Well, good morning church. Two things before we jump into the messages this morning. Uh, that I wanna either tell you or remind you of. Number one, the Coffee Commons Cafe is officially opened. Uh, two ways I wanna talk about that. Number one, uh, the Commons area is open every single day, uh, from six in the morning, uh, till 10 at night for you to come enjoy, hang out with friends, have bible studies, study, get away from the office to work or whatever you want to use it for. It is a space, uh, built for the community and for you. A lot of you took advantage of that this week and it was awesome. But secondly, the cafe, the Commons Cafe, it is open on Wednesday nights. I just need to tell you this, from four o'clock to eight o'clock and on Sunday mornings from seven 30 to 1130.
So for those of you that are a little more bougie in your coffee preferences, um, it is available during those hours. But the rest of the time there is the normal free coffee that the church is built on. Amen. Uh, it is there. Okay? It's always there. So just wanted to tell you that. Uh, and then number two, uh, wanted to remind you that next Sunday, or tell you next Sunday after this service, the 11 o'clock service out on the front, uh, new space out here. We are going to have a moment of prayer and a moment of launching and consecration of our new Stevens and Burn Hickory Counseling Center. Um, we're gonna launch that next week after this service. It's not gonna be long. It's not gonna be drawn out. Actually, it's probably gonna be about the same length of time you normally sit in traffic.
All right? So we're gonna be praying over that to launch that. Man. I just can't wait to see where God takes that in the community. We've already been counseling, but we're gonna officially begin, uh, to begin to kind of communicate that to all of the people in this community. All right? So those two things just wanted to tell you about. All right, now, get your Bibles out, James chapter five. James chapter five is where we're gonna be today. Um, kind of hate that we're not in the last service 'cause right when I said that, a little was like, woo. And it was awesome. It was like right on cue, uh, right on cue. But James chapter five, um, is where we're gonna be coming from today. And actually we are kind of rounding third base in this series that we are calling Faith in Action, faith in Action, where we're really dialing into our man James, and he's been given us from this scripture, from this little bitty letter, so much practical wisdom of how we can walk out our faith, how we can put our faith in action.
Now, look, if you are a normal burnt Hickory person and you've been here over the last couple of months, and by some way you have escaped James, getting all up in your spiritual business, today is your day, all right? Today is your day. I can pretty much guarantee you that today James is going to get into your stuff, all right? Because today's topic is one of those topics that I would call probably as close to a universal struggle as anything else in all of the Bible. By that today, James is gonna be teaching these first century believers and he's gonna be teaching us today around the subject of patience in the struggle, alright? Patience in the struggle. And particularly, here's what James is gonna do today. James is gonna look at it through this lens of, yes, God is in the business of blessing his children.
Yes, God is in the business of preparing a place, eternal home for us to gift us with in salvation. And yes, God is in control. And yes, God loves us. But what James is gonna show us today is that while we're living in this middle ground, okay, this middle space, this already, but not yet this fallen world, that it's gonna take some time, sometimes, in fact, many times for you to see how God is working, okay for you to see how God is weaving, how God is moving and what God is doing. And with that, what you're gonna see from James today with that, you are going to see that it also sometimes comes with frustration and times where we just need to be patient. Alright, James, chapter five, that's where we're gonna be today. Let's go ahead and jump in 'cause we got some ground to cover.
Here's what James says to them, and he says to us, James five verse seven, he says this, be patient then brothers and sisters. Now I want you to, I want you to stay right there on James seven, James five, seven because I want you to look at this word then. Okay, this word then, I know it seems kind of funny to start with the word then, but it is an incredibly important word. In fact, some of your translations actually the one that I like the best, says, therefore, brothers and sisters be patient. Now, here's what James is doing. James is looking at what he has said and now what he is doing is he is connecting everything he has said in this letter thus far to this idea of patience. Okay? So don't think of this message as kind of a little one-off stray thought of James, where he just kind of threw it in there.
'cause he knew that it was a struggle. No, what James is doing in verse seven is he is connecting patients with every other challenge that he has presented to us over these last couple of months. And he has talked about a lot of things. He's talked about suffering, he's talked about trials, he's talked about disappointments in life. He's talked about relationship problems. He's talked about unanswered prayers and unmet expectations. And what he's saying here is that even though, even though you're a believer in Jesus, and even though God is the king of your life, and even though you have prayed for a lot of these things to be handled and you ask God to move, even though you've done all that and you haven't necessarily seen him moving, and there's some frustration that is happening, what he's saying to us in this verse is, is that God is still good and God is still moving.
But in the middle of that moment, before we experience the good, what James is saying, we have to exercise. What? That's great. Three of you, I'm teaching the mess outta this passage right here, right? We have to exercise patience, man. Can, can I just be honest with you just for a minute, I'm, I'm going to Anyway here. Here's the thing. I hate patience. I, I can't stand it. I mean, honestly, honestly, honestly, you let me be vulnerable. You are looking at a guy. I know I'm taking myself off the pedestal for a minute. You are looking at a guy who struggles with patience. I, I struggle particularly with people. Uh, in fact, if Melissa was like a vocal person, she would be like, amen. He does, right. I do. There, there, there. Listen, there are some of you in here today. I'm not gonna look at you, right?
I'm just keep my eyes closed when I say this. There, there are some of you in here today that, that has been on the other end of me struggling with patience with people. I mean there you really are. I have had to apologize to multiple of you in this room at some point in our walk together, one of my many faults and outta my faults, this one, this one's a big one for me. In fact, here's what I know though, it's probably a big one for you too, right? It, it really probably is. Gimme a little nod. I'm not all on here. Yeah, it, it's, it's big, right? In fact, you're, you're probably like me. Lemme say how you're like me and struggling with this. When you go to Publix, when you go to Kroger or when you go to Home Depot, what do you do after you get everything you need to do and you come up to the checkout lines?
What is the first thing that you do in that moment? You know what you do? You are calculating which line is the fastest. Amen. Do I have any of other you right here you're calculating which one's the fastest. You're scanning the people in front of you that are there in that moment. And you're asking yourself, which one of these people are least likely to want to talk to the cashier for a lengthy time? Which one of these people are gonna pay with cash? 'cause goodnight. Nobody can deal with that anymore. You've seen them checkout person give change back lately. Nobody can do that. And heaven forbid the coupon lady get in front of you. Amen? I mean, save 20 cents, but it took us 12 minutes, all right? In that moment, you are like me in the moment. What else are you doing? You are looking at your choice.
Once you chose your line and you are looking at the people that got into line right when you did to see if you won in the moment because you struggle with patience just like I do. Same with traffic, right? Which lane are you gonna get in on the expressway? Tell me. You're not looking at the car beside you going, aha, I beat you in the traffic. You know you're doing it, you know you are, you struggle with patience. It even goes a little bit deeper for me. And I would say this, my lack of patience has at moments caused some moments in our marital bliss. Amen. Anybody else on the radar with that? Because sometimes I might just get tired of the story. Uh, sometimes I might just need to move on from what is happening and it's caused some problems. On multiple occasions I've had to apologize to people, friends, family, coworkers, lots of staff, amen.
I have had to apologize and don't even get me thinking about where we've come from in the building world. Amen. That kind of patience has been a whole nother level. But on the other side of that, I feel like some of it isn't my fault. I'm in a little self confession moment right here. I, I feel like some of it's not my fault because I think the world is kind of conspired against us. Patient strugglers. You say, well, how is that Matt? Why We live in an instant society for goodness sake. Everything about our society is is instant. In fact, four of you today has already asked me if we're gonna put mobile ordering on the app for the coffee shop, for goodness sakes, <laugh>, don't get me started. About one click on Amazon, it'll beat me home from lunch or Walmart plus, I mean they're there before I even get there.
Or streaming services. You remember commercials, anybody? I don't. I even struggle watching a full football game with commercials. Now sometimes I'd rather just pause it and watch it in 45 minutes. It's just where we're at. We're in an instant gratification culture, which on this side is an incredible deal, man. Everything is at our fingertips. If you were to tell our great grandparents that we can have coffee in 30 seconds, they're like, really? Yes. But with the positives, there comes some negatives and that's this. When things don't go our way or when things aren't on our timelines, it just seems to me that where we are in culture now, that we are so less equipped now to have patience in the moment because everything is so un instantaneous. We don't have to wait until next week till our TV show comes on. No, I'm mad if it buffers for five seconds, right?
