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Brothers and sisters, a privilege for me to bring you God's word. Someone made a comment when I came to church here. They said, it's a small congregation. I feel really comfortable here. In Quebec, I usually preach to smaller groups, so God's blessing to your church. You're searching a new pastor and seeing how the Lord will continue to make his gospel shine forth here in this community. Bringing you God's word from a series of messages, sermons on the fruit of the Spirit. One of the churches where I preached, a lady said, Bernard, he was in French, he called me Bernard, so they say, they are not. Never heard a sermon on the fruit of the Spirit. So I began working through the fruit of the Spirit, looking at each one, and what a blessing to see what the Spirit desires to produce in our lives. Today we consider his work his fruit of patience. In light of that, we read from God's word, Romans 12. Romans 12, verses 9-17. Familiar with Romans, these are the exhortations about living out the grace of God in our lives. So here now this word of the Spirit. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil. Hold fast what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal. Be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil. Give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. Amen. Let us pray. Father Mighty God, we are here before you. The scripture is open. We pray to the Father that you would open our hearts, that you open our minds, that you would open us, Lord, so that we might indeed receive the word of truth, that your servant would be a faithful expositor of the scriptures, but that we would be faithful listeners. More than faithful listeners, active listeners, active to live out of faith, faith and hope, Lord, hope in your good coming, particularly love, Lord, a love which is patient for Christ's sake. Amen. Brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, I imagine you like taking a walk, going out for a walk, whether in the neighborhood, when it's a sunny day, maybe going out along the ocean side or up into the mountains. The beauty of going for a walk, get some fresh air, a little bit of exercise, time to spend time with friends and loved ones. What a joy to go for a walk. But there are moments when the walk is less agreeable. The weather is not so nice. There's just too many mosquitoes. And the people you're walking with walk too slow, walk too fast, talk too much. And so in that kind of a walk, you lose patience. And this is where the Spirit says to us, as we read in verse 12 of our text, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be patient. So we consider the work of the Spirit today, the Spirit's work of patience. The Spirit who teaches us about God's patience, His patience towards us, with us, but also God's patience in us, how the Lord desires to create patience in our lives, patience with one another. I'd like to consider three things here. First of all, just take some time to describe patience. What is this fruit of patience? How can we describe it? Second of all, consider God's patience because God is very patient with us. And finally, how are we to live out in patience, particularly in the circumstances, tribulations, stresses of our life? But first of all, what is patience? How can we describe it? After reading through several texts and some commentaries, I would like to propose that patience is remaining active, remaining active in doing good as you wait, because with patience there is waiting, as you wait for the work of the Lord to be revealed. Patience is remaining active in doing good as you wait for the work of the Lord to be revealed. We'll unpack that a little bit more. Patience is a word we use quite often. Be patient. You're going to go for a walk. The kids want to get out. They can't wait to go. You get into water bottles together and they want to go. Can we go? Can we go? And you just say, be patient. So we recognize what patience is by its opposite. When you yell out at someone, be patient. Patience is that sense of waiting. In the dictionary read, its patience is waiting a long time, the ability to wait a long time while remaining calm. That's the hard part, remaining calm. Be patient. I'm coming. Remain calm. So be patient while going for a walk. The friend you're walking with has to stop and tie his shoes again. So you wait patiently. When he stands up to walk again, you say, finally. You waited. But your attitude wasn't patient. Patience is an action but also an attitude. In fact, in the Greek word, one of the lexicons, dictionaries of the Greek word says, patience is having a waiting heart. Having a waiting heart. That's patience. Waiting heart. But I'd like to propose that patience is more than simply waiting. Simply doing nothing. We're used to waiting rooms. Go to see the doctor and you're in the waiting room and you just wait. That's why they call them patience, I imagine. But the word patience is more than simply waiting. It's active. The word patience in the scriptures is often associated with action. Ephesians chapter 4 where it talks about the unity of the church. It calls us to wait patiently, to be patient with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the body of faith. Or even in our text, verse 11, just before our text, verse 