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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor November
3, 2002 The
acts of the sinful nature are
obvious: sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy,
fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissensions,
factions and envy;
drunkenness, orgies, and the
like. I warn you, as I did
before, that those who live
like this will not inherit the
kingdom of God.
But
the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such
things there is no
law. As
we continue today talking about
the fruit of the Holy Spirit, let
me remind you of the definition
I've been using of "fruit." Fruit
is that which is produced by the
inherent energy of a living
organism. The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is
Love... The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is...Joy The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is...Peace The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is...Patience The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is...Kindness
and
Goodness Now,
what that means when we talk
about fruit of the Spirit is that
you can't have it if you don't
have the Holy Spirit. You must
have the Spirit of God living in
you if you are going to have
these qualities -- love, joy,
peace, patience, and so on, as
the Bible defines them -- growing
in your life. Before
we get to the fruit I want to
focus on today, let me remind you
that although it is the Holy
Spirit who produces these things
in us, there is something you and
I must do to foster these
qualities. This is why we are
commanded to love,
to be patient, gentle, good,
kind, and so on. God
doesn't force us to be the way He
wants us to be. Even though the
Holy Spirit produces the fruit,
the fruit will not grow and
develop within us without our
cooperation. We
must desire and seek the growth
of the fruit of the Spirit in our
lives -- and we must do things
that will cultivate that
growth. This
is why Paul tells us in Galatians
5:16: How
do we do that? How do we "live by
the Spirit"? First
we must the right mindset. Look
with me at Romans 8:5. We
focus our minds on the things of
the Spirit by giving our
attention to the study of God's
word. But
that's not all. In addition to
having the right mindset, we must
follow through with obedience to
what the Word says. Turn
to 1 John 2, starting at verse
3: And
flip over another page or two to
1 John 5:3: We
must actively seek to
obey that Word, and
to submit ourselves to the
leadership of the indwelling Holy
Spirit. We
focus ourselves to the Spirit by
constantly reminding ourselves of
God's presence and His desire to
lead and guide us in our
day-to-day living. We also should
try to stay constantly aware that
God seeks to use us and may have
a special thing for us to do at
any moment. We need to keep our
minds and hearts focused on the
Spirit and the
Kingdom. So
far, as we looked at the various
fruit of the Holy Spirit, we have
talked about love,
and joy,
and peace.
Today, let's look at the fruit of
patience. Patience
is a virtue highly regarded in
Scripture. Listen to a few
Proverbs from the Bible's great
book of wisdom. First, Proverbs
14:29: Also
Proverbs 16:32: And
Proverbs 19:11: And
finally, look at Proverbs
25:15: Likewise,
the New Testament, in a dozen or
more verses, encourages us to be
patient. I
suspect that many of you are like
me. I have often prayed to God:
"Lord, give me patience and
please hurry up. I don't have
time to wait for it patiently; I
need it right now." That
request is often made in
conjunction with someone who has
been irritating, or annoying, or
has provoked us in some way,
yanked our chain or pushed our
button. Certainly
that is part of patience but it
is more than that. Look at this
definition of patience on the
video screens: Some
translations of the Bible,
including the King James Version
and the New King James Version
render the Greek word for
patience as "longsuffering" --
and that probably gives us a
better understanding of the depth
of its meaning. Jesus
warned us that in the world we
would have hardship, which will
increase as the end draws near.
Jesus warns us to not grow
impatient, to not give up on God
and abandon the faith but rather
endure patiently to the end until
God fully works out His plan and
purpose. God
uses all manner of circumstances
to work on our patience to
prepare us for what lies ahead in
life. One commentator described
patience as "love on trial." Our
children, husbands, wives, and
friends sometimes put our love on
trial. Patience
isn't just about waiting, but how
we act while we're waiting. A
patient person will be able to
endure the stuff, whatever it
might be, without losing their
temper or their joy, peace, hope,
or their sense of
humor. I
don't know about you but God has
ample opportunity every day to
work on my patience: Fast food
that isn't fast; traffic jams and
inconsiderate drivers, especially
those who park crooked and take
up two spaces in a crowded lot,
or stop in middle of the street
to talk; standing in long
checkout lines while looking at
ten unused cash registers; the
doctor who can't see you for
three days when you're so sick
you'd have to get better to die;
children and employees who fail
to do what they are supposed to
do, or do what exactly what
they've been told not to
do. I
haven't even mentioned how we try
our own patience with our
forgetfulness, failures and
shortcomings. The
real test of patience is waiting
upon God. Are
you waiting on God for anything?
I mean something that's good and
holy -- something you believe is
yours because you are His, but
you haven't received it
yet. How
do we deal with that? Well, keep
in mind that patience has to do
with time. Being "in time" means
that there is a past, present and
future; a beginning and an end; a
first and a last. We
are in time, for now, but God is
not in time. Jesus said, "I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the
first and the last the beginning
and the end." God is eternal and
therefore he never runs out of
time, and He is never in a
hurry. When
you received Jesus as Savior and
Lord you were given His life,
which is eternal life. How does
that relate to patience? Let me
quote my friend Lloyd Craft,
pastor of Faith Gospel New Life
church here in Athens: "Every
problem you have is temporary and
you are eternal." Now,
this is so hard for us to
comprehend while we're still
living in the reality of a
temporal, fallen world. Yet if we
want to experience the fruit of
patience, we must grasp this
truth. We
also need to be clear about
something else: impatience can
produce disastrous
consequences. Remember
the story of Abraham and Sarah?
