The Power and Purpose of Patience - Kevin Brechbill

Lesson Transcript

It is patience which bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the force of lust, represses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, checks the power of the rich, soothes the want of the poor. Next time when someone gets mad at you, make sure they get mad at you because you showed patience. So I'm going to be sharing some thoughts this morning.

It's probably more of a personal journey that I've had, and I found it very—probably one of the things that I have pursued probably the most in my life. I've tried the hardest to understand it, to over—to become—to overcome. And it's patience. It's purpose and power. I find this—so as a young man, I was a very impatient person, and I always wanted to get things done, and anything or anyone that stood in my way was kind of in the road, and I couldn't figure out after a few years why this wasn't working out so good.

And it's put me on a pursuit most of my life. One thing that I've always found interesting in life is I've always been curious about what really makes things work. What are the things that enable us to become righteous? What are the hidden things that move the needle in Christianity? And I have found that patience is one of these, but it's under-communicated and underrated. We don't—I think I don't think we understand its purpose and power like we should.

So I've found pursuing this patience a very fascinating pursuit, really. When I'm done, I'll let you guys ask my wife and my children where my success rate stands. So another thing that I've learned about patience is its power and its speed. So there's this idea that being patient, you don't accomplish, but being impatient, you're going to get things done. The definition of patience in the scriptures is—so it's between patience and endurance.

It's always this thing between patience and endurance, but out of either one of them comes this idea that it's cheerful endurance or cheerful patience. So when you think of this idea, someone who understands patience, who becomes patient, they're cheerful, but they have the ability to endure to the end, and they never lose that. So here's a quote from Tertullian that I found. It was interesting.

So as a young person, and I was trying to understand this whole thing, I knew that being a Christian, you needed to be patient, but I didn't understand that it was a part—like it's what identified you as a Christian. And I ran on this across this quote from Tertullian, and it totally connected with me. So this way it says, "So is patience set over the things of God, that one can obey no precept, fulfill no work well-pleasing to the Lord, if enstranged from it." So think about this.

You think you're going to be doing things for the Lord. You think you're going to be following God. But without patience, if you're enstranged from patience, you don't represent God. You misrepresent Him. There's maybe a better way of saying it. Impatient people misrepresent God, even if they're doing the right thing. It's such a powerful concept to wrap your head around. Think about patience as if you're going to go do something, how are you going to deliver that?

Think of it as the plate or the engine or the car or the vehicle. It's how we deliver it. So you can do the right thing and deliver it improperly, and you will miss—you will miss, I think, what God wants us to understand. Cyprian makes this quote, "But the mercy of God, the Father, and the indulgence of Christ our Lord and our patience will unite the rest of us." So think about that. It says, "The mercy of God, the indulgence of Christ, and our own patience." That's what unites us. So I have a story to tell.

It's about my father, and I want to communicate this idea of how things are delivered, how you represent yourself to other people. So my father in his older years, he had this little cherry orchard that he liked to—he just loved it. Unfortunately, most of his children didn't pick up on that. But he had these cherries, and he told everyone about his cherry orchard. And it always just amazed me. Like the strangest people from the most unexpected places would show up to buy his cherries.

And I often wondered, why did so many people like his cherries? I mean, he had good cherries. They had beautiful cherries most of the time, like very beautiful cherries. But the strangest people would show up. And I often wondered why.

And so a few years later, and I actually can't remember if this happened right before he died or right after he died, but one year he was selling his cherries and people were showing up, and my wife got some cherries, and all of a sudden she realized there's these little tiny, tiny worms in these cherries. Like the first year it's happened in 15 years. And she was like, "Man, we got a problem." And that year everybody came and bought his cherries. There was very few people who said anything about those cherries.

They all took worms home with the cherries. It was how he delivered it. Like it was so powerful that they were just too nice to say anything. How you deliver something is powerful. The plate in which it's delivered, the vehicle in which it's delivered, which is you. How you deliver something is powerful. Whether your product is perfect or imperfect, it's how it's delivered. Let's talk about—let's look at some verses.

In Romans 15:5, and when you start studying this, you realize how much the Bible has to say about patience and its work in us and how it's a part of representing the kingdom. It says, "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus." So we have the God of patience. Think about—when you think of God, do you think of the God of patience? Wants you, wants us to imitate God in like manner, in patience toward one another. This cheerful, patient endurance.

Have you ever thought about why Jonah was so mad at God when he was the prophet that came to Nineveh and he told Nineveh to repent? You know the one thing that made Jonah mad? He was patient towards the Ninevites. In fact, that's what made Jonah mad. He was like, "I knew you were going to be that kind of a God." Next time when someone gets mad at you, make sure they get mad at you because you showed patience, not impatience. I challenge you to it.