12, it says, do not be slothful, lazy. Do not be slothful and zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Patience is often associated with action, with work, with activity. And so we need to be patient while remaining active. Active and doing good. Active and doing good. I'm not getting angry. So you're going out for a walk with your wife. She says, I'll be there in a couple minutes. I just want to do my makeup. And you're like, I have no idea why she needs to do her makeup to get out for a walk. And so what takes a couple minutes takes 20 minutes. And you wait patiently. Try to wait patiently. But rather than simply waiting, do good. Take out the garbage. Empty the dishwasher. Change those light bulbs that you said you would change. And as you know, doing good helps the time go by. Helps us to be patient. Being patient by doing good. Patience also has a sense of long suffering, the old translation that we used to have. Long suffering, particularly when things are difficult. Particularly when others seem to have a better life. We read Psalm 37 earlier. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord when you see evildoers, nonbelievers around you seem to have a better life and things seem to go well for them while your life is difficult. The Psalmist exhorts us to wait upon the Lord. To wait patiently upon him. And then that waiting patiently we are called, it says, trust in the Lord and do good. Do good also to our enemies. Revelation, Romans chapter 12, we also read about that. Verse 17, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable and the sight of all. Patience. Long suffering. Doing good. Doing what is kind. So when we look at patience, particularly as it's described in the scriptures, it's often used as a synonym for endurance. For endurance or perseverance. Two words which are often associated together in scriptures. Two Greek words are often together. We had it in our text in Colossians chapter one that we read at the beginning. The text you read, for all endurance and patience with joy. Endurance, also translated perseverance, which I prefer. Endurance, patience, perseverance, and patience go together. And that perseverance was really a sense of moving forward. In fact, Jerry Bridges in his book on the fruit of the spirit says, patience is waiting, staying calm, staying in one place. That's the image we have of patience, staying in one place. But perseverance is more the image of moving forward. Moving forward and doing something, doing what is good. Patience and perseverance, waiting as you do good. But there's a particular type of waiting. And that brings us to an essential aspect of patience, and that's hope. Hope. This is what's foundational, what motivates patience. Hope that God is working. Hope that God is doing something. We can remain patient if we know that God is active, that he has been active, that he is active, that he is still doing something, even if we don't always see it. We can have hope when we know, as Romans 8 tells us, God makes all things work together for our good. Making us in the image of Christ who is patient. We'll come back to that shortly. Hoping in God. Hoping in the patience of God. Hoping in God's good work. It's like walking up a path you've never walked before, through the woods. Following that path that you've never walked before and discovering a new area, a new view, and the beauty of it. Patience that God is doing something good, and he's gonna reveal something beautiful in your life. That's why our text here brings the two together, hope and patience. Again, verse 12, rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Rejoice in the hope of what God is doing, and be patient as you wait for that good work of God to be revealed. Texts for reflections and meditations. I have a quotation that I heard, read from John Calvin. Calvin writes, and I believe it's on his commentary in Romans 5. Patience necessarily follows hope. Indeed, when it is painful to be deprived, sorry, when it is painful to be deprived of the good you desire, if you do not support and comfort yourself with patience, you must necessarily faint with despair. Hope always brings patience with it. Hope brings patience. Patience, because we have the hope that God is at work. And where he's at work and most at most is in your own life. The work of God as you wait patiently is his work in your life, making you more patient, making you more like Christ, making you bear the fruit of the spirit. Giving you that ability to walk, to walk longer and more often with our savior. So let's consider our savior, our God. Who is God? What is the patience of God? How can we describe him? Because we know that God is patient, and he is patient in particular for your salvation, particularly to bring you to repentance, repentance unto new life. We have that text which also in your reflection is from 2 Timothy 3, which we read this earlier. