Cultivate | Patience | Landon Sherman

So we lead in worship. Oh my God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been with me all of this time, yeah, God, you stick by my side, yeah. So God, I'm lifting both of my hands, cause you give me chance after chance after chance. So God, I'm giving all that I am, cause you give me chance after chance after chance. Yeah, God, I'm giving all that I am, cause you give me chance after chance after chance. So God, I'm giving all that I am, cause you give me chance after chance after chance. And who am I that you keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, oh my God, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you, ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh,oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh.ru, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh,resurrected, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh.ru. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. oh, oh, oh.ru, oh, oh.ru. ♪ What would I make? A bed in my shame When a fountain of grace Is running my way I know I am yours I was made for more I know who I am ♪ Cause I know who you are The cross of salvation Was only the start And now I am chosen Free and forgiven I have a future

It's worth living in All together we sing I was made to be To be the grave I was stole by the Born and raised back to life I'll be I was made for more So what would I make? A bed in my shame When a fountain of grace Is running my way I know I am yours And I was made for more Hallelujah You called out my name So I'll sing out your praise Hallelujah You buried my past I'm not going back Hallelujah You called out my name So I'll sing out your praise Hallelujah You buried my past I'm not going back I was made to be Tending a grave I was called by the Born and raised back to life

I'll be I was made for more So what would I make? A bed in my shame When a fountain of grace Is running my way I know I am yours I was made for more I was made to be Tending a grave I was called by the Born and raised back to life I'll be I was made for more So what would I make? A bed in my shame When a fountain of grace Is running my way I know I am yours I was made for more Amen Let's sing this out together Hallelujah So hallelujah You called out my name I'll sing out your praise Hallelujah You buried my past I'm not going back Hallelujah

You called out my name So I'll sing out your praise Hallelujah You buried my past I'm not going back guitar solo A thousand generations Falling down in worship To sing the song of ages till Falling, growing before us ♪ And all who will believe ♪ ♪ Will chase all the angels too ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ All thrones and dominions ♪ ♪ All powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ And the angels cry holy ♪ ♪ All creation cries holy ♪ ♪ You are lifted high holy ♪ ♪ Holy, holy forever ♪ ♪ Yes, you're holy ♪ ♪ If you believe in you ♪ ♪ And if you believe in me ♪ ♪ Sing a song forever to the land ♪ ♪ If you walk in freedom ♪ ♪ And if you bury with pain ♪ ♪ Sing a song forever to the land ♪ Yes, we'll sing.

♪ We'll sing a song forever and amen ♪ ♪ And the angels cry holy ♪ ♪ All creation cries holy ♪ ♪ Holy, you are lifted high holy ♪ ♪ Holy forever ♪ ♪ Hear your people sing holy to the king of kings ♪ ♪ Holy to the king of kings ♪ ♪ Holy, you will always be holy ♪ ♪ Holy forever ♪ ♪ We sing your name oh God your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all kings and dominions all powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest ♪ ♪ Your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Above all kings and dominions all powers and positions ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ ♪ Let the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy all creation cries ♪ ♪ Holy you will live and rise ♪ ♪ Holy holy forever ♪ ♪ Holy holy forever ♪ ♪ Yes we'll hear your people sing ♪ ♪ Holy to the king of kings ♪ ♪ Holy you will always be ♪ ♪ Holy holy forever ♪ ♪ You will always be ♪ ♪ Holy holy forever ♪

