The Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians chapter 5 and verse 13. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the fresh, the flesh. Rather, serve 1 another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this 1 command, love your neighbor as yourself.

If you bat bite and devour each other, watch out. Or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh, they're in conflict with each other. So that you are not to do whatever you want, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orges, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of god, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceded, provoking, and envying each other. 1, Peter 2, versus 21 to 25. To this, you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepard and overseer of your souls.

Well, good evening from me. Let me ask my welcome to you. My name is Rory Connect. For those who don't know me, I'm 1 of the members here. Tonight we're carrying on with our series in the fruit of the spirit.

And, I got the subject of, patience, obviously, the elders, and the leaders of the church thought, who is an expert in this topic? Raurie can add, obviously, let let him do it. No. Obviously, I'm I'm joking. I'm I'm anything but an expert in this subject as many of you know.

In fact, when Drew, my wife found out that I was doing this, she was so happy that I would be teaching on patients. And she hasn't stopped, letting me know, wherever we go, that I will be teaching on this. It's interesting I was, I was listening to a a a sermon on patients I sort of thought about this, by a bloke called, called Singleton, a Scottish, preacher. And, Singleton liked my self, talks about how he loves pudding, creating the word pudding, lovely. And, when you're growing up, it was great to have a good pudding after dinner.

In fact, you could even get through the vegetables, the greens, you know, even the cauliflower, which I can't stand, I could get through it for a good pudding. But there was always that, that time, wasn't there when you would turn to to the, you know, your mom at the end of end of things, you'd say, mom, what's a pudding, and that dreaded answer would come back fruit. And you're picking up for goodness sake. No, it's okay if there's a fruit bowl. Sometimes, when I'm at work, we've got a lovely array of fruit.

I always pick the certain fruit that I like. So you always pick know, maybe the grape and the pineapple, I don't know, the banana, if that's the way you're so inclined. And, you try to do your favorite But when they're gone, you kind of left with the ones that aren't as good on you, and it's not so exciting. And Singapore Ferguson puts it that maybe is similar with the fruit of the spirit, isn't it? You know, we really like the ones at the start.

You've got love. Oh, yes. Lovely. Love. You've got joy.

Yes. We like a bit of joy. Come on. Peace. Yeah.

Bring it on fun tasks that we've taken them. We've enjoyed the juiciness of those 3 fruits. The succulent flavors have just been on point And then you come back and what have you got next? Patience. Patience.

Oh, that isn't as exciting, is it? Patience, that's not as easy. Patience is a lot harder to chew. Patient seems a lot harder to swallow. Well, actually, I wanna I wanna actually suggest that patience when we really get to it, I guess patients actually is like a fruit that's really hard to get into.

It's a bit of a pain in the backside to get into. Maybe like a really tough orange. And you get a bit of a stinky thumb. But when you get in, it's it's just lovely. And because patience is a really great thing to have.

And that's that's what I want us to really try and see as we go on tonight. Let me let me pray as we sort of think about this. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for, the fruits that we've seen already, and we pray that as we consider you, the patient guards, and how to be patient that we will be, people who are able to cultivate this in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' names on men.

Now, I guess we've all heard the phrases, haven't we? Patience is a virtue. Or even patience is a conquering virtue. In fact, when I, when I was to start preparing for this, we did this at Contagious a few years back, and I read this poem, Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, seldom found in women, never found in man. That's that's what we think about patients, that's a phrase about patients, or maybe you heard things like good things come to those who wait, and And in fact, often it would be teachers or parents who would say this to us.

And, unusually when they said it to us, we were like, what are you taught? I'm clear what you're talking about, and I definitely didn't have the time to stick around and listen to them talk about. I didn't have the patience to do some And what's funny now is now I'm now I'm a teacher, and I have really impatient students. I love to say that. I love you to say this.

I'm always like patience is a virtue. Get things going through those away. But patience is extremely rare in our culture. It's so rare, isn't it? It's not common, and especially today where we seem to have the culture of now.

Or the the society of the immediate. So fast food isn't fast enough anymore. We can't, in fact, You go to McDonald's. You don't even you can't even go to the person until now. You have to do it on a screen to order it, so it'll be quicker.