When they were 75 years old, God
had promised them a son. They
waited and waited, but no son
came. So
Sarah gave Abraham her slave
girl, Hagar, as a second wife and
she got pregnant and birthed a
son named Ishmael. The result of
all that was contention between
Sarah and Hagar, which spread to
dissension in the
family. Then
Sarah and Abraham had the son God
had promised, Isaac, and the
dissension in the family
increased. Eventually, Abraham
was forced to send Hagar and
Ishmael away. Tradition
holds that Ishmael's descendants
are the present day Arabs and
Isaac's descendants are the Jews.
The result of their impatience is
a deadly international feud
spanning thousands of
years. Another
example of impatience that
produced disastrous results:
Judas Iscariot. I'm talking about
the impatience he demonstrated
after he betrayed
Jesus. Here's
what I mean. Yes, Judas betrayed
Jesus -- but so did all the
others in some way. They all
denied and deserted
him. But
the rest of the Twelve disciples
went on to become pillars of the
church while Judas ended up a
suicide. Distraught over what he
had done, he went out and hanged
himself. He
just couldn't wait to allow the
thing to work itself out; he
couldn't wait on God to
accomplish His purpose. By his
impatient action, he cut himself
off from the grace of
God. You
and I must put -- and keep -- our
hope in a faithful God and not
let the pressure of time drive us
to impatient action that can
hinder God's work in our
lives. David
is one of my favorite biblical
characters because he is so real.
His shortcomings were obvious,
but his faith in God's goodness
and mercy was absolutely
unflappable. Yes,
his impatient actions often
caused him hardship, but his
patience with God, his confidence
that God's mercy and love would
never fail him, allowed him to
persevere into
victory. I'll
close by reading some thoughts
David left with us about patience
-- patience in waiting for God to
fulfill His purpose. First
from Psalm 27, starting at verse
13: Wait
for the LORD; be strong and
take heart and wait for the
LORD. Also
look at Psalm 37, starting at
verse 3: Commit
your way to the LORD; trust in
him and he will do this: He
will make your righteousness
shine like the dawn, the
justice of your cause like the
noonday sun. Be
still before the LORD and wait
patiently for him; do not fret
when men succeed in their
ways, when they carry out
their wicked
schemes. Refrain
from anger and turn from
wrath; do not fret-it leads
only to evil. For evil men
will be cut off, but those who
hope in the LORD will inherit
the land. A
little while, and the wicked
will be no more; though you
look for them, they will not
be found. But the meek will
inherit the land and enjoy
great peace. Now,
dear friends, be joyful in hope,
patient in affliction and
faithful in prayer 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
who has qualified you to share in
the inheritance of the Saints of
the Kingdom of Light.
Amen. The
fruit of the Spirit is. .
.patience.
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at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
The
fruit of the Spirit is...
patience
(Fourth
in a series)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
So
I say, live by the Spirit, and
you will not gratify the
desires of the sinful nature.
For the sinful nature desires
what is contrary to the
Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature.
They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do
what you want. But if you are
led by the Spirit, you are not
under law.
And remember that the character
of the fruit is evidence of the
character of the power producing
it.
Sermons
in
this
series:
Love
is the
root
and
foundation
for
all
other
fruit
of the
Spirit.
It is
God's
love
that
enables
us to
live
the
Christian
life.
Joy
flows
from
being
in
God's
presence.
By the
Holy
Spirit,
the
Lord's
presence
isn't
just
with
us, it
is
within
us.
The
peace
of God
is
found
in a
particular
place:
the
path
of
God's
will
and
purpose
for
your
life.
We
must
learn
to
wait.
Not
doing
so can
lead
to
disastrous
consequences.
God's
truth
is
"wrapped"
in our
lives
for
delivery
to the
world.
Kindness
and
goodness
are
essential
elements
of the
wrapper.
The
Fruit
of the
Spirit
is...Faithfulness,
Gentleness,
and
Self-Control
Faithfulness
prospers
individuals
and
organizations;
Gentleness
resists
using
power
inappropriately;
Self-control
means
we can
overcome
behavior
that
violates
biblical
standards.
"So
I say, live by
the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the
sinful nature."
Those
who live according to the
sinful nature have their minds
set on what that nature
desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit
have their minds set on what
the Spirit desires.
We
know that we have come to know
him if we obey his commands.
The man who says, "I know
him," but does not do what he
commands is a liar, and the
truth is not in him. But if
anyone obeys his word, God's
love is truly made complete in
him.
This
is love for God: to obey his
commands.
Patience
encouragedA
patient man has great
understanding, but a
quick-tempered man displays
folly.
Better
a patient man than a warrior,
a man who controls his temper
than one who takes a
city.
A
man's wisdom gives him
patience; it is to his glory
to overlook an offense.
Through
patience a ruler can be
persuaded, and a gentle tongue
can break a bone.
Patience
defined
You
see, patience goes way beyond
just enduring annoying people
without losing your temper. It
includes perseverance in the face
of hardship, difficulty or
persecution.
Patience
developed
Temporary
vs. eternal
The
consequences of
impatience
Wait
for the LORDI
am still confident of this: I
will see the goodness of the
LORD in the land of the
living.
Trust
in the LORD and do good; dwell
in the land and enjoy safe
pasture. Delight yourself in
the LORD and he will give you
the desires of your
heart.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
021103a: The Fruit of the
Spirit is...Patience.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado