Long -suffering also translated patience, but
I feel like is most descriptive as long -suffering
which is suffering long. Patience is putting
up with something longer than we want to. Sometimes
we call it forbearance. To look at this we are
gonna use James chapter 1. James 1 verse 2 says,
my brethren counted all joy when you fall into
diverse temptations. He starts out with an endearment,
my brethren. When you happen upon different temptations,
look at it as an opportunity. That's not generally
how we look at it. He continues knowing this
that the trying of your faith worketh patience
Because it's the testing of our faith that brings
forth or produces patience When you are really
struggling with something We need to look at
it as a workout We need to look at it as an exercise.
We need to look at it as an opportunity to bring
forth fruit, to perfect something in our life.
There's a joke among Christians. Don't pray for
patience because bad things are going to happen
to you. This is rooted in truth. And a joke is
one thing, but some elder Christians actually
advise against praying for patience. This is
very bad advice. We shouldn't avoid doing hard
things because we enjoy pleasure, because we're
trying to avoid discomfort or pain. In contrast,
James says in verse four, but let patience have
her perfect work, that you may be perfect and
entire wanting nothing. You want patience because
you will be mature and whole. That's what that
perfect there means. Mature and whole. Lacking
nothing. There's a lot of talk right now about
being a whole person. Someone who has recovered
from all their trauma. There's this underlying
assumption that difficult things shouldn't happen
to us. But James is saying there is opportunity
in difficult things. In temptations. In adversity.
he says in verse 5 if any of you lack wisdom
let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally
and abradeth not and it shall be given him. Here
we find the key to this perfecting work the wisdom
of God. How do we deal with difficult people?
We ask God, how do I deal with my desire for
things God is asking me to turn away from? I
ask God, how do I deal with my bad attitude?
Ask God for wisdom. I have a friend who said
recently, you know, the cliched advice to pray
about it and read the word, it's cliched because
it works. It is always the answer. It only sounds
cliched. Verse six says but let him ask in faith
Nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed
For let not that man think that he shall receive
anything of the Lord We ask God for help for
wisdom But then sometimes we don't really want
the answer or we really don't think that God
is going to answer It's kind of like asking God
to heal my headache as I head to the medicine
cabinet and take a pill. Did God heal the headache?
Well, I don't know. I took a pill. What I'm trying
to say is we don't wait for the answer. We start
trying to fix it. We start trying to do things
instead of waiting for the wisdom that we've
asked for. And James says a double -minded man
is unstable in all his ways. When we do that,
we're being double -minded. Verse 9 he says,
let the brother of low degree rejoice that he
is exalted. So brother James's first advice is
to ask God for wisdom. His second piece of advice
is saying find the bright side of your situation
Praise God my status in life is not good But
God sees me and he's called me to be a king and
a priest verse 10 But the rich in that he is
made low because as the flower of the grass he
shall pass away Praise God I have everything
I need but I know this life is not forever and
I may not be in this good situation forever find
the bright side find the leveling side verse
11 for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning
heat but it withereth the grass and the flower
thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion
of its pair of it perisheth so also shall the
rich man fade away in his ways right it's not
forever blessed is the man that endureth temptation
what That's that patience. That's that long suffering.
Enduring a long time. For when he is tried he
shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him James goes
on to say that there is reward for enduring temptation
We shall receive a crown of life and he's drawing
a parallel to the laurel crown given to athletes
When they won races at that time, but this crown
that God gives is eternal It's incorruptible
if you don't race you can't win you can't achieve
Many of us are happy just not to achieve. We're
a culture of underachievers. We would just rather
not feel pain. We would rather just not be uncomfortable.
But God desires that we accomplish something.
Verse 13 says, Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every
man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own
lust and enticed. This is an important teaching.
This is a foundational doctrine. God will not
put something evil in front of you to see if
you will slip. We are drawn to evil on our own.
We have desires and they draw us away from the
Lord. He continues, then when lust has conceived
it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished
bringeth forth death. The wages of sin is death.
God gives us a choice free will. It is that gift
to obey and love him or not that also gives us
the option to walk away after our own desires.
