Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Well, I hope you all had a wonderful. Thanks. Christmas.
[00:00:11] It feels like it goes that quickly, doesn't it?
[00:00:18] It is.
[00:00:21] It is the purpose of God.
[00:00:24] It to be at work in our lives in a multitude of ways day by day.
[00:00:35] It isn't his purpose to once in a while show up and leave us wandering by ourselves the rest of the time.
[00:00:47] I want to encourage you in the coming year to try to be aware of God in your daily life more.
[00:01:01] Just try to keep your eye open for what he might be doing, how he might be meeting you, how he might be whispering to you.
[00:01:12] Our dear heavenly Father, by your great grace, I've known you since I was a boy.
[00:01:26] But because you are infinite, there's always something new to learn about you.
[00:01:33] And I pray this morning I could share this idea about your greatness in patience, and I ask it through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[00:01:47] If you read the Bible the way it wants to be read, there is a story about the patience of God all through the Bible.
[00:02:00] I'm 70 years old, and I've never heard one sermon on the patience of God.
[00:02:09] I've pastored this church for 41 years, and I've never preached one sermon on the patience of God.
[00:02:18] And it strikes me that it shouldn't be that way, especially when God goes out of his way to show himself so patient in the Bible.
[00:02:32] Let me give you just one example.
[00:02:36] Jesus knew from the first day that he met Judas that Judas would betray him.
[00:02:44] He knew it every day that Judas was around and acting like he was one of the guys, pretending like he was fully bought in. Jesus knew that he was going to betray him.
[00:03:03] And you can't find an impatient word from Christ, Judas, in the whole gospels.
[00:03:14] In fact, when Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, Jesus said to Judas, friend, you're going to betray me with a kiss.
[00:03:27] That is the most impatient thing that Jesus ever said to Judas.
[00:03:34] And then when I was thinking about how patient God has been in the Bible, I began to think about my own life and how patient God has been with me day after day. He's just been patient.
[00:03:51] How many times have I told him, I will never do that again? And I did it again, and he was patient.
[00:04:02] How many times have I said, I promise you, the next time this comes around, I will do better? And it came around again, and I underperformed.
[00:04:15] Can you identify with this?
[00:04:18] God has been infinitely patient with me because he is a patient God.
[00:04:27] In psalm 145, verses eight and nine, David said, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
[00:04:44] The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
[00:04:53] We can translate slow to anger as patient.
[00:04:58] The Lord is gracious and merciful.
[00:05:01] Patient, abounding in steadfast love, the Lord is good to all.
[00:05:10] I suppose if you read this in the hebrew text, you would be shocked that the word for patience is wide of nostrils.
[00:05:24] The Lord is wide of nostrils.
[00:05:28] But when I was reading about this, it makes perfect sense.
[00:05:33] Sometimes when you have to be patient, what do you do? You take a big breath through your nose. You go, anyone.
[00:05:44] And so the word is meant to be a word picture.
[00:05:50] There are way too many times when we make God go ahead.
[00:06:03] In the septuagint, the word patient is a derivative of the word suffering.
[00:06:13] When you are patient, you suffer for somebody else's issue.
[00:06:23] Patience means bearing pains and suffering calmly and without complaint.
[00:06:31] It means manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain.
[00:06:39] It means not hasty or impetuous.
[00:06:43] It means steadfast despite opposition, difficulty or adversity.
[00:06:53] You might find this interesting, that God has no need for self control.
[00:07:02] You see, all his thoughts are righteous and just.
[00:07:09] All his desires are good and holy and gracious.
[00:07:14] All his impulses are majestic, wonderful and awesome.
[00:07:20] All his behaviors are divine and full of steadfast love and faithfulness. God doesn't have to control himself. He only has to express himself because everything about him is right.
[00:07:35] We have to control ourselves because we think wrong thoughts, we have wrong desires, we have flawed impulses, and we have all misbehaved.
[00:07:50] Self control is a quality of virtue for human beings, but it is not an issue with God. He doesn't control himself. He expresses himself because everything about him is divinely beautiful.
[00:08:09] There is one area that God exercises dominion over himself, and that is the area of patience.
[00:08:20] God rules over himself through the virtue of patience.
