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00:00:00 good morning church today's SC scripture reading is taken from James chapter 5 uh verse 7 to2 reading from the NIV verse seven be patient then brothers and sisters unto the Lord's coming see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop patiently waiting for the Autumn and spring rains you too be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near don't Grumble against one another brothers and sisters or you will be judged the judge is standing at the door brothers and sisters as an example of
00:00:42 patience in the face of suffering take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as you know we count as blessed those who have persevered you have heard of job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about the Lord is full of compassion and mercy above all my brothers and sisters do not swear not by heaven or by Earth or by anything else all you need to say is a simple yes or no otherwise you will be condemned this is the word of the Lord good morning Brothers and Sisters
00:01:19 in Christ can you hear me okay good all right oh I have to take my clicker I'm sorry about that otherwise there would be no slides okay for next week we have the Perils of materialism this was supposed to be um earlier but it was shifted out um to next week taken by our um brother John Lee um on James 5: 1-6 discipleship From the Inside Out that'll be J Howard the week after and the week after that the nature of true wisdom by Dr Peter all right let's move into the passage straight today um let me see is it
00:01:59 turned on yeah it's off okay great okay um I was told today there's a very important meeting so we have to go through quickly today um of the passage that we have now let's start with a quick word of prayer Our Father we come before you we thank you for your son our lord Jesus we thank you that he has done all things well and he has redeemed Us by his blood and father we pray that this morning our hearts may be fertile ground on which your word can be pled planted on and the spirit can transform us and father we just pray we
00:02:33 may have a glimpse of our Lord Jesus and thereby be transformed into His Image we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ amen all right so today's topic is a very difficult topic because uh I struggle with it a lot so unfortunately I'm not sure why this topic was given to me um but anyway let's let's go through it and see what the word of God says so that I can also learn from it it's okay James 5: 7-2 be patient therefore Brethren and to the coming of the Lord behold the husband man which is the
00:03:03 farmer waited for the precious fruit of the crops of the earth and have long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain be also patient establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Grudge not one against another Brethren lest ye be condemned behold the judge standeth before the door take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering Affliction and of patience behold we count them happy which endure you have heard of the patience of Job and have
00:03:32 seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful he is very compassionate and of tender Mercy but Above All Things my brethren swear not neither by Heaven neither by the Earth neither by any other oath but let your y be NE or no l you fall into condemnation all right now the topic of patience uh I think um is best Illustrated with um what we know as okay uh I know of someone um who studied in the UK a long time ago and says when I was studying there I need to ask my parents for money you know I I had to
00:04:08 write them a letter it take it takes two weeks for the letter to go to Malaysia and then another two weeks before the letter comes back so if he doesn't plan carefully um he would actually have to sta if he doesn't have a part-time job because um the money won't be coming in on time so it takes a lot of patients in those days to actually communicate and now um we have what is known as WhatsApp or also Twitter uh and Twitter has been renamed but the point is that it is much easier now to communicate in a fashion
00:04:43 that is almost instantaneous if not instantaneous okay so um in terms of work now you know your bosses can expect you to just say I expect you to reply immediately etc etc um so yeah now I think a lot of people have seen this um TV show yeah Mary has mentioned that she has seen TV3 okay and tv7 those were the days you had the newspaper and then okay I want to watch this movie it's out at this time you know 8:00 on Saturday morning and then you have to patiently wait until it's 8:00 and then you can
00:05:16 watch the show right and now you get all your shows on demand anytime I want to watch now I get to watch now okay so you don't really need patience anymore you know to watch movies and the same thing as well for music you don't actually need to listen on the radio anymore you know oh that's my favorite song you know and then you just listen know you can just play Spotify exactly anytime okay so much more um to this anyway let's talk about money all right cash now is I think you realize phasing out is not really a thing that
00:05:50 you would want to carry a lot of in your wallet anymore you carry more risk with you you know if you ever be robbed Etc uh some other folks might recognize what's below that's a check um and that is used as well for transferring money takes a long time for it to be banked in and to be actually valid and now you have what we call do it now literally now you know you transfer even this morning bt76 say do it now so patience again no longer required for the transferring of money now where where are we getting with all
00:06:24 this we live in a culture called the culture of now all right and we want everything to be done instantaneous ly so technology in a sense supports our impatience it conforms to our impatience and our culture does not encourage in any way the quality of patients now please don't get me wrong I am not against technology I think none of us are but the point is that patience is not something that is highly valued anymore in fact impatience is used against us by a lot of different people so we desire something and we can say we
