Monday, July 27, 2009

Fruit of the Spirit ~ Faithfulness

All summer we have been looking at the fruit of God’s spirit. In talking to his disciples, Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me will bear much fruit. So as we abide in Jesus, or as we stay connected to God through Jesus Christ, we will bear much fruit – but what is this fruit? In Galatians 5:22 the Apostle Paul defines this fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So as we stay in a close personal relationship with God we find that these qualities of faith and character develop within us and while there are some specific things we can do to help these qualities grow, one of the common themes we have found is that for this fruit to mature completely, the key is to stay connected to God. If fruit is going to mature ripen, it needs to stay connected to the vine and if we want to grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, then we need to stay connected to God. If we try on our own to just be more loving, joyful, patient and kind, you know what happens, eventually we fail. We might find success for a while, but in the long run, we will fail. On our own we can only get so far, but as we trust God to develop these qualities within us and as we give more of our hearts and lives to God – the more these qualities develop.

Today we are going to look at the fruit of faithfulness by looking at a parable of Jesus found in Matthew 25. In this story a man is going on a journey and he takes his property and divides it among his servants with the expectation that they will be good stewards of his money and do something productive with it. When the man returns from his journey he calls his servants together to see what they have done. 25:20-29

Now what separates the first 2 servants from the third is faithfulness. The first two were faithful to their master and they used his money to make more, they did something productive with the gift they had been given. In many ways that’s faithfulness – it’s doing something productive with the gift God has given us, not just the gift of our lives, but the gift of our faith as well. We don’t think often about it, but faith itself is a gift from God. The Bible defines as faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen. Faith isn’t just our knowledge about God (who is unseen), faith is also the assurance we have deep within us that we know and trust that God is real and powerful and loving and that God is always with us. This kind of faith, any kind of faith really, is a gift from God because God is the one who reveals himself to us. That know anything about God: who God is or how God works in the world or how God’s love and grace works in our lives, that we know anything about God is because God has revealed himself to us. The bible says that the only reason we love is because God firs loved us. The only reason we can have faith in God is because God has revealed himself to us, God has come to us and told us and shown us who he is and how he works and how much he loves us. So our faith is a gift from God and so faithfulness is our response to that gift. What will we do with the faith God has given us it? One of the things this parable of Jesus shows us is that faith isn’t given to us just for us to hold on to. God gives us faith to use and to share with others. We are to do something productive with the gift God has given us. Just as the servants in Jesus parable were to put their master’s money to work – so are we to put our faith to work.

When it comes to our faith, we really only have 3 choices on how to respond. We can reject it. We can accept it and then do nothing with it, or we can accept it and then act upon it in our daily lives. The first two choices, rejecting faith and accepting the gift of faith but then doing nothing with it will both lead us to the same place - separated from God. It makes sense that rejecting faith will separate us from God because rejecting faith means in many ways rejecting God, but accepting God’s gift of faith and then doing nothing with it will also separates us from God. Remember what happened to the third servant who accepted the one talent from the master but did nothing with it? Eventually the gift was taken away from him and the servant was cast out into the darkness. What God calls us to do with our faith is to not only accept it into our hearts and lives, but to then act on it everyday. Faithfulness comes when we step out to do what God calls us to do and live the way God calls us to live, trusting that God power and love will be with us.
All week at VBS the children having been hearing the stories of Moses, and Moses was a great man of faith, and what made Moses faithful was that he didn’t just accept that God was real and powerful and that God loved him, he acted on what he knew. Moses lived out what he believed about God and what he heard from God. We grow in faithfulness when we act on what we know of God, and when we live out what we believe about God and what we hear from God, but this action doesn’t happen overnight – faithfulness is a process of growth. Faithfulness takes place when we hear something from God and then trust that word enough to act on it. We grow in faithfulness step by step, and again, the story of Moses shows us what this pathway looks like. As we read about Moses through the book of Exodus, we see that he grows in his faithfulness over time.

