Speaker 1: The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message from Pastor Chris May.
Speaker 2: So glad to be worshiping with you today.
Speaker 2: If you have your Bible, I'll invite you to go with me to the book of Galatians, chapter five.
Speaker 2: We're going to begin in verse 22.
Speaker 2: Mark that I'll invite you to go with me to the book of Galatians, chapter 5.
Speaker 2: We're going to begin in verse 22.
Speaker 2: Mark that and then we're going to go over to Colossians, chapter 3.
Speaker 2: So Galatians 5, colossians 3.
Speaker 2: We're in a series on the fruit of the Spirit, and remember these nine fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5, these are what we call the communicable attributes of God.
Speaker 2: And if you were here the first time I talked about that, you'll never forget what the communicable attributes of God are.
Speaker 2: And I'll just leave it there.
Speaker 2: If you weren't here, go back and listen to the message.
Speaker 2: But these are the virtues, or you could say the characteristics, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ is joy, he is love, he is peace and, by grace, that spiritual fruit.
Speaker 2: When we are born again, when we become in Christ, when we are brought into Christ by the Spirit of God, we are partakers of that fruit.
Speaker 2: So right now, if you are saved, you are indwelt by the Spirit.
Speaker 2: That means you have the joy of Christ within you.
Speaker 2: So somebody smile at me this morning, look happy.
Speaker 2: That means that you have the peace of Christ in you, you have the love of Christ in you, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: And so, within the context of the fruit of the Spirit, paul is not saying go out, try to get this fruit, go find a tree somewhere.
Speaker 2: No, you are attached to the true vine and so that fruit is within you because it is the fruit of Christ.
Speaker 2: What Paul says to do is walk in the Spirit.
Speaker 2: The fruit's in you.
Speaker 2: But we don't always walk by that fruit, amen.
Speaker 2: So that's the aim that we're learning through this series how to walk by the fruit of the Spirit, to grow in these graces.
Speaker 2: Today you're going to be glad you came to church because we're going to focus on the fruit of patience.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to make my sermon three hours so I'll teach you how to be patient this morning.
Speaker 2: You know it's not a hot commodity, or let's just say it's not a popular virtue.
Speaker 2: Is it today?
Speaker 2: Patience, anybody struggle with impatience here.
Speaker 2: All right, like if you don't raise your hand, we need to talk after service, galatians 5.
Speaker 2: If you would stand in honor of the reading of god's word.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm trying to find my place here.
Speaker 2: All right, galatians 5, 22.
Speaker 2: But the fruit of the Spirit let's say these together is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Speaker 2: All right, now flip with me to Colossians, chapter 3.
Speaker 2: I'm going to begin reading in verse 11.
Speaker 2: Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all.
Speaker 2: Can you say amen to that?
Speaker 2: Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.
Speaker 2: As the Lord has forgiven you, you also must forgive.
Speaker 2: And, above all of these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which, indeed, you were called in one body and be thankful.
Speaker 2: That is the word of the Lord, and you may be seated.
Speaker 2: This morning, I did something that I do every morning.
Speaker 2: You do it as well.
Speaker 2: I stood as I was getting ready for the day.
Speaker 2: I stood before my closet and I had to decide what am I going to wear today, and so I'm kind of weird.
Speaker 2: If you've been here long, I know this is going to be no surprise to you, but my closet is separated first by colors and secondly by type.
Speaker 2: So I have all my kind of athletic clothes together.
Speaker 2: I have what we can call street clothes or just general everyday clothes together, and then I got the fancy clothes right.
Speaker 2: I got the slacks and the nice shirts and the sports coat.
Speaker 2: This is not as funny as you think it is.
Speaker 2: So today, as I stood before my closet, I had to think about what is it I'm doing today?
Speaker 2: And I go oh yeah, church is today.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm going to be preaching.
Speaker 2: I have a position as a pastor, and the Bible says this is an honorable position, and it's just my conviction that pastors ought to dress honorably.
Speaker 2: So I decided not to wear ball shorts today You're welcome and I decided to put on my sports coat.
Speaker 2: Now, tomorrow is my day off.
Speaker 2: I just want to warn you, in case you see me out in the town, I'm not going to be in a sports coat.
Speaker 2: And that's funny, really, because you wouldn't believe what happens to me.
Speaker 2: So often I see people I've been here 10 years.
