Patience

Ever feel like your life is stuck on “wait”? We open up about patience as more than a nice idea—it’s the muscle that carries faith through real life. From a deer stand at dawn to a classroom full of seventh graders, we trace how small, ordinary delays shape resilient hearts and steady hands. The thread runs through Scripture too: David is held by mercy after failure, Jonah is redirected by grace, Moses is equipped through reluctance, Joseph forgives from a position of power, and Jacob learns love’s long cost. Each story shows God’s patience toward people who were slow, stubborn, or scarred—and how that same patience trains us to endure without becoming hard.

We get practical about not growing weary in doing good when appreciation is scarce, and we explore the Fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—as one integrated way of life. Ephesians calls us to long-suffering that keeps unity, bearing with one another in love. Romans reframes waiting as hope you can’t yet see. John promises a prepared place and a sure return that anchors the middle of our journey. And 1 Peter challenges us to live with such visible hope that people can’t help but ask why we’re different—then answer with gentleness and respect.

If you’ve been giving, serving, and staying steady with little to show for it, consider this a hand on your shoulder: the harvest has a season, not a shortcut. Listen for fresh courage to wait well, forgive deeply, and keep sowing good seed even when the ground looks quiet. If this moves you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s tired of waiting, and leave a review to help others find the message. What part of your life is teaching you patience right now?

Chapters

• 0:00 Choosing Patience as the Message
• 1:40 Everyday Patience: Hunting, Fishing, Gardening
• 4:10 Kids, Classrooms, and Long-Suffering
• 6:00 Fruits of the Spirit and Not Growing Weary
• 9:20 Faith, Hope, and Waiting Unseen
• 12:00 Unity, Grace, and Long-Suffering in Ephesians
• 14:20 Mercy, Homes, and Understanding Students
• 16:20 God’s Patience: David, Jonah, Moses
• 21:30 Joseph’s Story and Forgiving Power
• 24:20 Jacob’s Years and The Cost of Waiting
• 26:00 Our End Reward and Patient Tribulation
• 28:00 Ready to Answer: Living Visible Hope
• 31:00 Invitation and Call for Prayer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Good morning. If you got a Bible handy may need it 'cause I didn't put anything on the board. Um anyway. Uh I guess Monday. I got a text that I want to preach. My thir first thought was not really. But, you know. Anyway, uh, sometimes I'm kind of may have a lesson kind of already in my head that I thought about, but I really didn't really have one. So I a couple days I just kind of rolled around uh in my head what I wanted to preach on this morning. And I think probably working with junior high kids, my my topic for today is patience or long suffering. I wanted to preach on preach on patience and long suffering. Um I started to get Jimmy and Drew and get two chairs and bring them out there and make them hold hands and then just teach my lesson, and that have nothing to do with it, just to see how long two grown men would do that, but I didn't do that. I wouldn't do that to them. Decided not to. Anyway, uh there's a lot of things in in life that require patience, uh, just things that and I was sitting there while while I wasn't, I didn't even write it down, but somebody said something up here a minute ago that made me think about patience. And uh uh but I like to deer hunt and fish, and but uh uh bow hunting is kind of going on right now. And uh, you know, when you when you decide to do that, you basically are just 99% of the time you just are going out there and and looking at deer, you know, and it but you because a lot of times you see them and they and you can't kill them anyway because they're not close enough, or maybe you're hunting a certain deer, so most of the time it's not the one you are after that you're trying to get after, but you you have to be patient um to do that. Uh fishing is the same way. Sometimes I remember whenever uh JC and Kinley were little, they would go fishing with me all the time, and and uh they would bring their bicycles and they would ride circles around wherever we were, and and I like to go early in the year because you know, if I went February, March, early, there wasn't no snakes out, and I mean they just would run and romp and just have a big time. And then when I got to where they really were and there was lots of fish, then I'd holler them over and they'd come catch them. But fishing is an exercise in patience. I mean, sometimes, well, when you go, they're there, you know they're there, but um that don't mean you're gonna catch them. And you might have caught them in a certain spot two days ago on a certain bait, and then today, um, for whatever reason, that's just not the way it is. The pattern's changed or something. I mean, it but but that's why they call it fishing and not catching. Umby back there, um, he grows a garden, and he's really good at it. Some of y'all know some of y'all grow a garden. He he plants his seeds and you know, and just does a really good job gardening, and that that takes a lot of there's a lot to that. Um, and it's a it's an exercise in patience because it doesn't um, you know, when it when you put it in the ground, it there's a lot to do, a lot of patience to be had before anything's ready. Uh, we got some babies out here, uh, kids in general. Uh I know Laura and Drew got a new one, and Melissa's got two back there. Bless her heart. Um, but kids in general will try your patience. I mean, kids will slow you down, kids will speed you up. Um I coach junior high kids, and uh it's amazing how junior high age kids can know nothing and know everything at the same time. I mean, they they just if you had never