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Series:  The Sweet Taste of Spirit Fruit!

#4:  “Don’t Throw In The Towel Just Yet!”

1.  Someone has said,

“You can do anything if you have patience.  You can carry water in a sieve, if you wait until it freezes!”

2.  Henry Ford said,

“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears!”  ^[1]

3.  The famous preacher from New England, Phillips Brooks, was known for his calmness and poise.  His close friends, however, knew that he also suffered moments of frustration and irritability.  One day a friend saw him pacing the floor like a caged lion.  The friend asked, “Dr. Brooks, what is the trouble?”  Phillips Brooks replied, “The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, and God isn’t!”^[2]

4.  Have you ever noticed how long we wait when we go out to eat?  We wait to be seated.  We wait for the menu.  We wait to place our order.  We wait for our food.  We wait for the check.  And, finally we wait for the opportunity to pay the check.  And, the restaurant has the audacity to refer to the one who oversees all of this activity as the “Waiter!”  Yet, I know from personal experience, that we are the ones that wait.  And, I don’t know about you, but I hate to wait.

5.  We all need to be more like the little boy in a department store.  He was at the end of an escalator, watching the railing as it went around.  Finally, a salesman came by and asked him, “Son, are you lost?”  The little boy replied, “No sir.  I’m just waiting for my gum to come back!”  We need that kind of patience.

6.  One of the most blessed fruit of the Spirit is patience.  The word Paul uses to describe this type of God-given virtue is “longsuffering.” 

7.  The word ‘longsuffering’ is derived from two Greek words:  ‘makro,’ which means “long.”  And, “thymia,” which means “anger.”  Thus, the word ‘longsuffering’ literally means “to be long-tempered.”  It is the ability to be slow to anger.  That is the result of being Spirit-filled.  That is the character of Christ.

8.  Dennis Brio, in his book, “Is It Worth Dying For?,” took a physicians approach to patience.  As a cardiologist, Dr. Brio argued that ‘hot-reactors” respond to every frustrating situation with angry stress, which constricts their coronary arteries.  If this condition persists, and one continues to handles matters in such a way, it can ultimately lead to heart trouble, and even heart disease.  He counseled people to be “cool-reactors,” to alleviate stress and future health problems.^[3] He was basically advising them to ‘Be Patient!’

9.  In James 5, we find the same advice given to us as believers.  In everyday layman terms James is admonishing us to be patient.  We are to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, which is ‘longsuffering.’  We are to be long-tempered rather than short tempered.  And, he exhorts us not to throw in the towel just yet.  Notice 3 wonderful truths about what it means to have a patient heart.

1.  James, in verse 7, outlines the task that is involved in finding a patient heart.  It is not often an easy task, but it is a necessary task in bringing about patience.  This task is seen in 2 ways.

1.  Notice verse 7.  The waiting period of patience is described.

^“7Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”

2.  James uses the illustration of a farmer to demonstrate how the task of patience requires a time of waiting.  The specific allusion is the Palestinian ‘husbandman’ or farmer.

3.  The farmer from the Palestinian agriculture sowed seed on ground that received no rain at all during much of the year.  The fields were brown and the soil was dry.  There were no adequate irrigation techniques; thus dependence upon the rains was crucial. 

4.  In Palestine, there were two rainy periods for which he waited, the early and the latter rain.  The “early rain” started in October or November.  It softened the brick-hard soil that had been baked under the relentless sun.  Unless that rain came, the farmer could not plow; and the seed would not germinate.

5.  The “latter rain” fell in March or April.  It was this rain that matured and ripened the crop.  Unless those rains came, the crop would be stunted, or even nonexistent.

6.  You see once that farmer had planted the seed there was nothing left for him to do.  None of his efforts would hasten the upcoming harvest.  The process rested outside of his power and control. All he could do was wait with anticipation and expectation.  He had to be patient.

7.  James describes our times of waiting in such a way.  Many times, through our lives, we are required to wait.  Once we have done all that we can do in a particular situation, the rest lies out of our control, and like the farmer in anticipation of the necessary rains, we too must wait.  This task is seen by a manner of simply waiting.

1.  Much of our misconception of waiting is demonstrated in this task.  Many simply wait, and do nothing while they are waiting.  However, that is never the task God chooses to wrought patience in us.  Waiting is not a matter of laziness; it is always shown by a method of labor.  It involves working.

