SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that very much.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to ask you to turn, if you would, please, to James chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, we are working our way surely but slowly towards the end of this book.
SPEAKER_00: Really only have two or three more Sunday mornings as we focus on this portion of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: When we are finished with that, as September draws around, I'm going to begin a series, a five or six-week series on a topic of what really happens when we die.
SPEAKER_00: You are going to, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: We all are.
SPEAKER_00: Scriptures talk a lot about that.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, the best is yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to take five or six weeks and just talk about something that we need to talk about and often hesitate to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: What really happens when you die?
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're going to turn to James chapter 5, verses 7 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: It's a passage that deals with one of our least favorite subjects.
SPEAKER_00: Patience.
SPEAKER_00: Have to laugh at God's sense of humor to have me speak on patience this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I am not, by nature, a patient man.
SPEAKER_00: Are you, by nature, patient people?
SPEAKER_00: And yet, and yet God calls us and he commands us to be patient.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in view of the sure and certain reality that Christ is coming again.
SPEAKER_00: Have patience.
SPEAKER_00: He is coming again.
SPEAKER_00: He will most assuredly set right all of the wrongs.
SPEAKER_00: Untangle all that is untleable for us.
SPEAKER_00: Dry every tear.
SPEAKER_00: Encourage every somber heart.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfill every desire that we have ever had, or the reality of that which we think we desire now, but may actually have another fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: He is surely and certainly coming again, and that is our blessed hope.
SPEAKER_00: And in this passage, we are said, have patience, for the Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_00: Going to look today at verses 7 to 9.
SPEAKER_00: Just as I was gone last week, just parenthetically here, one of the arrangements that we have in this role is once a quarter, Jane and I go back to Indiana, where we have a home and where we have a number of practical affairs to deal with, where all of our doctors are and that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And in this past week, we had the privilege of having all three of our kids, all of their spouses.
SPEAKER_00: Each one has one, by the way, spouse.
SPEAKER_00: And all of the grandkids.
SPEAKER_00: And we have eight or nine, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: Jane says we have eight.
SPEAKER_00: I think coming on nine, but that's all right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, wonderful time to be back together.
SPEAKER_00: We got back together this week for a very special purpose.
SPEAKER_00: One of our kids, our son, who's been a lawyer in Milwaukee in the corporate law firm for the last six years, has felt the call of God on his life.
SPEAKER_00: And about a year ago, they made application to and were accepted by a missionary organization called World Venture.
SPEAKER_00: And in this past year, God has raised all of their support.
SPEAKER_00: And in less than two weeks now, they will depart for long-term church planting service to the Albanian people in Albania and Macedonia.
SPEAKER_00: And next Sunday in their home church, they're having a commissioning service.
SPEAKER_00: And it will be my incredible privilege to speak to them in their commissioning service.
SPEAKER_00: So I love being here, folks.
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
SPEAKER_00: But next Sunday, you're on your own.
SPEAKER_00: No, not really.
SPEAKER_00: But just so that you know, that's where we'll be next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read James 5, 7 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to just look at 7 through 9 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is God speaking to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's listen to what God is saying to us.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Do not grumble, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
SPEAKER_00: As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: Have patience in light of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Patience is not exactly a dominant characteristic of our age, is it?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a major sought-after value that is affirmed on every side in our society.
SPEAKER_00: It is not something that grows by nature within most of our souls.
SPEAKER_00: It is something that in an instant age we're used to instant messages, we're used to quick things happening, high-speed internets.
SPEAKER_00: We get upset if we have to wait for the slightest thing, or when something goes wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I have to confess, this morning I woke up and I was an incredibly impatient husband.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about our car that yesterday broke down, and how are we going to get to Milwaukee on Thursday when we drive?
SPEAKER_00: And then our apartment was hot and sweaty, and I don't do sweat very well.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I got I found myself just so irritated over silly things.
SPEAKER_00: With the full realization that God was calling me this morning to sit under the teaching of God's word along with you, where God says to us, have patience.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we need the help of God in this area.
SPEAKER_00: You realize, of course, you will remember that patience is one of those characteristics that God, the Holy Spirit, is seeking to develop in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, patience, patience, patience, patience, patience.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on and does other things as well.
SPEAKER_00: We think a lot about love.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be loved, we want to love, we want to be joyful, we desire peace, and then we kind of stop at that point.
