prayed that prayer.

Lord, I'm in a bind.

Help me.

I need more patience right now.

And please quickly respond, give me patience.

I can't wait for it.

Um, but I know really at the core, this is a desire of my heart.

And I think for most of us, we have a desire to grow in this area of patience.

I know I struggle with it.

In fact, just on Monday, I was sitting down and I had been mulling over this whole topic for a while.

I'd been praying, okay, God, uh what what passage do you want me to focus on?

As I share your word on a Sunday morning.

And so I've been kind of mulling over some different thoughts, and uh, I had kind of landed on this passage in Romans 12, 12 in particular, be patient in tribulation.

And uh so I had some thoughts on patient, kind of mulling around.

And so Monday morning I sit down and I'm ready to start work on it, and my computer's running a little slow, slower than normal, and I needed to restart it and kind of get going.

And I remember thinking myself, these exact thoughts.

Oh, come on.

Why is my computer so slow?

I got this sermon, I gotta get these thoughts down on my computer right now, and it hit me.

I thought, how ironic.

Here I am getting ready to write a sermon about the topic of patience, and I'm impatient because my computer won't fire up and work as properly as I wanted it to.

And I kind of laughed, and as I I thought about it later, I, you know, I couldn't help but wonder what was God thinking at that moment when I had that thought?

Like, oh, here's the sermon who I've uh who I've selected to teach on patience.

Well, I share that because I have such a long ways to go in this area of patience, um, that I'm a sojourner with you uh in regards to this.

In fact, uh I'm constantly reminded just about every time I get on the road and drive, how impatient that I can be.

I grew up in the city, and the big city in me wants to drive like I'm in a big city here in Grand Forks, and that's just not the pace here.

Everybody kind of takes their time driving around.

And for me, I'm so used to driving growing up, wanting to, I mean, you you drive a little bit different in the city.

And uh I'm reminded of how impatient I can be just about every time I get behind the wheel and uh drive.

But beyond just petty inconveniences that test my patience, I also struggle with patience in more significant ways too, like some of you probably can relate.

And so again, I disclose this uh to remind you that I am a soul-turner with you, that I want to grow in this area of patience, and uh am looking forward to our time of spending uh studying this whole idea of patience that we see in Romans 12, 12.

So, what are we gonna do when we find ourselves, or what should we do when we find ourselves at a place of impatience?

What can we do?

Well, my hope is through this morning that we explore this issue and that in fact we find some practical application.

Um, and in as far as that, I'd like to double the length of our sermon this morning as uh practical application.

So you guys alright with that?

You guys can okay.

Well, maybe not.

Um, but really one of my goals this morning for us to discuss how we can grow in this particular area and look at how God wants to shape us and empower us through his word.

So I want to give you a snapshot of where we're going here, real quick, um, but kind of a brief outline, a summary of here's what I hope to do this morning up on the screen.

It's not some nice, fancy uh outline, it's just basic direction.

Here's what we're going this morning.

Uh the first thing what I want to do is I want to examine a few different ways in which patience is practiced.

There's a couple different ways in which we practice patience, um, and where we need to exercise it, a couple different scenarios.

I want to discuss those with you.

I want to study our passage in Romans and its specific and unique set uh setting.

And so we're gonna look at Romans 12, 12 and how it fits in the book and spend some time exploring that.

I want to explore some biblical definitions of what patience is according to Scripture.

I want to look at God's display of patience throughout Scripture and how God has demonstrated his patience and his very nature, his very character.

And then finally, I want to learn from other people in Scripture briefly and look at some examples from some individuals in Scripture who are definitely ones who displayed patience in the way that they lived their lives.

And then finally develop a game plan for moving forward and how we can grow in this particular area.

So that's a snapshot of what we're gonna be doing this morning.

And uh first of all, what I'd like to do is talk about the general ways in which we are to be patient, being patient in the midst of various times of inconvenience.

Now, I just talked about a number of different areas where I find myself inconvenienced, I find myself challenged to be patient, but there are many other areas in which we find ourselves uh being challenged to be patient in times of inconvenience.