For example, after God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, he first had to go to Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Pharaoh said no, not once or twice, but 10 times and each time Pharaoh said no, God sent another plague upon Egypt. While this process of going to Pharaoh over and over again wore down Pharaoh and the people of Egypt to the point where they finally did let the Israelites go, this process also did something in Moses. I was thinking this week, why 10 plagues? Why did Moses have to go to Pharaoh 10 times? Maybe it was because it was going to take those 10 steps for Moses to grow in faithfulness. You see, each time Moses went to the palace to ask Pharaoh to let the people go – he had to trust God to be with him. And each time Moses said another plague would come upon the people, he had to trust in God’s power to bring that plague. On his own, Moses couldn’t turn water to blood, and on his own Moses could not produce a plague of frogs, gnats, boils, darkness or death. So each time Moses went to Pharaoh, he was not only acting upon the word of God, he was living out his faith and trust that God would not only be with him, but that God would do what God said he would do and bring the plagues upon Egypt. This process of going to Pharaoh again and again and having to completely trust God each time he went helped Moses develop and grow in faithfulness.
By the time the people of Israel finally left Egypt, Moses had grown in his faithfulness to the point where he was able to trust God to do some pretty major things, which was a good thing because the biggest challenge was still ahead of him. After God’s people left Egypt they came to the Red Sea, which they could not cross and yet hot on their trail was the army of Pharaoh so they couldn’t go back. It looked like the people of God were in an impossible situation – they can’t move forward because there was no way to cross the sea, and they can’t turn around or the Egyptian army would slaughter them. While all of the Israelites are afraid, Moses is not and do you know why he’s not afraid? It’s because of his faith. In the months leading up to this moment God had proven himself faithful time after time after time, and so now Moses faith and trust in God was strong. Because Moses had seen the power of God at work in the plagues, his faithfulness had grown, so while all of Israel melted away in fear, Moses stood firm in faithfulness. Exodus 14:13-14

These are the words of faithfulness. Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and then did you hear the last part? The Lord will fight for you. Faithfulness isn’t doing great things for God, it’s allowing God to do great thing through us. Faithfulness is just standing firm and trusting God to not only be with us, but to actually help us and strengthen us and fight the battle for us. Moses simply stood in faith. He listened to what God told him to do – he held up his staff, and watched as God parted the Red Sea.

Moses shows us that to grow in faithfulness we need to just take one step at a time. After Moses was called by God in the burning bush he didn’t immediately return to Israel and lead God’s people through the Red Sea into the promised land. Moses grew to trust God one step at a time, and it was only after many small steps of faith that he was able to get a place where he could stand firm with his arms stretched out over the waters and allow God to work his miracles through him. Too many times we think growing in faithfulness means we have to go out today and do something great for God, but that’s not it at all. Faithfulness is just being willing to do all the little things God is calling us to do today. Faithfulness is taking the faith God has given us and acting on it in all the small ways. As the parable of Jesus shows us, if we will be faithful in the little things – God bless us and use in even bigger ways. In fact we will never be able to stand firm and faithful in the big things until we have proven ourselves faithful and proven God’s faithfulness in the little things.

So faithfulness grows when we step out trusting and loving God in all the little areas of life. Faithfulness doesn’t require on hour of prayer, it starts with 5 or 10 minutes and grows from there. Faithfulness isn’t sitting down and reading the entire Bible this week, it’s being willing to read a little bit every day so we can hear God’s word and learn how to live out all of God’s promises. Faithfulness grows in all the little areas of life, like being willing to return to worship next week, and find one way to help our neighbor this week, and being willing to forgive just one person who has hurt or offended us. Faithfulness is not a revolution – it is an evolution. Faithfulness takes place slowly over time as we not only stay connected to God, but as we give more and more of our hearts and lives to God one faithful step at a time – one faithful day at a time. If we will do this, if we will be faithful in the little things then we will get to the place where we will say will be able to say with confidence and courage: Do not be afraid, stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Fruit of the Spirit ~ Goodness

The first prayer that I remember learning went like this. God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. By his hand we all are fed, give us lord our daily bread. AMEN. The challenge for me wasn’t learning that prayer, it was being able to sit through it before dinner without laughing. For some reason when my family would sit at the table and say grace before a meal I would start to laugh, there was nothing funny going on, it was just nervous energy coming out. When I first became a pastor my sister wondered how I would ever be able to do my job because I always laughed when I prayed. I told her I’ve grown out of that – well, sort of. Whenever I visit my sister and her family and it comes time to say grace before dinner, both my niece and nephew who heard these stories of me laughing during grace will look at me and even before the prayer has started – we are laughing. Anyway, one of the great truths that we teach our children is that God is good, and today one of the responses that many churches use goes like this, God is good – All the time – & all the time – God is good.

