Scripture: James 5:7-11
Sermon Series: Stormproof – Sermon 08

Are you good at waiting? It’s estimated that we spend up to 1/3 of life’s waking hours waiting. It may be waiting in line or at the doctor’s office or waiting for a phone call or for an answer from a friend.

Most of us hate to wait. Where do you have the hardest time waiting?

Ken Fleckenstein was incensed when he had to wait for his doctor. The headline read: Sick of Waiting, Patient Sues Doctor. Fleckenstein arrived on time for an appointment with a podiatrist but had to sit in a waiting room for 87 minutes. On his next visit, he waited 51 minutes. The self-employed handyman claimed his wait cost him time, money, and customers. So, he sent his podiatrist a $92 invoice. When the doctor refused to pay, Fleckenstein sued for time wasted and $1,755 in attorney’s fees. In court, the podiatrist admitted double booking, sometimes triple booking, but claimed emergencies took priority. He also gave Fleckenstein a verbal and written apology. Ultimately, the jury sided with the doctor.

Time is our most precious commodity, more valuable than money. You can make more money; you can’t make more time. So, we rightly guard our time.

Sadly, most of us are continually in a hurry. We hate waiting for people. If we’re honest, we have to confess that we hate waiting on God.

One reason why we’re so unhappy is because we’re impatient. The New Testament book of James tells us that dissatisfaction comes from the evil and selfish desires within us. It’s why we argue, why we’re prideful, why we judge others so quickly, why we make plans without God, and why we focus too much on the material and temporary things of life.

As we conclude our series, Stormproof, we want to talk about a vital spiritual fruit – Waiting, or patience. Please turn to James 5:7-11 (p. 952). Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

God’s Word commands us to learn to wait, to be patient. Words referring to waiting or patience are used some 74 times across the Old and New Testaments.

Waiting is the opposite of anger. It’s self-restraint that’s long-suffering. It means having a long fuse and not letting people push your buttons. Most can identify with the guy who prayed, Lord, give me patience—right now!

We’re great at waiting if things are going well. It’s easy to be patient then. But when things bother us or we’re struggling or suffering, it’s hard to be patient. Unfortunately, there’s no crash course to cultivating patience.

Did you know patience is a quality of God? Peter, writing about the delay in Jesus’ return to clean up this evil world said: The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

If God weren’t patient, He’d have wiped all of us off the face of the earth! William Barclay writes: The great obligation which rests on the Christian is just this—he must be as patient with his fellowmen as God has been with him. So put it on your prayer list (for yourself, not for your mate or your kids!), and work on learning to wait. If you’re taking notes…

1. We must learn to wait, yet it’s hard. 

James mentions three specific times when we must learn to wait. When these occur, you’ll want to take control and rush ahead of God. Don’t do it. You’ll end up frustrated, angry, and worn out. When are we to wait?

When circumstances are uncontrollable.

Maybe you can relate to this kindergarten teacher. It was the end of a long winter day, and she was struggling and straining to stuff one of her student’s feet into his snow boots. When she finally finished the boy said, “They’re on the wrong feet.” So, she worked to get them off and put them on the other feet. Then he said, “These aren’t my boots.” By now she was sweating, but she took them off again. Then he said, “They’re my brother’s boots, but my mother told me to wear them today.” Almost at the breaking point, she worked to get them back on his feet again. Then she said, “Finally! Now where are your mittens?” He said, “I stuffed them in the toes of my boots.” We need to pray for teachers!

There are some things you can control in your life. There are many you can’t. James uses a farmer as an example of when circumstances are uncontrollable. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen (James 5:7, NLT). Part of the job description of being a farmer is that you do a lot of waiting. Even though the farmer is busy, he must wait. He waits till a certain time to plant, he waits for the crop to grow, he waits for God to bring the rain, he waits for the right time to harvest the crops. The farmer has no control over things like the weather, rain, heat, or economy.

His example reminds us to be patient in circumstances beyond our control. There are many things in life we have no control over. We just need to wait.

