Fruit of the Spirit: Patience (Galatians 5:22)

progress. We're gonna pen me pin. There we go. All right. Today we're going to talk about a favorite topic. Patience. Yep. There you go. So, uh and and some maybe some misinformation or some things I've heard, you know, even even in church with with pastors or associate pastors when we talk about patients. And so the first thing I want to do when I talk about this, I'm going to cover a couple verses, but I'm going to do them real quickly. The first thing I want to talk about is Exodus 34:6. So this is old school. This is Old Testament. Exodus 346.

And this is the Lord describing himself with four character traits. He says, "The Lord proclaims himself merciful and gracious." There's our mercy and grace that are renewed every day. uh he considers himself longsuffering, that's patience, and abounding in goodness. So God gives himself four descriptors. He's merciful, he's gracious, he's patient, and he's good. So if God is those four things, those are probably four things that we should work on inside ourselves. And in fact, when you go to Galatians 5:22, you'll find these four things included in the fruit of the spirit.

Right? So clearly they are important to God. So what does that mean for us? Uh I have heard people give a prayer and in their prayer they ask for patience and then immediately after the after the prayer in that group like oh you shouldn't pray for patience because if you pray for patience God's going to give you something to be patient for. Now, on the surface, that sounds like that's that sounds like wisdom. That sounds pretty good. Probably I shouldn't do that. But when you really take a hard look at it, that's not the heart you should have. And I'm going to give you James 1:es 3 and 4.

It says that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete. We can't be perfect and complete until we go through some trials, until we've been fire tested with the patience. So we we want to be patient. And if we're not patient, then we need to exercise that part of the fruit and we need to become more patient. Why? It's one of the four characteristic God gives himself. We and we're to be godlike. God wants us to emulate him and so we need to do that. So don't fear asking God for patience.

Why? Yeah, you may get a trial, but the trial is for your good, not for bad. He's not punishing you. He's saying, "This is what I need you to go through so that you can be more like me, so that you can have patience." Now, there's two things when we talk about praying for patience. If you're asking God, you're in a moment. You you've got a thing going on and you're asking God to pro to give you the strength to be patient in this where you're already in the fire. You're asking God to give that strength for you to be patient. He's not going to I can't tell you what he's going to give you.

Let me let me restate that. I don't believe he's going to give you another simultaneous challenge in order to try and learn patience. You're already in it. So asking him to give you the strength to be patient, the courage to exercise patience, the the the wisdom, the discernment to know when to be patient in that thing. Ask God for that. He's going to give that to you. James talks about that in the very same verse about wisdom. Ask for it and I'll give it all you can without finding fault. He wants us to ask for that stuff. Then there's the just the general Listen, man.

I I I need to be more patient. God, God, give me patience. Well, when you make that prayer, that's when God's going to say, "Okay, well, then let me give you something that you can learn how to be patient for." And that's not a bad thing. We want that. We need that. He wants us to grow in our walk. He wants us to be more like him. Don't be fearful and asking for that. And if and and we covered patience today. Maybe it's kindness. Maybe you're just not a kind person. Maybe you're you you you lean toward the self-centered side of things and you need to have more kindness in your heart.

It's okay to ask God for that. What's he going to do? He's going to give you opportunities to exercise and to learn how to be kind. And he's not doing any of those things to punish us. He's doing those things to grow us and to mature us in our walk. So if you're in a group church setting and you've prayed for patience and that person says, "Oh, shouldn't have prayed for that." Now, maybe we can lovingly correct them that I did pray for that and I prayed for it on purpose because I want to grow in my patience and the way that's going to happen is by God putting that fire in front of me and testing me through it so that I can be patient.

So, thoughts, comments, suggestions. I have a question. What was James? James 1 what? Uh I I quoted James 1 3 and four, but really you could read two, three, and four. Thank you. Yep. Anybody else? Who here struggles with patience? I do every day. Every every minute of every day. Hold on, let me raise both hands. Yes. Yep. It it is uh it so patience is not an emotion. Although maybe you could loosely go there. It literally is an attribute. It's a fruit of the spirit and it's something that we need to learn in order to be able to do. And and why do we know that we're not born with patience?

The text just told us that. It just said that we get it and we grow in it by the fire and the testing that God gives us. So if Clyde, if you're struggling with patience, then you just need more opportunities to be able to learn how to be patient. And I blow it regularly. Oh, I do. I'm like, "Oh, Lord, I blew that. I know that was a test and I failed that one miserably. I prom I want give me another one. I I want to I want to do better on the next one." And it's a lifelong process to learn how to be patient. It's a lifelong process for some people.

Learn how to be kind and not be selfish or self-centered. It's a It's That was the question that was the next question I had for you. At what point do you think you've been through enough of these patient trials to consider yourself patient? They don't stop. They don't stop. They don't stop. So, you know, there's not a there's not a certificate, an ID on your driver's license, or anything else like that. Now, you're a patient guy. When it's no longer a trial, that's when you become patient. I don't think you I don't think God gives you the merit badge.

Well, that's the expression. Patience is a virtue. I believe it's lifelong. You just we just learn and learn. That's it. Learn and learn. Right. Ask the Holy Spirit. There you go. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm continuing. Yeah. Donnie Donnie chimed in in the message with fruit of the spirit. Exactly. Galatians 5:22. It is the fruit of the spirit. It it it's we have the Holy Spirit in us. All of those fruits live inside of us. And now we get to work on them. We get to exercise them. And And Clyde, you you know, maybe maybe you've got an area in your life that you're just fantastic in.

You're generous beyond fault. That's awesome. Clyde don't need to work on that. So So there you go Clyde. Maybe you don't get an opportunity to not have those trials because God wants to make sure that that's the thing that you need to focus on the most. Paul said, "I've been given a thorn in my flesh." And I asked God three times to remove it. And God's response was, "My grace is sufficient for you." He wanted him to have that thorn. So, he had to always rely on God. And maybe that's the reason, Clyde, why you and I struggle with patience because we have to continually ask God and and continually seek his face for that.

We ask the Holy Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit to endow us with the gifts of the spirit. There you go. We have We have to ask. Yes. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Amen. Amen. Yes. All right. Anybody else? All right. Well, then let's uh let's pray out and we'll we'll do this again tomorrow. Father, thank you so much for today. And Lord, I pray for patience for everyone in this call. I pray that you would continue to do that work in us. I know that it's a challenge for me myself, Father. And I pray that that that you would continue to give me opportunities to exercise that fruit that I I I want to be more like you.

And if you describe yourself as patient, then that's exactly the way that I want to be as well, too. Lord, I know I'm not there, but I ask that you you get me there. And I ask by whatever means you need to put me in that place where I can learn the proper amount of patience, Father, then I then that's exactly what I want. Lord, I pray that everybody on this call would would would want that as well, too. And whether they're their their struggle is patience or kindness or or or or love or or or or whatever it might be, Father, that that they would just ask for that, that they would continue that they would seek the Holy Spirit, uh that they would continue to ask for that to be continually a work in their life.

And so, Father, just give us the courage, give us the strength in this thing, Lord, that we can continue to pray to be more like you. those four criteria, grace, mercy, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness. Father, we love you. We praise you. And as always, in your son Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, all see you guys tomorrow. Great day. Appreciate you. See you guys tomorrow.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.