Is being patient important? Why? Is it simply being good at waiting? Given on 10/04/2020
Today is the first Sunday of the Month, which means we will be taking Communion today.
I hope you all remembered the Sermon about communion 2 weeks ago, and why it is so important.
For those of you who missed it, ill give you all a little Summary, by reading to you:
1 Corinthians 11:23-32
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.”
We are to examine ourselves before we partake.
Look at your life and see the things that are there that The Bible says shouldnt be--------and give it up to God
Do you see anger?
Impatience?
Lust?
Selfishness?
Do see fear that overwhelms your trust in the Lord?
Hatred?
Racism?
Bigotry?
What is there in your life that the Bible says should not be there?
Is there anything you arent fighting against?
Anything youve given up to?
Anything that youve accommodate and ordered your life around that the Bible says is bad?
Or do you agree with Scripture that those things shouldnt be in your life…….even though you struggle with them?
When your favorite sin pops up----do you say--- “oh well, it’s happened before and im fine.”?
Or even worse----do you say “This is part of me, im right and the Bible is wrong!”
Because the only thought that should be resting in your hearts and resting in your minds, when your favorite sin pops up should be:
“NO! That is not who I am”
“I hate my sin!”
“I hate it”
“I hate it”
“I hate”
“God please take this from me, because if it remains any longer I am going to fall to it….I am going to give in…..I hate this God please take it away from me or give me the strength needed to fight it if you dont take it away.”
Because if we accommodate our sin in our life, in anyway, but still continue to take Communion, then we will be doing exactly as that Verse says:
We will be eating and drinking Judgement against ourselves.
We will be voluntarily ingesting and partaking of the judgement of God
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With that said:
Let us take Communion together-----
Let us examine ourselves and see the things that are in our hearts that shouldnt be, and bring them to the Lords table.
“On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Let us partake together of the Body of our King
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
It is the breaking of His body, and the shedding of His blood, that allows us to live a life that matters while were here on earth, and allows us to spend eternity in paradise with Him, when our time on Earth is finished.
Let us partake together of the blood of our King
With that, the kids can be dismissed to Sunday School
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So, today’s message is titled:
“The importance of Patience”
And because we’ll be talking about patience, I am going to…...talk…...like…...this…….to test…….your……………….patience.
If you have your Bibles with you this morning, you can turn to
Colossians 1:9-11
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
( → → Opening Prayer ← ← )
So in these verses, the Apostle Paul is giving boat loads of encouragement to the Church in the city of Colossi.
He’ll go on in the rest of his letter to them, correcting certain things, encouraging other things, ministering to them, and shooting down false teachings about the character and nature of Christ.
You see, the Church had been infiltrated, if you will, with false teachers saying all these things about Jesus that wernt true or accurate
So Paul writes this letter to them, to encourage them, and to tell them whats right and whats wrong.
And he starts this letter off by saying:
“There are two things that signify if you are living a life worthy of the Lord….and you’ll need patience and endurance to do so”
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You see, we all need patience, not just because life is busy nowadays-----
We dont need patience because the corona virus shut our planet down---
We dont need patience because our country seems to be circling a drain---
We dont need patience because our government is full of whiny little babies, or because California is on fire, our car broke down, people are dying, or because life is harder now for us than it has been in the past.
We need patience FOR those things, yes-----but not BECAUSE of those things.
We need patience to make it through our work day---
We need patience to make it through another election cycle---
We need patience when our children are acting in ways that they shouldnt---
We need patience when our friends or family or coworkers act in ways that TEST our patience
We need patience in every area of our life, from the Grocery Store to the Hospital---
BECAUSE this world we live in----is broken.
We need patience, because people act in ways that are contrary to what God says----and because WE act in ways that are contrary to what God says.
And if we can make sure that patience is a defining factor of our life-------then the 2 signifiers of a life worthy of the Lord, will be present in our lives
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The congregation that attended the Church at Colossi needed patience and endurance to live a life worthy of the Lord, because just like nowadays…..the fallen nature of humanity presented itself to them in harmful and destructive ways.
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Their leader (Paul) wanted them to live a life worthy of the Lord, so he told them two different things to have in their life to make sure that this would happen.
So if you're taking notes this morning, or if you want to know two ways that show that you are living a life worthy of the Lord, here is what Saint Paul has to say: both of which are in verse 10
#1) Bearing good fruit in every good work
The Bible tells us that while good works dont make us Christians….as in----we cant work our way to heaven by good deeds and compassionate care for others-------BUT those things will come out of people who are Christians.
Faith without works is dead, but true and honest faith will always do good works.
If we claim that Jesus Christ lives within our hearts, and our sins were nailed to the Cross with Him….then good works will come out of us.
We will bear fruit in every good work
We will care for others, regardless of who they are
We will love and volunteer and donate and tithe
We will do god works and as a result of the good works that we do, we will bear the fruits of our labor
We will see people come to know Christ
We will see people grow and change
We will see people be redeemed and made whole
We will see love and compassion and forgiveness
Not always, not everytime, doing good works isnt a foolproof plan that will always result in other people coming to know Christ------but im getting ahead of myself.
SO--------If we are living a life worthy of the Lord, the first thing that we will see in our life, is: Bearing Fruit in every good work.
#2) The 2nd way we can live a life worthy of the Lord:
Growing in the knowledge of God
When God saved us, and began to live within our heart, He not only changed the state of our soul from dirty to clean, from damned to saved, but He changed our desires as well.