Speaker 2: What happens to me so often?
Speaker 2: I see people I've been here 10 years and I see some of you out at the gym or at the you know, not Walmart.
Speaker 2: I was going to say Walmart, I'm not there, but there's the supermarket, kroger or whatever, and you'll walk right by me and I'll catch up to you and I'll say hey, and it'll just take you a second, you'll look at me and then you go.
Speaker 2: Pastor Chris, I didn't recognize you in those clothes.
Speaker 2: Guys, I don't sleep in a suit and tie, fyi, all right.
Speaker 2: But hey, missy L, you and I, we jogged next to each other on treadmills for 20 minutes before we realized we were standing next to each other.
Speaker 2: Listen, my point is this Every day, the way that I decide what type of clothes I'm wearing is based on what I'm going to be doing that day.
Speaker 2: I'm wearing is based on what I'm going to be doing that day.
Speaker 2: Paul in Colossians, chapter 3, and he does this in Ephesians, chapter 4 as well he uses getting dressed, putting on particular clothes, as a metaphor to illustrate how we are to behave as Christians and what attitudes we're to have as believers.
Speaker 2: And so in the first verses, if you were to go up to, let's say, chapter verse 5, he says put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, covetousness, adultery.
Speaker 2: So verse 8, he says now you must put them all away or take them off.
Speaker 2: Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth.
Speaker 2: Verse 9, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self.
Speaker 2: So when you came to Christ, you came to Christ with some raggedy clothes on that are not becoming for a Christian.
Speaker 2: And so Paul says hey, you've gotten a new wardrobe.
Speaker 2: Take the old grave clothes off and put on.
Speaker 2: And look at what he says.
Speaker 2: Put on.
Speaker 2: Verse 12, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and, if one has to complain against one another, forgiving each other as the Lord's forgiven you, and above all, put on love which binds everything together.
Speaker 2: So I want to focus on this part where he says to put on patience, clothe yourself with patience.
Speaker 2: Now the word patience here is used in two different ways within the New Testament.
Speaker 2: One way the Bible frames patience is something like this Life is suffering.
Speaker 2: Is that true?
Speaker 2: Life is full of trouble, life is full of pain.
Speaker 2: But the New Testament says be patient, your vindication is coming, trials are working for your good.
Speaker 2: Be patient in suffering, like it's tempting sometimes to throw in the towel.
Speaker 2: But Paul and Peter and John and many other authors within the Bible say be patient in suffering.
Speaker 2: The other way that the Bible frames this idea of patience is within the context of our relationships with one another within the local church, and that's what he's talking about here in Colossians and that's what I want to focus on today.
Speaker 2: Be patient with one another.
Speaker 2: So he says here be patient, bearing with one another.
Speaker 2: So to be patient it means to be long-suffering.
Speaker 2: That's how the King James translates it.
Speaker 2: Be long-suffering and it says bearing with one another.
Speaker 2: You know what that means.
Speaker 2: It literally means put up with one another, and it's not a begrudging thing like I guess I got to go to church with these people, and the reason I know that is because this is connected with humility and meekness, compassion and love and kindness.
Speaker 2: Bear with one another.
Speaker 2: And then this other really important element I'm going to talk about in a moment forgive one another, as Christ has forgiven you.
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 2: So here's what patience is.
Speaker 2: It is walking in enduring healthy relationships within the context of the church.
Speaker 2: That's the aim.
Speaker 2: To walk in enduring healthy relationships.
Speaker 2: Now you should listen today.
Speaker 2: Relationships, now you should listen today.
Speaker 2: You should listen today for two reasons.
Speaker 2: Number one patience is not optional.
Speaker 2: Patience and forgiveness are two sides of the same coin, and I'm pretty sure Jesus said in Matthew 6, I believe, verse 15, we pray, as we did this morning in the Lord's prayer forgive us our debts, says what as we forgive our debtors?
Speaker 2: And then Jesus expounds on one part of that prayer For if you do not forgive your brother, you will not be forgiven.
Speaker 2: That's sobering.
Speaker 2: The other reason that this is a really important concept, this idea of patience, is because our patience with one another is a profound witness to the world.
Speaker 2: Jesus said in John 13, verse 35, he said this is how they're going to know you're my disciples Not by how much scriptures you can quote, not by how many spiritual gifts you have, not by the level of faith that you claim to possess, but what your love one for another.