Fast food has to be faster. You need to get the the next second delivery. It's not even next week delivery anymore. It's like, I want this in 5 minutes. So come on, Amazon, deliver it.

Thank you very much, Steve Sims. Everything you can get, just with a swipe of the finger, a touch of the finger, 3 little steps, and I've got something. I'm a smartphone on my iPad. I've got it quick. Done.

I don't wanna wait. When I mean, at where I work, at school, the computers are rubbish. They take longer than 30 seconds to switch on. What is that about? It's it's so, I mean, it was so funny.

On Thursday, I was driving to work. And what I've noticed about me is that I am an extremely impatient person. Not an expert on patient, but probably a bit of an expert on impatience. And every time someone was going a little bit slow, I just have to keep on reminding myself of what I was preaching this week as a patience, Rory, patience, Rory, because it's so common. You're in the car.

I think God does this to, to cultivate patience in my life, especially on Sundays. There's always someone driving about 2 miles an hour in front of me. I'm like, come on, could drive your car. I think this is a opportunity for me to get things off my chest. When I'm in, when I'm in class, especially with year sevens as well, I've got 1 particular class.

And, there I am, and I've answered this, this tube, this, a really thick question about 4 times, and someone another kid puts their hand up. I'm like, I've just answered it when you listen. Patience. It's a very rare thing, especially in my life, but it looks at things. We are, even in the Christian circle, people don't wanna wait a long time to cultivate godly character, do they?

They they want it now I don't want to have to read my bible for 5 minutes in the morning. I just want to, you know, come on. Go on. Let's come on. So I think we would all well, hopefully you would all agree now that patience is a very rare thing.

Patience is rare. But what is patience? And that's that's kind of what the first thing I want us to have a look at today. First thing is patient defined. Patients define.

Now, so what does it actually mean? We're meant to have this fruit. We're meant this fruit of the spirit, but what is it? What does it look like? See, when the Bible talks about patience, It's actually always linked to suffering or hardship or toil.

In fact, I'll the old translations don't use the word patience. They use the words long suffering, long suffering. And actually when you when you look at the words of patients that they all seem to be words that are are quite hard. So you think about it. You've got in the passage that we read, in galatians.

It's not patients. It says forbearance. You've got forbearance. You've got enduring. You've got perseverance.

And all these words, then they're not suggesting an easy situation, Ali. They're hard, tough circumstances. In fact, the word patience in the bible literally means long tempered. Long tempered. Now, you might be thinking long-tempered.

I've never heard of that phrase in my life. Neither had I until I've read it, as most people do. But it's not afraid we usually use the English language. Now, long-tempered doesn't mean you get a little something happens to you, you fly off the handle and you're just angry for a really long time, I don't. And, you know, you're angry, you've kicked the cap around the house for longer than is okay.

Well, actually, I don't want to show you. Well, some people might think it's great. Yeah. Bout it. But you're you're not, it's not venting and raging for a week.

That's not what long-tempered means. Now, long-tempered is basically just the opposite of short-tempered, you know, where you you lose your temper quickly. It means actually that you've got a really, really long fuse It takes a long time for you to get angry. See, inulations, you see the acts of the flesh, don't you? I don't know if you heard them or listened to them.

Or as the axe of the flesh, fits of rage. That's short-tempered. Flying off the handle. And we see that constantly in our culture, don't we? When when people get really angry with the smallest thing and they said, well, I was right to be angry.

Or or we'd love to justify our anger. Well, I it's been a really hard week. I'd be very stressful. So therefore, it's okay for me to be angry. Oh, I'm very tired.

Yeah? But that's not what patience is. It's being long-tempered. When we see it in the capture of god, 1 of 1 of those amazing passages in in in Exodus chapter 34, when god meets with Moses and he says, this is what I want you to tell people, really. This is to the people of God.

He's the lord, the lord, the gracious and compassionate god slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. That's what it means to be patient. To be long-tempered. See, when we say patience is a virtue, we might think what are we talking about patience is a virtue? Well, what we mean is that patience is a strength.

It's not a weak thing, patience. It's a strong thing. It's exemplified by God of the Bible who is the strong or powerful gods who is willing to be slow to anger with his people who so often deserve his anger. So another way we could define patients is an abiding under an abiding under. In other words, there's pressure, there's hardship.