00:07:02 want it now now let's move on why is impatience bad okay is this a problem and the answer is yes so why is this a problem it's because a lot of things that matter in life anything worthwhile in life whether it's real relationship marriage parenting you know um so many other things that we can talk about you know about work you know it all requires patience it all requires patience and the the Bible gives us a very great resource as Christians on how to develop and cultivate patience it is our greatest resource to look into the
00:07:41 word of God and see what God has to say to us even about this topic okay so patience is something that can be developed it's not something that comes naturally to a lot of people um especially myself some people are naturally patient that's another topic now um our Passage we have three things that we are going to consider today and not in the typical fashion that is going to be you know um suctioned in the versus but we consider these three things together first thing is the definition of patients the next
00:08:11 one is the different kinds of patients and finally how do we develop patience three things so the first one what's the definition of patience what exactly is it I think a lot of a lot of us have an idea of what patience is but this passage gives us two illustrations one General one specific the general is of a farmer okay so he plants his seeds and he waits for it to grow and then he has a harvest and the second um example second illustration more specific is referring to the prophets and to job we look at the two
00:08:47 Greek words describing this as well so let's dive into the passage remember be patient therefore Brethren until the coming of the Lord so you remember this phrase be patient to the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman or the farmer waits for the precious fruit or the valuable crop of the earth and have long patience for it plants don't grow in a day takes a long time the specific example take my brethren the prophets he's saying look at the prophets as examples they have suffered Affliction
00:09:17 look at the patience of Job I think job we all know him very well and he was a man with a lot of perseverance now let's move on we saw example number one the farmer so they plant the seed he waits for the rain and then the crops grow now James is writing to a region where it is very dry there isn't a lot of water in the area and there are two very narrow seasons in which rain will come it is the early and lat rains or also known as the spring and Autumn rains or the Autumn and spring rains so he has to
00:09:51 wait until the rains come and then only the plants will grow they didn't have um you know green houses at that point in time um and a bun water where they can just grow crops all year around so he can plant the seed he can work but he had to wait after that it takes a lot of patience for a farmer to grow his crops so once he has plowed the ground he has planted the seed he can just sit back and relax no not really he has to wait okay he waits for God to do his work so he doesn't just wait for the
00:10:25 rain he also waits for the fruit it's the end result that he's waiting for okay now keep that in mind because we are going to talk about the end results for ourselves the Harvest is that end result that he's looking forward to that's illustration number one job he lost his wealth he lost his health he lost his most of his family and he persevered with patience he spoke with God again we'll go and dive deeper into this example later so and idea of what patience is let's look at the words be patient therefore
00:11:00 ye have heard of the patience of Job there are two words in the Greek New Testament that are used to describe patience and they are both found in this passage so the first one is called macro Thia macro which is long and TOA to suffer Longs suffering literally the word means long suffering you suffer very long with something or a person longsuffering that's patient so if someone causes you any pain you bear with it that's patience the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to us
00:11:40 were not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repent second Peter chapter 3:9 God is patiently waiting for everyone to repent God wants to save us so he's patient the word longsuffering same word there macro me okay the second word is Hoon okay it's a bit hard for me to pronounce but the idea is to hyper which is hoo and mon is to stand hyper stand which is really perseverance or endurance that if you know you're standing and someone knocks you down you get back up and stand again knocks you down you stand
00:12:21 back knocks you down you stand it's the same idea is endurance and perseverance that is hon okay that's the second word that is being used you will find that and you have heard of the patience of Job that's the word now in the New Testament you always find that the word peace and patience come together um like in Galatians chapter 5: 22-23 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering or peace patience comes together so um you can say that patience comes from an inner conviction that no matter what the
00:12:57 circumstances are no matter how things appear no matter how things look God is still compassionate and merciful and you're going to ask me where did you get that from back in the passage remember how job what was the description given he saw we have seen the end of the Lord at the end how God was very pitiful he was very compassionate he was very merciful so again the definition is not this it's telling you where it comes from this not the definition yet we'll get the definition so is no matter what