Speaker 2: See the world, their idea of relationships.
Speaker 2: It goes something like this like I'll be good to you until you hurt me, and when you hurt me, I'm, at minimum, stepping away, I'm cutting you off.
Speaker 2: But beyond that, a lot of people, the way they respond to hurt is I'm going to get you, you're going to pay for what you've done.
Speaker 2: And so when you, as a believer, have been hurt within the context of a church community and yet you still go to that church and talk well of that church.
Speaker 2: It messes people out there up.
Speaker 2: How can you go there after what that person did to you?
Speaker 2: Well, you know Jesus has forgiven me of so much.
Speaker 2: I just thought it'd be a good thing for me to forgive them.
Speaker 2: Why would you have that family over for dinner, don't you remember?
Speaker 2: After they hurt you like that?
Speaker 2: You don't know what Jesus has done for me.
Speaker 2: I've heard him many times, but he welcomes me to his table.
Speaker 2: I'm going to welcome them to mine.
Speaker 2: It's a profound witness.
Speaker 2: So it's not optional, this idea of patience.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you this it's not easy.
Speaker 2: It's not easy to be patient with one another.
Speaker 2: Somebody shake your head, if you agree with me, I mean.
Speaker 2: It's not easy, even within the context of our homes.
Speaker 2: This should start, by the way.
Speaker 2: In our homes we should be patient and enduring with our spouse.
Speaker 2: But within the context of the church there's some issues and I want to point you to verse 11.
Speaker 2: Paul writes here there is not Greek and Jew verse 11.
Speaker 2: Paul writes here there is not Greek and Jew.
Speaker 2: Circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian slave free.
Speaker 2: But Christ is all and in all.
Speaker 2: Patience is difficult because, as a church, I look around and we come from many different cultures.
Speaker 2: Now, in the first century that was really the case.
Speaker 2: I mean, look what he says.
Speaker 2: You have Jews, right.
Speaker 2: You have Greeks, you have Gentiles, circumcised, uncircumcised barbarians, any barbarians here today.
Speaker 2: That means, by the way, hey, at least we're putting off lying, we're being honest, right, this is real life.
Speaker 2: Community church, it means foreigner, but the Scythian, it translates savage, any savages here this morning Slave free.
Speaker 2: So you've got all these different cultures in the first century church coming together and it caused some real problems.
Speaker 2: I mean, they've been brought up, these different people, in different ways and they understand God in different ways and now they've all been saved in Christ and brought into this one family.
Speaker 2: And it's messy.
Speaker 2: It's messy and you say, well, you know, we're all in America here and we're pretty much of the same culture.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, thinking about this this week and I'm like don't be so sure.
Speaker 2: Now I look around and actually there's a couple of people in the room who weren't even born in America and they were raised in a different country, but the majority of us were born in the States and I would say many of us were actually born in Kentucky.
Speaker 2: If you were born in Kentucky, raise your hand for me.
Speaker 2: Okay, so lots of us born in Kentucky, but I've been here long enough to know this.
Speaker 2: You could be born in Kentucky, but depending on where you were born in Kentucky, there's some different cultures.
Speaker 2: So if you were born, don, in deep Appalachia, I promise you you were raised differently than somebody born in more urban Lexington or Louisville.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like coming from two different planets and see what happens is cultural differences also mean different convictions as well, because depending on where we came from and also our religious background, like the Jews were raised on, you know, in the first century church, on all these purity laws and civil laws and all of this, and they were freed from those purification laws in Christ, but some of them still had those convictions about eating kosher, right.
Speaker 2: And then you have the Gentiles being saved and you know they're free to eat whatever.
Speaker 2: And so men's breakfast was really uncomfortable because, right, they're eating, like you know, I don't know eggs and bacon or whatever, and you know, and the Jews are like man, I don't know about this.
Speaker 2: Or shrimp at lunch, you know, and it's just caused problems.
Speaker 2: I mean they were serious issues because these were deep convictions of many of the Jewish people.
Speaker 2: And so today I look at our different convictions here.
Speaker 2: I mean, some of you grew up in and you know, you were, let's say, you grew up in maybe a more rule-based church and you have some strong convictions about, let's say, dress or if it's okay to have a sip of wine, or you know, or I don't know, music styles.
