Fruit of the Spirit: Patience, 6/14/15

² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Gal 5:22-23  ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Phil 4:7   ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Last week.  Jennifer and patty.  Candidates for ministry

Need opportunities

All ministers are gone.  Great time

Annual conf a time of appointments. 

Please don’t begrudge the appointments of others - take joy!!

They are the hands and feet of jesus and an extension of woods chapel

Today the series continues – fruit of the spirit

Patience and peace.  Peace and patience. Now I will wax poetic…..

·         Patience is a virtue,

·         Possess it if you can.

·         Found seldom in a woman,

·         Never in a man.

Patience - I'm in a hurry but god is not

Lord I want patience and I want it now.

WAR

We think about peace and war – our brain defaults to armed conflict when we think of peace……

We don’t like war

Examples: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan

Peace medals in Smithsonian                                                                  PICTURES

Last of the Mohicans

Peace is more than

The absence of war. It is a gift of daily peace that we can offer to others

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.

Daily Peace

Peace as a gift that we give to people every day

Peace to the other drivers, to the person at the dmv

To the attendant at the hotel.

Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man's feet and gave him food and drink. The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, "Don't you worship God?"  The old traveler replied, "I worship fire only and reverence no other god."  When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his his tent into the cold night air. When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, "I forced him out because he did not worship you." God answered, "I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?"

Mouths

It is measured or controlled by what comes out of our mouths

How the use of our mouths affect peace

The hurtful things that we say

Peace in my heart

More than an absence of guilt

It is a managing of our responses to stimulus

Sun day before annual conf.  a melt down

Conflicted, broken over an old wound

How do we identify them and heal them

Desire

Patience implies that I am waiting for what I want, for what I prefer.

That implies that I am not getting what I want.

Ref - David Gilmore’s sermon at conference about all things work together for good.

Good by whose definition?

·        Illness?

·        Loneliness?

·        Trouble with a child?

I think I know what is good, but maybe god is working on a greater good

We aren’t in charge, we don’t get to define good.

Delayed gratification. – the concept

Peace comes when we stop wanting everything….

Duke University did a study on “peace of mind.” Factors found to contribute greatly to emotional and mental stability are:

1) the absence of suspicion and resentment. Nursing a grudge was a major factor in unhappiness.  1 cor 13 – love keeps no record of wrongs

2) Not living in the past. An unwholesome preoccupation with old mistakes and failures leads to depression.

3) Not wasting time and energy fighting conditions you cannot change. Cooperate with life, instead of trying to run away from it.

4) Force yourself to stay involved with the living world. Resist the temptation to withdraw and become reclusive during periods of emotional stress.

5) Refuse to indulge in self-pity when life hands you a raw deal. Accept the fact that nobody gets through life without some sorrow and misfortune.

6) Cultivate the old-fashioned virtues—love, humor, compassion and loyalty.

7) Do not expect too much of yourself. When there is too wide a gap between self-expectation and your ability to meet the goals you have set, feelings of inadequacy are inevitable.

8) Find something bigger than yourself to believe in. Self-centered egotistical people score lowest in any test for measuring happiness.

Default - patience and peace

where is our default……… something is right or something is wrong……

barak obama – George w bush……

Hc parking……. They shouldn’t be in there.  Its ok, jeff

And we spend the next 20 minutes being angry……..

These are not the droids that you are looking for            PICTURE

Watch-observe  how you respond to things…..

Ask yourself, What is your default.

Let it go - pillow

When we take to ourselves we are selfish.

When we demand that things go our way, it is the flesh.

Fighting with a pillow….. illustrate letting God have it.

When we let it go and give it to god, we release it

After we release it, then god has the opportunity to give it back to us if he so chooses.

And we receive a thing as a gift from god instead of taking it unto ourselves.

We don’t have to be afraid of the suffering of not getting our own way.

Things are not going to go your way

Richard rohr-  said of st francis, that he had an inner authority – he let go of all fear of suffering; all need for power, prestige and possessions; any need for the small self to be important; and came to know something essential--who he really was in God and thus who he really was. his house was then built on "bedrock," as Jesus says (Matthew 7]

To st francis,  some form of suffering was absolutely necessary to teach us how to live beyond the illusion of control and to give that control back to God. Then and ony then do we become usable instruments in his hands,

Such a counterintuitive insight

Conclusion

"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs and hurts just as clothes do against the cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind."   Leonardo da Vinci.

Picture of peace….Long ago a man sought the perfect picture of peace. Not finding one that satisfied, he announced a contest to produce this masterpiece. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere, and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally the great day of revelation arrived. The judges uncovered one peaceful scene after another, while the viewers clapped and cheered.  The tensions grew. Only two pictures remained veiled.

As a judge pulled the cover from one, a hush fell over the crowd.

A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed. Surely this was the winner. The man who ordered the contest uncovered the second painting himself, and the crowd gasped in surprise. Could this be peace?  A tumultuous waterfall cascaded down a rocky cliff face; the crowd could almost feel its cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with lightning, wind and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its branches reached out in front of the torrential waters as if foolishly seeking to defy its power.                                                                      PICTURE

A little bird had built a nest in the elbow of that branch. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil. 

Peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that He is there with you always.