ÿþ <html> <head> <title>Welcome to First United Methodist Church, El Dorado, AR,  A Christian s Character; the Spirit s Fruit Part Four, Patience </title><!--- July 4, 2010 --> <meta name="description" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. First Church, First Methodist, Methodist John Wesley, Methodist, United Methodist Youth, United Methodist women" /> <meta name="keywords" content="First United Methodist church, El Dorado, AR, FUMC, F.U.M.C. 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I was just taking my time - a little too much time, perhaps? Maybe you just need to be more patient. After all, patience is fourth on the list of character qualities we call the fruit of the Spirit. It s what some of you were starting to run short of while waiting for me to get up here. Thirty seconds of unscripted silence was all it took. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> This summer we are looking at the character qualities of the Spirit-filled Christian. Listen again to these words from Galatians 5:22-23. <b><i> But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. </i></b> With similar words Paul wrote in Colossians 3:12, <b><i> As God s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. </i></b> </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Patience. We all need it, don t we? This past week I read about a first-grade teacher who was having a difficult day. It had rained that entire day and the children had become more and more restless. The teacher couldn t wait for the bell to ring at 3. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> About 2:45 she decided to start getting the kids ready for dismissal. She sorted out their boots and raincoats and started helping get them on. Finally, they were ready to go, all except for one little girl whose boots were just too small for her feet. It took every last ounce of strength for the teacher to get them on. When at last she straightened up with a sigh of relief, the little girl looked down at her feet and said,  Teacher, you know what? These boots aren t mine! </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> The teacher didn t know whether to laugh or cry, so she just smiled bravely and began to yank and tug again until finally the boots were off. That s when the little girl smiled at her and said,  They re my sister s boots, but she lets me wear them! </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> <b> As God s chosen ones... clothe yourselves with patience. </b> We all need it. With patience we can deal with life s irritations and annoyances with a touch of grace - God s grace. When we live beside a neighbor whose dog barks all night, or come up to a driver poking along at 45 miles per hour in the left lane of the interstate, we won t immediately start shouting if we have patience. When we are standing behind a person in the 20-item express line at Wal-Mart and watch as she puts 30 items on the belt, chats with the clerk, fishes for a checkbook only after everything has been rung up, and then argues about the bill, our blood pressure won t go up. When our husband or wife is taking too long to get ready and is about to make us late for church, patience is what will calm our voice. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> The Greek word for patience is <i>makrothumia,</i> which is a combination of two words. <i>Makro</i> means  long and <i>thumia</i> means  temper. It literally means to be long-tempered as opposed to being short- tempered. In other words, patience is the ability to be slow to anger, which is very much a God-like quality. Psalm 103:8 says: <b><i> The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. </i></b> God is patient. Patience, the ability to be long-suffering, not be easily or quickly angered, is in short supply in our world. It s interesting to note that when Paul talked about what life is like outside of Christ, he described it as an angry life. In Col.3:7-8, the verses just before today s reading, Paul wrote, <b><i> You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and abusive language. </i></b> Our s is an angry world filled with short tempers where people gossip and quarrel, argue and fight. It s a world where churches split and marriages break and friendships fracture. It s confrontational politics and caustic talk shows, aggressive Little League parents and out-of-control sports fans, vengeful movies and violent music, accusatory e-mails and raging blogs. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> That s life outside of Christ, in the absence of God s Spirit, says Paul. It s an angry life.  Get rid of such things, Paul said. Take off those angry old clothes and put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. <b><i> As God s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with patience. </i></b> </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> It might help to liken patience to a good motor oil: It doesn t remove all the contaminants; it just puts them into suspension so they don t seize things up. Patient people have, so too speak, a large crankcase. They can put a lot of irritants into suspension without seizing up. Oh sure, patient people get annoyed like anybody else. They know there s a time to speak up and a time to deal directly. But until the time is right for that, until they are right for that, patient people have a place to put their annoyances without exploding and losing control. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Please understand: patience is not passivity or indifference. It is not a fatalistic attitude toward life that simply says:  Whatever will be, will be. Patience doesn t mean that you never get angry, because anger is not always wrong. Patience simply means you are slow to anger and quick to get rid of it. Too often we are just the opposite, quick to get angry and slow to get rid of it. Patience is hard work! </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> How, then, do we get patience? Well, like all the rest, patience is a fruit of the Spirit, and that means it s partly something God does in us. We know that some people are naturally patient; it s part of their personality. With God s Spirit in us, however, all of us will become more patient. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> With God s Spirit in us, we begin to see people - even difficult people - the way Jesus does, through a lense of love. We will begin to see that maybe the reason they are acting in such an obnoxious way is because of a tremendous pain in their lives. Perhaps the reason they seem so distant and arrogant is because they ve been hurt and are now trying to protect themselves from rejection. With God s Spirit in us, we begin to see people more clearly through the eyes of Jesus. Patience will be a natural by-product. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> With God s Spirit in us, we will remember how incredibly patient God has been with us. We will remember how many times we have come before God and confessed the same ugly sins, how many times we have disregarded, disobeyed, and disappointed God, and how God has never lost patience with us. As the Spirit reminds us of God s patience with us, we will find it a little easier to be patient with those around us. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> Finally, with the Spirit of God in us, we learn to keep our eyes on Jesus. As we do, we see him there on the cross, absorbing the accumulated evil of the whole world. We see him absorbing all that sin and suffering without inflicting it on others, thereby breaking the cycle of retaliation and vengeance in which this angry world is trapped. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> As the Spirit of God helps us remember Jesus on the cross, somehow the irritations that used to bug us before won t seem quite so annoying, and we won t be so easily angered. </font></p> <p align="left"><font face="verdana" size="2"> <b><i> As God s chosen ones, holy and beloved </i></b> - that is, as people who have been saved by God s grace and filled with God s Spirit - <b><i> clothe yourselves with patience. </i></b> Let the Holy Spirit fill you with his fruit: love, joy, peace... and now patience. Amen. </font></p> <br><br> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> </table> <TABLE width=800 border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <TR bgcolor="#d8d2d8"> <TD width=800 valign="baseline" bgcolor="#d8d2d8" align=right> <!--- beige F2F2E6 ----> <font face="verdana" color="#000000" size="1"> This site designed and maintained by <a href="http://www.hipdogwebdesign.com">HipDog Web Design&reg;</a><br> Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.</TD> <TD width="19%">&nbsp;</TD> </TR> </TABLE> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>