Let's give Him some praise. You may be seated. Before the sweetness, before the color, the ground gets tended to, the soil gets ready, seeds go in, and then we wait. In the same way God is cultivating something within us, transformation. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in our lives. It's different, real, sweet. and it lasts. Jesus said, abide in me, because apart from him, we can only do so much. But when we remain rooted in him, real growth happens. This season, prepare the soil and watch what God grows. All right, welcome to Compass. Our mission is navigating people to God. It's good to see all of you. My name is Landon, and I'm one of the teaching pastors here. Thanks for being here. Excited about what God is gonna do through our new series called Cultivate. Hey, if you're in the room with me at Collierville, can you do me a favor? Can you welcome the men watching right now at the All Root Unit, everybody watching online? Love you guys, thank you. Grateful for you. God's been doing good stuff all weekend long. And again, we're talking about cultivation. And the tagline of that series

is the fruit of a life rooted in Christ. So following Jesus, right? Being a Christian, being a disciple of Christ is a journey. And through that journey, as you pursue Christ, there are certain attributes or realities that shape your life as you follow him called the fruit of the Spirit. So we're gonna talk about the fruit of the Spirit over the next few weeks through this summer. And hey, if you've heard me preach before, you probably noticed that I always start my messages with a story to kick off the message. I love stories, stories are memorable. It's how I learned Jesus was a master storyteller. He tells stories all throughout the Gospels. And for this message in particular, I was struggling to find my story. And so a couple of days ago, I was boarding a flight to Memphis to go to a meeting. And as I'm waiting in line, ready to get on the plane, I start to pray, God, I need you to give me this story. I'm stuck, I need you to give me one. So I board the plane, I put my bag away. I check my phone, it says we're on time, great. I throw my AirPods, ready to go. And I'd planned that once we reached our safe cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, I was gonna open my laptop and start working on this message. And then we're sitting down, the flight attendant comes on the speaker and says,

hey, we're waiting on some paperwork. It's gonna be 20 minutes. No problem, I'm easy going. Why are you laughing? Yeah. And I'm gonna watch the World Cup, Messi and the boys from Argentina are playing right now. I'm checking with my family, I'm good. So I'm watching 20 minutes and then all of a sudden 20 turns into 25, weird, they're five minutes late. Airplanes are always on time. And then they get on again, we're waiting for more information. It's gonna be 20 more minutes and then 20 turned to 30. And I start to think, I'm gonna be late for my meeting. Why are they always late? Like what's going on? I'm frustrated, why do they even need paperwork? This is 2026, who even uses paper anymore? And I'm freaking out. So I take a deep breath and I just sit down, hey, I'm just gonna work on my message. And I open my computer to a Google Doc where all I had was some scribbled notes and this working title, cultivate why patience is the fruit of the spirit we don't wanna grow. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Can I get an amen, right?

And as look, and it's always working on me. Anybody else? And so today I'm gonna talk about patience and here's the deal. Nobody has ever accused me of being a patient person. My wife just said, amen, right? And that's exactly why I'm excited to preach this because we're gonna talk about patience. Anybody ever heard a sermon on patience before? There's a few of you, okay. Well, I've never given a sermon on patience before. So at minimum, this will be memorable, okay. So I'm glad you're here today. And speaking of something that we can remember, if you remember one thing today, I want it to be this, okay. Because here's what I learned as somebody who struggles with patience admittedly, but God gives us the ability to be patient. Ready? Patience is not simply waiting on God to do something for us. Patience is trusting God when He does something in us. It's not simply waiting on Him to do something for us. It's, there's a process to this life where He actually works on every one of us, which means I'm a work in progress. Anybody else? Right, and here's the good news. The fruit of the Spirit, okay. The fruit of the Spirit is the by-product

of looking more like Christ. Okay, and becoming more like Christ is a process. And God, how about this, is patient towards us. So I'm gonna preach about patience this weekend, and I'm preaching to myself here, okay. So let me start with this. We're gonna be in Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five, if you're taking notes, I'd write that down, put a bookmark in, whatever you do, because we're gonna be here over the next few weeks. All right, and I wanna start with this. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Galatians five, if you're taking notes, again, you're gonna wanna mark this starting in verse 22. Here's what the fruit of the Spirit is. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. and there's no law against these things. So Paul says, that's what it looks like when you root yourself, when Christ has your heart, right, when you root yourself in Him. And that entire section of that scripture, Galatians 5, is about life in the Spirit, what it looks like to walk with God through His purposes, through His plans. The Holy Spirit is a part of your life. It's the pursuit of Christ, right? So the fruit of the Spirit