uh if you had never taught school, it's a it's a I mean it is, it's an exercise in patience. Uh a lot of times I think teachers it might be easier if you if you taught kindergarten one year, and then you just went with that class to first grade, and then you just went with that class to second grade, and you just went with them all the time. But see, like, see, like I get my seventh graders to a certain point every year, and and they're better, but then when it starts over, I get me a whole new batch, and they're just as bad as the last batch. So, I mean it it doesn't uh you have to be patient with that, you know. But there there's other there's teachers that might be locked in on third grade, like they just like them that age or or whatever, and and and that helps. So that's that's kind of why you don't do that, because a teacher's probably better teaching third grade over and over and over again than having to change their content. But it is kind of a tough thing, and and you have to be patient, and those, and as kids grow and and develop, you you turn them loose, and then you when you're teaching, you turn around and get you another group that's they're they're right back where you started from, it seems like. People you deal with, and you're and we're all different as far as like who we deal with and what we deal with on a daily basis as far as jobs. You work with people that'll for sure try your patience, I'm sure. But uh as a Christian, we're uh patience is mentioned as long-suffering several places in the Bible. Um, anyway, we're called to be patient. Uh God God has patience with us, and we're called to give patience and be uh patient toward others. Um it's just one of the things that we're called to do. Uh in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 29, it says, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. And in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and 23 is where it mentions the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Um, peace, patience, goodness, faith, I mean gentleness, those kind of things all go together. But those are fruits of the spirit that uh as Christians we need to exhibit those in our daily lives because Christ exhibited them towards us. Um Galatians chapter 6, verse 9 says, don't grow weary in doing good because you're going to reap in due season. Uh don't go, don't grow weary in doing good. And when you when you do good, you can you can grow weary, I mean, doing good. It's it's easy to do because a lot of times you'll you'll you'll help somebody and uh and it may not you don't necessarily do it for the reward, but sometimes if you feel unappreciated or whatever, that can make you grow uh weary and doing good, but we're not to grow weary doing good. Um it kind of reminds me of the verse, and I didn't write this one down, but there's a verse that that says it's better to give without expecting a return. Um if you only give to somebody, you know, if I only give Eddie$20, because I know he's gonna give me$20 back, then I really hadn't given anything. So true giving is just giving, and there is no return. Um and that that requires patience. Uh Romans chapter 8, verse 24 and 25 says, for we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we then do we with patience. So um as a Christian, we hope for what we don't see. Uh that's what faith is. Um in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4, it it mentions that love is patient and kind. In James chapter 1 and verse 3 it says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. We have to be patient. Um our our end reward is not in this life. And sometimes we want our we want our day to day to be just what we want our day to, what we would have our day to day be, um, and our goals and things like that that we want to accomplish. We want that, we want all that stuff to happen right now. Um But I've heard I've heard lessons about um and just the idea of the main thing being the main thing, and the main thing is the end for us. The main thing is the end. Our our reward is is uh is the end. And uh so we have to be patient in that. Uh we're not guaranteed we're not guaranteed anything uh on this on this earth. Or well, uh I say that. We are we do we do have some guarantees, but we're but but life is not guaranteed to be easy. It's not guaranteed to be a uh a perfect picture. Um so we have to work through some things with patience. Uh Romans chapter 12, verse 12 says, Rejoice in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Uh being patient in times of tribulations is not easy. Um anyway. Uh if you want to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians 4, starting in verse 1. It says, I therefore, the the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all, but but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he is ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. The the grace that we're extended by Christ is his patience toward us. Um we're not perfect, we don't have to be perfect. Thank goodness. That's grace and that's patience with us that's that's uh extended through Christ. Um in Matthew chapter seven verse two it's it it speaks of mercy and it says with with what judgments you judge, you will be judged. Um whenever you whenever you deal with kids at school I tell kids this all the time you know the house that you grow up in until a certain age kids probably think, hey, my house is everybody's house is just like this. And they're and they're not. Um they you know when they get a certain age, they they start looking around and they and they realize maybe, you know, I I anyway, I just tell kids all the time, I'm I I tell, especially the boys, and it doesn't matter, boys or girls, whatever, but right now I coach a bunch of boys and I tell them all the time, I said, your house, you're you're live, I mean you're living your life, but you're