Today’s message summary from Pastor Gus Brown:
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
These are the characteristics of the Holy Spirit that He manifests and produces within us as we live for Jesus Christ. It is a happiness that is derived from Jesus Christ, and you won’t find it in the world. Without love, joy and peace, you will not be effective in ministry. It is all about presenting the agape love that God represents to each of us.
Now we will look at a difficult fruit for many of us…patience. If you are going to be in ministry, it will require patience. It will not be about your timing; instead, it is about God’s timing.
God is patient with us, of course. He knows that we need to learn from Him and how to be patient with others. God wants us to see how He is working within our acts of patience.
The patience of God reveals to us that God is more concerned about the worker than the work. The people that we are sharing with who need to be ministered to are more important to Him than the work itself.
God could have delivered the people of Israel just by speaking. Instead, He took time to build the people up and work with Moses (in training) for 80 years.
God could have fed Jacob by providing for him without a Joseph.
The issue is not getting the job done so much as it is about building character. You don’t build character by taking short cuts.
In order to build godly men or godly women, there are no short cuts. To be a servant of God, there are no short cuts. To be obedient to God’s will, there are no short cuts.
We miss the best that God has to offer when we act impatiently.
James 5:7-11
7 Therefore, brothers, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.
9 Brothers, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door!
10 Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. 11 See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
Consider that Job’s patience was blessed by God. Job’s faithfulness and loyalty to God was rewarded because he saw the God that he served in all righteousness.
Patience is built within ministry. It is one of the first lessons learned, and it is all about God’s timing and not your own.
Patience is being willing to be serviceable to others. It has to be developed from within and reflect true godliness. A patient person does not lack anything in Christ.
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
1 Timothy 1:16
But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate His extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
2 Corinthians 6:4
But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything:
by great endurance, by afflictions,
by hardship, by difficulties.
2 Corinthians 12:12
The signs of an apostle were performed with great endurance among you—not only signs but also wonders and miracles.
1 Thessalonians 5:14
And we exhort you, brothers: warn those who are irresponsible, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
Your patience will be tested (Psalm 78).
People will rebel against teaching or learning (Psalm 78:1, 8, 17, 40, 56).
He sees them as useless (unreliable) as a crooked bow (v. 57).
People will forget what you have done for them.
Psalm 78:9-18
9 The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by His law.
11 They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.
12 He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.
14 He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
16 He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.
17 But they continued to sin against Him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
18 They deliberately tested God,
demanding the food they craved.
God was patient with Israel.
Psalm 78:70-72
70 He chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 He brought him from tending ewes
to be shepherd over His people Jacob—
over Israel, His inheritance.
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart
and guided them with his skillful hands.
Patience allows for a person to grow in Christ while they are bouncing around in life. Sometimes people will put you through the test to see how you will respond, including to your own teaching.
God’s desire for us is to walk with Him. He wants us to be obedient to Him and to His Word.
God’s patience does have a limit as He is holy and righteous, and He deals with prolonged unrighteousness.
Psalm 78:31-34
31 God’s anger flared up against them,
and He killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s choice young men.
32 Despite all this, they kept sinning
and did not believe His wonderful works.
33 He made their days end in futility,
their years in sudden disaster.
34 When He killed some of them,
the rest began to seek Him;
they repented and searched for God.
Even with all of the rebellion, God remains long-suffering. When God’s patience runs out:
Psalm 95:11
So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.”
Hebrews 3:7-11
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today, if you hear His voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
and saw My works 10 for 40 years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation
and said, “They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known My ways.”
11 So I swore in My anger,
“They will not enter My rest.”
As believers in Jesus Christ, no one can take away from you how you respond to their behavior. Your patience is to remain in God’s agape love for that other person. God has the right to do whatever He pleases, yet He has remained patient with us.
Romans 9:22-24
22 And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction? 23 And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory— 24 on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
Luke 8:15
But the seed in the good ground—these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, bear fruit.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 