00:13:32 the circumstances God is compassionate and merciful this a source of where our patience comes from now what is the definition okay the definition of patient is the graciousness and steadiness in the face of delayed gratification graciousness and steadiness in the face of delayed gratification examples were given to us and let's look at the examples again in this line the farmer he waits with graciousness and steadiness in the face of a harvest that's delayed gratification second example was the
00:14:16 prophets and job let's take a look and say job he was was he gracious in city we will talk about that a little bit more but he spoke to God all the time in the face of delay gratification there was Vindication at the end okay he waited on God to vindicate him finally it's about us us do we have the graciousness and steadiness in the face of delay gratification and in this case the passage tells us about the coming of the Lord therefore be patient Brethren unto the coming of the Lord that is what we
00:14:54 are looking forward to okay so when you are in a situation that requires patience the Bible is telling us here look forward to the future look forward to the coming of the Lord and that is the end result we were looking for why again we'll jump into the passage what's the opposite of patience okay I think it's worth mentioning that the opposite of patience is irritability so someone can talk to you you may feel annoyed you know they're self-pitying if you are suffering you know ah you know I I'm
00:15:24 such in I'm very bad situation I can't be patient about this or you may Grumble Grumble about people the passage talks about murmuring talks about grumbling um in verse 9 Grudge not one against another do not Grumble against one another um complaining calling people out saying that you know oh you know you have done this you know and this is not right this is bad and Etc um giving up or melting down it's all symptoms of impatience now we have talked about the definition of patients let's talk about the
00:15:54 different kinds of patients now the passage gives us four there are four different kinds of patients the first one is patience with life the second is patience with people the third is patience in suffering and the foral is patience with God so these four in a sense are all intertwined together but um they you can say talk about different aspects of being patient the first one patience with life let's talk about that now again we'll jump back into the passage to see this the example is back to the farmer illustration we talk about
00:16:32 the definition now let's talk a little bit more about life now everything in life boils down to um patience because we will need it for things that really matter consumer capitalism in a sense capitalizes does everything it can to work with our impatient so that we can get it faster we can get it now now this is just a another illustration all right so a lot of people ourselves included we want the benefits of something that is what we call delay gratification but we want it now we want instant gratification if I
00:17:12 can put it that way okay now and the best way I can think about it um the best example of instant gratification is a small tiny little plastic card okay I think all of us most of us um especially if you're working you have this you have what is called a credit card okay I can buy something without actually paying for it yet so I instantly gratify my desire to buy say a new pair of shoes but I can't afford it and then pay later and there a bunch of other things that you know will actually capitalize on our desire for instant
00:17:54 gratification things like oh you know you can lose one kilo in 3 days or you know you can get rich quick with these 24 steps you know or buy now pay later is a huge thing now that you know for example grab is doing so yeah there's there's tons of these things out in the market right now and it's actually really exploiting our impatience so I want you to think about it carefully there's nothing really worthwhile in life that is instant nothing really worthwhile there's no relationship that is really
00:18:27 worthwhile that you can make instantaneously but there is one in a sense that is not worthwhile but it will you can say there are instant relationships there are you you can network with people you can go to a business event and talk to them and say Hey you know this is my name card Etc you get an instant relationship but is it really worthwhile is it something that can sustain you something that can change you no not really so it takes enormous amounts of time if you really want to build a solid relationship with
00:18:55 anyone with a friend with a spouse with a child with your parents any relationship takes time A lot of time it doesn't apply just horizontally to your fellow human beings it applies to God as well you need to spend time with him as much as you possibly can to have a worthwhile relationship with him now not just relationships let's talk about you know something that is um more competitive there's a photo of Michael Phelps there holding his gold medal no skill worthwhile is instantaneous either none it takes months to years for
00:19:34 you to really really get to a point where you are at a competitive level and I'm sure you know um these Olympic um gold medalist they spent a lifetime trying to um improve themselves to a point that they can be the best of the best no major accomplishment in this world is instant now what's the point I'm going to give you another illustration okay another example who here has heard of the marshmallow test good I got see one oh not many actually oh not many surprised okay all right now there is this marshmallow test that was
00:20:11 it's a study that was conducted by um Stanford University uh by this guy um and what happens is that a child is going to be placed in a chair and then and then there's a table in front of him and the researchers say here's a marshmallow for you and if you would like another marshmallow you can wait for 1550 minutes so if you have it now this one marshmallow I have it now instantly now I will not get two in 15 minutes okay so that's the challenge it's either they have one marshmallow now or wait 15