living your life for your future house. I said, Your house may not be what you want it to be right now, but you're gonna have a house of your own one day, and you can make it what you want it. So um, you know, that's just something that is important when you're dealing with kids that they you have to be patient. I had a kid, I had a kid this week, he's a foster kid, I already knew that. Uh, but he told me his mom was in jail and his dad was in prison, and I said, Well, what's the difference? You know, and he to he explained to me that jail you get out of pretty quick, and uh prison you stay a long time. And I kind of thought, mmm, you know, that makes me be more patient with that child. But anyway, uh places that I wanted to look at when you look at some Bible examples, uh you can think of patience where God had patience uh towards us. If you look in 2 Samuel chapter 11, I'm not gonna read a whole lot of that, but in 2 Samuel chapter 11, you see uh David, the story of David, and I mean David goes on and on there, but in 2 Samuel, uh Samuel chapter 11 and verse uh about about verse 2 in verse 2 David kind of it starts the story there with David and Bathsheba. And you know, David messed up throughout the story of David, you can see uh mistakes, but but God still did a lot of good. He still used David for a lot of good, and uh David David came out of that. Uh if you so the the patience of God was definitely exhibited on David. If you look at uh Jonah, in Jonah, the book of Jonah, uh y'all know I think you know the story of Jonah, but in Jonah chapter 1, verse 1, I'm gonna read a little bit of that. It says, Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amitai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and when and went down to Joppah, and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the side of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then they then they then said they unto him, Tell us we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, what is thine occupation, and whence comest thou? What is thy country, and of what people art thou? And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do to thee that the sea may calm un may be calm unto us? For the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. So we know the story of Jonah. He was thrown into the sea, he was swallowed by a great fish, and for three days and three nights he was in the belly of the great fish, and um God told him to go to Nineveh, and he specifically went somewhere else. Um but but God had patience with Jonah. Jonah might not have thought he had patience with him while he was in the belly of that fish, but but he was he was uh you know the story, he was cast back out by the fish, and he he goes to Nineveh. And then uh it's it's kind of interesting at the at the end of Jonah and over in chapter four, uh God kind of gets on to Jonah again because he doesn't he he was uh given patience, but then at the end of chapter four, uh God kind of gets on to him again because um he do he wasn't showing the patience that that he had been shown. Um anyway, but Jonah was Jonah was rewarded with patience uh from God. Um if you look over there in in uh Exodus chapter three we got we got Moses there in chapter three. I've always thought this was an interesting conversation in Exodus chapter three, uh starting about verse eleven. He says, and Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth thy children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee, and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? And what shall I say unto them? And God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am, has sent me unto you. And God said, Moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. So God tells him, He wants him to say, and Moses says, Who am I to say? And then he says, What will I say? And then over in chapter four, in verse one, and Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say the Lord has not appeared unto thee. And so he he you have the story of the rod and the and the casting the rod down, and um and then again in ver chapter four and verse ten, Moses says, and and Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. So pretty much in Exodus 3 and 4, Moses is telling God all the reasons why he shouldn't be the guy to go do that. And uh anyway, God gives him Aaron, his brother, to go with him, uh, to be his spokesperson or whatever. But God was pretty patient there with Moses. Um I oftentimes I I wonder like why was Moses the guy, you know, why was David the guy? But they were they were chosen by God and they and they had a God had a plan for them. He's got a plan uh for all of us, but he has patience. Uh he has patience with us. I mean, he had patience with Jonah, he had patience with Moses, he had patience with David, but he still used them. Um he still used them uh to get a lot of good done. If you look at Genesis chapter 37, these are a couple of things that came to my mind of good examples of patience that we see in the Bible. Uh Joseph, you get Joseph in Genesis chapter 37. Uh look at verse 18. In verse 18 of Genesis chapter 37, it says, And when they saw him far off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Before that you'd had the Joseph was telling his dreams. Um, you know, and he had the dream that that his brothers sheaves would bow down to his, and they didn't really like that. Uh anyway, then on verse twenty says, 'Come now therefore, and let us slay him, cast him into some pit, and we will say some evil beast has devoured him,' and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. And it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him, and they took him and cast him into the pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelite Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. So they sell Jodah, uh, sell Joseph to um