Patience (4 of 8)
Series: Fruition
Dave Gustavsen
James 5:7-11
Good morning Chapel family. We’re taking this fall to walk through the famous Fruit of the Spirit teaching from the New Testament. Usually, the only thing you hear is the list, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It’s a beautiful list. But when you look at the broader context where that list appears, you realize that beautiful way of living doesn’t come without a battle. Because there’s a part of you that wants to live in a very different way—with selfishness and envy and rage, etc. Ugly things. And until you enter heaven, that struggle between the flesh and the spirit will always be there. But here’s the surprising part: the way to win that battle is not to just to try harder; it’s to learn how to connect with the power of Christ.
In other words, like we’ve been saying every week:
The pull of sin is strong
But the living Christ is stronger
So open yourself to his Spirit
And you will bear his fruit
So that’s what this series is all about—learning together how to open ourselves to the Spirit of Jesus—the Holy Spirit—so that we bear the fruit of Jesus in our lives. We actually become like him!
So today we come to the fourth fruit, which is patience.
Honestly, this is a challenging area for me. When Norma Jean and I are driving together, and somebody slow pulls out in front of me in a no-passing zone, like—say on Jacksonville Road—and if we come to the light at the Towaco post office, and that person makes the light, but I get stopped at the red, and I would have made it if it weren’t for that person, I have a natural tendency to get a bit agitated. And Norma Jean just shakes her head. She says, “Why does that matter to you so much?” And the honest answer is, “I don’t know.” Usually I’m not late for something; I just don’t like when somebody slows me down. Can anybody relate? And that’s not a good thing. Because it’s no ...
Series: Fruition
Dave Gustavsen
James 5:7-11
Good morning Chapel family. We’re taking this fall to walk through the famous Fruit of the Spirit teaching from the New Testament. Usually, the only thing you hear is the list, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It’s a beautiful list. But when you look at the broader context where that list appears, you realize that beautiful way of living doesn’t come without a battle. Because there’s a part of you that wants to live in a very different way—with selfishness and envy and rage, etc. Ugly things. And until you enter heaven, that struggle between the flesh and the spirit will always be there. But here’s the surprising part: the way to win that battle is not to just to try harder; it’s to learn how to connect with the power of Christ.
In other words, like we’ve been saying every week:
The pull of sin is strong
But the living Christ is stronger
So open yourself to his Spirit
And you will bear his fruit
So that’s what this series is all about—learning together how to open ourselves to the Spirit of Jesus—the Holy Spirit—so that we bear the fruit of Jesus in our lives. We actually become like him!
So today we come to the fourth fruit, which is patience.
Honestly, this is a challenging area for me. When Norma Jean and I are driving together, and somebody slow pulls out in front of me in a no-passing zone, like—say on Jacksonville Road—and if we come to the light at the Towaco post office, and that person makes the light, but I get stopped at the red, and I would have made it if it weren’t for that person, I have a natural tendency to get a bit agitated. And Norma Jean just shakes her head. She says, “Why does that matter to you so much?” And the honest answer is, “I don’t know.” Usually I’m not late for something; I just don’t like when somebody slows me down. Can anybody relate? And that’s not a good thing. Because it’s no ...
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