Our food takes too long at a restaurant.

We think, oh, what is going on here?

I'm hungry, I need my food now, or kids are taking too long to get ready and out the door in the morning.

In fact, some of you here this morning may have experienced that with your own children.

Or a teacher who takes too long to get an assignment back to you, and you're wondering, what grade did I get?

Or a boss who doesn't respond to an email quickly enough.

A cable company can't get your service connected to your home fast enough, or cars taking too long for repair, and so on and so on.

We can list a whole lot of ways in which we are impatient in times of inconvenience.

It can be challenging in those moments.

But we also see that patience can be difficult in times where we're waiting on God's timing.

Right?

I mean, there are times when we're asking questions, who should I marry and when will God reveal that person to me?

Or what school should I attend?

Or when can I harvest my crops?

Or when will this ministry take off like I had envisioned it?

When will God open a door for me?

When should I move?

When will God reveal his career plan for my life, etc.?

And so there are many opportunities to exercise patience when we're waiting on God's timing, especially in regards to major life decisions.

It could be incredibly challenging when the stakes are high.

But then we also have a third area, like our passage talks about Romans 12, 12, being patient in times of tribulation.

And I think of things like when will I be healed from this disease?

Or when will God heal my hurting heart?

When will I stop being persecuted or made fun of because of my faith?

When will my child return my love for him?

When will I no longer be in financial limbo?

When will my extended family function in a healthy way?

How long will I need to support my friend who continues to struggle?

And when will I stop feeling this physical pain?

Those are some of the questions and some of the things that come to mind when we think of patiently waiting in times of tribulation.

And interestingly, and every Wednesday morning we have a chance as pastors and some ministry leaders sit down, we talk about the passage that we're going to study and teach on on Sunday morning.

We speak into it, we share, we wrestle through the passage together.

And interestingly, Pastor Greg pointed out on our time on Wednesday morning that many of the exhortations that follow in Romans 12, after it says, be patient in tribulation, Romans 12, 12, many of the exhortations following that all require a measure of patience as practical application.

And we won't have time to unpack that a lot this morning, but I thought that was an interesting observation that many of those exhortations that we see in the remaining parts of Romans 12, 12, following the rest of the chapter, have to do with patience.

Or you need a measure of patience with each of those exhortations.

But let's look at our setting for this morning in Romans 12, 12.

Let's turn to our passage and examine the setting in Romans 12, 9 through the remainder of the chapter in order for us to get a feel of what's going on in verse 12 specifically.

And like I said, I'll primarily be building upon the theme of being patient in tribulation that we see in verse 12.

But I think it's important whenever we examine a small section of Scripture that we take some time to explore what's going on around that particular passage.

Even if there's a lot in that particular exhortation that we could just spend a lot of time, I think it's important for us to get a little bit of the context before moving forward.

So that's what I hope to do here this morning.

I want to remind us that in the first 11 chapters in the book of Romans, Paul really is building a theological framework.

He's building strong, rich, deep theological doctrines.

And so that's kind of what the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans is really about.

And interestingly, when Paul comes at the end of chapter 11, there's a switch that takes place that we'll discuss here in a second.

And he goes into chapter 12, and then he takes a different approach for the rest of the book.

But the first 11 chapters really are building deep theological foundation and correct doctrine that he's providing there.

But notice, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but I couldn't help, this just jumped out to me.

And every time I read this, there's just something that hits me.

When we think about correct doctrine and correct thinking in this line of thinking that Paul is establishing in the first 11 chapters, here's how he concludes.

Let me read in 1133.

And he says this, here's his response to this deep theological doctrine.

He says, Oh, the deep riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

And he finishes for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever.

Amen.

Like the Apostles Paul responds here at the end of chapter 11, correct thinking and understanding and doctrine should always cause us to be in awe of who God is.

It should always move us to a time of being in awe of our God.

It is not just an intellectual discipline.

We're not studying this morning just to know more.

It should move us to deep places of worship, to wonder and to excitement.

