May 27, 2001

May 25, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Patient"

Galatians 5:16-26

Temptation and Patience

Introduction

Illustration – James Wilson writes, Because of erosion, the historic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was in peril of washing into the Atlantic Ocean. So Congress appropriated $12 million for the National Park service to move it 2900 feet to safety. With a combination of care, expertise, patience and raw power, The Expert House Movers of Sharptown, Maryland moved the 208 foot tall, 9.7 million pound structure to its current home. The option of moving the lighthouse was first proposed in April of 1982, but the light wasn’t lit at its new location until November 13, 1999. 17 years of study and 23 days of moving later. Why did it take so long? Small things can be moved quickly, but big things take time. Most people tend to overestimate what they can do in a week and underestimate what they can do in a lifetime.

We don’t really understand the power of true spiritual patience, and we’ve got to if we’re going to defeat the cycle of sin outlined in James 1 by Bill Perkins. We need to understand what true spiritual patience is if we're going to see the evidence of that fruit in our daily lives. So let’s first read Galatians 5:16-26 and see the contrast between counterfeit patience and true spiritual patience.

Scripture Passage

Galatians 5:16-26 (from the New Living) - So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. [17] The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. [18] But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law. NEW SLIDE [19] When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, [20] idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, [21] envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. NEW SLIDE [22] But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. [25] If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. [26] Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.

What is true spiritual patience? What does that look like? How can we describe it? I did a word study on peace and found some interesting passages.

(NEW SLIDE) Proverbs 19:11 says A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense. True spiritual patience is the result of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 7:8 says The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. True spiritual patience will never be the fruit of pride.

(NEW SLIDE) Romans 2:4 says Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? True spiritual patience is a character trait of God.

Colossians 1:11 says being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience. True spiritual patience comes from God.

(NEW SLIDE) Colossians 3:12 says Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. True spiritual patience is a choice.

(NEW SLIDE) 2 Timothy 3:10-11 says You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. True spiritual patience does not depend on circumstances.

(NEW SLIDE) 2 Timothy 4:2 says Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. True spiritual patience is needed whenever we instruct and encourage each other in following Christ.

(NEW SLIDE) Hebrews 6:12 says We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. True spiritual patience brings an eternal reward.

Let me share some definitions of what true spiritual peace is.

(NEW SLIDE) The New Bible Dictionary (Logos) says "Biblical patience is a God-exercised, or God-given, restraint in face of opposition or oppression. It is not passivity. The initiative lies with God’s love, or the Christian’s, in meeting wrong in this way."

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Logos): "It entertains no thoughts of retaliation even when wrongfully treated."

Matthew Henry (Logos): "to defer anger, and a contentedness to bear injuries"

Theological Dictionary of the NT (Logos): "Forbearance is a necessary quality in the service of God (2 Cor. 6:6), linking knowledge and kindness. It is a spiritual force that has its origin in the divine glory and works itself out in joyful endurance (Col. 1:11)." "Awareness of the nearness of Christ quenches angry feelings, produces triumphant steadfastness, and confers the certainty of fruit."

Greek English Lexicon based on Semitic Domains (Logos): "a state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation"

(NEW SLIDE) The bottom line is that true spiritual patience is not dependent on emotion, it is dependent on relationship with God. It is the fruit of walking with Him and obeying Him daily. It is the evidence of allowing God to fill us with His Spirit and His wisdom so that we will wait for His reward for us rather than seek to do things as we see fit. And if we don’t have His patience showing forth in the midst of our circumstances every day, we will have difficulty living with each other and showing our world the love of Christ. So how do we fight counterfeit patience? We’ve got to recognize how we are tempted to seek after it.

The Cycle of Sin

(NEW SLIDE) Preoccupation/Enticement –the only stage where we can stop ourselves from sinning. But the problem is that we are all patient people. We all have areas where we are patient in either waiting or in working with others. The kicker is that we all have areas were we are extremely impatient, and that’s where we are tempted. Satan whispers a lie into our ear that an area where we are impatient is really one we are patient. He shows us examples of our lives where we have been patient to prove to us that we’re always patient. A good lie always involves some aspect of the truth. And so we begin to believe his lie. We begin to view ourselves as being patient in every area of our lives and allow ourselves to be deluded. Why? Because the truth hurts. None of us want to be seen as being impatient, yet we all are in one area or another. And we begin to obsess about the areas where we are patient. Then we’re in trouble.

(NEW SLIDE) Ritualization/Conception – we’re hooked here like the bass on the lure because we begin setting the sin process in motion. We begin involving ourselves only in those things where we normally show patience. We lock everything else out, and if anyone or anything tries to get into our lives, we shove them right back out. We begin living in a dream world, playing it safe and expecting everyone to live according to our wishes so that we can show how patient we really are. Those are the rituals we use to justify our sin. And when we being ritualizing, we’re dead meat.