But that's what I'm talking about. We're so much more, we would use the word traumatized in the way, wouldn't we? I or I would say that we are actually all of us, we struggle in this middle ground between desire and fulfillment of this desire. We struggle in this middle ground of already, but what God would call not yet. So here's what James tells us. He says, listen, patience is absolutely necessary if I'm going to walk out my faith, patience is absolutely necessary. If you are gonna walk out your faith, patience is absolutely nearest necessary. If I'm gonna experience God's full joy and full grace and full mercy in my life, patience is absolutely necessary. Listen to me closely. If we as believers in Jesus are gonna be able to hold up the cause of Jesus without just being absolute jerks. Patience, patience, patience. So here's what we're gonna do.
I'm gonna read the rest of the passage today. And since this is such a big topic, I just wanna ask two questions of the day to hopefully teach through this text. Number one, I want to ask what exactly is patience? And number two, how can I develop and grow more patience in my life? Alright, lemme read the text. Here's James. Watch what he says. He says, be patient or therefore be patient. Brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its ver valuable crop patiently waiting for the autumn and the spring rains. You two, be patient and stand firm because the Lord's coming is near. Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door. Verse 10, brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Verse 11. As you know, we count as blessed. Those who have persevered. You have heard of job perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. Listen to this, you may wanna underline this last sentence. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Alright, so here's the first question. If we're gonna have to answer, if we're gonna be patient. And that is number one, what exactly is patience? What exactly is patience? I mean six or maybe seven times patience or a synonym of patience has been used in the passage that we just read. It's obvious that it is the core teaching. So what is it? In verse seven, James uses the word patience, but it's actually the Greek word makrothumia I know you know this, but let's just review it. It's makrothumia and it literally means long suffering. All right? It's two words, all right?
Makro meaning long meaning large meaning lengthy, and the second word is suffering. Alright? Is think, endurance, or think remaining in. Now, what he's not talking about here is he's not talking about some brief moment of pain or shame or some in brief moment in in, in our incredible otherwise life. What he's pointing towards here is the long season of standing, a long season of suffering, a long season of questioning, a long hardship or a long, especially in their world persecution. Now this is important and here's why. Because a lot of us as believers in Jesus think that just because I gave my heart to Jesus that I should automatically live this hashtag blessed life, right? Maybe every now and then something kind of comes on the radar for a day or two or a week or two, but every other part of our life that I should just kind of be in this blessed moment.
No, no, no. The word patience here is implying that we as believers in Jesus, before we go home to be with the Lord, we are going to have these seasons, these long seasons that we are called to stand. Yes, sir, that we're called to stand, particularly dealing with people is what James is saying. Now, as soon as I say that, I know that there are already some of you're like, man, I know that I've been living in that world. I mean for a long time I've been living in this health world for a long time. I've been living in this family relationship world where it just seems like all I can barely do is stand a long time. I've been taken advantage of or not been valued at work. But here's what James says in verse seven. No matter what the situation is, if Christ is your king, he has told you to be patient.
Verse seven, be patient. Be what? Long standing and suffering. Keep enduring macro thia. But he also in verse 11, he knows that we're not gonna totally get that. So he uses another word in verse 11 to continue to get this cause in us. Lemme read verse 11, I'll show you what I mean. He says this in verse 11. He says, as you know, we count it as blessed. Those who have persevered. Circle that word persevere because in Greek persevered is a little bit different, but it is the word hypo amino, hypo amino hyper stand. Okay? The first one was long suffering. Now he's drawing it down even more to show us what patience is. And patience is standing that won't quit. That's patience. You wanna define patience. It is standing in a long moment of suffering and not quitting, not retaliating, not coming up with a plan to be God.
Not doing this, but it is long standing picture in your mind for this word, the boxer that is in the seventh round that is just getting pummeled and pummeled and pummeled, but they just won't fall down because they know if they just keep standing, they can win. Okay? You're not a sports person. Picture your 2-year-old when you first put them in the big girl bed. Remember that moment, remember that moment you put them and they beat you back downstairs before you got down there over and over and over again. Hyper standing. That's what he's meaning right here. And so what he's saying here is that that is the goal of our lives. That we persevere, that we have patience steadfastness that is long standing in the face of controversy. And what he just told us in 11 is that what happens to the believer when we stand?
He says that it's counted as blessed. It's counted as. Now this is important. Why? Because what he means by that is that in the standing, listen close to you. Maybe you have never heard this in the standing, we have a God that sees it. Yes sir. We have a God that blesses it and we have a God that is marking it down for eternity. Yes sir. So let me roll it into our minds right now. What that's saying is this, I don't know what your problem is. I don't know what your suffering is. I don't know what your patience moments is. I know that my examples were a little bit trite earlier, but you get that, you know where this is going. Here's what, here's what James is saying. He's saying, Hey listen, our calling is to stand in them because we have a God that will one day make it right.