You have maybe suffering or something that's gonna make life tough. But you don't stop You don't just give up because it's really tough, you know, you keep on going. But it's not just, just, I'm gonna keep on going because it's because it's this is quite tough, but it's actually you gotta keep on going because you know that something better is gonna come at the end. There's a prize. There's a reward.

There's something greater to happen. You know, for instance, you know, no 1 no 1 goes through chemotherapy to be really ill at the end, do they? You wouldn't put yourself through that. No. You're going through chemotherapy, so at the end of it, And of all the suffering and the pain and the weakness and the sickness that you'll be better, that you'll be well.

That's what it's like. It's keeping on going through the hardship and the suffering. So there's but whilst I do that, I'm looking at what's to come. Now, I thought we could look at a load of passages to see this in the Bible. We could just look at the Israel in god of the wilderness that he is right to con constantly grumping at god, even though he's took them out of slavery, he's fed them, he's watered them, He's given them everything they need and they still winch, and he's very patient with them.

I thought, in fact, we could just go from the creation when Adam and Eve decide to say, no, god, actually, I'm not interested in you. I'm gonna go away. God had every right in that moment to say, right, that's it. That's the empathy human race body's patient. We just look at characters.

We could look at Abraham and Job. And how they've patiently waited, and god was patient with them. But I thought actually tonight we could spend some time looking at 1 of the most relatable characters nearby. Eyeball, and that is the possible apostle Peter, not the possible apostle Peter. And so that's my second point experiencing patience with Peter.

Experiencing patience with Peter. Now if you know anything about Peter during his time on on planet earth or on on during Jesus's time on planet earth. You will know that Peter is not the most patient man in the world. He's not the guy you go right you want to know someone who's patient, look at Peter. He's not patient Peter.

That's not his nickname. Okay? In fact, Really, he's anything but patient, Peter. Peter is a man who's emotional. He's passionate.

He's hot headed. Peter is the kind of bloke that just blurts out whatever is in his head. He acts according to how he feels. He's the kind of person that you could say something slight I think you'd say something slightly critical to him and he would just go crazy. Not all of you might like football.

I play on Saturdays. You can say just 1 little thing to, and, teammate. And oh my goodness, they hate it. You need to trap it. I'll try to trap that lady alone.

That's classic. You're a lady in the last stand back. Oh, more colorful language. That's what Peter's like, I think. Would fly up the handle.

He's not a man who's about waiting and, necessarily abiding under. He's not the most patient matter of fact. He's pretty impatient, basically the opposite to patients. But Peter, is chosen to be a follower of the lord Jesus Christ. He's chosen to be a follower of the perfectly patient 1.

The 1 who got the patient game right, the 1 who was truly long tempered, the 1 who was so patient as he served god the father. With the help of the Holy Spirit. The lord Jesus is the patient 1. The lord Jesus is the 1 who comes to Jerusalem the night before he's executed it and he says, if only you would turn to me, I long to save you. Not you're gonna reject me and kill me.

Leave me alone. The 1 who, when his friend comes to get Emily, to betray him with a kiss, he says friend. He's so patient till he wants him to be saved. This is the the patient 1. And with these dealings, with Peter, we get a wonderful glimpse of just how patient God actually is.

See, we see see throughout the gospels that time and time and time again, Peter gets it wrong. And time and time and time again, Jesus is just so patient with him. So, yeah, I mean, just think of all the times that Peter messes up, he he puts his foot in it. Like, for instance, when the first time that he sort of encounters Jesus and and Jesus has this miracle in which Peter catches a load of fish. And Peter realizes just how amazing Jesus is and how sinfully is.

And Jesus could have at that point said you can go away. No. Simple 1. But it doesn't. When, when Peter takes Jesus aside, he starts to tell him, I mean, it's, he starts to tell off.

The son of god when he talks about his death and resurrection. And Jesus patiently has to rebuke him. He's strong with him, but he is still patient. See, Jesus, Jesus is patient, but he's not apathetic. He's not someone who just goes, who will just bear it, but actually he says, No, I've gotta tell you off here, but I'm not gonna just release you and let you go and and that's you that's you done.

I'm gonna still love you. When when Jesus walks in the water, And, what, what, that's an amazing story when Jesus comes to me on the water. The disciples are really, oh, what's going on here? There's a joke, so then Jesus, it's me. Don't worry.