God is good. Psalm 100:5 says, For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 107:1 says, O give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. And Psalm 34:8 invites us to check out this claim of God’s goodness by saying, taste and see that the lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. The word for goodness in Galatians 5:22 comes from the Greek word agathose which means being good in character and constitution and in a way that is beneficial in its effect. Like kindness, goodness is putting God’s love into action, it is being a benefit to others, but goodness goes deeper than that. Goodness is not just doing the right thing; it’s doing the right things for the right reason and from a heart that is right with God. Goodness is being good in character and constitution which means that we have the right heart and attitude. We can be kind and do the right thing without having the right heart, but the same can’t be said for goodness. Goodness means not only the right action – it means the right heart and the right motives behind those actions.

God is good because God always does the right thing and God’s heart is always right. In 1 John 1:5 it says this is the message we have heard from Christ and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. In God there is no darkness. In God there is no sin, there are no wrong motives, no hidden agendas, no hypocrisy and no selfish ambitions. Because God is pure and holy all God does is good. We see this clearly in the story of creation. Throughout Genesis 1 we see that everything God creates is good. After God created light on the first day it says, God saw that the light was good. When created the sea and dry ground, he saw that it was good. After he made the plants and the animals and the stars of the sky, God saw that it was good. Everything that comes from God during these 6 days of creation is good. Everything God creates is good because God is good, and we as God’s children have the capacity to be good because we are made in the image of God. Look at what it says after God created human beings. Genesis 1:31 Because we are in the image of God we aren’t just good, we are very good and God created us with the capacity for being good, not just doing good things, but being good in our character and behavior. God not only created us to be good, but God calls us to live a good life. Ephesians 5:8-10.

We are called to live as children of the light which means not just doing the right things but to do the right things for the right reasons. In many ways, Jesus was always more concerned about our heart than our actions. In Jesus Sermon on the Mount he doesn’t just tell us that we shouldn’t kill others, he says that we shouldn’t hate others. And not committing adultery isn’t enough – we shouldn’t even lust after others. For Jesus, right actions were simply not enough, in fact, Jesus has harsh words for people who did good things but didn’t do them for the right reasons. Matthew 23:23-28.

Three times Jesus tells the religious leaders of his day that while they look good on the outside because they are following the laws of tithing and giving and ritual purity – they aren’t good because they are doing it all for the wrong reasons. The only reason they are following the law is because they want to be seen as good. They don’t care about pleasing God and they don’t care about helping others, they don’t love God or love others – they simply love themselves and Jesus cuts through all their phony actions and looks directly at their hearts because that’s what matters.

Now before we judge these religious leaders too harshly, let’s be honest and admit that for all of us, being good is not easy. While we were created in the image of God to be good, and our desires is to not only do good things but do them for a heart tat is right with God, the truth is that each and every one of us falls short. Forget about having all the right motives and attitudes, we fail to just do the good things we want to do. Romans 7:15-25

What Paul makes really clear to us here is that if we try to be good on our own – we will fail. Even if we could disciple ourselves and do all the right things, chances are we would still not have all the right motives. As Paul talks about his inability to be good he comes to a place of complete despair – what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? In other words – there is no hope of doing good and being good on my own – it’s just not possible, and that’s the truth. It is just not possible, so what’s the answer? The answer is Jesus Christ. That’s what Paul says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The answer to being good isn’t going to be found somewhere inside of us – it comes from Jesus. It is only through our faith and trust in God’s grace and love that we have any hope of being good. It is only through Jesus Christ that the goodness of God can flow through us to produce any sense of goodness in our lives. So maybe the goal for our lives shouldn’t be to go out and be good, maybe the goal should be to give more of our lives and more of our hearts to God so that God can produce his goodness in us.

Paul talks about this process of becoming good in Romans 12. Look at Romans 12:1-2
If we want to be good, if we want to not only do good things but do them from a good heart, then we first need to understand God’s goodness, or God’s good pleasing and perfect will. And understanding God’s goodness only comes by the transformation of our mind and that only comes when we submit ourselves completely to God as a living sacrifice. While the language here in Romans is a little different than what Paul writes in Galatians, the message is the same. To know the fruit of God’s goodness and to experience that goodness in our own lives will only come as we submit ourselves to God or stay connected to God through Jesus Christ.