[00:08:26] We know God's dominion over himself primarily by seeing the stories of how patient he's been with others and how patient he is with us.
[00:08:37] God's. God's authority is softened by his patience.
[00:08:51] God's justice is delayed by his patience.
[00:08:58] So then I'm saying that God rules over himself through patience.
[00:09:06] And when it would be perfectly right for God to be provoked, he restrains that feeling of being provoked through patience.
[00:09:20] When God has opposition and when he has adversaries, he never fully vents the authority of his nature against them, because he deals with every living being with patience.
[00:09:41] If you can hear this, the almighty is even patient with the unholy one.
[00:09:49] The unholy one in all his wickedness and all his scheming and all his plotting doesn't provoke God to lose his patience.
[00:10:07] You see, if God weren't patient, our wicked hearts, minds, and behaviors would cause him to be hasty, and he would deal with our iniquities too quickly.
[00:10:23] If God weren't patient, we would not know the riches of his grace, his mercy and love.
[00:10:31] His patience creates the possibility for God to express these other qualities of his character. If he weren't patient, there would be no space for us to come to know the grace, mercy, peace and love of Jesus Christ.
[00:10:58] Stephen Charnock was an english puritan, and he lived in the 16 hundreds, and he wrote this.
[00:11:09] If it were not for this patience, he would not be capable to be the governor of a sinful world.
[00:11:18] He might, without patience, be the governor of an innocent world, but not of a criminal one.
[00:11:26] God's patience makes him a better governor of the world.
[00:11:34] He understands human nature. He understands human brokenness. And by his miraculous patience, he deals with us in a way that is absolutely divine.
[00:11:52] I'd also like you to know that God's patience is not an attribute of his nature. It's a temporary thing.
[00:12:07] God only needs patience temporarily while history plays itself out.
[00:12:15] When history plays itself out, there'll be no need for God to be patient anymore, because saints will be made righteous, and we will be made like Jesus Christ. And God is not patient with Christ. There's no need for him to be. There will be no need for God to be patient with you in eternity. Your soul will be perfectly pleasing to him in every way.
[00:12:43] You won't grieve him in any way.
[00:12:47] And there'll be no need for patience with the damned, because they will be separated from God eternally.
[00:12:58] Patience is a temporary thing. But listen. It is so powerful that we will remember with greater and greater appreciation throughout all eternity that when it really mattered, God was patient with me. And we will glorify him and praise him for the memory of his remarkable patience.
[00:13:27] David said in the same psalm, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
[00:13:35] His greatness is unsearchable.
[00:13:38] One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.
[00:13:47] The Lord restraining his wrath against our daily sin is an expression of his greatness.
[00:13:55] Now, listen to this.
[00:13:59] I want you to imagine that someone broke into your house and stole the best stuff you have.
[00:14:11] They're carrying it down the street. The police officers show up, and they take your stuff back, but they don't arrest the person.
[00:14:22] And you say, aren't you going to arrest them? And they say, well, not yet.
[00:14:30] I'm going to give them a chance to see if they're really sorry and if they'll get better.
[00:14:42] A month later, the same people break into your house again. They steal your good stuff again.
[00:14:50] They're walking down the street with it. The cops show up, they take your stuff back. They don't arrest them.
[00:14:59] You say, aren't you going to arrest them? And they go, well, not yet.
[00:15:03] You got your stuff back.
[00:15:07] And you say, look, this is the second time they broke into my house. Aren't you going to arrest them? And they go, well, not yet.
[00:15:17] Six months later, they break into your house again. They steal your stuff again.
[00:15:24] They get caught again.
[00:15:28] They don't arrest them again.
[00:15:30] Now you're jumping up and down and waving your arms in the driveway and saying, I want something done right.
[00:15:40] See, we all want something done when the injustice is against us.
[00:15:47] But when we are the ones who do the injustice, we want time.
[00:15:53] And God is so great.
[00:15:57] He is so awesome.
[00:16:00] He has such a perfect plan that time after time you and I have offended him worse than somebody breaking into your house and stealing your tv. And time and time again, out of the riches of his greatness and out of his deep desire to forgive sin and to make souls holy again and again and again, he's patient with us, church.
[00:16:31] That tells you the greatness of God.