And Peter's like, if it's really you, Jesus, tell me to come to you. Jesus says, come to me. So Peter then steps out of the boat. I mean, this must have been an amazing sight. He gets out the boat and Peter starts to walk on the water, but then Peter looks to the side and stops trusting in Jesus.

And looks at the water, the storm, and he starts to sink. And Jesus patiently and lovingly grabs him and takes him out and saves him. When Peter blurts out absolute nonsense and the amount of transfiguration, Trust Fox rubbish, that was good for us to be here to Which when Peter can't even stay awake, in Jesus' time of aloneness. When Jesus' is sweating blood drops And he's saying, Peter can't even stay awake with me for for a few minutes and pray. When Peter loses his head, when the soldiers come in, he loses his temper, he has a fit of rage, grabs out a sword and locks someone's ear off.

Jesus patiently says, no, I'm not here to do that. I'm not here to bring the sword. When Peter questioned 3 times, denies Jesus. Just as the lord said he would. Even in that, you see just how patient he is, don't you.

You know, when Pete is saying, no, no, no, no. I I would I would I would never. These might these might deny you're not me. Look, I'm I'm the I'm your best disciple in other words. No, Peter, you're gonna deny me 3 times.

He could have just said, Be away with you. You're gonna deny me. I can't believe I'm even talking to you, but he doesn't. No, Peter. I still love you, but you're gonna deny me a few times.

And even when He's there. He denies him 3 times. Even then when when Jesus looks at him, there seems to be impatience and love's still going on there. Time and time again. When Jesus rises from the dead, and he's with Jesus on the shore, another miraculous catcher fish.

And Jesus says, do you love me, Peter? Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep. Jesus had every right.

To say to Peter, you're messed up. You're not worthy. Go away, but he doesn't. Says, take care of my lambs, take care of my sheep, move my sheep. He's constantly patient with Peter, isn't he?

Even though it's painful, it's hard. There's definite suffering here for the lord Jesus, Christ is committed to this man. And that's what God is like. That's what his character's like, and it's the same with us. Even before we repented and trusted in the lord Jesus.

The Bible says that that God was forbearing with us. Romans chapter 2 verse 4, or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience not realizing that god's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance, or even when Peter writes, in, his letter in chapter, in 2, Peter chapter 3, he says, god's patience means salvation. We heard about it this morning with Pete, didn't we? That god is relentless. He will pursue he will not give up until people are saved.

He's a patient god. It's great to hear about the who's the people. Didn't probably haven't heard the gospel a few years back now. God has been waiting in his patience. He's for being forbearing, and now the the word of god is in a language, people are gonna be saved, patiently.

But he's also patient with patient with us as believers. And it's amazing that he's so patient with us. Do you do you understand that? Do we do we really get that? The gods is patient with us that the people that trusted him, even though we thank him so many times.

Even when we we decide to try and do it on our own, we stop trusting in god, and we try and do everything in our own strength. Even when we fall into seeing and time again. And it's the same sin daily. Oh, I'm so prayerless. I'm careless.

I don't have time for the word of God. I don't have time to give him thoughts. I'm getting angry at drivers in front of me for no reason, even though I'm on time. Even when, like Peter, I'm ashamed to identify with the lord Jesus Christ. The 1 who's patient with me and I can't even say that I follow the lord Jesus.

I can't even say that I went to church and Sunday, I'd rather talk about football and Saturday. But god doesn't give in. Even though it's hard for him, even though we inflict suffering on him, and it does hurt him. I think we forget that. I think we forget that our sin is offensive to god.

It hurts him. He's our father, and we reject him. But despite that, He is totally committed to us. He's totally committed to following through with his plan for Peter. We see that.

Even after all the stuff that Peter does, he says, you're still gonna, you're still gonna be the person who takes my message for. I'm still gonna try. I'm still gonna make you into the man who loves me, who proclaims my name, who lives on me, and it's exactly the same for us. He is so committed to us. So much so that even when we absolutely mess up, even though we we we fall into sin, even though we reject him.