is the result of a life rooted in Christ. And maybe you look at that list, like, and this is how it struck me, and you're going, man, I would love to be more loving, or kind, or gentle, or self-controlled, okay? How do you do that? You pray more. Oh, I know, I'm gonna skip church less, okay? I know it's summertime, you know, so I'm gonna skip church a couple of times, but not all the time, right? Look, the answer is not try harder. The answer is not just try to be nicer. The answer is root yourself in Christ, okay? What does Paul say? Walk by the Spirit. What does that look like? I started in verse 22. I actually wanna go back a couple of verses to verse 16. All right, so Galatians 5, 16, because he tells us what precedes the fruit of the Spirit. Here's what he says. So I say, let the Holy Spirit, what? Guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do what is evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants, and the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other,

so you're not free to carry out your good intentions, but when you're directed by the Spirit, you're not under obligation to the law of Moses. So Paul in this text is highlighting two things, don't miss this, two things that every human being who is a Jesus follower, who has the Holy Spirit in their life, okay? Two realities that we all experience. We've got the flesh and we've got the Spirit, okay? The Spirit of God living and active within us who gives us the ability to bear fruit that looks like patience and goodness and self-control and kindness, right? And then there's this sinful nature, what Paul describes as the flesh, right? So there's a battle going on within us. Now, how does sinful nature get there? Well, if you look at the very beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, what happens? Sin enters the world and that resulted in a fractured relationship between God and man, okay? So we've got this sinful nature in every single one of us, so we're the host of a battlefield between the flesh and the Spirit. And if that sounds dramatic, I want you to let me illustrate it this way, okay? Have you ever noticed that sometimes you do things you don't wanna do? Like you leave a conversation,

this happens to me all the time, and I go, why did I say that? Like, I didn't even mean that, right? Or how about this, maybe you're at odds with somebody, but you really like him, and you just met him in that moment and you think something about him, and you're going, why did I even think that? What is wrong with me? Or you leave a conversation with somebody and you said something you should have, and then you're self-conscious, and so you spend the rest of your drive home going, oh my gosh, I wonder what they're thinking about me. Or how about this, you tell yourself you're not gonna do that certain thing, but then you keep doing that certain thing. Why do you do that? It's the flesh, sinful nature. And here's what's amazing about this text, ready? Paul isn't saying that if you're a follower of Christ, you have two competing identities. No, you have one identity, ready? Blood, bought, son or daughter of the king. That's your identity, okay? One identity, but you do have two competing appetites, okay? It's why you never had to teach your kid to say the word mine. The flesh versus the spirit, so what do we do? Here we go, the one that wins is the one you feed.

The one that wins is the one you feed, okay? And he gets even more drastic, okay? Here's what he, I wanna show you the two contrasts between the flesh and the spirit. Verse 19, when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful desires, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I've said before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Sounds intense, right? Oh my gosh, I don't do any of that stuff. You can find that in five minutes on Netflix. All of them. Which means you and I live in a world with an endless buffet. And if the one that wins is the one you feeds, that means that we have the ability to produce all kinds of fruit. Not just the spirit field kind. The one that wins is the one you feed. And here's what's true. You're gonna look like what you consume. Flesh versus spirit. Okay, listen, if you wanna produce the fruit of the spirit in your life, and but you're listening and going,

Landon, listen, I wanna be patient, but you've never met my kids. Like I wanna be kind, but you've never met my boss. Okay, I wanna be self-controlled, but I live in the era of blue bell ice cream. Can I get an amen? Come on, right? Or I thought like when I became a Christian that my life would be a little bit easier, I wouldn't struggle or I wouldn't wanna do that certain thing anymore that marked my life before I became a follower of Christ, before I became baptized. And now I try not to, but it's really hard. So what do I do? Let me illustrate it this way. I don't know if there's anybody in here that likes a good thrift store. Okay, y'all are thrifters, all right? So you walk in there, you go find that old T-shirt. It's like the NSYNC tour from 2002, okay? And it used to be somebody else's shirt, and then they put it to the thrift store. And so you find it. I mean, it's like finding a pot of gold. You're so excited. And so you grab that T-shirt and you walk to the checkout counter and you pay 78 cents for it. And once you buy it, it's yours, right?