So goodness comes as we yield ourselves to God, but just knowing what is good is not enough, Paul tells us we need to hold on to that goodness. Look at Romans 12:9
As we yield ourselves to God we don’t just understand what is good in our minds, we find God’s strength and power to hold to what is good, or to do those right things and for the right reasons. But Paul goes on and says it’s not enough to just hold to what is good, we need to offer that goodness to the world. Look at Rom. 12:21. With the strength and the power of God at work within us we can overcome the evil of the world, not with our goodness, but with the goodness that comes from God. So God’s goodness is not just for us, just as God’s love is not just for us, and God’s kindness is not just for us, all of the fruit of God’s spirit is given to us to live out so that we can make a difference in the world around us. Through Christ we are to be a blessing to the world.

While we were created to be good and God calls us to be good, we can never forget that it is God alone who makes this goodness possible. Goodness only comes as we give ourselves completely to God through Jesus Christ So instead of trying to be good on our own, let us yield our lives to God so His goodness can fill our hearts and give shape to all of our attitudes and actions.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Fruit of the Spirit ~ Kindness

That the fruit of God’s spirit matures and develops within us as we stay connected to God is one of the underlying truths we have seen over and over again as we have been studying the fruit of God’s spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness are not developed on our own – they grow and mature in us as we stay in relationship with God. Another theme that we have seen emerging throughout this study is that none of these character traits stand alone. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are all connected to one another. The love of God leads to joy, and love and joy lead us to a place of peace and if we are truly at peace in any and all situations then will we be patient with those around us, so we see how all the fruit of God’s spirit are interconnected and we see this with kindness as well. Kindness is always connected to love. The word for kindness in Galatians 5:22 is crestotes and whenever that word is used in the Greek, it is always related to love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 it says, love is patient, love is kind. So we see how kindness as one of the fruits of God’s spirit is directly connected to love, but the love is not sentimentality or emotion because the word crestotes actually means serviceable or useful.

Kindness means being useful, it’s a love that is put into actions that specifically help others. Many times when we think of the word kindness, we think of just being nice. A number of years ago there was a lot of talk about random acts of kindness where people were encouraged to just do nice things for others. Maybe you would put extra money in a parking meter – or pay the toll for the person behind you at the toll booth. While those ideas and gestures are nice, I’m not sure they meet the biblical definition of kindness because we can never judge the real usefulness of those random acts. For example, you can put money in a parking meter, but what if the person is on their way out? Or you can pay for the person behind you in line but maybe the real need is for the person in the other line. Random acts of kindness are great, they are nice and they help develop a culture of giving to others, but that’s not the kindness or the love in action we are talking about as one of the fruits of God’s spirit. This kindness – this reaching out in love seeks to make a real and useful difference in the life of someone in need. And the motivation for us to be kind comes from God himself. In 1 John 4:8 it says God is love, but God is really loving kindness because God’s love reaches out to help us. God’s love offers practical help to us in times of need. So God is not only love – God is kind. Look at Ephesians 2:4-7.

The first thing we see here is that kindness and love are connected. It is because of God’s great love for us that he made us alive with Christ even though we were dead. It is because God loves us that he sends Jesus to us, and Jesus is a useful gift because he is the one who saves us from sin and death. The gift of Jesus does something for us, it changes our lives. In Paul’s letter to Titus he also says, (Titus 3:4) when the loving kindness of God appeared, he saved us – and again, the way God saves us is through Jesus Christ. So God is love, but his love is patient and kind and if we are allowing the spirit of God to flow through us then we will also become more and more kind but what specifically does this kindness look like in our lives? Jesus shows us what kindness looks like in the story of the Good Samaritan - Luke 10:25-37.

The first thing we need to do if we want to deepen our kindness toward others is to take a good look around us and identify the needs we see in people. Everyone who walked along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho saw the needs of the injured man. The priest and the Levite and the Samaritan all saw that the man was bleeding and in need of help. The first step in developing a kind heart is to stop looking at ourselves all the time, to stop looking at our own problems and our own wants and needs and start looking at the needs of people around us. What needs do we see around us today? What needs do our physical neighbors have? What needs do we see in the people who live next door or down the street? What needs do we see in the community around us? If kindness begins by seeing the needs of the people around us and we can’t see those needs, then we need to ask God to help us see them and the people who have them. Too often we get caught up in our own problems, big or small, and so it’s hard to see the needs of others, and sometimes the needs around us are so great and complex, that we just tune them out because we don’t even know where to start, but if we want to be kind then we need to open our eyes and see the needs of God’s people who are all around us.