He sticks with us, and he promises to keep on doing that until the day we see him. Romans's 8 28 and we know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him. And what is the good that he is working? He's conforming us to the image of his son, the lord Jesus Christ. Even in the rejection, even when we mess it up, god is working through that patiently to make us like make us like the lord Jesus.

And where does where does Peter see this patience ultimately? What is the greatest example of this? Well, 1 Peter chapter 2. Let's let's read those verses again, look down with me at 21. To this, you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not appreciate when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bought sins and his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. This is the greatest example of patience we have.

As we look at Christ on the cross, we see the man who is gloriously patient. We see a man who is enduring insults that are being hurled at him. There are people shouting if you are truly the sort of man come down. There's people spitting at him. There are thieves, either side of him, a thief saying, I'm hurling insults at him.

And you can and and you see Peter says that as he's doing that, he's bearing the sin. He's bearing the sin of Peter. See, just that we can think of all the times that Peter's just messed up. He's former sleep he's chopped off a man's ear, he's denied Jesus. He's he's he's completely disowned him.

And now, Jesus hangs on the cross for the His sin. Now, I'm I'm we're not told if Peter was there. But I reckon if Peter was there at the cross of Christ. I think he would have been at a far distance, but when he looks back on this, he would be thinking, wow. What a patient lord I have.

He would take the insults, he would bear my sin. On that cross. There's Jesus taking it for him. As he goes through the pain and suffering of the cross, he will not give in. It's interesting, isn't it as as those people shall come down and save yourself if you're the son of god?

Isn't it? It's it's amazing because he could've done that. He could've come down and had the army and army of angels strike those people down who were hurling so to him, but he said, I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna come down and destroy you because I know that I need to be on this cross patiently enjoying it.

Why? So that by his wounds, a people may be healed so that we here, lost sheep at 1 point could come back to our shepherds and overseer. Here we have the ultimate experience of patients. And I wanna ask you, have you experienced this? Do you know the patience of god?

Do you know the patience of god in in him bearing your soon upon a cross. And if you are a Christian, the amazing news is that you have. You've understood that Jesus is willing to stand across and not give up so that you may be healed. But we're not just to experience it. If you notice down there at verse 21, it didn't just say experience Christ, but he also says, Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

See, Jesus's example It's it's an example for us to express patients. So that's my third point. Expressing patients with Peter. So it should be the case that if we truly experience something, it should play itself out in expression. Now, There there's a sort of wrong way to do this and a right way to do this.

So I don't even remember the the the the parable that Jesus tells of the unmask 7. You know the 1 where there's a servant who owes his master loads of money and the master says, no, don't worry about it. I'll cancel it all for you. Amazing patience, amazing mercy, amazing forgiveness. Servant comes out, see someone else who owes him a lot less money.

Give me give me the money you owe me, he says. There's certainly most of the money. Be patient with me. The service says no to prison you go. Hasn't understood hasn't truly experienced the forgiveness and the patience that we're showing to him by the master.

Now we need to truly experience it and understand it so that we may express it. I suppose that a good example of of this would be the, the missionary barnabas. You know, John, the the John Mark was 1 of their friends, and he'd let them down at 1 point. And barnabas was willing to be patient with an give him a second chance. Paul wasn't.

Alvin was barnabas, he was patient and he was right because Paul goes on to commend John Mark later on in his letters. See, once Peter has experienced patients, he starts to express it. You see this in his letters because he's a man who tells people to be patient. He tells them to be patient, and his letters are a deep experience in a deep expression of what of of this patient. See, he's he's writing to Christians who are facing extremely difficult circumstances.

These are Christians who are being persecuted who are suffering for being Christians. It's probably a bit similar to those, to those people in, in the now, we we talked about Nigeria. You've got the boko haram slaughtering people for being Christians. You've got we've had people in the Middle East, in Africa or all over the place being killed because they're Christians. There are people being persecuted.

Even in our own culture, to be a Christian is something to be mocked at. I was talking to 1 person today, and they said, if I want to talk about Jesus in my lectures, then I'm just, I'm basically dismissed. And so I guess the people that peers right into it and for the people Christians in this culture, it will be very tempting to give up, wouldn't it? It'll be very tempting to give in, to be impatient, to snap. And so Peter writes to them and says, be patient.