00:20:47 minutes and have two marshmallows okay it's called the marshmallow test and it is really to demonstrate what we know as delayed gratification can these children delay their desire to gratify themselves with the marshmallow now for too later now that's not the interesting part of the experiment the interesting part is what comes after The Experiment they come to realize that the children actually scored better on their SAT test they generally did better in terms of Life they didn't do drugs Etc they are saying that there are a lot
00:21:25 of benefits that come with delayed gratification even 40 years later they Revisited some of these children and they actually did well in life so the marshmallow test is really a you can say our psychologically way our psychological way to prove that delayed gratification leads to um better outcomes so everything that really matters in life takes patience we have desires we want them to be gratified now but our society encourages us to do otherwise we shouldn't wait you know we should demand for what we want we should
00:21:58 not restrain ourselves but remember all things that matter in life takes patience so that's patience with life what about patience with people the verse is very clear in verse says there Grudge not one against another Brethren L you be condemned behold the judge standeth before the door don't grudge against one another don't Grumble don't complain to one another do we be patient with people if if some sometimes we are treated unjustly sometime people have sinned against us and naturally what we are
00:22:37 encourage to do is to stand up for ourselves to assert our rights you know and say that we cannot let this go and I think it's very clear in a sense with say for example what's going on in the Middle East at the moment one person attacks another oh no I must retaliate and the retaliation goes back and forth and back and forth it's a very natural thing to do now the Bible tells us about um how love covers a multitude of sins in Proverbs Chapter 10:12 that's the first time it's mentioned Love cover of all sins and
00:23:10 then in 1 Peter 4:8 love covers a multitude of sins it's actually a quotation of Proverbs chapter 10 now we need to understand what it really means to cover a multitude of sins and the idea behind it is if people take slights at if they have snip remarks at us or if they have insensitivities towards us all these kind of things we need to learn to overlook them or look over them now notice what chapter 19 verse 11 says it is a the glory of a man to pass over to look over to oversee Overlook a transgression or an offense consider
00:23:57 that again thank you consider that again all right it is the glory of a man to overlook an offense it is much better for you to just say I know I've been offended but I am not going to take revenge okay I've been offended but I won't take revenge now let's take a look at other um examples of this so any personal slid SN ignorant remarks minor annoyances Etc we've already mentioned that imagine this if I call it out every single time all right if someone tells you uh a remark and then every time you will call
00:24:39 them out for it Community is going to break down you know we will have nobody and we are going to be very lonely people and the reason for that is because everyone around us everyone around you everyone that you talk to is just like you right everyone is just like me we are all pretty much the same we have the same fear same problems same distractions same insecurities we are all sinners in God's sight we will always offend one another whether we want it or not it is a natural thing that will happen so it
00:25:12 takes patience it takes love for us to really Overlook these things now again this is a bigger topic so we'll spend a bit more time here if you know how to cover a multitude of sins with love that means you learn to be patient with people you learn the discipline of not retaliating against people not grumbling on the inside or outside you can't you know in a sense you know um complain to that person you know and say that you know you are this this this without calling them out learn not to dwell on the things
00:25:49 that people have wronged us with it takes a lot of patience it takes a lot of love I think it's easier for us to do this if we empathize with people what about me would I do the same thing in or are they in a situation in which I'm not familiar with what are they going through you know that might make them say such things empathy now I want to put a question fourth um sort of a reflective question why does God put us in a church okay think about it carefully Hebrews chap 10:25 says not forsaking the
00:26:26 Gathering of yourselves together God is very clearly saying we need to be part of a church a local church and why do you think that is anyone would like to give a try of body to be a part of the body of Christ yes but in the context of okay corporate anyone else anything else okay to be part of the body of Christ so that we can learn to be patient I want to ask any of us here in church has never ever been offended by any other fellow church member before no one right no one at all God has purposely placed you in a church
00:27:18 where you will be offended where you will be sned against where you will be offend uh um uh have insensitivities towards you God has purposely put you in place for you to specifically learn how to love and be patient that is why God puts us in the church and we're not supposed to be solo Christians I just live on my own and that's it it's very easy for us to fall into that trap so now there is a note here there is a little disclaimer love covers a multitude of sin what it means and what it does not mean okay to cover sin is to