While kindness starts by seeing the needs in others, seeing the needs is not enough. The priest and the Levite both saw the need of the injured man along the side of the road, but neither one was willing to stop and get involved. The priest and the Levite weren’t kind because they weren’t useful, they didn’t do anything to help the man. Kindness requires us to stop what we are doing, put aside our own life and agenda to get involved. To call ourselves men and women of faith means that we are willing to make the conscious choice to get involved in meeting the needs of others. Look at James 2:14-17. So faith without works is dead. If we want to be people of faith we have to be kind and get involved in meeting the needs we see around us. If we don’t make the choice to get involved, not only do we lack faith – we also lack love, both a love for people and a love for God, look at 1 John 3:17-18.

So how can we say we love God if we aren’t willing to help others? How can we say love others if we aren’t willing to help them? Both James and John say that the help we offer needs to be practical and useful. It’s doing something to make a real difference in someone else’s life. One expression of kindness we can all participate in is in how we speak to others. In Ephesians 4:29 it says, let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is USEFUL for building up as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. Maybe the people in need around us are simply those who need a kind word, a word that will be useful in building up their self-esteem or self worth. With so many people struggling with jobs and finances, maybe the most useful thing is to simply offer an encouraging word. Maybe it’s wending a card or letter to someone in need. We can not underestimate the power of our word, written or spoken. They can tear people down or be useful in building people up. Proverbs 12:25 says anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a kind word, cheers it up. If you have ever gotten a phone call at the right moment, or a note at the right time – you know the power of kind words.

Kindness can also be forgiveness, look again at Ephesians 4:32, be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Again, this shows us that part of the motivation for us to be kind is the kindness and love God has shown to us. God has forgiven us and so we need to be kind and forgive others. We commit ourselves to this act of kindness each week when we pray together because part of the Lord’s prayer clearly says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed, or sinned against us. Forgiveness isn’t always something we feel; many times it simply has to be a choice that we make.

Kindness is also seen in how we are willing to give our material goods to others. Let’s go back to the story of the Good Samaritan; look at all the ways the Samaritan was willing to give his material goods to the man was injured. He didn’t just give his time, he took his own clothes and used them as bandages for the man. He placed the man on his own donkey to get him to the nearest inn. He gave the innkeeper his own money to care for the man and even opened a line of credit to meet any future needs he might have and he did it all without thinking about or expecting anything in return. Look at Luke 6:35-36. Jesus again links love and kindness together by showing that love is seen in how we are willing to give to others, and they way we are to give is generously and without expecting anything in return.

While many people may want to say that this kind of sacrificial giving just doesn’t make any sense, I believe that it not only makes perfect sense, but it is the kind of giving that helps us experience the real power and spirit and life of God. In some ways, we only find the power of God when we are willing to go beyond conventional wisdom and give beyond what we think we can give. It’s only when we are willing to move beyond what we can do on our own that we begin to experience the power of God. If we only give in ways that make sense to us and if we only give what is comfortable for us and what makes sense to us, then we can never really prove the power of God or experience the love of God. But when we move into those unknown places of risk and sacrifice, when we step out and love others after the radical example of Jesus, giving beyond what we can give and forgiving those who have sinned against us, we begin to find the life God has for us. How might God be calling us to show kindness in ways that seem totally impossible? What are the needs that God is showing us that seem beyond our ability to get involved? Those might be just the places where God wants you to offer not your kindness but his kindness.

So kindness requires us to see the needs, stop and get involved and be willing to give generously, sacrificially and without thought of repayment or reward. But kindness also calls us to work on building relationships where love and kindness can continue to flow. Look at how the story of the Good Samaritan ends, Luke 10:35. When I come back… it’s not if I come back – the man is coming back. Real kindness is not seen in random acts – they are relational. Real kindness works to build relationships with one another. Too often in the church when we reach out to help we simply send out our money to people and places in need, but we never take the time to really get involved in building relationships with those people. One of the great things about going to SD was that we got to meet people. We were able to listen to their stories, reach out to them with handshakes and hugs, we could laugh with them, cry with them and even pray with them. I guess a question for us to consider is whether or not there is value in us building ongoing relationships with those we reach out to help.

