How to Deal with Impatience
Intro:
1. Examples of impatience & it’s consequences.
a. ILL: Moses striking the rock (Num 20:10-12).
b. ILL: James & John when a Samaritan village didn’t receive the Lord (Lk 9:51-56).
2. This is one of the main reasons we get discouraged when we pray.
a. Your time table is usually not the Lord’s time table.
b. We want answers now!
3. Impatience is one of the main irritants in our family.
4. So it becomes important for us to know how to deal successfully with impatience.
James 5:7-11
I. v7-8 - Why Be Patient?
A. Because patience yields good fruit.
1. v7 - The farmer’s patience results in a good crop.
a. Early rain comes in late October which germinates the seed.
b. Late rain comes in April causing the seed to mature.
2. You need the whole process for a good crop to result.
3. Patience in your life is part of the process that yields an abundant life!
B. v8 - Because God wants you ready for when the Lord returns.
1. The Lord could come anytime - even today!
2. II Pet 3:9 tells us that He is delaying His return to give everyone the opportunity to choose Him.
II. v9-11 - What am I to Be Patient With?
A. v9 - Other people.
1. You tend to pass judgment on people who don’t do it your way - because you’re right!
2. But Matt 7:1-2 - “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3. The Lord is the only judge that matters. “The Judge is standing at the door!” is Second Coming language which echoes what the Lord said:
a. Matt 24:33 - Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.
b. Mk 13:29 - Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.
c. Again in Rom 2:16 - This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
4. So - let’s leave the judging up to God!
B. v10-11 - The trials of life.
1. Sometimes it’s not people but the situations you find yourself in that bug you.
2. I Pet 2:20 tells us that suffering for what is right brings God’s favor.
III. v10-11 - What Can I Do to Help with Impatience?
A. v10 - Consider the examples of the prophets. What did they do?
1. ILL: Elijah flees to Beersheba from Jezebel (I Kgs 19:1-6).
2. ILL: Jeremiah is put in stocks & thrown into a cistern until he almost died (Jer 38:6-10).
B. v11 - Consider the example of Job - he remained loyal & was rewarded in the end.
http://biblelifemessages.org/