Patience

Introduction

Who is the worst football team in football ever? The record for the most losses is the Prairie View Panthers, a small school in Texas, who lost 80 straight football games in the 1990s. Worst U.S. hurricane? Many would say Katrina about four years ago, but Hurricane Andrew caused greater destruction back in 1992, and a hurricane which struck Galveston, TX in 1900 killed 10,000 people. Worst U.S. recession since the Depression? Not now. In 1946 the economy contracted 11%. This recession is usually ignored because the war was ending. In the modern era, 1982 saw the economy contract almost 2%. The prediction is that this year the economy will contract 1.4%. So we will have to wait to see if this is the worst recession since the Depression.

Who is the worst sinner? Before you answer, I want you to think carefully. I’ve mentioned recently that we tend to compare ourselves to others and in some way rationalize our views. I’m not as bad as Hitler, one says, but rarely do we compare ourselves to Mother Teresa or to a great servant. Who is the worst sinner? Paul said he was. He’s right, of course—if we understand the point he is making. And if we understand the point—Who is the worst sinner? I am. You are. Our text reminds us that we who call ourselves followers of Jesus have a realistic view of self and an equally realistic view of what Jesus did for us. The result is praise and a changed life. Let’s be encouraged.

The Text

Paul looked back on his life and he knew the kind of man he had once been, and he looked at his life at the present and he knew what kind of man he had become. All because of Jesus. All Paul had to do was take a quick trip down memory lane and he remembered how bad things had been: blasphemer, persecutor, violent man. There was a time that Paul believed in God but not in Jesus. There was a time that Paul was regarded as a great man of faith, but he was really tied to a religion, not a person.

There was a time when Paul thought Jesus was an imposter, and so he did what he thought God wanted him to do. He spoke against Jesus—that’s the blaspheming part. He went to different places looking to arrest those who believed in Jesus—that’s the persecuting part. And he even assisted in killing at least one believer, Stephen—that’s the violent part. When Paul looks back at his life, he recognizes how wrong he was. He was acting sincerely and in faith, but he was wrong. But then grace was poured out on him. He met Jesus at Damascus. And Paul’s life was changed profoundly and permanently. Paul’s life became wrapped up in sharing Jesus with those who did not believe in him, and his life became filled with faith and love.

Paul understood his role. His great sin was to reveal the great patience of God. Paul’s sin was met with the unlimited mercy and patience of God. And when these two spiritual realities met, Paul’s life became a demonstration of how much God can forgive and how much one can change. And this change in Paul resulted in praise to the one who had provided the means to change. What are we to learn from this text?

Application

First, take a realistic look at your life. Paul, in a realistic look at his life, realized just how much God’s mercy and patience had allowed him to change. There are things in our own lives that we are not proud of. Even with a sincere heart, we have done things that hurt people. Like Paul, we can look back on our lives and know that we are the worst of sinners. There is no need for comparison. Our sin reminds us that our faith was not in God but in self.

Second, this text helps us to see that we can change. When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, he was not the same man who blasphemed and persecuted God’s people. He had changed. So can we. It is possible to change because of God’s mercy and patience. Someone might suggest that they have tried to change but they just can’t. Paul’s life was to be a demonstration of God’s patience and mercy. But look at the change he had gone through.

Meeting Jesus at Damascus, for three days and nights Paul didn’t eat or drink as he thought about what he had seen and experienced. If you want to change, when have you gone without food for three days, a day, even a meal? How serious are you about change?

Change is rarely easy. Paul was convinced that his faith in God was sufficient. He was confident that he was doing God’s will. But it took something dramatic to get him to reexamine his life, and then Paul dedicated himself to change.

We can change. God’s patience is about waiting for that change. It is about opportunities to rethink. But God’s patience isn’t about forcing change or about changing for us. To change means that we must bring our will into submission to the will of God. Tolstoy wrote: “Everybody thinks of changing Humanity and Nobody thinks of changing Himself.”

If you want to be a better spouse, it begins with submitting your will to God. You want to get rid of that addiction? It begins with submitting your will to God. How do we do that? Immerse yourself in the word, give up a few meals, pray without ceasing. Force your will and your mind to see things differently. Change doesn’t end with submitting the will, but it begins with this first step.

A third lesson from this text is to treat others the way God has treated us. God’s patience and mercy with us is to be shared. So many times we look at those who have yet to accept God’s will into their lives, and we look down on them. We treat them with impatience. We have no mercy for them. If God could be patient with great sinners like you and me, then he is being patient with other great sinners, and we should be patient as well.

According to a traditional Hebrew story, 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 of 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?”

Aren’t you glad God was patient with you? Our vision is that we be a place of grace and mercy. When we see the evil in the world, the cry often comes: “Why doesn’t God do something?” And that question must be followed with the reminder that he has done something. He invites all to come to him through the blood of Jesus. Most of us in time did come to God. God was patient with us. Now we treat others as God has treated us.

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