Yes sir. He'll make it right. That's what he's saying. So, so, so let's get with the, let's get with the reasoning here. So if, if we're blessed to have patience and endurance and we keep standing in the times of troubles, and if we all agree this is kind of a universal problem. The second question I told you that we're gonna answer today is this, how can I grow or develop more godly patience in my life? That's where James goes today, James, just like he has done just about every week, James, he gives us this command that just seems too big to live in our lives. But then he circles back around it and he gives us an example, a real life example of how we can live this out. Well, here's what James knew. James knew we struggled with this so bad that he didn't just give us one example of how to have patience.
He actually, in the text, gave us three. He gave us three pictures of Godly patience that I just want to burn into our minds today. Lemme give 'em to you. I put 'em in your notes. Number one, he gives us the example. Here's how we do it. He gives us the example of seeing the farmer. The farmer. Now interestingly enough, I know not many of us are farmers. There are a few who there are. Um, this is a farming society that James is writing to. And actually on top of that, Clement an early Greek church father in one 50 AD actually says that James and his brother Jude were both farmers, which makes so much more sense when you go back and look at his writing because he's always writing about nature. He's always writing about water and he's always writing about the wind blowing or something happening in the soul.
Why? Because he's a farmer. And if anybody knows patience, if anybody knows standing firm, it's farmers. In fact, look at the example in verse seven. Watch what he says. He says, be patient then brothers and sisters until the Lord's coming and see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rings. You two, be patient and stand firm. Why? Because the lord's coming is near. So why are we looking at farmers? It's easy to see why because of this. What does a farmer do after he plants the seed? What does he do? He does two things, right? Especially in this time. He trusts and he waits, he trusts and he waits really in this time in history that that that James is writing this. That's all he could do. There was no like GPS irrigation to manage or forecast or any of that stuff.
He knew the farmers in that day. Unlike some of our political people today know that we can't control the weather. There was no lasers that do that or nothing like that, right? He knew that once he planted something, it was really out of his control. It was really out of his control. And it was in the control of, of who? God. Now, yeah, he could put down some fertilizer. Yes, he could kind of keep the ments out. But think about it. What happens after the seed is in the dirt is really not up to the farmer. It's up to the seed, the dirt and the weather. If this farmer gets mad and tries to dig up the seed in two months, he's gonna kill it. It's not gonna do anything. So what does the farmer do? He holds himself in check and he stands firm.
He's done everything that he can already do. And now he just stands. Church, listen to me. Here it is, here it is in the middle space. In those moments of your helpless waiting where you feel like you've done everything you can do, you've prayed all you can pray, you've lived all you can live, you've talked, all you can talk, all you can do in that moment, church listen, is just keep standing. Just keep standing and just do what? Trust that what's about to happen, the fall and the spring rains of God's grace are going to come. Hallelujah. That's what he just said in the text, right? So Ja, so James just says, yeah, yeah, think like a farmer. Work the ground, spread the new good seed, keep the intruders out. But then you just have to stand. Just keep standing. No matter what hits you just keep standing.
No matter what somebody says, just keep standing no matter what. And God sees it and God will bless it so much more. But I want you to see the second example here. Okay? Then we're gonna get some action steps. Look at the second example, verse nine. Here's what he says. He says, don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door, brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering. Watch what he says. Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as you know, verse 11, we count as blessed. Those who have persa veered hypo mano. Number two, number one was the farmer. Number two is the prophets. He says, you want patience in your life. Look at, look, look, look, look, look at the prophets. Now if you follow the Old Testament prophets through the Old Testament, what you will see that they all have in common, or actually most have in common, is that they were called to preach the word of God, to be the mouthpiece of the word of God, to be God's voice.
But many, many, many times they preached for years, but they encountered nothing but persecution, opposition in pain way before their prophecies came true. In fact, many of 'em never even got to see their prophecies come true. So all they could do this is, this is the reason, the example is there, all they could do is just keep standing, just keep enduring, just keep having patience. You say, man, I'm, I'm not tracking with you. Okay, lemme give you a couple examples. Think about Noah just for a minute. For 120 years that joker talked about rain to people who have never seen rain. Have you ever thought about that? Never even experienced rain in their lives. But all he could do is just keep standing and keep speaking about who God was. Think about Joseph for a minute. He was sent to do what? Save Israel. But his brothers hated him and sold him.