SPEAKER_00: And the very next fruit of the spirit that God is trying to cultivate in our lives is patience.
SPEAKER_00: Patience.
SPEAKER_00: And a passage like this one causes us to ask ourselves, is this fruit of the spirit ripening in your life and in mine?
SPEAKER_00: It's really that simple.
SPEAKER_00: Is this fruit of the spirit ripening in your life and in mine?
SPEAKER_00: Is it even budding?
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of thing that we have to ask ourselves when we look at a passage like this.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the scriptures, including in this passage, we find that God has his ways of developing patience in his people.
SPEAKER_00: And he rarely does it the way we want it.
SPEAKER_00: Quick and pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is the way God, in his wisdom and grace, wants to develop patience in your life and in mine, as he has for his people throughout the millennia, has been in a context of circumstances we don't like, situations over which we have no control, things going wrong in our lives, difficulties, trials, persecutions, things that we don't like.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that God, in His wisdom and grace, intends to use in your life and in mine to cultivate patience.
SPEAKER_00: We may want the result of God working in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I want the result of God working in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I trust you do too.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that's why you're here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Why else would we bother?
SPEAKER_00: We want the result of God working in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to patience, I'm not sure we want the process.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: But I so deeply love and cherish the results of a process that bugs me.
SPEAKER_00: Can anybody else identify with that?
SPEAKER_00: You see, we don't have much patience for the process of developing patience.
SPEAKER_00: It's really just that simple.
SPEAKER_00: James Garfield, who was our 20th president, uh before he became president, was the president of a small college in Ohio.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells the story of having a discussion with a prospective parent, prospective parents of an incoming student.
SPEAKER_00: Parents of a prospective incoming student.
SPEAKER_00: And he explained all the requirements that there would be for this young man to uh to earn his degree.
SPEAKER_00: And at one point the father said, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Garfield, isn't there a shorter, easier way for my son to get his degree?
SPEAKER_00: They had helicopter parents back then, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: And Garfield correctly replied, certainly, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: It all depends on what you want to make of your boy.
SPEAKER_00: When God wants to make an oak, Garfield said, he took he takes a hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: It only takes a couple of summers to make a squash.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want of your boy?
SPEAKER_00: I would vote for Garfield as president.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want of your life?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be content with squash.
SPEAKER_00: Persevere and seek after the solidness, the stability, and the beauty of resolute hope as a character of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Have patience.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what we want?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what you want?
SPEAKER_00: The reality, my friends, is in the world of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about in our evangelical circles, I'm not talking about in the preaching in our pulpits today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about in the biblical world, the deep working of God in our lives is rarely either instant or pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: We get the idea that somehow or another, because we've got a broadband internet and high-speed connections, that God's going to give us a high-speed download of spirituality just like that.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: That's a false gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the message of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: What God uses to grow us to maturity, the gifts and the grace of God working in our lives do not appear instantaneously, and a life that has come to maturity in Christ is not a life of ease.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way in my life.
SPEAKER_00: It has never worked that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's the American gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: The deep working of God that restores our soul and transforms us into the kind of people that you really want to be.
SPEAKER_00: That requires time and it requires tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that simple.
SPEAKER_00: And a passage like this is helping us, seeking to help us, get in touch with that.
SPEAKER_00: We're likely to be confused and impatient when it doesn't happen instantly and easily.
SPEAKER_00: You picture an Autobahn of being able to go 160K an hour, and actually it's a wonderful thing to do when there's not a stau, a traffic jam.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've never seen a traffic jam in Grand Forks.
SPEAKER_00: But we would be going down the expressway at 160 kilometers an hour, and suddenly we would be stuck in a stau, a traffic jam, for hours on end.
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe you can't relate to this, but here's the way most people experience that.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to roll your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm driving, my hands alternately squeeze and then release the steering wheel as though that's going to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not careful, we start looking around at those other obnoxious drivers that are keeping us from what we want.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to ease up so we're about two inches from the rear bumper of the car in front of us, as though that's going to help anything.
SPEAKER_00: And then when the traffic begins to move, we look behind us for the first chance to zip over in the left-hand lane and go ahead two car lengths, as though that's going to change anything.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the way we are?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the way we are in our spiritual lives as well?
SPEAKER_00: Today's passage urges us to not try to take things into our own hands.