He gave us the desire and the want to know Him more and more and more.
To press after Him, to learn about the things of God to explore the things of God,
To not be content with the kingdom of this world, but to want the Kingdom of God
1st Corinthians 13:11
1 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
When we first came to know Christ, we were children----
And God wants us to grow
To learn
To explore
To question
To reason
To understand
To not be content with only a surface level understanding
God wants us to move from the shallow end of the pool, take off our floaties, and move to the deep end----where theres soooooo much more to be discovered and explored and immersed in…
Even though the deep end for some people, may be deeper than it is for others.
Not all of us are scholars, but all of us are called to grow in our understanding.
It’s like that because, in the simplest way I can put it…..God loves you and he wants you to know Him more and more and more.
So how do we do this?
How do we get to know Him more?
Where do we go to ask questions, to explore, how do we get from the shallow end to the deep end?
No matter if my deep end isn’t as deep as someone else’s?
We read and study His word.
We set aside an intentional time in our day, be it 10minutes, or an hour------------ to do nothing but read the Words of Scripture.
Grab a pen, open your Bible, and circle and underline and draw arrows to all the words that stick out to you.
The words that hit you good
The words that hit you hard
If you're reading and have a question about something you're reading…..circle it and draw a question mark------and then reread that section over and over and over again.
Then, if your questions and concerns aren’t met by what you read in Scripture, read and listen to those people I mentioned earlier who have a deeper deep end than you do.
God made book nerds for a reason
God made scholars for a reason
Take the help of other people you respect in the faith when it comes to your questions and concerns
And I suppose you can bring those questions to your pastor as well….he’s kind of a nice guy from what ive heard.
Do you want to live a life that is worthy of the Lord? then:
Bear fruit in good work and
Grow in the knowledge of the kingdom of God
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But….those things can be hard, right?
Yeah I can volunteer and donate and tithe---
Yeah I can study and research and stretch my brain and stretch my heart---
But to do them to a level that will make God proud of me?
I mean He is perfect in every way imaginable-----how am I supposed to live a life of bearing good fruit and growing in my knowledge to such a degree that the God of the universe will be pleased like our verse this morning says?
Plus, how can those two things be added into my life…..if they arent there already….when my life is so incredibly full as it is right now?
How can I do good works when I get angry for having to wait at a red light?
Or when my job takes up so much of my time that I end up ignoring my child?
Or how can I grow in the knowledge of God…..when I have this gigantic other event or situation in my life that is absolutely dominating every thought that goes through my mind, or every action that I take?
When my life is already chaotic---
When my life is already full---
When my life is drawing in sorrow and despair----
When the way my life has unfolded has led to me and my family being pushed aside, pushed away, ran over, used, abused, and left in the gutters----
When my life------as it is right now-----isnt what I want it to be----how can I then add these two all encompassing things to my life---- that the Bible says will make my life worthy of the Lord?
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We must be patient.
But… that doesnt mean holding back your frustration until it subsides----
It doesnt mean gritting your teeth and pushing through the hard stuff----
Being patient isnt holding back your frustration when in reality you want to let it out
If its a long line at the grocery store----
Or a long time for the Dr to come back with a diagnosis----
What patience is, can be best explained by the word that Saint Paul used when he wrote this letter. The greek word he used, that we translate as patience, means “cheerful or hopeful constancy”
Being patient, means we have a cheerful or hopeful constancy
Its like that, because:
Patience isn’t the absence of impatience----it is the presence of the knowledge that God is in control of everything in your life. (X2)
God is absolutely and completely in charge of every aspect of reality, including your life.
Your long line at the grocery store, is not outside of God’s control---
Your waiting on your boss or coworker, is not outside of God’s control---
Your fight with Cancer---
Your life long battle with those things in your life that you wish wernt there----- is not outside of God’s control
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When we surrender everything in our life to Him-----
Our way of thinking--
Our way of living--
Our way of handling the stressful things in our life that stretch us to the breaking point---
When we give everything in our life to Him, then He will fulfill to us the words of vs 11:
“Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience”
God will strengthen us will all power according to His glorious might so that we will have great endurance and patience.
Not so that we will just get by---
Not so that we will float along with no issues or problems coming our way---
Not so that we will be able to live our best life now---
But so that we can have great endurance and patience------enabling us to live a life that is marked by doing good works that bear fruit----and growing in the knowledge of God.
God gives us the patience we need, to live a life that is worthy of Him.
Not because of who we are---
Not because we are extra special people that God plays favorites with---
Not because we are super holy people who God smiles at when He looks at Earth--
But because He is gracious and gives gifts to the undeserving.
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So…….be…..patient
James 5:11 says
“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
When life is hitting you hard----look at Job, who though he suffered, his God given patience helped him see a greater ending than a beginning.
When life is hitting you hard----look at the Israelites, who walked for 40 years
Look at Noah, who spent 120 years patiently working at the task that God gave him
Look at the story of Joseph in the Old Testament---who waited 22 years
Be patient, because God has not forgotten you
God will never forget you
He can see you through whatever it is you are going through---
Calm any storm in your life---
Or walk beside you THROUGH the storm---
When you are sad, look up
When you are lonely, look up
When life is hurting you----
When family is hurting----
When your job is hurting you---
When cancer, drugs, politics, people,
When all the things that this life can throw at you, land in your lap and you feel like giving up or giving in-------
Be….patient
Because if you have repented of your sins and believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then you are His child, who He will never abandon and never forsake.
( → → Closing Prayer ← ← )