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, count the patience of our Lord as salvation. Consider God's patience as your salvation. Peter gives his exhortation, 2 Peter 3, verse 15, when he's considering the return of Christ. When people are complaining, well, where is the return of Christ? Everything keeps going the way it always has been. In that hope that we have of the return of Christ and of glory, the new creation. Peter reminds us that the patience of God is our salvation. There's an eschatological patience, the patience of the end times. Patience where God is bringing in all his elect people, as you know. And what is the desire of God in bringing in his elect people? He wants to walk with us. You remember reading Genesis, also the teenagers here, Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. They sinned, the curse, and God no longer walked with his people. What's eternal life going to be? It's not heaven, it's a new earth. Heaven going on the new earth, God coming upon the new earth. And God's going to be walking with us. And God is patient waiting until all his children are gathered in to walk with him. God is patient to reveal all his children, all his elect children, so that he might indeed walk with them. And in that patience, God is calling us to repentance. We read these words from Romans chapter 2, the call to repentance. Do you suppose you who judge those who practice such evil things and yet do them yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God? And in that text he goes on to say, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, the patience of God, the waiting of God, the waiting of God, so that we would return and ask for forgiveness. Sometimes we say, oh, we can't wait till the Lord comes back again. Things are getting bad, crisis has got to be returning soon. They said the same thing during the second, first and second world wars, during the Napoleon wars. If God, Jesus had come back in those days, we would not be part of the children of God. What grace of God that he is patient so that we might become part of the family of God. And if our good saviour would indeed wait, tarry again, another 100, 200 years, how many more will be added to the papal of God? The family of God just gets bigger and bigger. The family of God just gets bigger and bigger because of the patience of God. His great patience, the patience of like a prodigal, the father of the prodigal son, who waits for his son to return and be forgiven. And that patience of the father we see in the son, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ through his sacrifice on the cross. Second Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5 refers, draws our hearts to the love of God and the patience of Christ. We don't really need to think about that. The love of God and the patience of Christ. What is the patience of Christ? Well, just consider the life of Christ. He was born in poverty to be patient with being poor. Christ Jesus did miracles, healed many people. Many people came to him just to experience the miracles, to be fed, to be healed. And not thank Jesus. 10 lepers healed. One come back to thank him. Jesus, patient with those whom he healed and never said thank you. Jesus there to teach him and he didn't understand. And some who did understand would simply question him and seek to trap him. And Jesus, patient to answer their questions. Jesus, so patient with his disciples, knowing that one would betray him, that the rest would abandon him, gets down on his knees and washes their feet to do them good. And when he's condemned by his enemies and up on the cross, what does he say? Lord, forgive them. Patience of our Saviour to forgive us. We need to lay hold and be seized with grasp by this patience of our Saviour with us. Just like the apostle Paul, Apostle Paul refers to the patience of God with him in 1st Timothy chapter 1, verse 15 and following. Paul gives his testimony, which should be our testimony, saying his trustworthy, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. I am the worst sinner. He knows his own sin. We know our own sin, the sin that others don't see. But I, each of us received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience. As an example to those who were to believe to him for eternal life. Brothers and sisters, the patience of Christ begins with you and I. We recognize our sins, confess, receive forgiveness. We can be an example to others, calling them to the patience of Christ, the perfect patience of Christ. Such repentance is unto life, new life, new life of the Spirit. The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is a spirit of patience. He desires nothing better but to produce patience in our lives. He wants us to get us out and go walking. So if I can use an image, maybe a little bit bizarre, but the Spirit is like a dog, a dog that you have at home. What does the dog want to do? He wants to go out for a walk. My neighbor has a dog. He's got a lot of extra weight. He says, good thing I have a dog. Gets me out in the winter time to go for a walk. That's what the dog does. He helps, he barks, he scratches at the door, he grabs his leash. He wants to go out for a walk. What does the Spirit do? He wants to take us out for a walk. He wants us to walk the walk of faith. So we grow in the patience of Christ and become more patient one with another. The Spirit of Christ is much more than a dog, as you know. He's also that strength of God, the strength of God so that we might grow in patience. The text of what we read is a call to worship from Colossians chapter one. It's actually a prayer, prayer of the apostle Paul. The prayer of the apostle Paul where he says, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, the