He got falsely accused and sent into prison and for 20 years, what could Joseph do? All he could do is just keep standing. Isaiah, when you read the book of Isaiah, he wrote so much on the coming of who Jesus is, the coming of the Messiah. But you remember how Isaiah's life ended. It ended in persecution and it ended being stuffed into a hollow log and cut in half. For goodness sake, all he could do was keep standing. Remember Jeremiah, he knew so much about suffering. He wrote a whole book about it called limitations one time. And remember his life he was put in a cistern or put in a dungeon and he was up to his armpits in mud for most of his adult life. Think about Daniel. Remember the lions den Daniel, he was in captivity for 20 years. Well, what could he do?
He just had to keep standing. Even in the moment in the lions den, all of these guys, are you seeing this? All these guys had these super long seasons of just having to stand, just having to endure. But in the end, listen to me closely, every single word of the God's word that came through their mouths came true. That's the point here. You see the point is, is that eventually verse 11, we see and we know that God counts them as blessed. Now if you ask them in the middle of the suffering, Hey Jeremiah, how's your life going? You feeling hashtag blessed at the moment? He's like, no, I feel like God is just, I don't know what God's doing. And it's just total honesty, right? Even if you ask them years later, they probably wouldn't know, but they were. And what are we doing now? We're still talking about God's faithfulness through their lives. That's the point, right? When we don't know what God's doing, when we don't know how God's movement, when we have prayed all week and pray, we are called to just stand.
Third illustration, write this one down. It's the main, it's the man job. I mean, if you didn't kind of follow the farmer and you didn't follow the prophets, man, third illustration of patience is, is our man Job. I'm not sure you can give him a message on patience and not mention job, poor job. We don't have time to tell this whole story. But listen to what James says about him. Verse 11, he says, you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of job's, perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally might wanna underline that brought about the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Poor job. This was a man who really, for a major season of his adult life did not see what God was doing. But what did Job do with his life? He just kept standing. He just kept remaining and, and so what did God do?
God allowed Satan to, to kind of, to kind of put so much of Satan's vengeance and evil on him. Whether it was physical or mental or family or or or emotional. That job lost everything. Job's whole family died. He loses everything that he has his friends turn on him. But what did Job do in the middle of all this, he just kept standing. And at the end of his test, what do we see at the end of Job's test? We get to see God's character. We get to see God move. We get to see God provide. We get to see a glimpse of what God wants to do. In fact, from the inside or or from the outside, as we're seeing Job's life, we see that God never leaves Job and God is using all of what's happening in Job's life for His glory. I love what Job does.
He just stays standing and stays faithful. In fact, job 19 25, 1 of my favorite verses outta the whole book of Job, job says this to one of his friends is telling him to give up. Job says this, I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the earth. Hallelujah. Man, that's incredible words from a guy who really didn't even have a full picture of what it was gonna cost God to send Jesus, is it not? But here's what he knew, that in the end, my God wins. And in the end I've been called to stand for God. Job knew that even when it seemed like he had been abandoned, even when it seemed like God wasn't moving, that God was there and he had always been there. And what do we get to see at the end of Job's life?
Not to ruin the story if you've never read it before, but look at Job 42 verse 10. We ultimately see that God blessed him with double watch this Job 42 10 and some other verses that says this, the Lord restored the fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before the Lord restored. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the former part. Verse 16, after this job lived 140 years, like, man, that's not a blessing. Well it was for him, right? And he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation verse 17. And so Job died an old man full of years. Now this doesn't mean don't take this the wrong way in the prosperity gospel. This doesn't mean that. That when we live with patience in the suffering, that God is gonna hashtag automatically bless us with double amount of all this stuff.
That's not what it means, but it is a glimpse into the promise of what God promises for every single one of his children in the next world. And that is a glimpse that God will ultimately bless you, hallelujah. And he will ultimately stand for you. James says, this is a picture of God's faithfulness. Verse 11, I'm gonna keep reading. It says this, you have heard of Joe's perseverance and you have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and the Lord is full of mercy. Is that compassion how we always think that compassion should go? No. Is the mercy how we always think that the mercy should be dealt out? No, but listen, it's even better because it is straight from God and it proves that God loves and God gives. And here's our role, once again, I'm just gonna keep saying it.