In Corinthians, it says this, "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience." There's a lot of people running around today, and they say they want to be ministers of God, but their delivery of the gospel is impatience. Have you ever thought about this thing of you meet someone and they're very aggressive in the way they share about the gospel? Like they're condemning, they're threatening, they're all these things. And it's like, "Wait a minute." How we deliver the gospel is huge.

In Corinthians, the next verse, it says, "Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." The apostles were the second example to us of how the gospel is to be delivered. We're to present ourselves with this cheerful, patient endurance.

In Corinthians, it says, "Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness." The second verse says, the next verse says, "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God our Father." So we're to remember without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope.

So in how you represent, in how you demonstrate yourself, impatience is a part of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a part of our salvation. Next verse, "So that we ourselves glory in you and the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure." So here we have, "They're glorying in the churches of God for their patience." Is our church known for our patience with one another?

I think it's one of the foundations of our faith because it represents how we imitate God or not. It is one of the leading causes of whether we will be influential in how we relate, whether it's to our family or whether it's to our brothers and sisters, to our whoever. I think it's one of the greatest leading examples or the things that we should imitate the most about God. Think about it. When you see someone in persecution, I don't know that we see that much persecution, but trials, complexity, they do it well.

They are not impatient. What's your response? They represent patience. You're impressed. You want to be like that. But if you see someone demonstrating impatience and they don't have long suffering, you're like, "Nobody wants to be like that." It's a very engaging and it's a very powerful thing. And like everyone worries about saying the right thing. And I think sometimes we misunderstand. Saying the right thing is important, but being the right person is way more important.

You can say things imperfectly and get along just fine, but you act impatiently with the right words, you'll get nowhere. It's huge. And this whole concept has just been—it's been a lifelong pursuit of mine because when you're a person that you find yourself very impatient and you want to become patient, it's like, "How do you get there?

How do you become—go from your instincts, your wrong impulses is impatience to right impulses that you're patient?" Like how do you get to the end of your life and they say, "Wow, he's a patient, godly person." How do you become that? First of all, it helps to understand the purpose and place of patience with the value that it brings, the value that it is in the kingdom of God. In Colossians, it says, "Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and what?

Patience." This is one of the virtues that God asks us and calls us to put on. We're to make this a part of our character. And I'm going to repeat this quote from Tertullian because it's so powerful. "So is patience set over the things of God, that one can obey no precept, fulfill no work well-pleasing to the Lord if enstranged from it." Patience needs to be our lifestyle. If it becomes who we are, what comes out will be received and well-represented.

If impatience is what comes out, it doesn't matter the quality of what you say or the right words. Here's another verse, Romans 15.

It says, "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus." Cyprian says this, "But the mercy of God the Father and the indulgence of Christ our Lord and our own patience will unite the rest of us." I've mentioned this before, and I'm going to repeat because I want you to see the connection between the mercy of God, the indulgence of Christ, and our own patience. It's what unites us. Patience, what is its purpose and what is its place and power?

Cyprian has an article on patience, and he calls it the advantage of patience. When I read this, I got all excited because I have found this to be true. Every time I learn how to be more patient with my responses, I learn to understand the advantage of patience. So what is an advantage? When someone has an advantage on you, what is that? It has multiple meanings, but three that came to my mind. So think of advantage as it's in a superiority kind of a way. And it's often thought of in this way.

If you have two armies that come together and one's on a hill and one's at the bottom, which one has the advantage? The one on the hill. Okay? So that's an advantage. The other way is benefit in the sense of advantage. If I become very educated about something and I'm talking to someone who doesn't know about that, who has the advantage? The one who is educated about that. So that's another way of having an advantage. Another way you think of advantage is they think of it in terms of gain. So you gain something.

I think of this when I go to Honduras. The one thing I wish I had when I went to go to Honduras, we travel there yearly, is I wish I knew Spanish. Because every time I'm there, I realize how at a disadvantage I am. And then people that come along, they can talk Spanish. It makes me jealous every year. And every year I say, "I'm going to go back and learn." And I've been doing that for nine years. I haven't learned Spanish yet, so. So we have superiority, we have benefit, and we have gain.

Those three ways of it's an advantage. I would like to say that when you learn patience, you have all three combined. You have every advantage. You have the high ground, you have the educational benefit, and you don't have to worry about the language barrier. You have the advantage. Wouldn't you want to go through life with those advantages? God says, "I'll give it to you if you'll learn my ways." So I've always had four major curiosities in life. And some people probably think I'm weird, but I am just this way.

I've always had this real curiosity: what makes a few Christian people have exceptional character and many others not much? That's always been my curiosity. Like what makes them 10 people that you know just as outstanding, exceptional character? Another thing curiosity I've always had is what makes a few churches, church communities be exceptionally gracious and attractive and engaging while others don't seem to do very well? What's that secret?