When you have bad health, you must wait until you get better. It takes patience to pay off bills and get out of debt. You need to be patient as you wait for that promotion. You’ll need to wait while God is working behind the scenes to bring you the right person to marry. If you’re young, there are some things you must wait for because you’re not old enough.

There’s a lot of waiting in life. Once you learn how to wait, life is less frustrating and much more enjoyable. Like a farmer, you need to work while you wait, staying busy doing whatever God wants you to do while waiting.

When people are unchangeable.

Some of you have done long distance dating. 53% of singles under 30 used a dating site or app in the last year. Dating online though can be very frustrating. Just ask Alexander Pieter Cirk. Cirk who lives in Holland fell for a Chinese woman he’d met online. Fed up with the distance he got a visa, booked a flight, and flew 5,000 miles to see her. He’d sent her a picture of his itinerary, but when he arrived in China, she was nowhere to be found. Convinced she’d eventually come for him, Cirk decided to stay at the terminal and patiently waited for her. Patiently…for 10 days. After 10 days, the now “frail-looking Cirk” was taken to a hospital. His girlfriend? A Chinese TV team found her, and she confessed she thought Cirk was joking about the trip to see her.

If you live for Jesus and live out biblical convictions and beliefs, you’ll have people oppose you, ridicule you, mistreat you or lie about you. Their life’s calling seems to be to cause pain in your life. You’ll need patience with these people. They seem unchangeable and unteachable.

God gives us an example of this kind of patience. Verse 10, For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord (NLT). A prophet’s task was to help people change and come back to God, deliver His message and encourage them to repent of sin. They’d share the message God gave them, but people often rejected the message and prophet. They’d ridicule them, even hurt them. Some prophets did this for years before they saw change, if any.

God urges us to learn to wait like the prophets who obeyed God. You’ll have a person or group you’re trying to reach for Jesus. They may live in your home, a spouse or a child. You’re praying for them, loving them, forgiving them, blessing them, and sharing God’s Word and love with them. But they don’t seem to care. Some may be saying and doing unkind things, making your life miserable. They seem unchangeable, unteachable and unreachable. God urges you to, Be patient with them.

When you feel devalued and under-appreciated by those you’re loving, it won’t be easy to be patient. Remember the patience of believers like Elijah, Moses, Jeremiah, and Esther. They weren’t perfect yet are models of how to wait when you’re suffering for God and people are not changing.

When problems are unexplainable.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord (James 5:11). We don’t have time to share all Job’s story, but he really suffered. In a matter of minutes, he received news that he’d lost all that he owned, and his children were dead. He then loses his health and has terrible boils all over his body. His friends turn on him. His wife is horrible and tells him to curse God and die. Life can’t get much worse. But Job refused to give up his faith and determined to endure what God had brought into his life even though he couldn’t understand why God brought it.

Job was a normal person struggling by faith to make it through trials that God allowed, just like you and me. Job wasn’t perfect, but he persevered.  

What did God do? At the end of the story, God gave Job more than he’d lost. He was blessed by God. Today, we know what God was doing in Job’s life. We know the whole story. But when Job was going through his trials, he didn’t know what God was doing.

Like Job, we often don’t know why God allows our trials. The example of Job shows us that God has a purpose. Someday we’ll understand what God was doing. God’s purposes are always greater than the trials He allows. Some of those purposes we see down the road in this life. Many of God’s purposes for our trials we won’t understand until we look back on them from the vantage point of heaven. Then we’ll be glad we persevered through them. We must learn to wait on God even when circumstances are uncontrollable.

Many things happen both good and bad in our lives. Sometimes they don’t make sense. Maybe we’ll never understand what we go through on this side of heaven. Some questions will never be answered. In all of his suffering Job maintained his faith and waited on God. Even in all the unexplained problems in your life, sometimes all you can do is trust God and wait.

Like when you lose someone you love for some unexplained reason, all you can do is trust God and wait. When you lose your job and you’re not sure why, all you can do is trust God and wait. When problems happen that don’t make sense, sometimes all you can do is trust God and wait.

Sometimes we ask, “Why do you think God allowed this to happen? Why hasn’t God done something about this?” Sometimes the only answer is, “I don’t know.” There are some things unexplainable from our perspective. This is where patience and trusting God is vital.