2.  In James 1: 3-4, James describes the working aspect of patience, when he said,

^3”Knowing this , that the trying of your faith worketh patience. ⁴But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

3.  That is the task of patience.  It is active.  It is involved.  It is busy.  It is working.  It is working a perfect work to mature, develop, and enhance our spiritual life.

3.  Waiting, and being patient never involves sitting on one’s hands, being idle, and doing nothing.  The idea James has in mind involves waiting, yet being active, and working while we are waiting.

4.  The great inventor, Thomas Edison, was right when he said,

“Genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one- percent inspiration.”^[4]

5.  Patience works in us as we work to be patience.  The goal of God is to develop this Divine attribute within us, and the task the He uses to do this is by a manner of waiting, and a method of working. 

1.  THE TASK THAT FINDS A PATIENT HEART!

1.  God-given, and Spirit granted longsuffering, or patience has a divine task.  It requires us to wait, and it reasons us to work.  The goal is to mature us, and make us more like Christ.

2.  However, one of the ways, in which, patience does its work is through difficulties and trouble.  It is that trouble, many times, that God uses to form a patient heart.  In fact, James lists two areas of trouble that we must face to produce patience:  people and problems.

1.  Notice verse 9. 

^“9Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

2.  The truth of the matter is that there are many people that we cannot enjoy, we must endure.  We must be patient with people, and embrace them.

3.  The word “grudge,” in verse 9 literally means “to complain, to murmur, or begrudge.”  It describes a feeling of ill will toward another party.

4.  In fact, the word “longsuffering,” used to describe this virtue of Spirit fruit, is a word used to refer not to events or happenings, but people.  It literally referred to one who had the power to crush by retaliation, but refused to do so.

5.  William Barclay described it well,

“This is the grace of a man who could revenge himself, but does not and is slow to wrath.  To the Greeks the big man was the man who went all out for vengeance.  To the Christian the big man is the man who, even when he can, refuses to do so!”  ^[5]

6.  I think of a despondent woman who was walking along the beach when she saw a bottle on the sand.  She picked it up, pulled out the cork, and a big puff of smoke appeared.  A genie appeared, and said, “You have released me from my prison.  To show my thanks, I grant you three wishes.  But take care, for with each wish, your mate will receive double of whatever you request.”  The lady replied, “Why?  That bum left me for another woman.  He lied to me and deceived me.  He shouldn’t receive a red nickel.”  The genie informed her that those were the conditions, and she finally agreed.

7.  She first asked for a million dollars.  There was a flash of light, and a million dollars appeared at her feet.  At the same instant, in a far-off place, her wayward husband looked down to see twice that amount at his feet.  The genie asked for her second wish, and she said, “Genie, I want the world’s most expensive diamond necklace.”  Another flash of light and the woman was holding the precious treasure.  And, in that distant place, her husband was looking for a gem broker to buy his latest bonanza.

8.  Before her last wish, she asked the genie, “Is it really true that he gets double of whatever I wish for?”  The genie said that it was indeed true.  She said, “Okay genie, I’m ready for my last wish.  Scare me half to death!”

9.  How we would like to deal with many disagreeable and difficult people from time to time.  I don’t know about you, but it sounds appealing to me.  There are people that it takes a lot of love to love.  And, a lot of patience to be patient.

10.  However, the man that James has in mind, and the man who is personifying Spirit fruit, is the man who although provoked, and could easily retaliate, chooses not to do so.  He doesn’t rob God.  He allows God to work out vengeance, which belongs to Him alone, and he embraces those difficult people.

1.  James gives us the illustration of choice prophets, and servants who face untold trials and problems.  Notice verse 10.

^“10Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.”

2.  The word “example” demands a careful study.  It literally referred to beautifully formed letters in a copybook.  Students used such books with tracing paper to learn how to form correct letters. 

3.  James is admonishing us to trace our lives over the lives of these prophets.  They embraced difficult people, and they endured difficult problems on their journey for patience and longsuffering.