And we cannot miss this point that if our intellectual understanding of God only moves us or doesn't move us to places of worship, then we have not fully grasped who God is.

And I believe we're spiritually mature.

And so we have to approach it this way.

That's how the Apostle Paul is.

He wraps it up.

Who can understand the mind of the Lord?

He ends it with this wow, this is amazing.

And our understanding of God should always move us to that before we get to practical living, which is where he's moving now in chapter 12.

How are we to live?

How are we to respond in regards to these deep theological truths?

And so again, chapter 11, the doctrine foundation, chapter 12, there's this break.

He ends it with that doxology, there's a break, and we're moving into now areas of practical living.

How we are to live in response to the gospel, really?

How we are to live in response to these deep theological truths.

And there's lots going on in chapter 12, a ton that is going on in chapter 12.

Um, but again, for our specific purposes, we're gonna be looking at uh 1212 and a few verses around that.

You know, interestingly, um there's uh an interesting quote about our section of uh Romans here.

Pull it up.

One of the commentaries said this nowhere else in Paul's writings do we find a more concise collection of ethical injunction injunctions.

And these five verses are 13 exhortations.

Each of the 13 exhortations could serve as the text for a full-length sermon.

And for our purposes this morning, we plan to do just that.

We're gonna take a closer look and a more in-depth look at the exhortation of be patient in tribulation that we see in verse 12.

So let's do that.

Let's examine more closely this phrase, be patient in tribulation.

Now, the original word for be patient in the original language implies a number of things.

It has a connotation of meaning to remain, to stay behind, to stand one's ground, hold out, endure, wait for, to be permanent, to resist, to continue, to take upon oneself, to bear, to stand firm, to tarry, to suffer, and to put up with.

Now, all of those that I just just said that described this word in the original language, be patient, notice that they're action words.

Being patient isn't just being passive.

In fact, it requires a response.

All of those words used to describe or kind of put our minds around what the original language says here about be patient, require action.

It's a verb.

It's to do something, it's not just passivity.

And then when we examine the phrase in the original language, which says in tribulation, in the original language, we see it implies a number of things: oppression, affliction, tribulation, trouble, pressure, distress, hard circumstances, and suffering.

And these are all the things that can happen to an individual, things that we wrestle with, things that we uh deal with because we live in a fallen world.

So what is this passage saying here?

Well, it means that we are to take action, patience, when something difficult or challenging happens.

We are to actively respond to tribulation and hardships, not passively sit back and see what happens.

To live out patience in our lives requires a response.

Let's take a look at a few others and how they have defined uh what biblical patience is.

One commentary said this biblical patience is a God-exercised or God-given restraint in face of opposition or oppression.

It is not a passivity.

It has a port.

To be patient isn't just to sit back.

To be patient is to take action and have a proper attitude, a proper response towards something.

Another one said this that the ability to take a great deal of punishment from evil people or circumstances without losing one's temper, without becoming irritated or angry, or without taking vengeance.

It includes the capacity to bear to bear pain or trials without complaint, the ability to forbear under severe aggravation or self- and self-control that keeps one from acting rashly, even though suffering opposition or adversity.

There's two definitions that does some commentaries wrapped up in some.

What is being patient in tribulation look like?

And I thought they were great summaries of how we might be patient, how we might understand the context of being patient in tribulation.

What I'd like to do now is I want to look at a few examples of how God has demonstrated in the very nature of his patience throughout Scripture.

And this is important for us.

Why is it important to study and to look at God's patience?

Well, if God is a God of patience and we are to walk in faith, means and to walk in our faith, and our Christian faith means to embrace the characteristics of who our God is, then it's important for us to meditate on.

On them.

In fact, Ephesians 5:1 says this, be therefore followers or emulators of God as dear children.

Ephesians 5:1

And so it's important for us to know the characteristics and the nature of who God is so that we can take on those very characteristics ourselves.

Someone said, certainly we lose much if we do not frequently meditate upon the patience of God and earnestly pray that our hearts and ways may be more completely conformed to Him.