SPEAKER_00: He said that in the last section as well.
SPEAKER_00: Not taking it, not Carpe DMCs the day, but Deo Volente, the will of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let God have his ways.
SPEAKER_00: And in a very real sense, he's moving to the same thing as it relates to the things that irritate, frustrate us, and trouble us, and the things that are indeed wrong with the world and wrong with our life, and all of the injustices and all of the things that are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He says, brothers, sisters, be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Look to the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Submit yourselves to a process, a long process, over which you have no more control than a farmer has control over the weather.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Mike.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come to you in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're sitting in the front row.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're my friend, too.
SPEAKER_00: What the people of God have found throughout the millennia is that our hope and our help is in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And when it relates to circumstances beyond our control in our lives, circumstances we cannot change.
SPEAKER_00: There's many things the scriptures point us to for help and hope with that frustrating problem.
SPEAKER_00: This particular passage focuses on the return of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We need help and hope.
SPEAKER_00: Now, other sources, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of God, the Holy Spirit in our lives gives us help and hope.
SPEAKER_00: God's working.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we heard some things that he was doing with some of the teenagers, God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is present and real, and whoever it was said, not just a little part, but the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: God, the Holy Spirit dwelling within, transforming, changing us over a long period of time and through great difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: But the Holy Spirit is present.
SPEAKER_00: We have the body of Christ which gives hope and help because when I'm struggling, then maybe one of you are not struggling, and we can help each other, and then the next day it may be the other way around.
SPEAKER_00: We have God's word which transforms us from within as we hide the Word of God in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: But in today's passage, the hope and help for impatient people is a solid conviction, an unshakable persuasion of the reality of the fact that a time is coming in which our Lord will return and He will right every wrong, He will flatten out every valley, He will resolve all of the problems that we face, and that is to be a very real hope.
SPEAKER_00: An understanding of the Lord's return is designed to teach us to live in a godly way.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Don't grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's return is a reality.
SPEAKER_00: And our understanding of patience from this passage is rooted in a conviction of the Lord's return.
SPEAKER_00: It's mentioned twice.
SPEAKER_00: Once in the beginning of verse 7, be patient until the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's mentioned in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: The return of the Lord and the development of patience in our lives are intimately tied together in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to talk a little bit about the Lord's return.
SPEAKER_00: We don't talk about that very much these days.
SPEAKER_00: What I have found is that a focus, a biblical focus on the Lord's return, tends to be like a pendulum that goes over here or goes over there.
SPEAKER_00: We either absolutely ignore it or we misuse it by getting so focused on it satisfying our curiosity and us setting dates and making charts, which is not what the teaching of the Lord's return is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Neither to be ignored nor to be misused to satisfy our curiosity or fill our notebooks.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what the teaching of the Lord's Return is for.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a church that apparently ignored the whole teaching on the Lord's Return.
SPEAKER_00: I sat there for 18 years and I never once heard, I didn't even know it existed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe I was asleep for 18 years.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, there's a pretty good chance that I was asleep in church for The first 18 years.
SPEAKER_00: I found out later that that particular group, particular group, doesn't talk about it because they don't believe in it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't really believe in what the scriptures say.
SPEAKER_00: I got off into college, came to faith, and I got involved in a group where the pendulum went all the way over in this side.
SPEAKER_00: And we spent hours and weeks and months trying to figure out and understand the chronology of the Lord's return, as though that's why that revelation is there.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not why it's there.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so that we'll know the date or the time.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the scriptures make it clear we won't know the date or the time.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's coming and we know it could come at any moment, but the focus on when and date setting is trying to think of a pulpit-polite expression.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably not the best thing for us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yet it is clearly revealed in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There are at least 300 New Testament teachings about this.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just briefly look at one in Acts chapter 1, verses 4 to 11.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting here.
SPEAKER_00: Before Jesus was ascended to the heavens, after the resurrection, he was with his disciples in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And while staying there with them, verse 4, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: He ordered them to wait.
SPEAKER_00: Wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me.
SPEAKER_00: And he had taught them, he had taught them that he would go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He had taught them that after three days he would be raised.
SPEAKER_00: And he also taught them that he was coming again.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Now go and wait, in anticipation of the things that are to come.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time now restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the right date?