Our role is to long stand, to long stand no matter what the world throws at us to long stand no matter what the controversy is to long stand no matter what that friend group says to long stand because we have a God that says our home is coming and he is ours. So with that being said, here's what I wanna do. I wanna take all of this text and the, and the few minutes I have left, I wanna show us how we do it. How do we long stand? How do we hyper stand? How can we live with this macro fia, this patience? There's three things. They're pretty quick. Number one is this. Here's how we do it. Number one, we do it by looking backwards. Now I know that's a weird place to start, but as we look at the farmer, we see that the farmer trusts because why?
Because he knows that God has always been faithful. When we, when we look at the prophet's world, we know that we're looking back at how God has always been faithful to them. And when we look at this man job, what are we seeing in job's life that no matter what happened in job's life, that God was already and always going to be there? That's what we just saw in verse 11, that God has always been full of compassion. God has always been full of mercy and he is still today. In fact, I got to thinking about this week that we as believers in Jesus. Now we don't even just get to look back at the Old Testament. We get to look back at the cross and we get to look back at what happened to Jesus. And we get to look back at the crucifixion and the resurrection.
And I got to thinking about it even farther apart than that is the fact that the crucifixion happened on Friday, the resurrection happened on Sunday, but doesn't it seem like much of our lives are just lived in the Saturday? In between those two things, do you ever wonder why Jesus didn't just raise on Friday night really late? I mean, yeah, I get the fact that the prophecies were being fulfilled and yeah, I get the fact that I wanted to make sure that he was dead. But I also think that there's another reason, and I think it's because God wanted to show us the fact that we can live in the Saturday of life knowing that the Sunday is coming. That's what he's talking about here. You see, we look back, listen, your answers are not always going to come today or tomorrow. Your relief is not always gonna come today or tomorrow.
Your joy is not always gonna come today or tomorrow, but it will come. You know why? 'cause God is faithful. He's faithful. And in this moment that we live so much of our lives in this middle of the ground life, we've got scripture that has been preserved for us to help us look back. We've got our own testimony of what God has done in our lives to help us look back. We've got the encouragement of other believers in our lives to help us look back at how God can move church. Looking back at God's faithfulness shows us that God is supreme. Yes sir. Don't let yourself slip in those moments of endurance into this idea of woe is me. Nobody cares. The maker of the universe did. Number one. We look back, number two, here's the second way we gain patience, is that we just look forward.
We look forward the farmer, what is he doing? He's looking forward at the soil and what God's gonna do by sending the reigns, the prophets, what were they live in their lives looking forward at the fact that God is and has always been and will be faithful job, he's looking forward at the fact that God has never let me down and he will never let me down. Church, this point alone is worth the day. If we could just set our minds on the long eternal life and quit having such such passion for the one that we're in, God would be evident in every single thing in our lives. How much perspective would it give us if we finally just realized that this world that we're living in right now is only about two inches compared to the long point of eternity? I love verse eight right here where James says this.
He says this, you too be patient and stand firm. Why? Because the Lord's coming is near that word stand firm. There literally means be fixed and don't waver. It's the opposite of so many of the problems that James has brought up, like being grass, that the wind blows or shifts around or being unstable. James says, there is stability when we begin to look forward into who God is and specifically we begin to look forward into two places. First of all, we begin to look forward into the fact that the coming of the Lord is evident. How many times did you think about this week that God's coming is evident in your life? Did you see what he just said right here? He just said that the coming of the Lord is near. Now I'm not saying that we just flush all this world and we live like one of those weird people that just totally rejects all the goodness that God has given us now.
But what I am saying is that I think that we have our eternity meter set too low and our earthly meter set too high. I am saying yes, we need to enjoy this world. Yes, we need to enjoy the common graces. Yes, we need to enjoy the things that God has given us. So for goodness sake, go have a steak, go have a great vacation, have a great car, or whatever. But what I am saying on top of that is never let it overshadow the fact that God is coming back for us. I love the balance that David says in Psalm 27 about this Psalm 27 13. David said, I remain confident of this that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. You do get that right, that God wants you to see his goodness here. But then he said, wait for the Lord and be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
We can expect that God should be moving in God's goodness in our life. So yes, pray for it. But also remember, hold it lightly and know that God may not show you his full goodness on your timing and on your plan or even in this world, but he will one day. So keep standing because he's coming back. But he also said, Hey listen, you keep this in focus by recognizing God's presence and not grumbling. You know how you look forward? You quit your grumbling. That's what he said. Why is grumbling such a big deal? Grumbling is actually the opposite of patience. Why? Because grumbling is not trusting that the Lord is with you. In fact, look at what he says in verse nine. I didn't just make this up. He says, don't grumble against one another brothers and sisters or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door.