Okay, what's the first thing you're supposed to do when you buy a shirt at a thrift store? Okay, you wash it. Thank you for that. Some of y'all are like, man, I never thought about that. Yeah, it's because you're nasty, you know? All right, okay? You buy it, you wear it, you wash it. Then you wear it again and you wash it. You wear it again and you wash it. You wear it again and you wash it. Look, that is what Christ does for us. There's a word, a fancy theological word called justification. That happens one time. Here's what that means, that Jesus' changes are standing before God. Because of the flesh, because of the sinful nature. Look at this, we're guilty, okay? And the scriptures say that through the gospel, you were what? Bought with a price. And as a result, you're no longer your own, you're actually His, it's finished, it's complete. And no one questions anymore, like who owns that? That's justification. And then there's sanctification, where the Holy Spirit changes our heart to become like His. So sanctification is the lifelong process where the Holy Spirit washes followers of Christ

to look more like Christ. How does he do that? By the washing of the blood of Christ. So we mess up and we're washed. And we struggle and we're washed. And we lie and we're washed. And we steal and we're washed. And eventually, through the washing, we grow more patient, we grow more kind, we grow more good because we start to look like Christ. Listen, God's goal for your life is not merely forgiveness. His goal is transformation. And He didn't just save you from something, He saved you for something. Okay? To conform to the image of His Son. And yet the fruit of the flesh looks good, doesn't it? Right? So how do we grow the spirit or the fruit of the spirit than the fruit of the flesh? It's real simple. You gotta change your patterns. Listen, our preaching, just coming here, opening the Word of God, coming to church. Listen, my preaching can't outpace your patterns. Okay, you can listen to all the sermons you want. Till you change your patterns, nothing changes. And so you hear this message, you think, oh my gosh, I would really like to be more kind. And then you keep hanging out with people

that all they do is gossip and talk trash about other people. You ain't gonna be more kind. If you leave here and go, well, I would like to be a person of peace. And then you leave here and run around like a chicken with your head cut off because you're constantly trying to compare yourself and be like that other family. You ain't ever gonna have peace no matter how much you pray. Listen, a lot of, CM said, a lot of the students are gonna go to camp. Y'all need to pray for them. I'm gonna be praying for them. I'm excited. I love camp. God moves at camp. Because God, you get people out of their normal everyday life, God gets a hold of their heart, they're ready, right? And so I just want you to imagine this. There's a kid, God gets a hold of their heart, does something in their life. He comes back home, it's like, man, the fruit of the spirit, that's gonna be me, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I'm gonna change my high school. I ain't gonna do that bad stuff anymore. And so he goes and he has lunch with a small group leader

or his youth pastor and sit down at Costa Vida. They order that smothered burrito cause it's from heaven, right? They sit down and you know, I'm not gonna party. I'm not gonna cuss. I'm gonna lead my high school to Christ. And then later that night they get a text. Hey, there's a party. Pull up. All right, I'll be there. Listen, I ain't gonna drink, right? But I'll be there. I don't wanna miss out. And then what happens? You don't change your patterns, nothing changes. And look, maybe you feel bad about that, right? Cause guilt and shame are real. And in those moments, the devil will lie cause it hold up that thrifted t-shirt and go, hey, you're too dirty to change anyway. There ain't nothing God could do in your life. Look, even when you disobeyed, you still belong to God. All right, because you've been justified. You've been bought. And yet here's what's true. God loves you exactly as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you as you are. Listen, Christianity is not information transfer where you open the Bible and you don't have any more questions anymore.