And and and you see actually in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 to 7. He's kinda got his own sort of fruit list. I don't know. Maybe that's what apostles did in those days, everyone should have a fruit list, but you can see it in verse 5 to 7. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge, self control, and to self control, perseverance.

To perseverance godliness and to godliness from mutual affection and to mutual affection love, perseverance. Peter wants patience to play itself out in our lives. Peter wants the readers of his letters to look back to the cross. He wants him to look back to the cross to see the longest promise ever made. Don't know if you ever thought about that about the cross?

That was the longest promise ever made. Adam and e fall, Genesis chapter 3, and god says there'll be a serpent crusher. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years later, people waiting and waiting and waiting and then Jesus comes. And fulfills the longest promise ever made and it's the greatest for filming. As he as he dies for us in as he wins us for god, as he gives us a promised future in which we will be with god forever.

And so Peter wants us to look back at that and to understand that at action that has brought us this glorious future in which we will be with him forever. And that's why actually if you look in to Peter chapter 3 talks about the day of the lord when when Jesus returns and brings Christians home to be willing. And so he says in the light of the cross and what it has achieved for us endure. Keep on going. Don't give up be patient.

We're called to be patient brothers and sisters in Christ. So as you struggle to live a Christian in Galatians 5, we see a conflict, right? If you wanna live by the spirit, it's gonna be hard because the acts of the flesh are there. I wanna get angry. But I need to stay patient.

So when I'm in my car and the person's drive and 5 miles per hour too slowly, I can say I can be patient. I can be patient because god is patient. I can be patient. I need to remember that the Christian life is not a sprint. It's a marathon.

It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. It can't just come like this. It's it's it's described as a walk. It takes time.

I'm not just godly with a flick or a swipe. I'm godly over time as I patiently ponder what god has done for me and look at his patients. We need to be patient with 1 another. That's hard. That's I guess that's harder for you with me than it is for me with you.

When people in church want you, I mean, I, sorry, I have a very big I apologize to all these people I've wound up. Today, I was thinking about this. I was thinking about this before. Sorry. I I should have apologized to Dean.

Dean wants to drive and behind me in his car, and I noticed it was deemed behind me. So I, I drove a what, about half a mile really, really slowly. And then as and you could see this man behind me just getting redder and redder in the face and getting it angry and angrier. And then as I reversed my car into my space really badly so he couldn't get past me. He he was like, oh, has he solved my face at all his kids and whatever fanatic, which brought me great joy.

And but I don't think that's how it meant to cultivate patience in in 1 another. So apologies, Dean, hope you can forgive me. But when people wind is often church, we've got to be patient with them. Why? Because Christ was patient with us.

When people let us you're meant to meet me, but you didn't meet me again. Be patient with them. Why? Because Christ was patient. When people require time and effort, maybe because they're low or or or they're depressed or something like that.

Give them time. Give them your time. Momentfully patient with 1 another. But not only that will meant to be patient with the world. Be patient with the unbelieving world.

A world that is totally against you because you follow the lord Jesus. But we're commanded to to patiently love our enemies to forgive those who harm us. And we hope that god's patience leads to people's salvation as we abide under the pain and the suffering and the mocking and the sneering Hopefully, people see that and see wow, there is someone strong who's willing to go through that. And hopefully they turn to the lord Jesus as their own Savior. And you can patiently enjoy what the world throws at you because we know that god will bring justice ultimately to those who harm the ones that he loves.

So this is what you need to do. To what if you want to cultivate patients, you want to be a patient person, if you want the fruits of patients, which I hope you all do, then look back to walk forward. Look back to walk forward. Look back in in the light of the cross. In the light of the lord Jesus patiently enduring all abuse or your sin.

Look back to that cross and see that he won for you an eternity in glory. And as you look back at that cross and you see what is 1 for you walk patiently forward to that day, when he will return. Let me pray. Father, we confess that this is such a hard thing grace to have that patience does not come naturally to us. That we wanna be the center of the universe.

And so when people get in the way of that, we get angry, but we thank you so much that you are a god of patience, that you are a god of incredible and undeserved patience that you were willing to bear our sin upon a cross. And as you did that, you were able to win us back for you. And so far that I pray that as your people here, that we will be people who reflect on what the lord Jesus did on that cross so that we may cultivate patience in our own lives. Until the day when you return and take us home to be with you. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.