Last week I spoke about a faith that pleases God, however faith must go hand in hand with patience, persistence, and waiting.
Unfortunately many Christians start their Christian lives well but they abandon their faith along the way, as well as the church and God.
The most important thing in Christian life is not how you start, but how you end your journey.
I want to start by talking about “Waiting”. Who here likes to wait? We are the fast-food generation and we want everything quickly, instantly. We don’t like waiting. But the Christian life doesn’t work like that.
The importance of waiting is almost always overlooked in the contemporary church.
Waiting is an essential part of our preparation for the Lord’s return and our encounter with Jesus.
“So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Hebrews 9:28 NKJV
To whom will He appear? To those who eagerly wait for Him.
Do you really love Jesus? Do you sincerely desire to be with Him? Are you eagerly waiting for Him?
Is your heart burning with the desire to meet with Him and be received by Him as a faithful servant?
“But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:13-14 NKJV
Jesus was speaking about all the problems and troubles that are coming on the nations, and He said: He who endures to the end will be saved.
Jesus was very clear: Those who endure to the end will be saved.
Who will be saved? The ones who have held on until the very end.
So you’ve been saved now, but to remain saved you have to endure it until the end!
“By your patience possess your souls.” Luke 21:19 NKJV
“You will save yourselves by continuing strong in your faith through all these things.”
Luke 21:19 ERV
Jesus is saying that by your endurance you will save your soul. Without endurance and without patience you will be lost! Jesus said that!
Do you know how can you have great endurance or patience? Let’s see!
““Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2-4 NLT
When we face various trials and troubles maybe we don’t complain but we certainly don’t count it as joyful occasions. Actually, we have to confess that as a sin.
James said: consider it pure joy when you face many trials! Why? Because the testing of your faith produces endurance.
I have observed in the New Testament that every time a Christian goes through some trial, it’s actually a test of faith.
It may take many forms but God is always testing your faith.
James says: let endurance do its perfect work! Don’t stop short. Do not start well and then give up halfway. Let endurance complete its work so that you may be perfected and lack nothing.
How many of you want to be perfect and complete, lacking nothing?
What are the conditions? Endurance!
There is only one way to learn endurance, do you know what it is? By enduring!
Another word used in the Bible instead of endurance is long-suffering and do you know how you could learn long-suffering? By suffering for a long time! There is no other way.
People come to me and ask me to pray for them and for their job, because they cannot stand their boss. Sometimes I tell them: God is using your boss to test you and you need to learn endurance!
Don’t give up on your job, don’t change jobs, change yourself, endure suffering, be perfect, be humble because God is using your boss and the circumstances to transform you.
Let’s turn to the end of James and I’ll show you how endurance is connected with the preparation for the coming of the Lord.
“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”
James 5:7 NIV
“You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.”
James 5:8-10 NIV
“As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
James 5:11 NIV
The word we see here is patience. These 3 words are all related here: patience, perseverance and endurance
All of them have their place in the Christian experience. Patience is essentially doing nothing, and God shows a lot of patience.
Peter said that the patience of God waited in the days of Noah. God didn’t do anything for a hundred and twenty years.
Perseverance on the other hand is doing something and persistently doing it. It’s to keep on going, never stopping.
Endurance in Greek means: remaining under. So that whenever you are under a lot of pressure, you remaining there, you don’t try to escape.
These three aspects of the Christian conduct : Patience, perseverance and endurance, they are all involved in getting you ready for the coming of the Lord.
I find that for most men, patience can be one of the hardest things to achieve. I think women are better at patience than men.
When you read these verses above (James) you find that the theme is Patience, Perseverance and Endurance. That’s the pattern you’ll always see when it comes to the people of God who are preparing for the return of the Lord.
The Bible is very clear, if you don’t have patience, perseverance and endurance you can lose all of what God has promised you . Only the one who has endured it to the end will be saved.
You know what I have noticed about God’s trials?
He hardly ever tells you: look this is a trial and if you hold out for six months, you will overcome it. Some of us get to five months and 29 days and we then give up.
If only we had known we only had to hold on to one more day!
Don’t give up.
There is no precedent in the Bible for giving up. God determines how long the test will last, not us.
Waiting is one of the tests which God will almost always subject the servants He intends to use.