00:27:53 forgive it not sweepy under the rock okay a lot of people think that love covers multi oh I can just be on the Rock no so an example is given um some have appealed to the forgiving nature of love in their attempt to hide indiscretion so you can say there's some child abuse going on and the church says ah never mind you know just hide it or there's an adultery happening or you know just hide it in in you know love covers a multitude of sins no it's not what true love does you are to protect and um help to give security to the
00:28:24 victim and also to the offender make sure it doesn't happen again you prevent the your offense from repeating love covering a multitude of sins is not disregarding your own emotions or ignoring your own personal boundaries if there is a hurt against you you can't just say oh you know oh love covers multi I am not hurt no the fact is said I am hurt but I'm extending my forgiveness to you because of what God has done to me that is love covering a multitude of sins now so unless we know how to love one another unless we
00:28:57 know how to cover people's sins through our love and be patient otherwise Society is going to break down and we're going to be very very lonely people now number three time is catching up we only got 18 minutes patience in suffering now this is another big topic because uh this is um covering the prophets and also um job but more on the prophets because it says here for an example of suffering Affliction we'll talk talk about both it's not just sometimes slights or inconveniences you know unhappy you know because things aren't
00:29:24 going your way you know um that require patience some of these these things are just inconveniences we're talking about suffering real griefs real losses real sorrow I think all of us have to some degree experienced this before some others more than us two other examples again we are going to look at but again the same examples but in a different facet different aspect of it of people who suffered and persevered the prophets and job now let's talk about what patience is not we think that patience
00:29:58 is like you know um sitting down you know and being unfaced and the term is actually stoicism to not let it get to you to not let it affect your emotions and that is not what patience is patience doesn't mean that we are not going to be affected emotionally look at how Jeremiah responded is see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow he was acknowledging emotion he was acknowledging that he was sad or there was sadness in Jeremiah chapter 20 he talks about you know his complaints to the Lord as it were I won't go into the
00:30:40 details of it is long in Job chapter 2 how did job respond is patience meaning that there will be no grief no sorrow they saw that his grief was very great patience does not mean that you don't have emotion you accept the emotion and deal with it again what's the definition graciousness and steadiness in the face of delayed gratification so job in chapter 3:3 he wished that he was never born that was one of the things that he suffered now job is screaming he's exploding he's upset and Jeremiah is lamenting but
00:31:18 there was something they did not stop doing job never stopped praying Jeremiah never stopped preaching so patience that graciousness and steadiness is being steady in praying in preaching being steady in what you normally do in the face of delayed gratification patience is in suffering means we do not get self-absorbed by our suffering we cannot just wallow down in self-pity and say no I've come down and broken down it's not wrong to break down but the patience helped us not to get there to a point
00:31:55 and say I cannot pray you know I cannot help people I cannot get out I cannot do everything else that I can normally do so it does not mean incredible inner Poise does not mean that we don't have emotions but does mean that we do not let suffering turn us into self-absorbed beings yeah so we continue to talk to God because we love the Lord we continue to talk to people because we love others that's what being patient is that is what it means to endure to persevere to hyper stand patience with God now this
00:32:28 is the most important of the all of all the patien we are considering the end of the Lord the Lord is very beautiful and of tender Mercy why because the patience with God leads to all other patience impatience with God leads to all other impatience how does this work remember we are told that we are to be patient until the coming of the Lord the Lord is coming again what does this have to do with patience twice it's mentioned the coming of the Lord once it's mentioned the judge stands before for the door and
00:33:00 it's talking about the parousia now when he comes again he will set all things right that is the coming of the Lord in Revelations chapter 21 you know um there's another one this is Revelation 7:1 17 for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living Fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes we will see the again in in chapter 21 someday God will make everything right if you are going through a bout of disease or sickness one day God will
00:33:37 heal all diseases that's the coming of the Lord right now there if there is Injustice God will make things right that's the coming of the Lord right now if someone is mistreating you or hurting you he will make right all wrongs that's the coming of the Lord right now if something bad has happened in your life someday he will wipe away all tears that is the coming of the Lord that is what he's trying to say be patient why because all things will be made right one day when God comes back when the
00:34:12 Lord Jesus comes again and he returns he will make all things right he's not doing it now and that's the thing we struggle with remember we want instant gratification I want it now if we telling God I know you can do all these things but why are you doing it now why why can't you make this happen why can't you stop that from happening I think we do get impatient with a lot sometimes I think that was how job was feeling you saying if I were you I will do these things but that would make him God wouldn't