(NEW SLIDE) Acting Out/Birth – the unthinkable is what we wind up doing. Someone pushes too far on us to get out of our comfort zone, or to get us to quit living in our dream world. What do we do? We yell, we scream, we kick, we backstab, we gossip, we hit, we fight back. And all because they tried to get us to see the truth about who we are or about what we’ve been doing. And we’ve just sinned, because we’ve depended on something other than God to meet our needs – our safe little comfort zone. We’re dead.

(NEW SLIDE) Shame/Death –we have to face the pain of shame because we’ve just committed spiritual suicide. There are only two ways of dealing with coming back to life and with our shame: bringing it before the cross of Jesus by confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness and turning our backs on that sin; or to medicate the pain of the sin even further by sinning again. Medicating ourselves only locks us into that vicious cycle of sin that, by ourselves, we are helpless to get out of.

Help and Hope

God has graciously given us the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat sin in our lives. We can start defeating it the second we begin to be tempted, and that’s good because the enticement stage is the only place we can defeat sin. Here is what we must do.

(NEW SLIDE) First, we’ve got to pray a prayer thanking Jesus for the victory He is giving us. Why? Because there is a simple biblical truth at work here: Jesus died and rose again to break the power of sin and Satan over our lives. Jesus already won the victory. All we have to do is appropriate its power. We begin by praying a prayer like this, as Bill Perkins suggests: "Thank you, Lord, for saving me from this sin that I’ve tried to medicate my pain with (and list it specifically). Right now I’m looking to Jesus and trusting Him to live His life through me. I’m now trusting Him to use His Word to purify my mind." And we’ve got to make prayer a regular habit in our lives – not a quickie one we toss up as we’re walking out the door, but committed, persistent daily prayer. Claim the victory in prayer and continue in prayer.

(NEW SLIDE) Second, we’ve got to focus our minds on what we should focus on, not what we shouldn’t. The more we focus on not thinking about temptation, the more we’ll think about it. We have to focus on thinking about God’s Word. Memorizing Scripture is a powerful key to enabling Holy Spirit to bring God’s truth right to mind when we need it the most. Scripture memory is hard work, but I’ve found I can do it if I work hard at it. You can, too. So what Scripture do we use to fight the temptation to indulge in counterfeit patience? (NEW SLIDE) How about Romans 15:5-6 from the New Living? May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other—each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other. 6 Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Memorize this verse to help you to overcome the temptation to indulge in counterfeit patience. We’ve got to memorize Scripture, giving us the very tool Jesus used to defeat Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness.

(NEW SLIDE) Third, we’ve got to have accountability. When you have to look other Christians in the eye and tell them the truth, it really helps keep you from giving in to temptation. We have to ask ourselves this question and answer truthfully. Is there anyone in your life who you have given permission to ask you about how you spend your time and your money, and about how your relationships are going? We can’t resist temptation without accountability. Prayer is great, and memorizing Scripture is great. But we won’t consistently use them in our walk with God and we won’t consistently walk closely with God without accountability. It just won’t happen!

Ted Sutherland wrote, Dr. Glenn Olds, former President of Kent State University, recalled the sight of Mt. Rushmore as he hitch-hiked cross-country in 1941 during his junior year. From 10 miles back, he recognized Washington and Lincoln. But in the middle was a figure that looked like Adolf Hitler. Once close, instead of hair combed over a forehead, the young man saw guy wires, instead of a moustache, he saw scaffolding. The image stuck, and he made a note in journal. "What was Adolf Hitler at 10 miles away was Thomas Jefferson construction," he said. The experience became a parable: "Almost every major problem at a distance looks bad. When you get up close, you can see it’s something terribly important under construction (as cited on SermonCentral.com). We’ve got to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to give us true spiritual patience so that we can defeat the cycle of sin in our lives that fills us with counterfeit patience.

Conclusion

Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Where are you at in the cycle of sin? Have you been effectively defeating it at the first stage, not allowing yourself to become preoccupied with temptation, praying and focusing on God’s Word in your heart and making yourself accountable to fellow Christians? Or has the sin cycle been getting the best of you? If you are struggling with sin, remember what 1 John 1:9 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Right now we’re going spend a few minutes checking our own hearts and allowing God the Holy Spirit to show us any areas where we’re struggling with sin.
What has God been saying to your heart? If you want to begin the process of defeating the cycle of sin in your heart and life, now’s the time to start. First, you must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, otherwise the Holy Spirit has no power in your heart. If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you want to begin to appropriate His power to break the cycle of counterfeit peace or any other sin in your heart and life, pray right now and repeat after me. "Thank you, Lord, for saving me from that. Right now I’m looking to Jesus and trusting Him to live His life through me. I’m now trusting Him to use His Word to purify my mind. Amen." If you prayed that prayer, I challenge you to do two things. First, start working on memorizing John 14:27 today, not tomorrow, not sometime this week, but today. Second, find someone who will lovingly but not permissively hold you accountable, and find them today. Confess your counterfeit peace and the rituals you practice. Then meet with them weekly if at all possible, confess to each other, strengthen and encourage each other. But get started today, or you simply won’t do it!