So, what do you believe is a serious crime? What do you believe is a serious sin? This morning if you were arrested for grumbling or complaining, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

For most of us there’d be more than enough. One Japanese man was arrested after making over 24,000 complaint calls to the phone company. Akitoshi Okamoto was angry with his service provider for a variety of reasons, including the fact he was unable to receive radio signals on his phone. Police say he initially demanded an apology in person from company staff but later began immediately terminating the calls as soon as they were placed. Averaging 33 calls per day in one week, Okamoto made over 400 calls. James 5:11 is very convicting. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door (James 5:11)

2. Learning to wait helps keep us from the sin of grumbling. 

We can’t take out our frustrations on the Lord. Too often we take them out on each other, usually it’s our spouse or child. It might be our pastor…because after all, he gets paid to put up with us.

Grumbling is evil. It’s a serious sin. And we must not grumble against each other. Roger Ellsworth writes: When we are inclined to be critical and grumpy about a brother in Christ, we would do well to remember that he is our brother in Christ!

This prohibition against grumbling has a grammatical emphasis that issues a cease-and-desist order: “Stop grumbling.” It’s a call to repentance. God commands us, “Stop grumbling. Stop complaining. Stop whining.” It’s a warning every Christ-follower needs. Ours is a critical, grumbling culture. Too often Christ-followers who are not of this world talk just like the world, when it comes to criticizing or complaining.

So, if you’re tired, or scared, or angry, when you feel backed into a corner, when life tumbles in around you, when you’re betrayed, harassed, lied to or lied about, when your world turns upside down – Watch your mouth!

The word translated, grumble means to groan or sigh. It’s what we do when we don’t feel like taking it anymore.

Your spirit is vexed. You sigh inwardly. Then, you sigh outwardly. Ultimately, you grumble against Christian brothers and sisters.

When you’re tired, scared or angry, it’s easy to get hypercritical of the people you love the most. Odd how that works, isn’t it? If we walk down the street and someone we don’t know swears at us, we’re apt to laugh it off and move on. Let your spouse say or do one wrong thing, let your kids get on your “last nerve,” let your friends at church not respond the way you want them to, well, what happens then? You lose your cool. You say something stupid. Grumbling can destroy your marriage, tear your family apart, and destroy your closest friendships. It can destroy a church.

Instead, love must cover a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) because there is a multitude of sins that need covering. Usually, it’s not the big stuff that trips us up. It’s the little things, the sand in your shoe, the irritating mannerisms, the joke that wasn’t a joke, the perceived slight sticks in your mind. If you look for reasons to grumble, you’ll find them. Even the best friends will let us down. Spouses get on each other’s nerves all the time. And the kids? Well, the kids can drive you up the wall.

Notice the reason James gives. Don’t grumble or you will be judged. Ouch! Faultfinders will be found out. Spiritual vultures will be exposed. The critic will be criticized. The judger will be judged.

The Judge is standing at the door! What judge? He’s talking about the Lord Jesus. Most of us are familiar with the image of Christ standing at the door, knocking and waiting for us to open the door (Revelation 3:20). It’s a beautiful picture of the Lord waiting to enter and have fellowship with us, but here James gives the flip side of that scene. Christ stands at the door, ready to come in and judge the judger. He’ll personally expose our critical spirit, bitter words, inward sighs and complaints or criticisms that we thought no one noticed.

Maybe it’s what John means when he warns believers to stay close to Christ so that we won’t shrink back in shame at His coming (1 John 2:28). We view the Second Coming as our “Blessed Hope” (which it is) yet overlook the fact that the coming of Christ will lead to a time of examination for every Christian. When we stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ or Bema. All the worthless things that we’ve done (wood, hay and stubble) will be burned up (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). That won’t be a pleasant moment for any of us because we all have more “wood, hay and stubble” than we think.

The bottom line is that grumblers will answer to the Lord and He’s not accepting any excuses. Here’s a question to ponder: Can I maintain a gentle spirit when hard times hit? Can I smile when they throw me into the fire? If I can’t smile, can I at least refrain from snapping at my loved ones?