Lets see some example in the Bible:
Abraham
God said him: You’ll have a son who will be the head of a unique and precious Nation.
How long did Abraham have to wait for this? He waited for 25 years!
Meanwhile, his dear wife Sarah tried to help him and ended up complicating things even more… She said to her husband, listen to me and do what I say: Just have a child with Hagar! but later she changed her mind and demanded, get rid of the child!
That’s the counsel of the flesh. It’s inconsistent, it tells you to do one thing and later the opposite.
But Abraham became the man he was by waiting. He had to watch his wife go past the age of childbearing and still wait some more.
It amazes me that Abraham is so highly rated in the Bible. What did he ever do?
He was a prosperous cattle farmer who wandered around the area east of the Mediterranean looking after his flocks and his herds. He did nothing very dramatic or spiritual until that one time when he was willing to offer his son Isaac as sacrifice.
I’ve often asked myself what was it in Abraham that caused God to esteem him so highly that he was later called “a friend of God”?
I think one of the ways he earns God’s favour is by simply waiting.
Some of you are going to lose God’s favour if you don’t learn how to wait. Don’t give up, wait! Persevere!
Another example of this is Joseph.
There is a Psalm that speaks about Joseph , Psalm 105:17
“He sent a man before them— Joseph—who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, He was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the Lord tested him.”
Psalms 105:17-19 NKJV
See how the Lord tests Joseph, first the Lord promises something glorious, and soon after that everything goes the opposite way.
Instead of becoming a ruler, he ends up in a jail in Egypt.
What was God doing? Testing him!
What was the test? Simply waiting.
Let’s now look at one more person: Moses
“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” Numbers 12:3 KJV
The Bible says Moses was the meekest man on earth. How did Moses learn meekness?
By waiting! By waiting for 40 years.
Somebody asks: Why did God keep Moses waiting for 40 years? The answer is simply because He couldn’t do it in 39 years. God will not stop until the testing is complete.
When Moses first thought he could deliver Israel out of Egypt he was a very arrogant young man. He was called by God but he had many things to learn first.
40 years later he was the meekest man on earth and no one, except Jesus, has ever exercised such authority as Moses did.
So, if you want to have authority, if you want to be used by God, you know what you need to cultivate? Meekness!
God cannot trust His authority to the arrogant, proud and self-asserted.
Do you know the condition for promotion in the kingdom of God? It’s very easy!
“Whoever serves you like a servant is the greatest among you. People who think they are better than others will be made humble. But people who humble themselves will be made great.” Matthew 23:11-12
Everyone who humbles themselves will be exalted!
On the other hand, if you exalt yourself, you’ll be forever at the base! You have the choice!
That’s an unchangeable law that governs the universe!
People talk about breaking God’s laws! That doesn’t happen!
We don’t break God’s law, God’s law breaks us, if we try to break them.
Let’s look at David for a moment.
He was another young man who received tremendous promises from God. God called him and gave him many promises.
Before becoming king, David spent about 15 years waiting for the promises over his life to be fulfilled. He spent those 15 years fleeing from Saul, often hiding in caves. Even though he had already been anointed as king, he had to wait for God’s perfect timing to take the throne.
During this time of waiting, David wrote many Psalms, expressing his trust in God. This example shows that waiting can be a time of spiritual growth and intimate communion with God.
Why does God allow this?
Actually, why does God ordain that? What is God looking for? Endurance!
You cannot bypass endurance.
I was tested many times. My faith was tested many times. It was not easy but the worst times I’ve had in life helped to teach me patience, endurance, persistence, meekness and humbleness.
You cannot bypass endurance and enter into the promises of God .
You can come so far, but the fullness of a promise is only through endurance.
And just when it seems impossible to hold on, that’s when you’re really not supposed to let go.
Don’t give in.
I would like to say that to several of you individually: You’re in the test!
You’re doing all right, just hang in there! Don’t give back out, don’t give up!
Maybe you’re in the middle of a test, it has been hard for you, you may have only a few days to finish your test! Do not give up!
God is faithful! I can guarantee you this: God is faithful! God will not make things easy for you or to deliver you from all hardships.
God has a beautiful calling for your life! Don’t give up, keep on believing, keep on running the race of faith and you will receive the crown of justice if you endure it until the end.
God bless you!