00:34:42 it so impatience with God leads to all other impatience patience with God leads to all of the other patience patience in life patience with people patience and suffering now every day and every hour we being faced with a challenge on one hand to trust in ourselves in our own Insight I know better than God I understand what needs to happen and it should happen this way or we can choose the other side and say I trust God and just be patient because I know that God is doing what he needs to do and his
00:35:16 timing is always perfect we're faced with this challenge now Abraham and Sarah they were also faced with this same Challenge and you know how their impatience led to what we know as ishmail so saying you know this is my handmade hagga you know you can go into her and we can have a child why because God promises promised his a son but if they were patient enough they would have seen the glory of God of having a son a biological son of their own beyond their age that they were supposed to have children the reason why God wants us to
00:35:52 be patient so that we can see his glory now more can be said about that again we don't have much time now developing patients our last Point um is broken into three parts and there's quite a lot to cover now the practices in present how do we develop patients again based on the passage let's look at the practices in the present in the Here and Now what can we actually do now at the end of the chapter is talking a lot about prayer the prayer of the faith shall save the sck etc etc one of the things that we need to do is to process
00:36:21 our disappointments through prayer second is to be humble we'll talk about why and see the trials as opportunities to grow how do we process our disappointments through prayer in verse 11 he was patient and he was persevering and job was cast as a good example in James chapter 5 but if you read the whole book of Job all 42 chapters I think you come to the conclusion that job wasn't actually a very patient man he would just say you know uh you know God is not doing the things he should be doing you
00:36:51 know H you know I shouldn't have been born you know why am I you know in this situation you know I'm a righteous man I shouldn't be suffering etc etc he was complaining a lot but the Lord at the end vindicates him and says that job did right there were many things that job did wrong he became quite arrogant at a certain point but there was one thing that job did right that is job never stopped praying job never stopped praying he processed his disappointments through prayer he brought it all before God now it's again
00:37:26 it's a bit difficult for us to do it if it's not um it's not a natural thing for us to speak to God because he doesn't answer us instantaneously all right it takes patience to have a relationship with God because when you speak to him he takes his time to respond but you will see it in time job never stopped it was his foundation he complained but he complained to God was he complaining about God he may have yeah but he complained to God did he have self-pity and say you know oh yeah I'm in a very
00:38:00 bad situation he didn't get self-absorbed to the point that that was all he was looking at he takes it to the Lord he had doubts you know what is happening but he brings it to the Lord same thing process our dis appointments through prayer and it's regardless of how we feel a lot of people say I don't feel like praying but prayer is the foundation and remember that he prayed regardless of how he felt job didn't stop praying just because he was grieving he was praying in his sorrow and in his grief the more we should pray
00:38:36 in that situation in 1 Thessalonians CH 5:1 17 pray without ceasing I think that's one of the good reminders for us now be humble the second practice in the present what does it really mean James ch 4: 13-15 um the chapter that comes before this says that go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue There a year and buy and sell and get gain it sounds reasonable I want to buy Apple stocks tomorrow because I expect it to go up and I want to sell my McDonald's stocks
00:39:09 because it's going to go down Etc all that kind of stuff sounds reasonable what is the problem what is the thing that James is trying to say here that is wrong it is the assumption that we know what's going to happen is the Assumption of nians we think we know everything we think that we actually can go into such a city tomorrow we won't know maybe the borders will be closed we don't know and we will continue there a year wow we can plan it's not wrong to plan but what he's saying here is that he's assuming
00:39:45 that he knows everything that's why the verse that comes after that in verse 15 you ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that it's not to say you can't plan we are supposed to plan but we shouldn't Al assume that everything we plan will happen that is arrogance and that leads to anxiety impatience and anger we think we know what needs to happen but actually we don't so be humble and say I don't know be humble and say I don't have the Vantage Point only God knows that's why
00:40:19 the second practice in the present to learn patience is to be humble the third see trial as an opportunity to grow in James 1: 2-3 it says that Brethren you know count it all joy when you fall into diverse Temptations or trials for it will bring forth patience patience is the fruit of your trials we glory in tribulations we rejoice in tribulations not saying that we should Rejoice for tribulations why because in Tribulation is where our character is molder when trouble hits is an opportunity to
00:40:57 develop patience is really a time for we for us to learn we will never learn to be patient if we never have problems okay I think that is something that we all can learn from it will drive us into the love of God so that we can be deeper wiser and happier people in 2 Corinthians chapter 1: 3 to 4 it says blessed be the father even the father of the Lord Jesus Christ and the God of All Comfort who comforts Us in all our tribulation then we be able to comfort them which are in any trouble God is patient with us so that we can be
