Be Patient

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 11th of February, 2024, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, is money bad?  Is it bad to be financially wealthy?  Doesn’t the bible say that money is the root of all evil?

Well, no, no, and no.  The Apostle Paul, in his 1st letter to his young protégé Timothy says that the love of money is the root of all evil – not money itself, but the love of money.  When we begin to lust for money and the power it can bring, we start doing anything to get more and more.  Money becomes our idol, our object of devotion and desire.  We put its acquisition ahead of everything else, including our fellow man and even God.  But no matter how rich we get, nothing we can buy will last.  Nothing made by man will survive the test of time.

So what good is money?  It can be used for doing good, for helping others, for spreading the love of God.  And many people do just that, whether they have vast resources, or just a few dollars left over after paying the bills each month.  But those who lust for wealth need to slow down their pursuit and maybe read a little in our bible.

This morning we will open the 5th and final chapter of the letter the Apostle James wrote and sent to the early Christian church.  He has offered us a lot of practical advice so far, along with some well timed warnings about what not to do in our daily walk.  As he closes his letter, James continues providing a warning and advice, and though this time they may seem a bit unconnected, they do piece together nicely.  So please listen and follow along to the first 11 verses of the 5th chapter of James’ letter, and I’ll be reading this from the Easy-to-Read Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 You rich people, listen! Cry and be very sad because much trouble will come to you. 2 Your riches will rot and be worth nothing. Your clothes will be eaten by moths. 3 Your gold and silver will rust, and that rust will be a proof that you were wrong. That rust will eat your bodies like fire. You saved your treasure in the last days. 4 People worked in your fields, but you did not pay them. They are crying out against you. They harvested your crops. Now the Lord All-Powerful has heard their cries.

5 Your life on earth was full of rich living. You pleased yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready for the day of slaughter. 6 You showed no mercy to good people. They were not against you, but you killed them.

7 Brothers and sisters, be patient; the Lord will come. So be patient until that time. Look at the farmers. They have to be patient. They have to wait for their valuable crop to grow and produce a harvest. They wait patiently for the first rain and the last rain. 8 You must be patient too. Never stop hoping. The Lord is coming soon. 9 Brothers and sisters, don’t complain against each other. If you don’t stop complaining, you will be judged guilty. And the Judge is ready to come!

10 Brothers and sisters, follow the example of the prophets who spoke for the Lord. They suffered many bad things, but they were patient. 11 And we say that those who accepted their troubles with patience now have God’s blessing. You have heard about Job’s patience. You know that after all his troubles, the Lord helped him. This shows that the Lord is full of mercy and is kind. 

--James 5:1-11 (ERV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for inspiring Your Son’s earthly brother to write this letter of advice and warnings, and thank You for making sure we would still have his words even today, nearly 2000 later.  We know that nothing made by man will last, but Your word, O Father, endures forever.  Father, please help us take the advice James offers to heart, following his counsel, heeding the warnings he gives.  Please forgive us when we don’t spend as much time in Your word as we should.  Help us set aside more time in our daily routine to read and study Your word.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Help us grasp the full meaning of James’ words and how they apply to us as individuals and followers of Your Son Jesus.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The following appeared in an issue of the magazine Our Daily Bread, but I don’t know the author or the date:

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to "run with endurance" the race set before us.  George Matheson wrote, "We commonly associate patience with lying down.  We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid.  Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder -- the patience that can run.  To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks.  It is a Christ-like thing!  The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street."  To wait is hard, to do it with "good courage" is harder!

You know, it is a lot easier to be patient when you can’t do anything else than it is when you have a ton of options or other stuff to do.  You have the worst cold in the world, and other than take some over-the-counter stuff to help relieve the symptoms, the only thing you can do is wait it out.  On the flip side of the coin, you just sent someone a text and you want the answer now, so you text back again, “Why haven’t you answered me yet?!?  Come on!  I’ve got things to do!”

Patience is a virtue, we’re told.  Have you ever seen the movie, “Evan Almighty”?  It’s the sequel to “Bruce Almighty” and I think the better of the two films.  Evan is a Congressman told by God to build an ark.  Yes, an ark, later to include all the animals two by two.  As things evolve in the movie, Evan has no choice but to comply.  His wife thinks he has gone nuts and finally packs up herself and the kids and leaves him.  They stop at this little restaurant to eat.  When the kids go off to do something, God, played wonderfully by Morgan Freeman, comes up to the wife and strikes up a conversation.  And she starts pouring out all her troubles, without knowing just Who it is she’s talking to.

And this is my favorite part.  God says to the distraught wife, “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does He give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does He give them opportunities to love each other?”  The message sinks in and the wife returns home with the kids.

Patience does not come naturally to us.  It is a virtue, yes, but it is one we have to foster and nourish, practicing it at every opportunity.  I guess fortunately for us, God gives us plenty of opportunities.