Christianity is like this. When you walk by a construction site, a lot of times there's a sign and it looks something like this, right? Please excuse our mess while we renovate. The longer I follow Christ, the more I realize that's my life. Right? That we are under construction and God is forming us in the image of his son. That's sanctification. Some of you are like, I thought this was a message about patience. It is. Here's the cool part. Did you know God is patient with us? And like, he's not a dad that's sitting on the front porch, tapping his foot, waiting on you to come home. He's got the rap sheet of all the stuff you've done wrong in your life. He gets it. He's patient. So what if patience begins with a patient God? First step to becoming more patient in your life. You understand that patience begins with a patient God. Listen, before patience was ever expected from us, patience was demonstrated towards us. All right, I'm gonna do something I don't do very much. I'm gonna put a Hebrew phrase on the screen, okay? And I want us all to say this together in unison on three.

Ready? One, two, I'm just kidding. I ain't gonna make you say that, all right? And I can barely pronounce it. I'm gonna botch it, okay? It's Erek Apayim, all right? Okay, it is a Hebrew, actually it's a Hebrew phrase made up of two words, okay? The first word Erek means long. Apayim means nostrils. So the phrase literally means long nostrils. Why are we talking about Big Nose Bob, all right? Here's why. This word is used several times, this phrase, I'm sorry, is used several times in the Old Testament when it describes God's position and view towards us. Okay, so hold on, this is good. Hebrews, they associated anger with like physical changes in the face. Think about what happens when you get mad. Maybe your face gets flush, you know, your breathing changes, maybe your nostrils flare up. Okay, my little two-year-old does this. We call it her stink face, you know? And so somebody with short nostrils gets angry quickly. It's the same expression as like he's got a short fuse. So somebody with long nostrils takes a long time to heat up. And this phrase is used continually in the Old Testament by God to describe himself and how he views us. Exodus 34, six, this is God talking about him

and how he sees us. Yahweh the Lord, the God of what? Compassion and mercy, I'm slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. In that phrase, or in that scripture, you see that phrase. So God says, I take a long time to become angry. He absorbs offense, he waits, he invites repentance. So what if the fruit of the Spirit are not attributes of a super Christian? What if they're actually attributes of God? And when we pursue him, we become like him. So how does knowing God as patient help me become patient? Because before patience was ever expected from me, patience was demonstrated toward me. The reason I can become patient is because I've spent time with patient God. But if patience comes from God, why is it so difficult for us? And here's why, because I've found, and I think this is probably more of a Western belief than anything else, that a lot of us think, hey, if I become a Christian, everything in my life is gonna be good. I'm not gonna struggle with that thing anymore, whatever it is. And then you hear today, wait a minute, I'm justified, I'm sanctified. And a lot of times we think following Jesus is just always up and to the right. But here's what I've learned.

Sanctification is not linear. Sometimes there are seasons when the gardener has to prune what is dead in us in order for the Holy Spirit to resurrect something that needs to be alive in us, okay? And there are times and seasons when you're gonna be asked to be patient and there's no expiration date on it. And you don't know when the answer's gonna be. And I wanna remind you again what I started this message with. Patience is not simply waiting on God to do something for us. Patience is trusting the Holy Spirit while He does something in us. And so I don't know what the results are gonna say. I don't know when the job's gonna come. I don't know when the spouse will show up. I don't know when, I don't know how, but the right posture is the one where, hey, I know what God is doing in me as I wait. And so if you're a fellow impatient person like me, here's a great question to ask yourself every day to get practical. Am I more patient today than I was yesterday? And here's what you do. You be honest, you repent if you need to, and then you move on. And so the next time your spouse ticks you off, instead of firing a dart that you've had loaded

and you're ready to go just as soon as they get in the crosshairs, you change your pattern. You give them grace. The next time you get behind that slow person in the checkout line, 10 items or less, and you counted, they got 11, they're a liar. Your blood pressure doesn't go up. Next time you're in traffic, you don't cuss people out and give them the universal sign for you're number one. And when you're waiting on that thing, whatever it is, a desperate cry of your heart that God hears, you don't grip your fists, you open your hands. Because patience comes from patience, God. Number two, impatience is usually an attempt to control what belongs to God. Ouch. If you struggle with impatience like me, here's how this sermon may have hit you so far. The opposite of patience is what? Well, obviously, impatient. But I need to become more patient, because God says so. So this week when I go to the DMV, or when I take my kids to Disney this summer, the most expensive, I mean, the happiest place on earth, and there's 120 minute line for the Avatar ride, I'm just supposed to skip to my loop, count it all joy, you know? How about this one?

