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Sep 17, 2023

The Fruit of the Spirit is Patience

The Fruit of the Spirit is Patience

Passage: James 5:7-11

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: steadfastness, patience, waiting, endurance

One thing we most need is the one thing our culture most stunts. With every advance in speed and efficiency comes a corresponding potential for loss in the practice of patience. The way James illustrates it reminds us that it matters more than just when we’re driving on I-26; where he situates it means the DMV isn’t even the most important context for it; and how God motivates it has less to do with maintaining a healthy heart-rate and an amiable reputation.

Readings & Scriptures

PRE SERVICE TEXT: James 5:7-8a
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.

PREPARATION: Psalm 103:1-3, 5, 8
LEADER: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

ALL: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

LEADER: who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

ALL: The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

OT READING: Job 1:13-22
LEADER; Now there was a day when [Job’s] sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine
in their oldest brother’s house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were
plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them
and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven
and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell
you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three
groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge
of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came
another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest
brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four
corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have
escaped to tell you.” 20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the
ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall
I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

CENTRAL TEXT: James 5:7-11
James 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. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 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.

CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin together,

ALL: We grind our teeth at the slightest delay. We purse our lips when asked to wait. We cut our eyes at those who make us late. Far worse–we let our expectation of timeliness tempt us toward resentment when your timing does not match our own. In all we have forgotten your patience– for us both in our sin and in our growing into the likeness of your Son. In forgetting your patience, we forget also your love. Forgive us and restore to us the sight of your love that is patient.

ABSOLUTION OF PARDON: 1 Timothy 1:15, 16
LEADER: 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.

BENEDICTION: Romans 8:22-25
LEADER: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 3 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

ALL: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

POST SERVICE: James 5:7-8a
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.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Exodus 34:6; 
  • Deuteronomy 11:14
  • Nehemiah 9:17; 
  • Psalm 86:15; 102:13; 
  • Joel 2:13, 23-24
  • Jonah 4:2.
  • Matthew 5:11, 12
  • Mark 13:32
  • Exodus 2:23; Mark 7:34; Romans 8:23
  • Ephesians 4:2
  • 1 Thessalonians 3:13
  • James 1:12
  • James 4:11, 12

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Last time impatience surfaced in you: Go. Circumstances? Inner dialogue? Effects–in you, beyond you? Lessons learned/ing?
  2. We focused on a part of his letter; consider the whole of his letter. How is their patience  being particularly tested from what else he says to them? How would you say most people’s patience is being tested in this era? What about yours?
  3. We took time to tease out what each of James’s illustrations of patience (the farmer, the prophets, and Job) teach us about patience. As you think of his illustrations what else might they add to our grasp of it in concept?
  4. James “situates” the living out of patience in the church. Can you name several ways patience is required in being in fellowship with other believers? (How does a church uniquely try the patience of its people?)  Can you name how it is also essential to the maturing of that fellowship?
  5. Consider James’s invocations of God as “judge” and as full of “mercy and compassion.” How do those notions fit together? How do we see them both reflected in Jesus’s life but also in His work we know as the Gospel? How has God shown us patience? How is His patience meant to mature our own–whether with our circumstances, with one another, or even with ourselves?

ILLUSTRATIONS:

QUOTES: 

  • "Be careful to keep a humbled soul that does not think too highly of itself, for humility is patient and does not exaggerate injuries. A proud man considers things as heinous or intolerable that are said or done against him. He that thinks lowly of himself sees things done or said against him as of little significance. He that magnifies himself sees offences against him also magnified. Pride is a very impatient sin: There is no pleasing a proud person, without a great deal of wit, care, and diligence. You must take as much care around him as you do around straw or gunpowder when you are holding a candle . Humility, meekness, and patience live and die together! Richard Baxter (HT: Darrell B Harrison)
  • There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. . . .One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
  • If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
  • When Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is patience, it’s not as though the Spirit gives us a permanent commodity. It is that the Spirit works in us, transforming us gradually, perhaps even gently and slowly, but surely, bringing us into situations that might cause us to be impatient. But as He works in our lives and we reflect on how wonderfully patient the Lord has been with us, we find that we are able to take the strain, and patience begins to develop. Sinclair Ferguson

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