I love this imagery here. Why? Because it's kind of like getting caught mid-sentence in a story when you're talking about somebody and didn't know they were standing behind you that ever happen. Oh good. Three of us. Yeah, we're together, right? That's the point. You see, our patience problems are nothing more than a trusting God is there, trusting God will meet our needs. And trusting God is the judge of the universe. So what did James say? He's saying, listen, if you want patience in your life, look back at what God has done and then set your gaze on the fact that no matter what happens on this earth, that God is coming back and that God, the judge of the universe is with you. But then he says, that's number three, if you want patience in your life, number three. He says, look up. Look up.
Now here's what I mean by that. Looking up to God is literally asking God to move in your life. Did you know that you can pray for patience now? Now, no, I'm, I'm not talking about God. Gimme some patience. No, that's not what I'm talking about. 'cause you've been there before. Amen. I'm talking about like, Hey God, I know that I have a bent towards this and God, honestly, I'm looking back at who you are. I'm looking forward to that. You are the maker of the universe, the judge and the creator of the world. But God, in this moment, I just need you. That's what I'm talking about. Now look, I'm not gonna flesh this out because the rest of the book next week, spoiler work, we're going to close with prayer 'cause that's what he does in the book. But here, I wanted you to have this in your notes because this, this week, here's your goal.
Here's your rule. Alright? I'm gonna give it to you real quick. Then we're gonna have an in invitation, man, I want you to think about the farmer, think about the prophets and think about our man job. And then I want you to think about it in those, in those patience moments, am I looking back at God's faithfulness? Am I looking forward to God's return? And am I looking beside me to know that the judge of the universe is with me and asking him to step into the situation? Or am I just spouting off and not trusting him? So lemme get real personal as we end here it is. I got real personal for me earlier. This one's on you. Let me ask you this. Do you struggle in the weight? Do you struggle in the weight? Is patience a thing for you? 'cause if it is, God just says this, Hey, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Walk with me. Walk with me. Why? 'cause God says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light and I am yours. Would you pray me, Lord Jesus? God today I know that today is one of those to topics that's all over us. God moving us today, walk with us today and God show us today of how we can be a believer that so trusts you, that no matter what storms in life comes that I stand, that I stand. I'm standing in your promises. I'm standing in your hope, I'm standing in your love. I'm standing in your mercy. I'm standing in your grace and I'm standing not in my power but yours. You know where your head's bow bowing, your eyes closed. One of the things that I didn't bring back up this week that I brought up almost every week, is that this book was written to believers.
That's why he uses the word brothers and sisters three times in this text. So here's the point and why I make that point is that if you don't have a relationship with Jesus and he's not the king and Lord of your life, you cannot have the long sufferance suffering and long standing that he provides. But here's the good news for day today, you can make him your king. Today. You can invite Christ to be your Lord. Today you can invite Christ to be your savior. Today you can have him as king. But my question is this, what's keeping you? What? What's keeping you from surrendering your heart to Jesus? Giving them your life and making them your Lord? Maybe today you just need to say something like this. Lord Jesus, I struggle so much with patience and maybe even rage, but Jesus, maybe that's because you're not my Savior and not my Lord coming to my heart today and be mine. Forgive me, be my Savior and my Lord God save me.
Listen, with your head behind your eyes closed, I'm just gonna tell you today, if that's you and you just ask God to do that in your heart and he just saved you, he just gave you life. And I know it just seems so simple, but it's not 'cause he's the one that's provided it. But if that was you today, man, we want to talk to you. We wanna help you process through this. You can go online to the next steps app and just hit, man, I need a personal relationship with Jesus. And somebody will reach back out to you or in just a second during the invitation. You can come over here to this next step banner and just look at me and say, Hey Matt, I met Jesus today. What do I need to do? And I'd love to walk you with through what that looks like. But I also know there's many of us in here today that just write patience off as a little bitty deal in our life that need to trust God in the moment and stand, Lord, walk with us today. It's in your name. Amen.