[00:16:36] Peter understood this, and he wrote, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but that all should reach repentance. Do you hear this? God is patient with us in our failure, because he has a bigger plan. And that bigger plan is to continue to work in our lives until he makes us the people he wants us to be. And that takes time.
[00:17:17] God is not just patient, he is great in patience.
[00:17:25] But it is a dangerous thing to abuse the patience of God.
[00:17:31] In the book of Ecclesiastes, the Kohalette said, because the sentence against evil deeds, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of men is fully set to do evil.
[00:17:55] Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear the Lord, because they fear before him, and it will not be well with the wicked. Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before the Lord.
[00:18:22] Listen to this.
[00:18:25] If I abuse the patience of God, that adds to my punishment.
[00:18:36] See, I'm not just going to be punished for being evil. I'm going to be punished because God was patient with me again and again and again and I abused his patience, I insulted his kindness, I trampled on his grace.
[00:18:58] God's patience is a beautiful thing, but it is a dangerous thing to abuse.
[00:19:07] Um, the, the psalmist said, one generation shall commend your works to another and they shall declare your mighty acts.
[00:19:19] We need to think about the great patience of God so we can speak to each other about it.
[00:19:28] I think something healthy happens in the christian life when we talk to each other about the wonderful characteristics of who God is and how he relates to man. It's refreshing to the human soul if your life group is working right and you talk to each other about the goodness of God and you pray for each other and you remind each other of these great qualities of God. It's nurturing to your soul, it would be nurturing to your soul. You can just give this a try with somebody in your family or someone you trust.
[00:20:09] Just talk to them and say, what do you think about the patience of God?
[00:20:15] What does God's patience look like in your life?
[00:20:22] What is it that you most appreciate about the patience of God?
[00:20:28] What happens in your heart when you think, there have been multitude of occasions that God had every reason in the world to drop me, but he was patient with me.
[00:20:43] You see, the psalmist says something healthy happens when we talk to each other about this parents.
[00:20:53] The psalm says that we ought to teach our kids about this parents. The psalm says, you ought to share one generation to another that God has been good and very, very patient.
[00:21:14] I don't know what format you could create in your family, but I believe it's worth it to create some time where as a father and children, or a mother and children, or a husband and wife, you share with the next generation. You should expect God to be very, very patient with you. It's his history with mankind.
[00:21:42] And if God is patient with you, we ought to be patient with each other, right?
[00:21:53] The psalmist went on to say, on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your works I will meditate, I will speak of the might of your awesome deeds and I will declare your greatness.
[00:22:09] They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
[00:22:18] The psalmist said this, we should meditate on the patient sovereignty of God.
[00:22:26] God's patient sovereignty creates time and space for us to repent.
[00:22:34] I want you to hear this. Why is God so patient? Because in his heart of hearts. He wants to create time and space for you to repent.
[00:22:48] If you've been a Christian any amount of time, you know this. When God works in your heart, you start feeling and thinking about things differently.
[00:22:59] I think about things differently now at this stage in my christian life than I did 20 years ago.
[00:23:07] And if God had not given me patient time, if he had not patiently given me time, and in that time, if he had not been at work in me, I could not have the heart that I have right now. I couldn't have the understanding I have right now.
[00:23:28] I would still think that God was too strict and that my sin wasn't so bad.
[00:23:34] But over time and space, God is at work, and he purposefully, patiently creates time for everyone to come to repentance.
[00:23:49] How often have we provoked God by our selfish self indulgence and our repeated sin?
[00:23:59] And again and again and again God has said, I'm not going to arrest you this time. I'm going to give time and space for you to repent.
[00:24:11] The word that is translated meditate, is really a word that means give a detailed account in words.
[00:24:22] Give a detailed account in words.
[00:24:26] Talk to yourself in detail about how God has been patient with you in your life.
[00:24:33] Remind yourselves, go to that place in your heart where the ugliest stuff you remember the ugliest stuff there, and walk into that place and go armed with the sword of the patience of God, and say, yes, I did this ugly thing, but God was patient with me.
[00:24:59] Yes, I didn't do what I said I would do, but God was patient with me.
[00:25:05] Yes, I failed, but God was patient with me.
[00:25:10] In his greatness, in his splendor, and in his majesty, God reaches out to us and says, in your most ugly times, when you were expecting me to kick you in the teeth, I was patient with you.