I think it would be wonderful for us as a church to think about building an ongoing relationship with another church or community in need that we would not only be able to help once or twice, but commit ourselves to in loving kindness. Maybe it is partnering with a UM church in Sierra Leone, or raising up a missionary from our own congregation that we send to a community in need, or even building relationships with people in need right around here, but real kindness is not randomly helping those in need, it also needs to build relationships in which we can share the love and grace of Jesus Christ over a period of time. Random acts of kindness are nice and they have their place, but the kindness that comes from the spirit of God is useful, sacrificial, risky and relational. Loving kindness is only possible through the strength and power of God and when we offer it to those in need around us – it will not only make a difference in their lives, it will change our lives as well.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Fruit of the Spirit ~ Patience

Last week we saw how peace may be the one fruit of the spirit that God most wants us to experience, but I have a feeling that the fruit of the spirit we most want to experience is not peace but patience. We are not a very patient people and the evidence is all around us. Not long ago a woman called 911 because McDonalds had run out of Chicken McNuggets, and here’s the thing, she didn’t call once, she called 3 times because the police didn’t get there fast enough. Not long before that a man had called 911 because Burger King had run out of lemonade. Now while these cases might seem a little extreme, have you ever gotten upset because a fast food restaurant was taking too long? Have you ever stopped the microwave 5 or 10 seconds before it’s done because you didn’t want to wait for it to finish? I confess that I am guilty of that one all the time, and while these are comical examples of our impatience, there are more serious examples that have a huge impact on our lives and even our nation. Think about credit card debt, it is one of the biggest economic problems we face and the reason we have such high debt is because we are impatient. We buy things on credit because we don’t want to wait until we have the money in hand to purchase it. Impatience hurts our finances, and it also hurts our relationships? We often expect people to change their behavior to suit our desires and expectations, and when people don’t change fast enough, we are quick to give up on them instead of taking the time to work things out.

In our instant gratification society, we do not wait well, but patience is more than waiting. The Greek word for patience is macrothumia. Macro means long and thuma means temper, so patience literally means being long tempered – not throwing a temper tantrum for a long time, but having it take a long time before we lose our temper. And our word patience comes from the latin word pati which means endurance and pathos which means to suffer, so again we see that patience means more than waiting, it means to endure suffering. Patience is being steadfast and strong even as we are being tested. Patience is enduring ill treatment by others without getting angry or finding ways to get revenge.
A great biblical example of this kind of patience is seen in Jesus during the last day of his life. Last week we saw how Jesus was a man of great peace during his final hours and it was that peace which led to incredible patience with all the people around him. Let’s review the story again, when Jesus friends all fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane after he had asked them to stay awake and pray with him, Jesus didn’t seek any kind of retaliation and he doesn’t walk on out them - he continues to lead them and he reaches out to them in love. When Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, he didn’t seek revenge. When Jesus was unjustly accused before the religious and political leaders he didn’t get angry and when people threw insults at him as he hung on the cross, Jesus didn’t think of ways to get even –Jesus not only endured the suffering, he even was even willing to forgive. That is what it means to be patient. Real patience isn’t just waiting and it’s not enduring trials and tribulations, it’s reaching out in love as we endure.

Now just like all the fruit of the spirit, patience is not something we can go out and get on our own – patience grows in us as we stay connected to God. From the life of Jesus we see that patience comes as we experience God’s peace and God’s peace comes when we know that God’s love and joy are with us. In so many ways the fruit of God’s spirit is all interconnected and they all require us to stay connect to God through Jesus Christ. So first and foremost, patience will only develop in us as we stay connected to God, but there are some things we can do to become more patient and we can find some of these things from Psalm 40:1-3.

Right away we see that David is already patient here: I waited patiently for the Lord. David is not looking for patience, he is already patient, so the question is where did the patience come from? Well let’s look at what David is doing here. Psalm 40:1b says, God turned to me and heard my cry. What David is doing is crying out to God, so before patience comes prayer, but it’s not just any kind of prayer David is offering up, he is crying out to God. The kind of prayer that develops patience is openly and honestly laying ourselves before God. If we read through the psalms, that is what we see over and over again from David. He never hides himself from God. When David has questions he asks God boldly for answers. Look at Psalm 10:1. David is not arrogant, but with boldness and courage he looks for answers. When David needs help he is also honest with God. Psalm 16:1 & Psalm 51:1-2. Whether David is looking for answers, or strength or forgiveness – he is not afraid to come before God and simply cry for help. This kind of honest prayer helps develop a strong relationship with God and as our relationship with God grows, we stay connected to the vine, and as we stay connected to the vine – the fruit of God’s spirit grows in us and patience comes.

