Patience - James 5:7-8

A patient that works

Good evening. I have to confess that preparing for this message has been a true test for my patience. And as you know, I'm going to do my best effort. English is my second language, so sometimes I have problems trying to teach in Spanish, so just imagine how I'm feeling right now. Especially seeing everybody who has been in this pulpit for the last four weeks, I have no comparison with them. I don't know all the terminology of the words, and I'm definitely taking this step of faith that God is with us. So the verses we're going to be looking at today is James 5, 7 through 8, and it reads like this.

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'll also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

So as we know, all of us, I think, that the book of James talks about how to live a practical Christian life. Sometimes we focus a lot on getting to know the word and getting to know all the terminology, all the theological, all the history, but sometimes we forgot that It's very important as Christians that we live the word, we practice the word. As I say, this topic for me is one of the hardest topics because I have my closest witness on my patient that is my wife and my kids. And they will tell you I'm not a patient man. So to me, It's been kind of hard to put this message together because I struggle writing in English. I was trying to write it in Spanish and then translate it. But when you read it, it doesn't make any sense. So hopefully, I can get to the point. But I think what these two texts are talking about is the what and the how. and the why we need a patient. The what, it will be what type of a patient that we need. Sometimes we think that patients is just sit and wait. But this is not the type of a patient James is talking about in here. He's talking about a patient that is active, that he acts on it. And as you can see, it's very, very important how James chooses to compare the patients of a farmer. Because this takes me back when I grew up with in my country with my father as a farmer. And to be a farmer is a really hard job. And here in America, you guys have all the fancy equipment that we don't have in our country. Everything is hard labor. If we have to plow the earth, we have to use a pair of mules. If we have to pull the weeds, we have to use a hoe. We don't use like chemicals that also harm the land. So we do everything manually. So it's very important that James is comparing our patients with the patients of the farmer. So this type of patient explains precisely the type of patients that we need. As I say, it's not about passive patients. Sometimes, often we think like a patient is sit and do nothing, just wait for things to happen. And this is not the case. Just think about how much work the farmer has to do on the land before he can put the seeds on it. He has to loosen the ground, he has to fertilize it, and also he has to get to know the time when the rains are coming. So because it's not just about plowing the land, fertilizing, and then put the seed. If the rains are not coming, you're not going to have nothing growing. So he prepared to put the seeds on the first strain. So he knows the perfect time to plant. He recognized the times. And then he doesn't go to sleep. Instead, he has to be aware of the weeds, and he has to pull them out. He has to protect the plant from animals or birds that sometimes they eat it. And he has to protect from pests and disease. So just imagine the that back in the day when James is writing these, just imagine the type of agriculture they were doing. As I say, it was an easy task. There is no like a modern agriculture that back then they didn't have a tractor with air conditioning. So, this means our patients It's not going to be easy task. Sometimes it's going to be hard. And back then, they didn't have any modernized tools. Like right now, agriculture, it has become so much easier and more comfortable job. I mean, even back in my day when I was working, as I say, it was a really hard job. So just imagine how much the farmers have to work. And not only work, the majority of the time, all this is done with a lot of love. I remember to see my dad how early he had to get up. And he was always waking up us with love. He was like,

come on kids, we have to go to work. I already prepared some breakfast.

So he was doing his job with love. And that makes a big difference because just imagine doing something without love. It's hard, it's even hard. And we know that we love because he have love us first. So when you do things with love and you always working hard, you eagerly wait for the precious fruit of the plant. And you will appreciate it more. So well, if I just want you to take a little step farther. Just imagine, after all the work you have done as a farmer, the harvest is lost. So you work in vain. So I will ask you, if you were a farmer, will you do that again? Will you plant again? So you remember that we mentioned the word love. Well, you think with love it makes a big difference because the lust of the corpse does not discourage. a true farmer. Quite the contrary, the next season he will do the same thing again with a lot of love. And as I was preparing for this, I told you already, I remember back in my days when I was working with my dad, it was a lot of work. So it's the same way that we have to work with our patients. And back then, we didn't have much time to fun. So we have to do it, we have to do this whether we like it or not because that's all we can do back then. So in the majority of the time with our patients, sometimes we have to do things that we don't like. And that's the, That's the hardest part of being being patient. So. Just think about, this is the type of a patient that James is calling us to have through life. A patient that works, not as a passive patient that does nothing. He's calling for a patient that waits in the Lord, but also is looking for the Lord. A patient that endures through the trail, helping others to go through their trails. A patient that removes the desires of the flesh and plays the will of God instead. A patient that steps forward to help the one in need. As we can read in verse 13 on the same chapter, It says,