Growing in Christ - Put on patience
Colossians • Sermon • Submitted
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Patience.
Patience.
I don’t know how many of us would consider ourselves to be patient people.
I am sure we have all heard the familiar cliche, patience is a virtue.
We know it to be true but do we know what it means to be patient?
Especially in our world today, it seems that everything is in go mode all the time.
Rush rush rush to get things done as quickly as possible so we can get on to the next task.
Fast food is too slow, now you can even order ahead.
If you have a Keurig you can have a cup of coffee in 1-2 minutes piping hot ready to go.
If you have a smart phone, you have the internet at your fingertips.
You don’t even have to go through the store to pick out your own groceries anymore.
Not that any these are entirely bad but it shows our desire to get around waiting.
So many of these developments are wonderful things. They make our lives easier and can give us more time for important things.
Yet Paul calls believers to put on patience.
At some point we must take the time to ask if having it our way, right away, is causing problems.
Is the immediacy of our culture leading to overblown expectations and growing an unhealthy felt need for instant gratification.
In turn people are losing patience with one another as well.
Fallout from this is even making the news.
There was a story the other day that was running about road rage. A few months back there was a man riding on the hood of another mans car over an incident.
It makes me wonder though as well, Paul was even calling on the Colossian readers to put on patience.
Even in that time people had the same desires. Desires to take shortcuts.
There is a reason for this.
I think we can trace the root of the issue back to the garden. To Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge.
Taking the fruit was a shortcut.
Taking the fruit was the immediate way to gain the knowledge.
If asked, could you define patience? Could you do so without giving examples?
Defining the word
Defining the word
When we think of patience, we think of waiting.
Waiting patiently for something to happen.
Our Greek word here for patience helps us to further define the idea a bit.
① state of remaining tranquil while awaiting an outcome, patience, steadfastness, endurance
② state of being able to bear up under provocation, forbearance, patience toward others
1: bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint
2: manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain
3: not hasty or impetuous
4: steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity
To give us a simple definition, we could define patience as waiting calmly without complaint.
This can be a lot easier said than done.
For instance when it is bed time and all your child wants to do is play with toys.
Perhaps in school we asked another person not to mess with something of ours.
Another could be someone you are working with not doing what they were asked to do.
In this example a wrong is being done against us, the individual is not listening.
We have a choice in how we respond.
Our natural response is it get angry, raise our voice and repeat ourselves.
Is this responding calmly without complaint?
We must make the choice to lovingly correct the child.
We must make sure that the other student actually heard what was asked of them.
We must make certain that the person we are working with fully understood the instruction.
If we are following the example put forth by Jesus, we respond in situations such as these with the traits that Paul has told us to put on.
I know, easier said than done but we must make the effort.
We grow in Christ when we put on the traits that he modeled.
Jesus was and is patient.
Jesus was and is patient.
Jesus provides for us an amazing example of patience as he trained his disciples. The men who were following Him, living with Him.
Think of the strife that occurs when you get a group of people together over time.
There are going to be issues that arise.
Even in a group of believers. People see things differently. Everyone has unique personalities and different upbringings that shape them.
The disciples.
The disciples.
There were many squabbles that arose amongst the disciples.
In Mark chapter 10 we see the example of James and John coming to Jesus asking to sit in the seats of glory with him in heaven. When the other 10 heard what they had asked they became indignant.
The ironic thing is, just previous in Mark 9 we saw that on the road to Capernaum the disciples had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest. Jesus asked what they were discussing but they would not tell him.
So when they stopped Jesus taught.
35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
James and John especially did not hear the message the first time.
Jesus expanded in chapter 10
English Standard Version Chapter 10
But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
How many times did Jesus have to repeat himself with the disciples.
Jesus repeated himself frequently with the disciples.
Sometimes it seems like a broken record repeating the same thing over and over again.
Jesus taught and modeled this principle and still they didn’t get it.
We have these stories and all of this repetition for a purpose.
We are no different than the disciples.
How many times does he have to repeat himself with you? With me?
Think for a moment to yourself, what are some of the things that God has taught you that took time.
Thing that had to take patience on God’s part.