It's important for us to think deeply on God's patience if we were to growl in this area, if we were to learn in that.

So I want to look at a few passages that talk about, describe God's patience.

And the first is Psalm 86, 15.

Psalm 86, 15 says this, but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

We see similar language in Numbers 14, 18 when it says, the Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

In Psalm 103.8 it says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

We see in the New Testament, Romans 2.4, that it tells us that God's kindness, his forbearance, and his patience is what leads people to repentance.

That God is a God of patience, and it is in part what draws us to Him.

We also see of God's patience in how he dealt with the nation of Israel, God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

How often did they turn away from God?

How often did they blatantly fail at keeping God's instructions?

Even after God miraculously delivered them out of horrible circumstances and situations, even after God had revealed his glory to them, they fell away.

And they didn't honor him, they didn't follow his instructions, they didn't pursue him.

And this is a summary in Psalm 78, verses 37 through 41, and it speaks of this reality.

Psalms 78:37–41

Their heart was not steadfast toward him, they were not faithful to his covenant.

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them.

He restrained his anger often and did not stir up all of his wrath.

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.

They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

And yet God continued to demonstrate his patience over and over with the nation of Israel.

2 Peter 3:9 reminds us that the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, his promise of returning, his promise of establishing his kingdom, his promise of coming and returning and bringing his people to himself.

2 Peter 3:9

That we see that the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And so even the way that God deals with us today, he reveals his patience and he shows his patience, even in the delay of his return and coming, his second coming.

And not only does God demonstrate what patience looked like throughout scripture, we could spend a lot more time unpacking that and looking through that.

But we also see from other examples some prominent figures throughout Scripture.

A few of them, I think, of Abraham as he waited on the promise that God had given him.

He waited and he endured patiently at times, at times he didn't, but he waited on the Lord.

I think of many of the Old Testament prophets, James 5.10 kind of summarizes that a little bit.

They displayed patience.

I think of Job.

You may remember the story of Job, a man who experienced unimaginable loss and pain and suffering.

And yet throughout that whole ordeal, he displays patience and steadfastness and long suffering.

Another individual that comes to mind is Joseph.

You remember the story of Joseph, all the injustice that was done to him, sold into slavery, wrongly accused, put into prison, where he, I mean, the pain and the suffering that Joseph went through, and yet he patiently endured those circumstances.

He patiently waited.

And as God's sovereignty was displayed and shown through that story, eventually Joseph was brought to a place of high position and authority in the nation of Egypt.

Very unique story, a powerful story, but Joseph demonstrated patience in the midst of injustice.

Of course, there are many others and examples, as examples from Scripture, who patiently waited upon the Lord.

May we find encouragement from their examples and see the value of patience that we might grow in that area as well.

But what now?

Where do we go from here?

What does this all mean?

We've been talking about patience this morning.

You may be sitting here thinking this morning, okay, yeah, right, Seiverson, I get it.

I need to be more patient.

I've known that for a long time.

And again, I'll be reminded of it this morning.

I need to be patient.

But how do I grow in patience?

I've tried, I've failed, but I want to grow in this area.

Well, one response that we often get to when we start thinking about an area where we need to grow is I just need to try harder.

I need to pull up my bootstraps, bootstraps, and my own strength, just kind of get going and say, okay, I'm going to be more patient.

That's one response.

We try to do harder, or try to do more in our own strength.

But this isn't a do more, try harder message.

This is a cry out to God, see your current need for his continued redemptive work in your life, and trust and rely on him to change you in your inner being.

And I believe Pastor Scott kind of developed this a little bit last week.

That if we simply try harder, relying on our own strength, then it eventually leads to two basic outcomes.

When we come to an era we've been challenged, we need to grow in patience or we need to have more joy or any of the fruits of the Spirit or anything that is of challenge, if we walk away and say, okay, I'm going to do more, I'm going to try harder, a lot of times it leads to two things.

If we rely on our own strength, one, we succeed, and we gain ground in that particular area, and then it eventually leads to maybe an area of pride.

I did this.

I'm more patient.