SPEAKER_00: Have we got it straight?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, It's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: And he went on, and in effect he's saying, I am coming again, and yes, I will teach you a great deal about it.
SPEAKER_00: But the time and the chronology and the date and the precise sequence, while we can learn some things and we need to learn what is revealed, that's not the point.
SPEAKER_00: The point, the point really, is what we are doing in the meanwhile.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, they were to be as witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Also, as in James' passage, quality character traits are to be developing while we wait.
SPEAKER_00: We know lots of things about it, just real simply.
SPEAKER_00: It will be preceded by a time of great opposition, intense persecution, painful tribulation, and personal difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: That's promised.
SPEAKER_00: That will precede the coming and the return of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Take what we call the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, 25, given on the Mount of Olives, hence the term Olivet, the Olivet teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And there are two entire chapters about the return of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of data that is revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Among other things, the fact that it will be preceded by a time of great difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_00: Lots more that could be said about that.
SPEAKER_00: It will come suddenly like a thief in the night without warning.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of passages that talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: And it will result in his being with us again.
SPEAKER_00: The real focus on the coming of the Lord is not the date in the chronology.
SPEAKER_00: The real focus on the coming of the Lord is He's gonna be with us again.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be with us.
SPEAKER_00: The word parousia, which is one of three of the New Testament terms that is used for the return of the Lord, it's talking about his appearance, his presence with us, as though you are anticipating the return of a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're anticipating the return of your beloved Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the day is coming in which you'll be here.
SPEAKER_00: And the focus is not on the timing, the focus is on the reality of the presence of God with us.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he was with the early disciples and then left, so he will one day be with us, here on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he walked in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve before the fall, so after the consummation of all things there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and he will walk with us and talk with us and tell us that he is our own, the wonderful old hymn.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of God, whatever else we know about our future, Christ will be with us.
SPEAKER_00: The very best thing about heaven is not that I'm gonna get a mountain valley that I can explore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_00: Private heresy of mine.
SPEAKER_00: I just think God probably is gonna give that to me.
SPEAKER_00: But the best thing about heaven is that Jesus will be with us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a hope that it blesses us and purifies us.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, wait patiently.
SPEAKER_00: The interesting thing about this is that it's a command.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever commanded a two-year-old to be patient?
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of good it does, right?
SPEAKER_00: How's God doing with us two-year-olds spiritually?
SPEAKER_00: It's a command.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that we can take or leave.
SPEAKER_00: In the good purposes of God, he is commanding us, and what he commands, he also enables.
SPEAKER_00: We're not left to our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: But this isn't a, I'll take category four for 500.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: This is a given.
SPEAKER_00: It's an assignment, it's a command, it's an instruction, it's an exhortation, it's an imperative.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on and says a whole bunch of other things about it.
SPEAKER_00: But it is a command.
SPEAKER_00: And the command is to look forward, and the example will be given of a farmer, but to look forward to the appearing of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is tied up with the practical, life-changing process of sanctification and transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The doctrine, the teaching of the Lord's return is practical, not theoretical.
SPEAKER_00: It's meant to change our lives, among other things, to engender patience as we patiently wait.
SPEAKER_00: The context in which this is given for these believers are the difficulties and trials that they were facing in their life.
SPEAKER_00: We have seen that throughout.
SPEAKER_00: He started out in chapter one and said, Count it all joy when you meet various trials.
SPEAKER_00: And he said in chapter one, verse 12, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
SPEAKER_00: For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised.
SPEAKER_00: And the focus is constantly on that future thing that God is going to do that works its way backwards by cultivating in our lives a godly patience.
SPEAKER_00: We are told to submit ourselves to what God is going to do in the future, and we do not control what God is going to be doing in the future.
SPEAKER_00: We are instructed to look forward to what God is going to do and to have that motivate us now.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have any control over the return of the Lord, the timing, or the circumstances, or anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he says, have patience as a farmer.
SPEAKER_00: And James is a master of taking practical illustrations out of everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: He learned that, I suspect, from his older brother, Jesus, who did that all of the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so what he says, be patient until the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, see how the farmer, this is his illustration, this is how to define patience.
SPEAKER_00: This is what to expect of patience in our life and how it is developed.
SPEAKER_00: See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it, the earth, receives the early and the late rains.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now what is he talking about here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he was talking to an agrarian society, very familiar.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the 5,000-acre farms that we know of today.