Like watching a child trying to learn something new, God has the patience to let us try and fail so that we can actually learn and grow.
We have a loving, kind, gracious, patient God.
It is in our failure that His love, His grace, and his patience are put on full display.
Jesus dealt patiently with Peter in His failure.
Jesus dealt patiently with Peter in His failure.
An example of this we can see in scripture is in the life of Peter.
Peter, after having lived with Jesus and claiming he would die with him if necessary, denied he even knew Jesus 3 times in that one night, before the rooster crowed.
I can’t even begin to imagine the shame that he must have felt in that moment.
Yet after Jesus resurrection Jesus called Peter out of his failure and shame to be the rock which the church was to be built upon.
Jesus called Peter to to shepherd His flock. To love His sheep.
Jesus bore with Peter in his time of great need and brought him though it stronger.
We like Peter fail. We may even deny knowing Jesus depending upon the situation.
But God in His patience, in His Grace, in His love will restore us if we are trusting in Him.
Jesus does this because his patience is perfect.
Perfect patience.
Perfect patience.
This perfect patience is also displayed in the life of Paul.
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
How much is Jesus patient with us in our failure.
He patiently endures our rebellious acts waiting for our repentance, waiting for our confession.
When Jesus demonstrates his perfect patience, not only does he do so as fully human — showing us the kind of divine life that can be expressed in our own human flesh — but also he points us to the patience of his Father. It is not as though the Father is quick-tempered, while the Son is patient. Rather, the patience we see in the Son is the very patience of his Father.
This is the sort of patience that we are to put on.
Patience with a purpose.
Our God is patient with a purpose.
Our God is patient with a purpose.
Paul writes in Romans 2 to this fact.
1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
We must not consider the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience as something not important enough to be concerned about.
God’s patience is so important for each and every one of us.
God’s kindness is meant to lead to repentance.
A change of heart, a change of direction.
God is patient for a purpose.
God is patient for a purpose.
Peter shows us just how important God’s patience is
9 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.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
I pray that the truth of these verses grips each of us with the importance and immediacy of its nature.
God is patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
These verses should compel us to action.
These verses should inspire our cry to others who have yet to repent.
Oh that the Lord might tarry that we might have the opportunity to share Jesus with another.
We have a part to play but not on our own.
Patience is also a fruit of the Spirit.
A fruit of the Spirit
A fruit of the Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
When we are living with the Spirit, keeping in step with Him. Spending time in God’s word, spending time in fellowship with one another, spending time in service to our Lord and King Jesus.
These fruits will grow in us.
We are to put on these traits that Paul mentions in the same manner.
Not for our own purpose. Not that we might appear to be better people.
We put them on that God would be glorified in all that we do.
God is glorified when we grow in the likeness of His son Jesus.
Are we patient with one another?
Are we patient with one another?
The question must be asked, are we patient people?
Are we patient with one another?
Is patience an area in our lives that we are excelling or is it an area that we need to pray that the Lord will grow in us.
As believers, we are recipients of the Lord’s patience. Because of God’s patience we know His love.
James instructs us in chapter 5
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
He suggests in the next verse that we also take as an example of suffering and patience the prophets.
They preached God’s word to mostly unrepentant people.
They suffered for the message God had them bring.
From the examples we have seen, patience must extend out from us, especially in difficult situations.
It is definitely easier for us to be patient with people we know.
But it can be just as easy to be impatient with those we know because we believe they should know better.
It can be equally difficult to be patient with others that we don’t know.
How many times have we rebelled?
How often and we misrepresented the Lord?
How frequently have we taken advantage of God’s forgiveness?
How much have we been impatient with Him, only to find out how gently and how kindly he has handled us in return.
Our own impatience pulls back the mask of who we are.
We may think that the reactions that flow out from our impatience make us look and sound strong, but in reality it is growing in our souls insecurity and unrest.
Patience is more than waiting in a long line with a smile on our face.
Patience is more than rolling with changes that delay us in our day.
Patience is more than a good quality to put on.
Patience reveals true power.
The awesome, extraordinary power that is on display as Christ deals with us in His perfect patience.
Read together
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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