Speaker 2: Some of you think maybe, well, we should have, you know, we should sing all hymns.
Speaker 2: And some of you think, man, you should never be singing a hymn, right.
Speaker 2: And some of you like Southern gospel, some of you like urban gospel, and it's just and we've got to learn to work through these things.
Speaker 2: And you can go to Romans.
Speaker 2: Chapter 14, about Paul, talks about issues of food and drink and all this, and he's trying to tell us how to work this out, but it's messy and it makes patience very difficult.
Speaker 2: Then we have different classes of people and Paul says here there is no slave or free.
Speaker 2: So in the first century church imagine this you have masters and servants worshiping together, and in every other context the masters would be on one side of the room or at one table and the servants at another, if they were even allowed in the same room, yet in the same room, yet in the church.
Speaker 2: I mean this was unbelievable, this was shocking in the first century.
Speaker 2: You don't have different classes within the church.
Speaker 2: We are one in Christ, I don't care where you're at on the social totem pole, we are one in Christ.
Speaker 2: We are equal in value.
Speaker 2: We are all saved by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Speaker 2: And so you know, generally the natural tendency in the world is just naturally you generally hang around, people build deep relationships with people who are similar, let's say in culture or interest or social status or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's just natural.
Speaker 2: And it's not that you're prejudiced, that's just natural gravitation.
Speaker 2: But in the church it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: I don't want to pastor a church where everybody looks like me.
Speaker 2: I really don't.
Speaker 2: It is beautiful when we can come together as the people of God and work through those cultural differences, the different convictions, different classes.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: But it makes patience difficult.
Speaker 2: But there's one more reason I'll point out quickly, and it's the main reason that it's difficult to have patience, and that's because of sin.
Speaker 2: If you look to your right and your left, and front, front and in back.
Speaker 2: You're going to see all around you today an imperfect people.
Speaker 2: You've messed up, I've messed up, and what that means is we're going to hurt each other.
Speaker 2: If you're here long enough, you're going to be hurt.
Speaker 2: Paul realizes this and he says through it all, be patient, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, as Christ has forgiven you.
Speaker 2: And let me say this before moving on the aim of patience is not to lose cultural distinctions.
Speaker 2: That's why we try to do a variety of songs.
Speaker 2: Today I sang two modern songs.
Speaker 2: I sang a good old Andre Crouch song.
Speaker 2: That's my style right there.
Speaker 2: Thank you, carla, I'm so glad you're at church today.
Speaker 2: I saw you.
Speaker 2: I'm like she's going to love this, so got that.
Speaker 2: And then I sang a hymn, and I love the hymns and I love the modern.
Speaker 2: By the way, I love it all because it's all about Jesus.
Speaker 2: That's what matters, right, and and I just think it's beautiful when we all, of different backgrounds and cultures, can come together and lift our hands as one voice to the heavens.
Speaker 2: Like, if you don't like diversity, you're going to hate the new earth because it's going to be full of people from every tribe and race, but red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in its sight, amen.
Speaker 2: And so we're going to do life together here, as difficult as that is sometimes.
Speaker 2: We pursue peace, bearing with one another in love.
Speaker 2: Now, patience, do I keep saying peace?
Speaker 2: I feel like I've done that several times.
Speaker 2: Patience Peace is good too, though.
Speaker 2: Patience Patience requires forgiveness, and I want to camp here for just a minute.
Speaker 2: Patience requires forgiveness, verse 13,.
Speaker 2: Bearing with one another.
Speaker 2: And if one has a complaint against another, you ever had a complaint against somebody?
Speaker 2: Forgiving each other.
Speaker 2: As the Lord has forgiven you, he repeats himself.
Speaker 2: You must also, must, must also forgive Forgiveness.
Speaker 2: We all know we're supposed to forgive, but forgiveness is more than a feeling.
Speaker 2: We think that forgiveness is well.
Speaker 2: I'm just not going to hold a grudge.
Speaker 2: So let me tell you what's happened over the years.
Speaker 2: I've seen this over and over.
Speaker 2: So somebody will come to me and they'll say so-and-so's hurt me in the church.
Speaker 2: I love the church, but listen, this person hurt me and I'm leaving.
Speaker 2: Oh, but I'm not holding a grudge.
Speaker 2: Really, you're leaving, but you're not holding a grudge.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 2: And they leave, but other people, the really noble people.