This week, when you call a customer service line trying to get help with your car insurance, and Heather, the AI help desk agent answers the phone, how many of you AI help desk agents have seen the worst version of you? Come on, don't lie in church, all right? Listen to me, they may take your job, don't let them ruin your salvation. Come on, all right? The opposite of patience is not impatience. You know what it is? That's what God showed me as I was wrestling through this. The opposite of patience is control. We struggle with patience because we struggle with surrender. We struggle with surrender because we get to this place. If I was in charge, if my kids coach, if my coworker, if they weren't so stupid, if my husband, if my wife, control. Abraham in the Old Testament, imagine this, God told him at 75 years of age that he would be the father of many nations. If you know the story, his wife, Sarah, the Bible describes her as barren, which means they haven't been able to have kids. And yet God tells a 75 year old man and a barren wife that he's not just gonna have one child, he'll actually be the father of a nation. And they'd like be God's people. So if you look at that story, there's years that go by before

they were ever given a kid, a son. And so Sarah looks at her husband, Abraham, and says, hey, I think God's late. Maybe he forgot. So they got this servant named Hagar and Sarah tells Abraham, hey, if you sleep with Hagar, maybe that's how we'll get our son. So that's what they do. And here's what happened. They thought God was late. They do have a child whose name was Ishmael to take control. And it led to a fractured relationship between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar leaves, there's division between Sarah and Abraham. They got a son, just not the one God promised. Listen, God was, God is never late. And every time I've tried to force something, you know what happens? Division and compromise. A few years later, here's what take place. Genesis 21, the Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. This happened at just the time God had said it would. God has not lost his watch. He is faithful to deliver at the time he said he would. That son's name is Isaac, check this out,

who we know is a direct descendant of Jesus. So look, the son God ordained led to the son of God. The architect of our faith, the savior of all mankind, the son born out of impatience, Ishmael. Did you know Islamic tradition traces Muhammad's lineage through Ishmael? Whose scripture says and the Bible says that Ishmael would be a wild donkey of a man and everyone's hand will be against him and he will live in hostility with all his brothers. 2026, we're still feeling the ramifications of impatience. Here's what I've learned. You can't ruin God's promises, but you can create unnecessary pain trying to fulfill them yourself. Because a lot of times, we try to create substitutes for the promise of God. Most sin is accelerated gratification. We want fruit without seasons. We want maturity without process. We want harvest without patience. And can I just level with you for a minute? Listen, I struggle with control, okay? And it's sneaky because it doesn't always look like rebellion. It looks responsible. Shows up being prepared. It looks like leadership. And here's what I mean. It looks like this.

I love to talk about trusting God until it's actually time to. Until you're at that fork in the road and you don't know where to go and you have to decide and I have to decide, am I gonna white knuckle this or am I gonna open my hands? And for years, I'd find myself saying this, stuff like this. You know what? It's all gonna be fine. I'm good. And honestly, it sounded like faith. But I'm just completely honest with you. It wasn't faith. It was self-reliance with Christian language. And it wasn't trusting God. It was reassuring myself that I could figure my way through it. Listen, my first instinct has always been, I got this. Here's the problem. The very first step of believing the gospel is I don't have this. And that's why I need a savior in the first place. It's taken me years to learn this. Listen, the idol of self-reliance doesn't get demolished by trying harder. It gets demolished by deep dependence on Christ. And here's the beautiful part. Dependence on Christ doesn't make you weak.