Grumbling can split churches! Nothing destroys Christian unity quicker than a critic or a grumbler. How many churches have been split, how many ministries ruined, how many pastors or church staff members have been injured because of the unkind words of other brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters, think about these things! When hard times hit, and they will, we must first wait expectantly and then graciously.

3. Learning to wait helps us stay steadfast. 

One of my favorite verses when I get discouraged is Jeremiah 12:5: If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? It’s a dialogue between God and the prophet, Jeremiah. It means that if someone struggles with minor challenges (symbolized by footmen), they’ll find it much harder to face greater difficulties (symbolized by “horses”). It emphasizes the need for perseverance with trials. Learning to wait cultivates the spiritual fruit of patience.

When unfair times come we need to hang in there and stick to it. We’re to imitate those prophets of old who persevered in speaking for God, even if meant going through times of suffering. Or like Job who held on-in the midst of unfairness after unfairness…and never gave up on God.

When I think of spiritual perseverance I think of a marathon runner who keeps running…who keeps striving to reach that finish line, even when he hits what they call “the wall,” that time a few miles into the race when their feet won’t stop hurting, knives of pain are stabbing through their calves, their lungs feel like they’re filled with hot coals and the temptation to stop is overwhelming. At this point in the race, in spite of the pain, winning runners persevere. They keep plodding along, drawing closer to the finish line with each determined step. Our “finish line” as Christians is to grow more and more like Jesus. It’s what we must continually seek after, no matter what.

God uses the inequities of life for our good, to help us mature spiritually. Many times, in our trials we feel like we have hit “the wall” in the “race of life.” When it happens, we must realize that tough times can be the tool God uses to mold us to make us better “runners” and more like His Son.

Paul knew this saying, We rejoice greatly in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope (Romans 3:3-4). Waiting during difficult times has a purpose. It helps us grow in perseverance and patience.

Conclusion

Let’s end with two final observations about waiting.

First, waiting isn’t hard; it’s impossible.

The sooner you admit it, the sooner you’ll surrender to Jesus who lives in you, to express His perfect patience through you. That’s the key to living a spiritually fruitful life.

I can’t love the unlovely—but Jesus can. I can’t have joy when there’s heartache—but Jesus can. I can’t have peace in the middle of a storm—but Jesus can. And I can’t wait when I’m surrounded by a world that breeds impatience—but Jesus can. Will you let Him give you the grace to wait?

Second, God is being patient with you right now, especially if you’ve heard the gospel and haven’t yet trusted Christ.

The Bible says, The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). If you haven’t placed your faith in Jesus yet, God is waiting patiently for you. That’s why Jesus hasn’t returned. It’s why you’re still alive. God is patient. He’s waiting…waiting for you.

After the Civil War, the main form of entertainment in America was public speaking. People filled large halls to listen to great orators speak for two or three hours. Remember, this was before radio or television.

One of the most popular speakers was an atheist named Robert Ingersoll. He loved to blaspheme God and poke fun at Christians and the Bible. His favorite speech was “Why I am an agnostic.”

Once while speaking in Boston, he ended his speech with a challenge to disprove the existence of God. He said, If there is a God, I challenge Him to prove His existence. If God exists I invite Him to strike me dead in the next minute. Then Ingersoll brazenly counted down the seconds from sixty.

There were reports of women fainting and men running for the exits out of their belief that a bolt of lightning would strike down this blasphemer. But at the end of 60 seconds, he was still standing. He concluded, So you see, ladies and gentlemen, there is no proof that God exists.

The next day a reporter asked A.J. Gordon, Pastor of Clarendon Street Baptist Church in Boston what he thought about Ingersoll’s challenge to God. Pastor Gordon chuckled and said, Does Mr. Ingersoll believe he can exhaust God’s marvelous patience in just sixty seconds?

My friend, if you haven’t trusted Christ yet, God is still patient with you. There’s no end to His patience, but there will be an end to your life and with it your opportunity to accept His free offer of salvation and eternal life. Will you trust Him today?