the Ishmaelites, and you know the you know the story of Joseph. He was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites, and then later uh that just kind of right there, it just kind of started the uh the chain of events in the life of Joseph. He he goes on with the Ishmaelites and and then he's bought and uh he's in Potiphar's house. He's in, well, he's in prison, then he's uh or in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife accuses him of uh wrongdoing, and he was thrown into prison over that. But he showed, he showed great patience because it comes back around in the story of Joseph, and and there's a famine, and his brothers show back up. It'd be hard to um be patient with brothers that had sold you into basically slavery. And since then you've been in, you've been enslaved, you've been imprisoned, and it's been a long time since you saw them. And then by the time Joseph sees his brothers again, Joseph has all the power to not I mean to not be nice. But anyway, he he is. Abide with me. So Jacob serves Laban seven years, and at the end of the seven years, Laban says, Never mind, I'm gonna give you my daughter Rachel. I mean, Leah. I'm gonna give you my daughter. You were with me seven years working because you were going to marry Rachel, but now you've been here seven years and you get Leah. There might not have been nothing wrong with Leah, but that wasn't the deal. And so he gets seven more years, and then he he then he marries uh he marries Rachel. But uh Jacob had to be pretty patient in with uh with that situation for sure. Uh anyway, whenever if you look at we're almost done. I don't know what the time is or anything like that. But if you look at John chapter 14, verse 2 and 3, it says, well, we'll just start in verse 1. It says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me, and my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Now, we don't know, we don't know when, uh, we don't know how uh this earthly life is gonna go sometimes in circles. Uh Paul mentioned Jamie Fur uh a minute ago, and you know, I love Jamie Fur, but I and but I know he's like a lot of people. Um he's like me, he's like a lot, a lot of us, he's like really like all of us. Uh if we don't, you know, if we admit it, there's there's times that we have doubt, there's times that we were wrong, there's times that we were wrong and we stayed wrong, and we knew we were wrong. But God has patience with us, and as a Christian, it's important that we give that we give patience uh that we have received. Um if you look in Revelation, right there at the I guess probably right there before your concordance. Uh Revelation chapter 22. I I like I've always I've always thought these these verses were I don't know, but they they they renew your strength. In Revelation chapter 22, verse 12 to 14 it says, and and behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter it, may enter in through the gates of the city into the city. Um we have our beginning, and we have our end. We know our b our beginning is God, and God is our end. Um our middle, our middle is a work of patience. It just is. Um to re to receive the reward, and it's I guess it's a morbid thing, kinda, but but we gotta die to get our ultimate reward. Um we may not want to die. Uh my grandmother used to always say, she said, young people can die, but old people must die. Uh she said there, I mean, you know, and as you get as you get older, the the reality of of uh of life and the the brevity of life, it it it kind of I mean it just doesn't slap you in the face one day, but it it it becomes more of a a thing that you you understand. Um but anyway, we have a beginning, we have an end, and we know what our beginning, we know what our end is, but we gotta be patient in the middle. Um last verse I wanted to look at was First Peter chapter three. First Peter chapter three and verse fifteen. It says, but sanctify your sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. I think the people that we come in contact with, it's important that they see the hope that we have living within us. And if we're patient and we show meekness and we show and we and we have that hope through meekness and fear, um people can see Christ living through us. And and they may they may ask us, you know, why are we the way we are? But I I've always thought that that be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you. Nobody's gonna ask you if they don't see that in you. If they don't see, hey, this guy or this gal, they're different. What's different? Uh so be ready always to give an answer to to anybody that asks you uh about the hope that's in you. Um why would they ask? They're only gonna ask if they can see that that hope's in us. So it's important that that the meekness and the patience with those around us is something that we exhibit because God's given us patience that we don't necessarily deserve. I mean, just flat out, we didn't earn it, we don't deserve it, uh, but it was given, and that's that's uh something that for us, it's hard to maybe be done wrong, or something didn't go the way you didn't want it, or it didn't happen the way you thought it should happen, or whatever. Um or you do something, you're nice to somebody and they're still mean or whatever. I I mean I get that at school all the time. Where, you know, anyway, we we're called to be a patient, a patient people, and it's not just because that's how we should be, it's because that's the way God was and God is towards us. So uh anybody, if there's a need this morning, um the invitation's always open. If anybody needs prayers from each other or prayers from the church, or somebody there may be somebody that wants to get baptized, uh tell me that invitation song again. 9 34. I was supposed to tell you before I got up when I got up here, but 9 34 is the invitation song. Come if you have a need.