The third one I've always had is what makes some families exceptionally hospitable and others not very? What makes that? And the third one is what makes a few businesses successful and others not? So I've always had this curiosity. When I see something working and I see something done well, what's the secret in that particular situation? So those four questions probably reveal my personality a bit. I'm always curious about the things you can't see that's actually making it work.

What are the things that move the needle in life? Now, I've heard people say things like this. So if someone, you know, they go through life and they end up bad or they end up in a bad situation, you know, people will say, "People can't fake it for long." In other words, this idea that they were a fake all along. Okay, I'll grant you there's always a few fakes among us, right? But I don't think that's the majority of people, actually. I think it's more often misplaced priority.

People think that certain things is what we need to focus in on. And they dial in on that and they run with it and they end up at somewhere where they didn't expect because they misunderstood the hidden things, the drivers of whatever that was, whether it's your character, church issues, you just name it, your personal life, whatever. It's misplaced priority. If you put your energies to the wrong thing, you won't accomplish what you think you're going to accomplish. And I'll give you an example of this.

In history, when you read, if you read your history in Rome, what was Rome known for besides conquering the world? Anyone can kick it out, whatever. You don't have to answer. They were known for their transportation throughout the world. What did they make? They were the first ones that made the, I can't remember now, I used to know how many miles of roads they laid. There's cobblestones. You can still, they still have it to this day.

What is the first thing that another nation does when they're attacking another nation? Take out the roads and bridges. But who thinks of roads when you think of a nation that's successful? You think of the vehicles running on it, the transportation going back, right? But you forget that it's the road that allows it to happen. And that's what happens, I think, with understanding patience. It's one of these things that has to engulf who we are in everything that we do because it's what we drive on.

It's how we respond. It's everything that we do. And if we miss it, we find ourselves much less successful than we expect. And we don't understand why. And that's why, I mean, there is this idea that the upside-down kingdom, you need to look into these things to understand it. I actually think most of life's that way, by the way. You just find anybody that's successful in anything, they learn how to dial in. You look at anything out there. I can't remember where this quote comes from. It's Cyprian or Tertullian.

It says, "It is patience which both commends and keeps us to God." So it complements and keeps. And I think it's because we've learned, when we learn patience, we're able to, you don't overreact and you don't underreact. Patience is not this idea that we're just lazy. Patience is far from lazy. You understand why you're being patient. There are no doubts. You understand that through patience is how you will respond right. You will be able to engage with the person in front of you.

You'll be able to demonstrate your love to those around you. It's how you do it. Cyprian says this, and he has a whole list of things that I'm going to read. "It is patience to which anger is mitigated." It's this idea that it brings honey to it. It sweetens it. It takes anger and it makes it sweet.

"It is patience which bridles the tongue, governs the mind, guards peace, rules discipline, breaks the force of lust, represses the violence of pride, extinguishes the fire of enmity, checks the power of the rich, soothes the want of the poor, protects a blessed integrity in virgins, a careful purity in widows, in those who are united and married a single affection. It makes men humble in prosperity, brave in adversity, gentle towards wrongs and contempts. Patience teaches us to quickly pardon those who wrong us.

And if you yourself are wrong, to entreat long and earnestly. Patience gives you the ability to resist temptation, to suffer in persecution. It perfects passion and martyrdom. It is patience which firmly fortifies the foundation of our faith. Think about that. It is this which lifts up high the increase of our hope. It is this which directs our doing that we may hold fast the way of Christ while we walk in his patience that he's demonstrated for us.

It is this that makes us to persevere as sons of God while we imitate our father's patience. Do you know why Cyprian calls it the advantage of patience? I want that. It's one of the secrets of the kingdom. When we understand the purpose and place of patience, we will learn we have an advantage in everything we do.

Luke 8:4, I'm sorry, 8:15, "As for that in the good soil, they are those hearing the word, hold it fast and honest with a good heart, and bear fruit with patience." Just think about bearing fruit impatiently. It helps you to balance that word out. Are you impressed when people's bearing fruit impatiently? You're kind of the guy that you kind of get embarrassed, you know, when you're walking down the street and you want to leave. He's doing it impatiently. We're to bear fruit with patience.

It fortifies the foundations of our faith. Romans 2:4 says this, "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Think about that. God's patience and forbearance is meant to lead us to repentance. We're to imitate God in everything that we do because that's the vehicle that allows us to lead others to repentance and influence them. Patience needs to be understood in the framework.

This is how we lead people to change. It's one of the most powerful things I have learned in life. And maybe I should say I'm learning. I'm 52. It took me a long time to wrap it around my head. It's been worth the journey. I genuinely have learned to love it.