strength is power, glorious might. That's the strength of the Spirit that works and lives within us. So that for all endurance and patience with joy, that's what the Spirit wants us to do. That's what he wants to do in your life. That you would have the perseverance and the patience. And when we do, we have joy, the joy of walking with our Lord, the joy of living the Christian life, the joy of walking with our brothers and sisters in the faith. Our God of patience, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit desire nothing better but to produce patience in the hearts and lives of each and every one of us. So what does it look like? What is our patience? Because it's not simply the work of God and the Spirit. We are called in Colossians 3 to put on patience. It's like clothing. It's like when you're going to go out for a walk, you put on a jacket. You need to put on patience when you go for the Christian walk of life. Put on patience. So that patience, that perseverance, that endurance to do good because we have hope that God is at work. Hope to see God's work revealed in our lives. Such patience in particularly difficult circumstances, various circumstances of our lives. I like to consider at least four different circumstances of our lives where we're called to patience and perseverance. The first is simply patience to believe the promises of God. Patience to believe the promises of God, the promise of eternal life. Because you know the gospel. In Christ Jesus resurrected, we have promised eternal life. To believe the gospel is actually rather easy. The harder part is persevering to the end, isn't it? We've seen many believers who confessed, confessed to faith, began the walk and then left the path. Oh, we pray that they would come back upon the path and walk with us again. The Christian life is a call to perseverance, to continue walking until the return of Christ. We know Christ is coming back again, so we keep waiting. But sometimes there's other elements of the Christian faith which are difficult. We read in Psalm 37, verse four, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. You've heard this text before. You pray this text, delight in the Lord and he will give you desires of your heart. Ask for it and he will give it to you. But for some believers, it doesn't happen. Over Adam, Abraham and Sarah, yes, it did. 25 years of waiting and they received that delight of a child, but they were promised a child. I know many brothers and sisters in the faith who experience infertility for a single bachelor, spinster, old maid, as they feel. Well, they lost a child. How to be patient, trusting the Lord to give you the desires of your heart in this world. But laying hold of that hope, that in eternal life, there is no more marriage. There will be no more chill with childbearing. We will simply be brothers and sisters in the faith. And so in some way, those who are single, those who are childless, they have a foretaste of glory that we who have children don't understand. A delight in the Lord. Patience as they wait upon him. Such is our Christian walk to trust God's promises. It's like going for a walk in the forest, climbing that mountain, climbing all the way to the top, it's tiring. It gets hard at the end, but you get to the top and you see the beautiful view and the sunset and it's glorious. Patience perseveres to believe until we enter eternal glory. There's another circumstance where we are called to patience. Patience to forgive. Patience to forgive the hurts, the wrongs, the injustice, the sins that we suffer, particularly from others. This is the real call of patience. God is patient with us to bring us to repentance and life. And he calls us to be patient one with another, to forgive one another. Like Joseph. You remember the story? Joseph sold off to Egypt by his brothers and at the end of his life, his brothers came trembling before him. He's going to kill us. And he forgave them. Because he saw the work of God. And so he could do them good and be patient with them. We read earlier the Gospel text from Matthew 18. It's the only time the word patience comes up in the Gospels as far as I know. It's where the servants, both servants pray. Be patient with me and I will pay everything. The king is very, very patient. In fact, he is beyond patient with the first servant. He forgives it all, just like our Heavenly Father. But that forgiven servant refuses to be patient with his fellow servant. It's hard to forgive one another, isn't it, brothers and sisters? You go for a walk and... You ever have the person walking behind you steps on the back of your heel? So annoying. And then you trip and fall. And then they say, I'm sorry. And then you go on and they do it again. They're not aware of what they're doing to step back. But no, they... I'm sorry. You have to forgive them again. The Lord calls us to forgive. Even as we've been forgiven. Okay, that Spirit grant us such patience to do the good. The good of forgiving. There's another area of patience. It's not so much with sins, but it's with the faults, the bad habits of other people. The things that people do that really just annoy us. You can't say it's a sin on their part, but boy is it annoying. And you've got to be patient with them. Right away you're thinking of many of the examples. It's like