SPEAKER_00: This was subsistence farming.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have all of the advantages that the farmers among us have.
SPEAKER_00: Where's Brian?
SPEAKER_00: I just saw him somewhere in other.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: You had no genetically modified seed.
SPEAKER_00: You had no irrigation system.
SPEAKER_00: You were totally dependent on the weather.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I totally get, Mike, our dependence on the weather.
SPEAKER_00: But this is magnified a number of times.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the early rains and the late rains.
SPEAKER_00: In the growing cycle in the ancient Middle East, in those days, here's the way a farmer's year went.
SPEAKER_00: He plants his seeds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming he prepares the soil in some way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting out of my knowledge base when it comes to farming.
SPEAKER_00: But he prepares the soil, plants the seeds, and then he waits.
SPEAKER_00: What does he wait for?
SPEAKER_00: He waits for the early rains.
SPEAKER_00: The early rains, they came in October and November in the growing season.
SPEAKER_00: And what the early rains did is they provided moisture to the soil, which would allow the seeds to germinate.
SPEAKER_00: Without those early rains, you could plant all the seeds you wanted and you would get no results.
SPEAKER_00: And there was no irrigation system.
SPEAKER_00: And it was only when the storms of the early rains came that the seed of God, or the seed that the farmer planted, would germinate.
SPEAKER_00: And there are things in our lives that God is doing that only germinate in times of storms.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want it that way.
SPEAKER_00: That is the way it is.
SPEAKER_00: There are things we will only learn, qualities that we will only develop when it's a time of storm.
SPEAKER_00: So the early rains came and then there was a long wait.
SPEAKER_00: They had to wait for the early rains, but there was a long wait for the later rains.
SPEAKER_00: And they came in April and May.
SPEAKER_00: And what those later rains did would give moisture so that the germinated seed would flourish and there would be a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: But they had to wait for that.
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing they could do.
SPEAKER_00: It was totally there is nothing more out of our control than the weather.
SPEAKER_00: So what he says is take the example of a farmer who bets his life on a long wait.
SPEAKER_00: Who bets his life on a long wait.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that are going on in your life over which you have no control, and those are the things we get impatient about.
SPEAKER_00: And what he says is, trust me.
SPEAKER_00: I've got it covered.
SPEAKER_00: I am working.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: A four-letter word.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian's hope is found in submitting to something outside of his control.
SPEAKER_00: Like a farmer, the Christian bets his life on the outcome of a long wait.
SPEAKER_00: Do we know what it means to bet our lives on the outcome of a long wait over which we have no control?
SPEAKER_00: Namely, the working of God in our lives over the days, the months, the years, the decades, that we can barely, we don't influence what God does, we don't move God's hands, we don't make things happen.
SPEAKER_00: We submit to a God who works.
SPEAKER_00: And unlike the farmer who had a hope, he hoped that the rains would come, but they didn't always come.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is sure and certain because it's a promise of God, and God does not go back on his promises.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a sure and certain hope of something that is not yet here, from which everything else depends.
SPEAKER_00: That's what faith is.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: Things that we see we don't have to have faith about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul said in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the writer of the book of Hebrews said in Hebrews 11, chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Faith has to do with things that we can't control and things that we don't see, and we bet our lives, we walk by faith, we are dependent upon things we cannot produce and we cannot speed up.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the biblical Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're called to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to be faithful, we're called to trust, just like the farmer trusts the early rains to cause the planted seed to germinate, the later rains to cause that planted and germinated seed to flourish.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing instant and there is nothing easy about it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really hesitant to talk about not grumbling this morning because I woke up grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Don't grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
SPEAKER_00: Real quick, a few things about grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: This is said in the context of the teaching of the Lord's return.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to underscore for about the 14th time in this message.
SPEAKER_00: The teaching on the Lord's return is not given to fill our minds, make charts, or ignore.
SPEAKER_00: It is given to change our lives and particularly to cultivate patience within us.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament teaching of the Lord's return is invariably linked with practical exhortations to godly living now.
SPEAKER_00: So immediately on the heels of talking about the Lord's return, he says, Don't grumble so that you're not judged.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
SPEAKER_00: The exhortation to grumbling is painfully pertinent to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Squeezing the steering wheel, nice positive Christian gesture to the cars or get around, get 50 feet ahead as though that's going to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Those stupid drivers.