00:41:33 patient with others now we will skip that remembering the past second one remember what the Lord Jesus had done for you wherefore seeing also we also are accompass with so great a cloud of witnesses this Hebrews chapter 12 let's lay aside every weight and sin which they so easily be set is let us run with patience let us run with endurance this is the same word the hoo mon the hyp understanding why looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him H endured the cross he
00:42:16 endured for you and for me endur that's the word same word for consider him that endured such contradiction of sin against s endured remember his patience for you if we are in a situation where we know we are being very impatient with somebody maybe that someone who has said a very offensive thing to me personally remember what offenses the Lord Jesus bore for you and for me he endured if he endured it for you and for me we can endure it for others he continued to stand Hoon when they beat him with their fist
00:42:58 that's in Mark chap 14 Matthew chapter 26 they cheered and mocked at him he endured remember the past he was patient with people he did not explain and say do you know who I am do you know that I'm the Son of God and you're doing this to me he says no father forgive them for they know not what they do his love really truly covered all their and our sins he didn't have to but he did he also was patient with God let this cup pass from me nevertheless not what I will as but as thou Wilt he did it for you and for me
00:43:41 so he saved us through his infinitely costly patience so that now that our sins are forgiven the father can be infinitely patient towards us remember what he did for you and for me so that you can do the same to others he was patient with us so that we can learn to be patient with others remember what Christ has done look at what he has done for you catch a glimpse of what it cost him being patient to save you why can't we do it if we are going to come forth as go if we are going to be transformed if we are going to be
00:44:20 molded Into His Image looking to the Future the last Point remember we were saying our end result what's patience again patience is the graciousness and steadiness in the face of delayed gratification what our delay gratification in this case is that the Lord is coming back he's going to put all things right he's going to put all things right all our hopes for our future will be eventually fulfilled look to the Future so three things the practices in the present process your disappointments through prayer be humble
00:44:59 and say that I don't know things sometimes God knows more than me and then the third one is to see our trials as opportunities to grow remember the past and now look to the Future Revelation chapter 21 the end of the Bible says that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes now this is a little bit more detailed than what we've read in Revelation 7 there shall be no more death if you separated from your loved ones you will see them again if they are in Christ there shall be no sorrow whatever
00:45:38 you're said about now there will be no sadness there anymore no crying NE neither shall there be any more pain if you're are suffering now remember Christ died to make all things right the former things are passed away God will wipe away all tears now before we sing our final song remember the definition of patience the different kinds of patience patience in life patience with people patience in suffering patience with God let us learn to develop patience through the practices in the present remembering
00:46:13 the past and looking to the Future patience is graciousness and steadiness in the face of delay gratification he was patient with us so that we can be patient with others wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord Psalm 27 verse 14 shall we close with a word of prayer Our God and our father we thank you for your word which reminds us of how we should be patient because our lord Jesus he was patient for us we thank you that he endured the cross
00:46:57 he persevered so that he may save us from our sins and thereby we may be made into his image and we can be Like Him Father we thank you that we can now come into your presence and we just ask and pray for your Holy Spirit to use what words we have heard today that we may hear your voice and be transformed when we see our savior and we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ amen we will sing everlasting God shall We rise to sing amen As we sing this song Let Us respond to the Everlasting God looking
00:47:40 to him for our source of strength to persevere [Music] [Music] strength will Rises we wait upon the Lord we will wait upon the Lord we will wait upon the Lord streng will Rises we wait upon the Lord we will wait upon the Lord we will wait upon the Lord Our God you Reign forever our hope our strong deliver you are the Everlasting God the Everlasting God you do not faint you won grow weary you're the defender of the we you comfort those in need you lift us up on wings like he go [Music] [Music] Our
00:49:33 God you re forever our hope our strong deliver you are the Everlasting God the Everlasting God you do not faint you won't you're the defender of the week you come for those in me you lift us up on wings like Everlasting God you are the everlasting God the Everlasting God you do not Fain you won't grow wey you're the defender of the weak you come for those in need you lift us up on we [Music] like 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 16 and 17 now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even Our Father which have loved
00:51:20 us and have given us everlasting consolation and Good Hope through Grace Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work and all of us say Amen thank you all for your time and have a blessed Lord's day and uh can we kindly vacate the hall I was reminded about this many times all right so um there's no need to remain seated we can leave now