Speaker 2: Here's what they'll do.
Speaker 2: Pastor, I love the church and I'm not leaving, but so-and-so hurt me and I'm not holding a grudge, but I'm just going to avoid them.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's the goal of patience and forgiveness.
Speaker 2: Paul says we're to bear with one another.
Speaker 2: In verse 16, he says we're to teach and admonish one another, singing songs together psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Speaker 2: How are you going to do those things if you're avoiding somebody and really I'm not holding a grudge but if they're on this side, I'm sitting on this side.
Speaker 2: If they're in the back, I'm in the front.
Speaker 2: Now we know how to get some of you to move up front.
Speaker 2: Right, just put people you don't like in the back.
Speaker 2: But that's what people do.
Speaker 2: Let me just ask you this what if God treated you that way?
Speaker 2: What if God said oh, I forgive you, I give you eternal life, but you know you've really hurt me many times and so I'm just going to avoid you.
Speaker 2: I'm not coming to your pew.
Speaker 2: I'll bless everybody else, every other seat, but not yours.
Speaker 2: If you're in the back, god's presence is up front.
Speaker 2: If it's in the front, you know, if you're up front, he's going to be in the back.
Speaker 2: Think about it, aren't you glad the Lord, god is patient with us.
Speaker 2: First Peter says that we are brought near to God by the blood of Christ.
Speaker 2: Paul talks about being reconciled to the Father.
Speaker 2: And now we, he says, are in the ministry of reconciliation.
Speaker 2: So the aim of forgiveness is not simply well, I'm not going to hold a grudge.
Speaker 2: You know what it is.
Speaker 2: It's reconciliation.
Speaker 2: That's the goal.
Speaker 2: This is why Jesus says if you're at the altar and you realize you have ought with your brother or your brother has ought with you, leave your gift, leave your sacrifice, go be reconciled, go to them and then come back.
Speaker 2: So let me just put that in kind of contemporary context.
Speaker 2: If you're singing through it all or the lion and the lamb this morning and you're raising your hand and you have ought against another Christian, put your hand down, go to the person on the other side of the room and say we've got some issues and we need to work them out so we can worship God with pure hearts.
Speaker 2: If you have children more than one does it not break your heart when those kids don't get along?
Speaker 2: We are the family of God.
Speaker 2: How do you think the Lord feels when the people he purchased with His own life are constantly at each other and unwilling to forgive.
Speaker 2: Reconciliation is the goal, and you know why I believe that doesn't happen very often, as often as it should, because reconciliation demands confrontation, reconciliation demands confrontation.
Speaker 2: In verse 13, it says bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, it's all right.
Speaker 2: If you have a complaint, you're not to gossip, you're not to do that, but you're going to have complaints from time to time.
Speaker 2: Everybody in here has probably had a complaint with me being the pastor at one point or the other.
Speaker 2: So you can line up at my door after church and you know, listen, it seems noble to sweep things under the rug.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm just not going to let that.
Speaker 2: They did this and it hurt me.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to sweep it under the rug.
Speaker 2: You know, generally speaking, some people do that because they just want to keep the peace, and that's understandable.
Speaker 2: Most people do that because they just want to keep the peace, and that's understandable.
Speaker 2: Most people do that because, frankly, they're cowards, because confrontation is difficult and uncomfortable, I don't want to make this person mad and whatever.
Speaker 2: And so you sweep it under the rug and you think, well, time will heal it.
Speaker 2: Well, that's like saying cutting yourself, you know, gouging your arm somehow and you need stitches, but you go, ah, time will heal it.
Speaker 2: Well, that's like saying cutting yourself, you know gouging your arm somehow and you need stitches, but you go, ah, time will heal it.
Speaker 2: No, time won't heal it.
Speaker 2: It'll get infected and you'll lose your arm and possibly die.
Speaker 2: When infection sets in.
Speaker 2: And I fear that's what's happened to many Christians.
Speaker 2: They think time will heal it, but they become miserable human beings because their heart, that bitterness, has festered.
Speaker 2: Be patient with one another, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, as Christ has forgiven you.
Speaker 2: Jesus said here's the model for confrontation you go to your brother If he sins against you.
Speaker 2: You go to him privately If he doesn't listen to you, if he doesn't repent.