when I go walking and someone scuffs their feet on the ground. I can't take that. Lift your feet. Be patient with someone scuffing their feet. Be patient with your husband. He always forgets to bring home the bread. Be patient with your wife who, yeah, sometimes she burns the food. Patient with your father and your mother. Just never understand. Don't have time. With our children, with our siblings, with our coworkers, with our neighbors. Always starts up his lawnmower on Sunday morning at 8 o'clock. Patience with our neighbor. There's not a particular sin necessarily, although if the person refuses to change, there might be an issue of sin to deal with. But sometimes patience is learning to tolerate the other person. That's one of the translations they give for the word patience in the Greek text. Tolerate, support, endure, persevere. Welcoming that person who can just be really annoying with patience. Let's not forget brothers and sisters, we all have our annoying habits. People are patient with us. And finally, another area of patience. Patience with the suffering of this world. Suffering difficulties, distresses, discouragement. Suffering of injustice, adversity, persecution. I believe our text in Romans refers to this, when he says, Be patient, be patient in tribulation. Tribulations. What about other tribulations? Well, it's like when you're going for a walk and you're thirsty. Someone forgot to bring the water bottle. Or simply the fatigue. Or again, you're going for a walk out in the woods and there's so many people, you might as well stay in the city. There's so many mosquito, it's not enjoyable anymore. Or you're going for a walk and you twist your ankle. You have to walk with crutches. You end up sitting in a wheelchair. Or you get to that point in your life, you can't walk anymore. We all end there. Or we can't walk anymore. That's part of the tribulation of suffering of this world. There's a lot of suffering in this world. Suffering, adversity, being mistreated. Not understood, provoked, forgotten, accused. Just that bad luck, even though we understand the providence of God. We have that life like David, David being pursued by Saul. Having to wait patiently for the day that God would establish him as king. A lot of tribulations, distress, discouragements in this life. As we wait for that joy that God promises to his children, to those who are patient. What did we read in that text again in Colossians at the beginning of the service? That we would indeed for all endurance and patience with joy. This is what we desire. The joy that God promises us. Joy in this life, eternal joy in the world to come. And so we are called to patience in the moments of distress. Brothers and sisters, we need to go back to the letter of James. James chapter 5 in particular. We're in verses 7 and following. He calls us to patience. Be patient therefore brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Patience, until the coming of the Lord, coming of that eternal hope. The hope that God will act and he will make all things new. And not just new, but wonderfully new. James in the same paragraph refers to Job. Remember the story of Job. Chapter 5 verse 11. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of the patience, the perseverance of Job. And you have seen the purpose of Lord, of how the Lord is compassionate and mercy. Remember that story of Job, right? He lost everything he owned. He lost his whole family. His wife rejected him. Then he lost his good health. And his friends came to comfort him. And then what did they do? They accused him over and over and over again. We always read that text at the beginning where Job blesses God. But we need to read through the rest of the book and get to the point where Job cries out to God and questions God and give me an answer. What are you doing? But Lord rebukes Job. God was not required to show his work. And we could say in a very real way, Job had to learn more patience. He had to learn more patience. And then we see as he learns patience how God blesses him. Bless twice as much as he had at the beginning. So the Lord calls us to patience. In our tribulations, our distress, our concerns, our sufferings. Patience to wait upon the Lord and his good work to be revealed. And as we're waiting patiently to persevere in doing good. Good to those around us. Just as our Heavenly Father has done good to us in Jesus Christ. Patience. Knowing that we will be those who are happy, blessed. That we will have the joy. The joy of the Spirit. Because we bear the fruit of the Spirit. Patience and perseverance. And so let us pray. Oh Father Almighty God, we come to you. We come to you because you are a God who is so patient with us. But this Sunday you've called us back again for this time of confession and repentance and forgiveness. Because you are like the Father of this prodigal Son. You wait for us every day, every week. So that you might forgive us, cleanse us, purify us. But our prayer now is the prayer of the Apostle Paul. That you indeed have all your power and strength at work within us. So that by patience and perseverance with great joy. We may walk the walk before us. We may run the race. Our eyes always fixed on Christ. Well this we plead Almighty God. For the glory of your name. But also our greater joy. In our God and Savior. Amen.