Our desires bring death, our flesh covets, and
we walk in our own way. James says, do not err,
my beloved brethren. He's using that term of
endearment again. He is warning us again because
he loves us as family. Every good and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the father
of lights with whom is no variableness neither
shadow of turning of his own will begat he us
with the word of truth and we should be a kind
of first fruits of his creatures. He warns us
to watch for error in our thinking. We must understand
that every good thing comes from God. Everything
that is perfect comes from God. The opportunity
to be perfected is a gift from God. The ability
to develop patience is a gift from God. Wherefore
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Here
is us practicing patience. This is the practical
guide. How do I be more patient? Be quick to
hear what someone is saying to us. Be quick to
understand their point of view. But be slow in
responding to what we're hearing. And be cautious
when becoming angry. Easier said than done to
slow our response time down. So difficult to
discipline ourselves to slow our response time
down. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness
of God. When we're angry in our flesh, God is
not glorified. People are not drawn closer to
him. We aren't drawn closer to him. It's not
helpful. wherefore lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness
the engrafted word that is able to save your
souls honestly when we lay aside super Filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness. Okay, that is
a great King James phrase. Filthiness, things
that are unclean. But superfluity, what is that?
It's an overabundance. It's an overflowing of
naughtiness, so things that are not right. When
we don't have those things going on, we are much
more able to respond well. He's saying lay apart
those things when we're not scrolling, when we're
not watching things, when we're not reading things,
when we are not entertaining our thought life
with things that are unclean, it is easier to
respond with patience. It is harder when you
look up from whatever that is that is not lovely
and pure and excellent and a good report. It's
hard when we're looking at that thing to look
up and respond with patience, to not respond
with anger. One, because we're disappointed in
our own selves for what we're doing in the moment
and we don't and we're irritated that life is
not working without us, our family's not working
without us, our job isn't working without us.
And two, because We don't have good reservoir.
We don't have good well water to draw from. We
just, we're double -minded. We don't have the
stability that we would have when we're doing
things that are pure and lovely and of good report
that are honest. And he continues, but be ye
doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving
your own selves. I feel like this is the crux
of what he s - talking about. Okay, the crux
of wisdom in general, self deception. We always
have a reason why we can disobey. We always have
a reason why things don't apply to us. But real,
we are really only lying to ourselves. We're
dishonest in our motives. We are only tricking
ourselves. We are deceiving ourselves God isn't
convinced most of the people who watch us aren't
convinced either When we hear the word and we
don't do the word we are being disobedient 23.
For if any be a hearer of the word and not a
doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural
face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and
goes away, and straight forward forgets what
manner of man he was. But whoso looks into the
perfect law of liberty, and continues therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of
the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
For a long time, over my mantle, I had a mirror
that had the word truth written on it. It was
to remind me of this verse. When the word tells
me something is wrong, I need to remember that
and fix it. Just like the mirror shows me what
I need to wash off or adjust, like maybe there's
some spaghetti sauce on my face, I can think
I don't have anything on my face or drip down
the front of my shirt. but the mirror tells me
the truth and this is what God's word does. The
mirror shows us the truth. My husband when he
preaches he always says I can look in the mirror
and think I'm a buck fifty but I look in the
mirror and I am not a 25 year old at 150 pounds
any longer and so for that reason I avoid the
mirror. He says we don't want to take pictures.
Because when we look at a picture, it tells us
the truth. It shows us where we are at. And this
is how it is with the Word of God. When we hear
it and we don't do it, we are just deceiving
ourselves. We are ignoring what we saw. 26. If
any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleeth
not his tongue, but deceiveeth his own heart,
this man's religion is in vain. Here's that self
-deception again. Whatever is coming out of your
mouth is truth. Whatever you're saying, whatever
your actions are, that's truth. That shows the
place of your heart. And the only person you're
deceiving is yourself. And your religion is empty.
It's vain. How many times have we become inpatient?
We didn't suffer long. We just let our tongue
rip. God says our religion is vain. This is tough
stuff. That's why you keep saying, beloved, I
love you. Because he's saying hard things. Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father
is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows
and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. And he kind of ends here with
this section. He's saying, here it is, ministering
to the needs of those who are without help and
to overcome our temptations is pure religion.
love God love others and We how do we know that
we love God if we do and we keep his commandments
Tough stuff, I'll see you next time