Speaker 2: Well, because I've had people say well, he's not going to listen to me, he doesn't care.
Speaker 2: Well, fair enough, try it, just do what the Bible says.
Speaker 2: His response is not, that's not on you.
Speaker 2: But if he doesn't respond well, you don't just wash your hands of it.
Speaker 2: What does Jesus say?
Speaker 2: Matthew 18.
Speaker 2: Take a friend with you, take another trusted Christian, brother or sister in Christ, and if they don't listen, bring it before the church.
Speaker 2: That's how important unity amongst God's people is.
Speaker 2: Is this difficult?
Speaker 2: It is, but you know what?
Speaker 2: Christ never asks us to do?
Speaker 2: Anything that he does not equip us to do.
Speaker 2: Apart from Christ, walking in patience is impossible.
Speaker 2: If you grew up in certain areas in Kentucky, the way you learned about relationships is you serve anybody.
Speaker 2: You do anything you can for anybody until they cross you or your family, and then if they step on your property, it's on.
Speaker 2: Jesus says no.
Speaker 2: No, but Jesus has given us all that we need to forgive.
Speaker 2: Look at verse 12.
Speaker 2: This is so good.
Speaker 2: Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.
Speaker 2: You are chosen in Christ.
Speaker 2: If you're a Christian, you are chosen.
Speaker 2: You are holy, which means you are set apart and you are beloved.
Speaker 2: Do you ever get overlooked for an athletic team?
Speaker 2: As a kid, like it hurts.
Speaker 2: Doesn't it feel good to be chosen, to be voted into something, to get on a committee or to make a team?
Speaker 2: You did not choose Christ.
Speaker 2: Christ chose you.
Speaker 2: That's what the Bible teaches.
Speaker 2: We love him because he first loved us and he chose you to be holy.
Speaker 2: So everyone in Christ is chosen for a purpose to be holy, meaning he says this.
Speaker 2: Holy Meaning.
Speaker 2: He says this put on then, as God's chosen one, holy and beloved.
Speaker 2: You are already holy and beloved If you are in Christ.
Speaker 2: You are set apart and you know what that means.
Speaker 2: Christ has already given you a new wardrobe you have in your closet right now.
Speaker 2: In your spiritual closet you have, let's say, the coat of patience and forgiveness.
Speaker 2: And so Jesus is saying take off the raggedy clothes of bitterness and unforgiveness and put on the cloak of patience.
Speaker 2: Let me make one important distinction before I close here.
Speaker 2: Wearing a sports coat does not make me a pastor.
Speaker 2: Even going to seminary does not make me a pastor.
Speaker 2: I am a pastor because God has called me to be a pastor.
Speaker 2: I don't care what I wear.
Speaker 2: I wear a three-piece suit doesn't make me a pastor.
Speaker 2: It's only the calling from God which has been confirmed by our denomination and many other pastors.
Speaker 2: So I don't wear a sports coat to become a pastor.
Speaker 2: I wear a sports coat on Sunday morning because I am a pastor.
Speaker 2: Do you get what I'm saying here?
Speaker 2: See, paul is not saying go out, get some new clothes so that you can be holy and beloved and chosen.
Speaker 2: No, he says you are chosen, beloved, holy, and the clothes are in your closet, just put them on.
Speaker 2: Quit dressing like that old man who was unforgiving and bitter.
Speaker 2: You've got the power, you've got the clothing to do this.
Speaker 2: It's there by the grace of God.
Speaker 2: So that's one reason we can do this, but the other that's clear in our texts the reason you can forgive other people and be patient with them is because Christ has forgiven you.
Speaker 2: Can I just quickly read a couple of texts here.
Speaker 2: Don't turn here About Christ's patience towards us.
Speaker 2: 1 Timothy 1, 15, paul writing the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Speaker 2: But I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost, christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Speaker 2: 2 Peter 3, 8 and 9,.
Speaker 2: But do not overlook one fact beloved that the Lord one day to the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
Speaker 2: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise in coming back and judging the world one day.
Speaker 2: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise in coming back and judging the world, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish One more.
Speaker 2: Romans 2, 4,.
Speaker 2: Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Speaker 2: Beloved, every sin you have ever done is, first and foremost, against the Lord God.
Speaker 2: It is a grave offense to him, deserving of death.
Speaker 2: But while you were yet a sinner, christ looked down upon you.