4.  Malcolm Muggeridge, in his book, Jesus Rediscovered, described the problems we must endure:

“Suppose you eliminated suffering and problems, what a dreadful place the world would be.  I would almost rather eliminate happiness.  The world would be the most ghastly place because everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature: man, to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear.  He’s bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered!”^[6]

5.  In verse 11, James uses possibly the most vivid illustration of one who endured countless problems, a man by the name of Job.

^“11Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

6.  If one ever had a reason to quit, it was Job.  If one ever had a reason to throw in the towel, it was Job.  Here is a man who, in one day, lost his fields, his flocks, his finances, his friends, his feeling (physical), and his family.  He certainly had reason to just roll over and die 

7.  However, Job’s patience, and confidence in the Lord is manifested in Job 19: 25,

^“25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ²⁶And though after my skin worms destroy this body , yet in my flesh shall I see God:  ²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”   

8.  He knew whatever God was doing  would be right.  Although he could not understand it, nor see the end from the beginning, God did see, and He did know what He was doing.  He was working patience in the lives of one of His choicest servants.

9.  You see problems are not meant to defeat us, depress us, or discourage us.  They are meant to develop us.  Problems are not tools to tear us down, they are tests to build us up.  God is forming a patient heart within us.  And, many times He uses trouble to do it.

1.  THE TASK THAT FINDS A PATIENT HEART!

2.  THE TROUBLE THAT FORMS A PATIENT HEART!

1.  The recipe for enduring times of hardness and heaviness is listed in verses 7-8.  We need not throw in the towel just yet, because there is a truth that can flood our heart.

1.  There is an interesting phrase James uses in verse 7 to speak of the earthly reward of patience,

“Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth.”

2.  That phrase implies that there is an earthly pay-off and reward to one being patient, though they must embrace difficult people, and endure difficult problems.  The process of patience is precious.  It yields a precious fruit.  It yields Spirit fruit.  It yields the character of Christ.

3.  I think of William Wilberforce, a former member of the British Parliament; and, a dear friend of John Newton, who wrote ‘Amazing Grace.”  Wilberforce was a tremendous Christian who crusaded in Parliament to outlaw slavery in all of the British Empire.  He begged, pleaded, and introduced bills; yet, each time he would be laughed down, shouted down, and voted down.  However, on his deathbed, the British Parliament finally signed the bill outlawing slavery throughout the British Empire.  It took 50 years.^[7]  Thank God, he didn’t quit.  And, the result was ‘the precious fruit of the earth.’

4.  Everything God does has a purpose.  And, the purpose of Him allowing us to endure times of hardness is not only to produce patience, but to bring about an earthly reward.

1.  The main motivation for us to ‘keep on, keeping on’ is the fact that we are not going to have to do it forever.  Our Lord is returning. 

2.  In fact, James mentions this, and gives allusion to this truth 3 times in the text.  In verse 7,

^“7Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.”

3.  In verse 8, we’re admonished,

^“8Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

4.  And, in verse 9, the allusion is given to remind us that,

“the judge standeth before the door.”

5.  Thank God, some glad morning, He shall appear.  And, when He does, He will resolve everything in Himself. He will take care of all the unanswered questions of this life.  It will be worth it all when we see Him.

6.  In 1997, Jell-O celebrated in 100th anniversary.  In 1897, Pearl Wait wore several hats.  He was a construction worker who also dabbed in patent medicines and went door-to-door selling his remedies.  In the midst of his efforts, he came upon the idea of mixing fruit flavoring with granulated gelatin.  His wife named it ‘Jell-O,’ and Mr. Wait thought that would only be one more product to peddle.

7.  Unfortunately, sales were not as strong as Mr. Wait had hoped they would be, so in 1899 Pearl Wait sold his Jell-O rights to Orator Woodward for $450.  Woodward knew the value of marketing, so within eight brief years, Wait’s neighbor turned a $450 investment into a $1 million business.  Today, not a single relative of Pearl Wait receives one penny from the 1.1 million boxes of Jell-O sold every day.  Reason being, Mr. Wait just couldn’t wait. ^[8] He threw in the towel a bit too early.

8.  Friend, you and I have much more invested than a box of Jell-O.  We not only have this life that at times we must endure; thank God, we have another life, that I promise we will enjoy, forever and forever. 

9.  You may feel as if it is no use, and there is no hope.  I submit unto you, ‘don’t throw in the towel just yet,’ there’s a better day a coming