So if we want patience we need to pray, but it’s not just crying out to God that we need to do in prayer, we also need to ask God for patience. Now I have heard many people say that they are afraid to ask God for patience because the fear is if we do, God will send all kinds of trials and problems into our lives so that we can learn to become more patient during those times of trial. While patience does grow as we endure difficult times, the other truth we need to remember is that if we ask God for patience he might just give it to us. When I was growing up I was not a very patient child. In fact, I was good at throwing temper tantrums and I really excelled at stomping up stairs and slamming doors. As I became a Christian during college I began to understand that I needed to be more patient so I told my friends that I was going to pray for patience. Everyone told me I should not do this because more problems would come into my life, but I did pray for patience and something very interesting happened - I became more patient.

It was during my sophomore year of college that I prayed for patience and that following summer I went to work in Yellowstone NP. Now things didn’t always work out smoothly that summer, there were lots of little problems that normally would have upset me, but as I went through that summer I realized that I never seemed to get frustrated or angry. I just went along day by day with a sense of peace that I never had before. In fact, all summer long people kept telling me how patient I was, and I always asked them if they would be willing to write that down and send it to my Mom because she would never believe that I could be patient. I had prayed for patience and God granted me patience. I didn’t learned patience through the difficulties of that summer; God gave me the patience to make it through the difficulties of that summer. I had prayed for patience and God gave me patience. The way I look at it, if patience is a fruit of the spirit that God wants us to have - then there is no reason we should not ask God for it. Asking God for patience will not bring difficult times into our lives, the reality is that difficult times are going to come – but if we ask for patience, then we just might find the spirit of God developing patience in us to help us through those difficult times.

So patience comes as we pray, but patience also comes as we persevere through the trials of life. There’s no getting around the idea that patience does develop and strengthen as we endure through times of suffering and pain. We heard this a few weeks ago when we read James 1:2-4. We become mature and complete when we endure through times of testing and trial. While God may grant us patience to help us through those times, we still need to go through those times and as we walk through them, our patience will grow. Pastor John Hoffman tells the story a young father in a supermarket who was pushing a shopping cart with his little boy strapped in the front seat. All through the store his son was fussy, irritable, and crying, but the father seemed to be very calm as he continued to push the cart around the store saying softly, "easy now, Donald. Keep calm. Steady boy. It's going to be alright, Donald." A mother who had passed by was so impressed by this young father's attitude that she stopped and said, "You certainly do know how to talk to an upset child." And then she bent down to the little boy and said, "Now Donald what seems to be the trouble?" The father looked at her somewhat confused and said, "Oh no, ma’am, his name is Henry. I'm Donald.”

What Donald shows us is that sometimes we just have to get ourselves through the store; we have to do whatever it takes to get ourselves through the difficult times in life step by step. It might mean talking to ourselves moment by moment, or it might mean talking to God moment by moment and asking God for the strength and the power to endure. Again, we see this in David’s life; look at what he says in Psalm 40:2.

Now God could only lift David up out of the mud and mire of his life because David was still in the mud and mire of his life. David had not given up on his problems or given in to despair. Too often our frustration and our inability to wait causes us to give up, but the key to deepening our patience is to not give up but just make it to the next minute, and then the next hour, and then the next day. As we endure day by day – patience grows. Times of trial should not be avoided or cursed, we need to endure them with faith and trust.

So patience grows as we pray and as we endure hardships and trials, but patience also grows right here during times of worship. Look at Psalm 40:3. One of the other things that helped David develop patience was worship. Our ongoing worship of God develops patience because it is during times of worship that we are reminded who God is and how just patient God has been with us. In 2 Peter 3:9 it says the Lord is patient with us, and it is during times of worship that we are reminded of God’s forgiveness and grace. It is during times of worship that we remember God’s unconditional love. In 1 Timothy 1:15-16 it says…
When we realize just how patient God has been with us, it gives us a sense of perspective and it reminds us that God gives us the strength we need to offer this same love and grace and forgiveness to others. Worship reminds us that is God patient with us, and so we can be patient with others.

If you want patience - stay connected to God in prayer. Open yourself up fully to God and even be bold and ask God for patience. If you want patience endure hardships and trials with the understanding that this time of testing will bring us to maturity, look the future and trust God to lift you up, and if you want patience, continue to worship God and allow the presence and power of God to give you the strength needed to endure.