Speaker 2: God, the Father, looked down upon you and he said oh, I'm going to pay his debt.
Speaker 2: Well, the cost of sin, the price of sin, is death, and a sinner cannot die for another sinner.
Speaker 2: But Jesus Christ, the one who never sinned, the eternal son of God, the perfect God-man, came in your mess and he forgave you, and he's still patient with you.
Speaker 2: You've come time and time to offer Lord.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm going to serve you this week better, I'm going to stop doing this thing.
Speaker 2: And then you stumble again and you go to him and he who confesses his sin God is faithful and just to forgive him and to cleanse him from all unrighteousness.
Speaker 2: How can you receive that kind of mercy and patience and forgiveness and yet hold those little grudges against a brother or sister in Christ?
Speaker 2: See, every time somebody sins against you, there's a debt.
Speaker 2: That's why we say I'm going to make you pay.
Speaker 2: So either either they have to pay or you have to incur that debt and say I'm going to overlook it.
Speaker 2: And to be a christian is to is to overlook.
Speaker 2: When somebody hurts you, it's to deal with the offense, to confront it, but to say I'm not going to make you pay, come over for dinner tonight.
Speaker 2: And that sounds at first really unjust, because they owe me.
Speaker 2: But it's not unjust and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 2: Because that debt has been paid in full.
Speaker 2: Jesus paid it all.
Speaker 2: All to him I owe.
Speaker 2: Sin has left a crimson stain, but he washed me white as snow.
Speaker 2: So I'll close by saying this Unforgiveness, it is the road to hell and yes, we learned earlier, it's literally the road to hell, but I'm talking about hell on earth.
Speaker 2: I have seen people who claim to be Christians my entire ministry and they can't figure out why.
Speaker 2: They just don't sense the joy of the Lord.
Speaker 2: And what happens is they've been hurt, maybe two churches ago.
Speaker 2: You've been hurt and you left, and you got hurt and you left.
Speaker 2: And wherever you're at and these oh, time will heal it and you're so eaten up with bitterness that you've become cynical.
Speaker 2: You become distant from the people of God, neurotic and absolutely miserable and numb, aloof to the presence of God.
Speaker 2: That's what unforgiveness does.
Speaker 2: That's what impatience does.
Speaker 2: So I've got a real simple to-do today, and it's not easy.
Speaker 2: Usually it's pray and read your Bible and you should do that.
Speaker 2: But I'm going to ask you to do something this week.
Speaker 2: Actually, I'm going to ask you to do something today because that's what Jesus said to do.
Speaker 2: We're going to sing.
Speaker 2: You to do something this week.
Speaker 2: Actually, I'm going to ask you to do something today because that's what Jesus said to do.
Speaker 2: We're going to sing a song in just a moment and I want you to practice patience.
Speaker 2: If there's somebody in this room that you have ought against, I want you to go to them in love before you leave today.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine if that just happened and I don't know of any, I mean if you're new.
Speaker 2: This is not a response to 50 million problems in our church.
Speaker 2: This is a really loving community, an enduring community, but there are exceptions.
Speaker 2: Some of you have hurts from people here and you need to resolve it today.
Speaker 2: Others of you have church hurts from other Christians from past churches and you need to call them on the telephone today or go see them and say, hey, I held this against you.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but I want to let you know you hurt me and I forgive you and I want to be reconciled.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, when you do that, a weight will lift from you.
Speaker 2: You will feel God's presence like you may have never felt in your life.
Speaker 2: And let me just help you here, because some of you might say, well, they don't deserve that.
Speaker 2: This is not about them, it's not even about you, it's about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Paul said in our text Christ is our all in all.
Speaker 2: It's about Him.
Speaker 2: So I'll leave you with this thought.
Speaker 2: So I'll leave you with this thought Every day you have to decide what spiritual clothes you're going to put on.
Speaker 2: When people in the world you call yourself a Christian, when they look at you, are you wearing the appropriate clothing?
Speaker 2: Are you wearing the appropriate clothing?
Speaker 1: If not, today, throw off those old clothes and put on the new.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at info at myrealchurchorg.
Speaker 1: Real Life Community Church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: We invite you to join us for worship Sunday at 1045 am or Wednesday at 7 pm.
Speaker 1: Visit us online at myrealchurchorg.