Look, I just tried harder, and now I am more patient.

Or we become legalistic in our efforts.

We judge others for not being at the same place as us, and suddenly the glory goes from God to us because we've tried our own strength and we've succeeded, and now we're saying, hey, just try harder.

You struggle with that, just try harder.

You struggle with that?

Oh, just try harder.

That's what I did in my life.

We begin to try to want to outperform one another, which is really contrast, really in contrast to what our passage is talking about, where it says, honor one another.

In fact, outdo honoring one another is what it says in Romans 12.

The other option when we try in our own strength, the other outcome is that we fail.

Because in our own strength we cannot change, and we find ourselves in despair and delusional about our faith.

We become down on ourselves, we eventually stop trying, or we simply give up.

Or worse yet, we walk away from our faith, we say, you know what, it's not making any difference.

I tried, I tried harder to become patient, and I failed.

What is this whole Christian thing about?

Maybe it's not for me.

When we try in our own strength, that's really kind of what it leads us to.

We either become prideful and legalistic, or we become delusional that it's not working because it was never meant to work that way.

A correct response of what we need is we need to look at the mirror of Scripture in order to accurately see a reality of who we are and to see who God is.

And that's what we're doing this morning.

And much like what James talks about in chapter one, looking in the mirror and not walking away and forgetting what you look like, looking in the mirror, seeing our current reality, seeing how far we have to go like we did this morning.

We looked at areas of patience, what does it mean?

I confess I need to grow on this, but I'm not gonna walk away this morning going, I'm gonna try harder.

And if that's what you're walking away with this morning, you're missing the point because this isn't a walk away, try harder message.

This is we need to look intently into Scripture, see God's holy standards, see our deep lacking, be convicted, humbly come before God in repentance, confessing our sins and our inability to change our current condition on our own.

You guys, we cannot change.

No one really can have true heart change in your own strength.

It cannot happen apart from God's word and truth coming alive as the Holy Spirit works in us.

It cannot.

And so this morning, if you're going, yeah, I want to grow on patience, great, me too.

It's not walk away, okay.

I'm gonna be more patient with my kids.

Okay?

All right, they're doing that thing that annoys me again.

I'm gonna count to 10 this time instead of responding right away.

One that's not changing your heart.

That's not that's not working your heart and changing the core of who you are.

It's the power of God's word with his Holy Spirit coming alive in our hearts and changing us at the core of who we are.

It's a repenting and coming before him.

Lord, I am so impatient.

I don't know how many times I prayed that this week.

I gotta teach impatience.

And every time I'm turning around, I'm like, oh my word, I am so impatient, God.

Forgive me.

Help me.

I am so broken.

Help me.

God, I I need you.

I cannot do it alone to change my heart.

I'll leave you with this.

True life transformation comes not in our ability to change ourselves, but through repentance.

It is not about becoming stronger in our own strength, nor is it about trying to outperform those around us.

On the contrary, it's about confessing our weakness and relying on God to change us from the inside out.

If we want to be more patient, that's where it begins.

Or fill in a blank, whether it's patience or any other area that you want to see growth in.

My friends, it starts with brokenness, it starts with confession, it starts with seeing our reality, it starts with coming before God humbly and asking him, pleading with him to change our hearts and to make us more like him.

Amen.

Let's pray and uh ask God to do just that.

Heavenly Father, as we close this morning, uh we are convicted that we lack patience.

As we've seen your patience displayed throughout Scripture, we recognize we are far from being like you in this way.

As we've seen prominent examples in Scripture of those who waited patiently on you, we recognize, God, we are lacking.

And Lord, we do not want to leave this morning, just fired up to try more in our own strength.

We want to come before you, God, broken, humbly before you, asking God that you would change our inner being.

Our trust and our hope lies in not our own abilities, but in your ability to change us to be more like you.

Would you conform us more to your image?

Thanks for the blessing of being able to study your word this morning and to talk about this whole concept of patience.

Help us, God, as your spirit, as the truth of your word comes alive in our hearts more and more.

We ask in Christ's name.

Amen.