James opens up chapter 5 of his letter by lambasting the rich.  But as I said earlier, it isn’t the money, or even the people, that James is warning about – it’s the love of money, the lust for wealth.  In fact, he’s telling the rich to be sad, because their riches will not last.  Their money will rot, their fine clothes will be eaten by moths, their gold and silver will rust.  It’s how they got their riches, and how they keep amassing their fortune, that shows their unhealthy lust for more.  They took advantage of good people to their own benefit, when they could have been helping others with their wealth.

And then James turns his attention to the rest of us, and especially to those who likely suffered at the hands of the greedy rich.  Be patient, he says.  Be patient, for the Lord will come and He will set things straight.  Be patient like the farmers who plant their seed and then wait for the rains, before they can harvest the fruits of their labors.  They never lose hope and neither should we, for the Lord is coming soon.

James repeats himself not because he is forgetful, but because it is very important for us to keep heart and truly know that the Lord Jesus is coming again and He will judge the world, separating the good from the bad.  Be patient, and look to how the prophets endured their times of suffering patiently, never losing faith, never doubting God’s promises, never giving up hope.  Oh and look…  there’s another warning for us not to complain against each other, not to judge, for the one true Judge is coming and we don’t want to be found guilty!

I said that these two seemingly unconnected topics – the warning about greed and the advice to be patient – do fit well together.  Well, when it comes to wealth accumulation, we basically have two choices.  We can do anything and everything necessary to grab up as much earthly treasure as we can, no matter the cost to anyone else, or we can be patient, not worrying about any earthly riches, waiting for the heavenly rewards we have been promised if we remain faithful.  Which do you think God would consider as righteous behavior?

Either of those choices can bring problems with them.  The very rich have their own set of trials that their money can’t always solve.  Studies and surveys have shown that they generally aren’t as happy as folks who don’t put so much emphasis on wealth acquisition.  Of course, those folks have troubles, too.  And here James tells us to accept our troubles with patience.

That certainly isn’t easy.  It’s something we have to purposely work at.  So earlier in this letter, in verses 2 through 4 of the 1st chapter, James encourages us, saying...

2 My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. 3 You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. 4 If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be.

--James 1:2-4 (ERV)

Be happy in our troubles.  Riiiight… piece of cake, no sweat.  NOT!!!

Seeing someone happy while experiencing a difficulty is a rare sight indeed.  But I’ve seen many people accept their difficult situation with grace, patiently enduring their troubles, knowing their future is secure.  I’ve often said that we have no control over what happens to us in life, but we have full control over how we react to what happens.  We can choose to lash out at the world when things go wrong, or we can endure with patience until everything settles down again.  The former can bring extra grief upon ourselves and others around us, while the latter will help us mature and become complete in the eyes of our Lord.

And yes, we will have problems in this life, trials and tribulations, but these can make us stronger.  The Apostle Paul, in the first 5 verses of the 5th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, almost echoes James when he writes…

1 We have been made right with God because of our faith. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through our faith, Christ has brought us into that blessing of God's grace that we now enjoy. And we are very happy because of the hope we have of sharing God's glory. 3 And we are also happy with the troubles we have. Why are we happy with troubles? Because we know that these troubles make us more patient. 4 And this patience is proof that we are strong. And this proof gives us hope. 5 And this hope will never disappoint us. We know this because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts through the Holy Spirit he gave us.

--Romans 5:1-5 (ERV)

Enduring our troubles exercises our patience, and our patience is proof that we are strong.  Strong spiritually, yes, putting all our trust in the Lord.  But also strong physically, by not giving in to adversity and hardship, by not lying down and letting the world take its toll on us.

By our faith we have been made right with God, and by our faith we have certainty of our salvation.  Nothing that this world can do to us can ever take our salvation from us as long as we maintain our faith.  Patiently enduring whatever comes our way strengthens our faith.

So let’s be happy when bad times befall us.  Let’s patiently endure anything life throws at us.  Let’s take advantage of all the opportunities we are given to exercise and grow our patience, letting it work within us, making us more mature in our faith, so that we can be all that God wants us to be.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came to us to redeem us, and who is coming again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us the opportunities to be patient, to be courageous, to love each other.  Through these we grow and mature in our faith.  Thank You, Father, for giving us examples in Your holy word of good men and women who showed patience in the face of trial.  Sometimes, though, we fear in our hearts what happens next.  We are hesitant to give up the things of this earthly life, and this life itself.  Our hope falters a little.  We forget that our future is secured by our faith and acceptance of Your Son Jesus.  Forgive us these times, please Father.  Please help us be more loving, more forgiving, more compassionate.  Help us face our trials with strength and patience, knowing that someday soon You will send Your Son back to call us home.  And please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, we read in our bible of a rich young man who valued his wealth more than salvation.  He refused to give up his treasure to help the poor, even when You told him that to do so would ensure his treasure in heaven.  In this You showed that it isn’t wealth that causes us to fail, it’s our love of money, our lust for earthly treasures that keeps us from heaven and its rewards.  Please help us be more patience where wealth is concerned, not caring so much about early treasure as about what will be ours in heaven when we give to help others and follow You.  Help us be more giving, more loving, more patient.  And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.