James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:7-11

⁷ 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. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.¹¹ 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.

When it comes to patiently looking to the Lords return James reveals a powerful principle, that patience involves both waiting and working: 

1. Waiting 

James uses the Palestinian farmer as a picture of patience. The farmer had to wait for the early and late rains. The early rain was in the fall, this was a rain that softened the parched land from the scorching summer sun, so that the hard ground could be ploughed to prepared for the seed to be planted. Some of you are waiting on the fall rain, dry and parched from a season of scorching. But are you patiently trusting in God’s timetable or panicking based on your trials? Now once the fall rains had come and the soil was ploughed, and the seed planted it would be easier to patiently wait right? Wrong, here is the hard part once the seed was planted it sat there dead all winter long. Nothing happened. The wheat and barley didn’t grow until the second rain the spring rains in March or April. All winter long the farmer sat there with nothing to show in the field. At least those with orchards had bare trees to look at but the Palestinian wheat farmer had nothing but a bare field from the time he put the seed in the ground in October until it started to come up in April. For half the year he waited patiently for something to happen. He was dependent on the second rain, the Spring rain. That means he had to practice patience, and the only way to do that is to tie your trust to God or you will give up, Galatians 6:9. Don’t miss James’ message, we are always in a season of waiting. Right now, some of you are in the middle of winter and it looks like nothing is happening. It was so long ago that the Lord planted the seed and it looks like nothing has sprout. Here is the question, How long will you wait on God?, that depends on how much you trust His timetable. Your trust will either be tied to His timetable or tethered to yours. If its tied to yours it will be based on results, if its His it will be tied to relying. James tells us to focus on the Redeemer not the results. Pastors, are you waiting on God? Some of you are in a small church and your tempted to bail because on the surface nothing seems to be happening, but are you willing to wait on the Holy Spirit to saturate the seed and bring for a harvest of fruit? Are you going to give up on God and abandon the field or be faithful to the call? Either we will faithfully wait for the fruit or fret? If it was hard to wait on the Lord in James’ day, some 20-30 years after the ascension of Jesus, how much more so for us some 2,000 years later? Lord, are you SURE that you’re coming back? Some of you are getting tempted to drop out, to give up on God but our assignment is to wait patiently. Are you waiting on God or worrying? Why do we worry, because we haven’t given things to God? Worry reveals a lack of trust in God.

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:7-11

⁷ 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. ⁸ You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. ⁹ Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! ¹⁰ Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.¹¹ 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.

As we continue in our series “The Litmus Test for Life” we come to the 10th test, “The Patience Test.” It’s here that James transitions from pride to patience. Unfortunately, today patience is something we all want to possess but not something we want to practice. But the purpose behind our patience has to do with faithfully waiting on Christ’s return. Why do we need the patience, because it provides the power to be steadfast in times of uncertainty? Without patient trust instead of waiting we will end up worrying. Many times, instead of waiting on Jesus we end up worrying over the junk. James also reveals that as we patiently wait on Jesus we will live at peace with people. My prayer is that patience will not just be a principle we talk about but a practice we walk out. It’s here that first we see:

1. The Practice of Patience Vs 7

Notice here that we are not just called to possess patience but to put it into practice. But who or what produces the patience we are to put into practice? Patience is a product of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, not a product of our personality. Galatians 5:22 makes it clear that it is a fruit of the Spirit. When we make the mistake of tying patience to a personality trait we end up believing that some people are just more prone to be patient and usually we have determined that we are not one of them! Now while some personalities may be more laid back I want you to notice that James is not calling us to be laid back but to trust Jesus to come back. We don’t need any more laid-back believer we need bold believers whose eyes are firmly fixed on Jesus.  As we submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit he produces patience and we put it into practice. That is why patience is not something we produce but something we practice. It’s critical that we don’t make the mistake of trying to produce patience in our strength, it’s not tied to trying harder its tied to trusting the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately patience is the fruit we are most likely to try and pass on, and one of the reasons we dislike it has to do with the greenhouse in which it is best grown. Patience is best developed through difficulties. Contrary to what we want patience is cultivated in the challenges not in the coddling. Remember James was preaching to persecuted believers and calling them to be patience in the midst of their pain and problems. 

While we want to grow in the good times the truth is that most growth occurs in the groaning times. Here in verse 7 James reveals what putting patience into practice looks like as he uses the perfect analogy, that of a farmer waiting and working for the fruitful harvest. Where in your life do you need to trust Jesus more?