It makes you faithful. And God may not give you everything you want, but the scripture says he will give you everything you need, that he's called you to. And maybe that's why patience matters so much because patience reveals who quits early. Like in who finishes the assignment. So maybe God hadn't opened that door yet because he's still preparing you to walk through it. Maybe patience isn't punishment. Maybe it's cultivation. So releasing control doesn't mean I stop moving. It means you stop manipulating. It means you stop manufacturing ishmaels and blowing doors open and taking shortcuts. It means you stop demanding harvests and seasons meant for planting. Patience isn't sitting in a rocking chair, sucking your thumb, doing nothing. Patience is getting on your knees in prayer before the Lord and saying, God, I trust you, even when this doesn't make sense. God, I trust you even when I disagree, when the bank account's full or empty, when my family's healthy, sick. I trust you when doors open. I trust you when they close, when prayers are answered or in heaven and feel silent. I trust you when I don't even understand what you're doing.

I trust you when you say yes, when you say no, when you say wait. And so today I resign from being the God of my own life, which was never my position to hold anyways, because I can't do what God can do. Listen, only God heals. Only God brings prodigals home. Only God produces fruit. My responsibility is not to harvest. My responsibility is to remain planted, no matter how long it takes. The third thing, the Holy Spirit grows us slowly. Grows us slowly. James, the brother of Jesus writes this. Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You too must be patient, take courage for the coming of the Lord is near. James says the farmer waits, why? Because the farmer understands something that we often forget. Just because you can't see growth doesn't mean growth isn't happening beneath the surface. I got a little micro garden at home. Y'all done this? Like you got like the raised planters? You know, and we do the whole thing

where we get our kids in the car and we took them to Home Depot and we buy the soil, you know, the organic soil. We get the tomato seeds. You know, we watered it, make sure we got sunlight. You know, a few months go by, y'all have done this. How many tomatoes you get? One. One basket, just one. You know, how much it costs? $48, but it's organic, no pesticides. It's like, give me the pesticides, I want bruschetta, all right? And here's what I learned. Every morning I walk out there, got my water thing, stand over it, look at it, just dirt. I water it, come back later the next day, still dirt. But nobody plants seeds on Monday and digs them up on Friday when they don't see anything. Why? Because growth is happening beneath the surface long before the fruit appears. And maybe that's where some of you are. You're looking at dirt, you've been obeying, you've been praying, you've been coming to church, you've been trying to follow Jesus and all you see is dirt. And I just wanna remind you that root comes before fruit. The alternative is control. I'm gonna dig up the seed, I'm gonna force that door open.

I'm a manufacturer in Ishmael. God never waits to grow in season. God grows people a whole lot more like he grows gardens. Slowly, intentionally, patiently. And look, maybe you're frustrated because you thought you'd be further along now. You woke up and thought, man, I didn't think I'd be here at 40. I thought I'd be less addicted. Thought I wouldn't be alone. I thought I'd be less anxious. I thought I'd be stronger spiritually. I wanna remind you of what I said at the very beginning of this message, what God has taught me. His patience is not simply waiting on God to do something for us, it's trust in the Holy Spirit while he does something in us. And that's worth it every time. Hey, can I pray for you? I want everybody in here to bow their head, close their eyes. Every head bowed, every eye closed. And I just wanna have a moment with the Lord before you go about your week. You know, we talked a lot about patience. We talked a lot about control. That the opposite of patience is an impatience. The opposite of patience is control.

And what I wanna do right now is just have a moment where we can be washed and sanctified by the blood of Christ this morning. So if you're comfortable with that, I just want you to open your hands in your seat, wherever you're listening to this, palms up towards the sky. We're not gonna white knuckle this thing. We're gonna posture surrender. And I'm just gonna ask this question and I just want you to listen. Have a moment with the Lord. Lord, we're in a posture of surrender. And we just ask this question, where are we struggling to release control right now? And I just want you to listen to what God says. Amen. And I pray in the name of Jesus that you would grow our patience in that area. Father, that you'd do it quickly, Lord, because we know that you can. But even if you don't, God, we trust you. And Lord, we remain planted in the house of God. We know you'll never leave us. We know you'll never forsake us. Thank you for this lesson. In your heavenly name we pray, amen.