[00:25:27] I was patient with you.
[00:25:30] I only really wanted to give you time and space to repent so you could become the person I want you to be.
[00:25:40] We need to actively talk to ourselves about the qualities of God's patience in our life.
[00:25:48] We should meditate on the glorious splendor of his majesty that patiently leads us to repentance. You know you can't repent by yourself, right? You need divine help.
[00:26:00] It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Paul said, God's patience creates time and space for our souls to grow.
[00:26:15] God says, you're not the soul you're going to be.
[00:26:21] I'm not judging you right now.
[00:26:24] I'm going to create time and space because I'm going to be at work in you. My spirit is going to be at work in you. I'm going to show up in your life again and again and again. And through my patience and the time that it creates, I'm going to mold you day after day into the image of Jesus Christ. Can you hear me, church? The patience of God creates time and space for us to grow spiritually.
[00:26:56] We should meditate on the patience of his wondrous works that nurtures our souls and makes us more like Christ.
[00:27:07] We should speak to others about the sovereign patience of God.
[00:27:12] While I was working on this sermon, it dawned on me.
[00:27:17] There are literally millions of people whose first thoughts about God are judgment and wrath.
[00:27:29] And I wonder how few people there are whose first thoughts about God are patience, kindness and gentleness.
[00:27:40] Church if people think God is angry, they heard that somewhere.
[00:27:49] If people think God is walking around heaven looking for the first opportunity to judge them in his wrath, they heard that somewhere.
[00:27:59] God didn't tell them that.
[00:28:02] If we could be a new generation of Christians and we could have a message that really shows God in his majesty and his beauty, if we could convince people that God is patient, and in his patience we experience grace, mercy, peace and love. God is patient, and in his patience we grow spiritually, and we're conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that God is patient and he's creating time and space for us to be better than we have been in the past. I believe that message would draw people's souls to God.
[00:28:48] I wish God were famous for his sovereign patience. He deserves it.
[00:28:57] Patience is an abundant goodness in the nature of God.
[00:29:01] We should proclaim the patience of God more often and more passionately.
[00:29:09] When was the last time, brothers and sisters, you spoke to somebody passionately about Christ?
[00:29:17] When was the last time you found it in your heart to speak to somebody passionately about the goodness of God, about the kindness of God, about the patience of God and the mercy of God? Christianity is a speaking religion, brothers and sisters. Christianity is a speaking religion, and we need to create space in our lives to speak to other people about the wonder of the patience of Jesus Christ.
[00:29:52] I believe we might best proclaim the patience of God by being patient like him.
[00:30:01] I guess one of the best ways to proclaim the patience of God is to be more patient ourself.
[00:30:12] I don't have to tell you, I have struggled with patience my whole life.
[00:30:18] I was born with a small patience tank, and I used it up relatively young, and it's been an issue with me ever since.
[00:30:30] But I'm serious.
[00:30:32] I'm not giving myself the excuse anymore that it's easier for some people to be patient than others.
[00:30:39] I'm tired of that. That doesn't work anymore.
[00:30:44] I have seen the heart of God, and it is rich in patience.
[00:30:52] And I've seen my own heart, and it's defective in patience.
[00:30:59] And because God has been so rich in patience to me, I feel a new desire. I feel a new ambition to grow to be more like him.
[00:31:13] And I am very, very grateful that he patiently creates time and space for me to grow more patient, just like him.
[00:31:26] Our dear heavenly Father, who is like you.
[00:31:35] Who is like you.
[00:31:40] From every angle I look at you, I see something astounding.
[00:31:48] Every way I look at you, I see splendor and majesty.
[00:31:54] I see your awesome nature. I see your gentle works.
[00:32:01] And I give thanks to you.
[00:32:04] I apologize for myself and for everybody who's here and everybody who's online.
[00:32:12] Please forgive us for taking advantage of your patience.
[00:32:18] Please forgive us for not honoring you the way you deserve to be honored for your great patience.
[00:32:27] And I pray that we could be more aware every day of how patient you are with us.
[00:32:34] And that patience that you show to us could flow through us. And your patience could touch the people around us, through us.
[00:32:44] And I pray that you would receive the glory and the honor and the praise and the majesty both now and forever. Amen.