SPEAKER_00: See, I do that really well.
SPEAKER_00: You do too.
SPEAKER_00: We do, as the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever things don't go the way we want them to, or things are out of our control, the tendency is to grumble.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the reality.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of things are out of your control.
SPEAKER_00: Decisions get made that you disagree with.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: Decisions are made that I disagree with.
SPEAKER_00: Presidents are elected that I disagree with.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: As though we control everything around us and that we can't be godly and happy and positive unless we get what we want?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of Christianity is that?
SPEAKER_00: But what we do in a polite Christian way is we grumble and complain.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I wanted this.
SPEAKER_00: I expected that.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: I am sitting next to you hearing myself say this, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Believe me.
SPEAKER_00: We get angry because we don't get what we want.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to submit to someone unless they are saying what we want them to say or agreeing with our thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that simple.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of our culture.
SPEAKER_00: It is not part of what God wants from his people.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to submit to a process that isn't quick and pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: God's ways are rarely quick and pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: And an acceptable, apparently, Christian response is to grumble and complain.
SPEAKER_00: Wrong answer.
SPEAKER_00: When I do it, when any of us do it, don't grumble.
SPEAKER_00: When things don't go the way they want we want, it doesn't bring out the best in us, does it?
SPEAKER_00: When you don't get what you want, when things aren't going the way that you agree with, it doesn't bring out the best in us.
SPEAKER_00: Not naturally.
SPEAKER_00: It is a working of God's spirit to have a different attitude when things go differently from the way we think they ought to be.
SPEAKER_00: Can we or can we not trust God to do what He wants to do even if it doesn't agree with us?
SPEAKER_00: But we never think of it in those terms.
SPEAKER_00: We demand it our way.
SPEAKER_00: And we only trust people who are doing what I want.
SPEAKER_00: If we can't deal with that, we are not living as mature godly believers.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that simple.
SPEAKER_00: Don't grumble.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in the context of a long wait of things we don't want, things that are out of our control.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not comfortable with that, don't read the book of James.
SPEAKER_00: Don't listen to God, because that's what he says all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't say it in condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: He says it because he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, beloved brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me in the midst of circumstances that aren't what you want.
SPEAKER_00: I've got it all covered.
SPEAKER_00: And I am coming again.
SPEAKER_00: And if wrongs have been done, I will set them right.
SPEAKER_00: I know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm doing is right and good.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust me, my children, is what God is saying to us.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that everything that happens is right.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean there's never a time to talk about stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But if we first grumble and complain, if that's our instinctive reaction, we have a problem.
SPEAKER_00: You can talk all you want, and it's not going to result in anything.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus makes very clear that this is all tied to humility and gentleness towards others.
SPEAKER_00: Just check out the Ephesians passage.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to go into it.
SPEAKER_00: When we tend to grumble, one of the solutions to grumbling is being little, which is the term of humility, not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.
SPEAKER_00: Not making demands, but humbly and gently relating to other people.
SPEAKER_00: It makes all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do a real good job of that this morning, honey.
SPEAKER_00: I was trying.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
SPEAKER_00: You think I was trying.
SPEAKER_00: But we need gentleness and humility with one another.
SPEAKER_00: That's the opposite of grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: And it's rooted in who God is and what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're not even going to go into that one.
SPEAKER_00: Couple of thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just for first-century farmers.
SPEAKER_00: This is really for us.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in ultimately in the Lord and in particular in the Lord's return.
SPEAKER_00: If we're hoping for an economic recovery that somehow or another, eight years after the Great Recession, we ought to be doing better than we are now.
SPEAKER_00: That may be true, but that's not our hope in an economic recovery.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not a better job so that we can have a nicer home.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not a cure for our cancer.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not a change of leadership in Washington.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not getting a new boss or getting a new baby.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not in the here and now.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in the there and then.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in the character of God, the goodness of God, the sovereignty of God, the fact that He knows what He's doing, He is trustworthy, and our hope comes in trusting Him and waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And while we hope, we are to live right.
SPEAKER_00: Titus 2.
SPEAKER_00: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, instructing us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live in a self-controlled, upright, and godly life in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from the lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for good works.
SPEAKER_00: That's to be our focus when we live the dirty four letter word of waiting, which is actually.