Patience | Pastor Adam Peterson

We are in our series called Juicy Fruit, and if you're new to our church, we'll unpack that in just a little bit. Let me look into the camera, as always. Welcome our online family that is joining us today. We are so grateful for you, and then we have men and women joining us from correctional facilities across the country. Come on, put your hands together and welcome everybody online. Amen. So this series is our summer series, and we have been kicking it off rolling. We're in week four right now. If you're new to our church and you enjoy the message today, and you're like, man, I'd like to hear some of the past messages, go to our YouTube page. You can download our app. All of it is on there, but it comes directly from Galatians chapter five, and so here's what you need to know. Here at Rise Church, we love the word of God, and we believe the word of God, if we will apply it to our lives, will change us from the inside out. So that's why I say, if you love the word of God, shout yeah. Because I want you to love the word of God. I want you to bring the word of God with you to church,

whether you got it in person, a copy, or you use your phone, I don't care, but I want you to come hungry. I want you to come ready. Don't just come as an innocent bystander. The Lord wants to do some work in your life. Can I get an amen? Amen. And I will say this, our family section is rocking and rolling with young ones today. I love that our family section back there allows that. If the young ones don't like the message today, and they're just like, I don't wanna listen to this guy. If at any time you need to walk them outside, the lobby is available. We even have a family room in our preschool hallway for you. We're so grateful. Parents, way to go. Get your kids in the house of God. Let's go. So come on, I'll do the heavy lifting, you follow along. It simply says this, that the Holy Spirit, anybody grateful for the Holy Spirit? Yeah. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of beautiful, life-giving, healthy fruit in our lives, meaning you can't produce it,

the person besides you can't produce it, only the Holy Spirit can. The Holy Spirit of God that lives inside the follower of Jesus. And that fruit is this. It's love, it's joy, it's peace. It's patience, kindness, and goodness. Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And we have been walking through this, and we're gonna continue to walk through it, and we're not going in order, and that's meant to throw you off, and keep you on your toes. But what we're saying is, God, there are some things that we know you need to change in us. We know there's some work that you need to do in our lives, and we kind of ended the message last week with this thought, that fruit grows from a life that's rooted in Jesus. Okay, I'm just gonna assume you're all taking notes, and you don't know how to say amen, and write something down at the same time. Again, John 15, Jesus said these words, that he was the vine, and we're the branches. And that if we're the branches, and we stay connected to the vine, we stay rooted in Jesus, then we will produce much fruit. Like all of this good stuff from God

is gonna come out of our lives to be a blessing for us, but then, come on, to be a blessing to people around us. I don't know about you, man, but I wanna be more loving, and more peaceful, and more joyful, more kind, so that everybody around me can enjoy the fruit that God is producing on the inside of me. And so you didn't amen that a fruit grows from a life rooted in Jesus, so let me give you another thought. The deeper the root, the sweeter the fruit. I came up with that, that's pretty good, right? The deeper the root, the deeper the connection, the closer we stay to God, the sweeter that fruit is that's gonna come out of our lives. And today is a fruit that I'm so excited to preach. And I like preaching all of these, don't get me wrong, and some of our other team's gonna kinda help me in this throughout the summer, but let me just say this. I know all nine of these fruits of the Spirit apply to our lives, but there are some that when you preach it, you go, this one is for everybody. This is the one that most of the people in the room have been waiting for, not just for themselves, but for the people in their lives. Today, we're talking about the fruit of patience. Come on, raise your hand

if you know somebody in your life that is not patient. Raise your hand if you know somebody. Raise your hand if they're sitting by you right now. Right now. All right, come on now. Raise your hand if the person you know that's not patient is you. Yes, there we go, there we go. So, we're gonna talk about this today, and here's what I've already seen happening. No condemnation, no guilt, but I saw it already happening. There will be none of this. This is a tuck your elbows in kinda message, all right? If there's any elbowing going on today. It's this, all right? Call that the chicken wing, all right? We don't want this message. This message is not for the person sitting beside you, although it is. This message is for you. If you're with me, say yeah. If you know you need it, say oh yeah. Okay, and if the person beside you really needs it, just wink at me right now. Okay, all right, all right. How many of you would say, we would call this terminology a pet peeve? Anybody know what I'm talking about? It's when something bothers you

that maybe doesn't bother everybody else, but it bothers you, and it bothers you in a way that you're like, I can't even explain why it bothers me this much. It just bothers me. One of my wife's pet peeves is when somebody's in a parking spot, and they're parked, and they go to leave, and they pull through the parking spot to exit. How many of you do that? I do it too. And I do it also when she's in the car with me, and she hates it. And it's just something that bothers her. She says it's inconsiderate to somebody else that might be trying to pull into that parking spot. And that's happened to me from time to time. And she's been in the car with me when that's happened. And she goes. And then we have the Rise Church bumper sticker on the back of our car, which is fantastic. Can I just say this? If you don't drive good, please don't put a Rise Church bumper sticker on your car. We encourage you to put a Trinity Baptist Church sticker. I'm just teasing. I'm friends with them. All right, here we go, here we go. So here are some things that bother me. I don't know if they should.

Maybe you'll agree with me. Here's one. Okay, so in the world we live in today, you don't really see these too much. Publix still has them around, but the 10 items or less, all right? It's very rare that I go to the grocery store and I buy 10 items or less. That's very rare. Usually when we go to the grocery store, I'm going to the grocery store. I'm stocking up for the whole week. We're buying like 100 items or more. You know what I'm saying? But every once in a while, you just need that one or two things, maybe three, four, maybe nine, maybe even 10. But if I'm going to go into the 10 items or less line, you better believe if you're checking out in front of me, you better also have 10 items or less and you can count on me counting your items. You ever done that before? Anybody just want to confess you got issues? You ever counted somebody items and you go, they got 12. And you feel like you need to say something, like you need to speak up to the cashier and just go, I don't think they should be allowed to go through this line. I think you should tell them to go to the other line because it's 10 items or less. And I'll just be like, 12, 12.

It's frustrating. I don't know why I let it bother me. I know I get convicted by the Holy Spirit every time, but it's just, pray for me and I'll pray for you. All right, here's another one. All right. I'm not frustrated by the speed limit. That's not a pet peeve of mine. I go the speed limit. I am a speed limit guy, ish, right? Ish. We had a couple of cops in our church. They said, if you go about four, maybe even five over, we're probably not going to pull you over. So I'm like a four or five over maybe kind of guy. You know what I'm saying? Every once in a while, maybe 10, whatever. You know what I'm saying? Like, well, maybe more. Okay, but what bothers me is when there's a limit and somebody goes under the limit. Raise your hand. Okay. In that moment, I want to look at that person and go, why? Why are you the way that you are? Who gave you a license? And how are you not going the speed limit? It's 35, go 35. It's 65, go. Like, you ever been behind somebody

that's merging on to the interstate and they're just like in a school zone? And I'm just like, whoo! I don't, again, is that just a me thing? Like, okay, okay, all right. Last one, and this isn't recent history, but these guys have driven me crazy in the past, but not this year, going to the Super Bowl. Come on, somebody, let's go. All right. Here we go, all right. So we're in this Juicy Fruit series and we're talking about patience today. Ironically, this is funny about me, and maybe this is true of you. I lack patience for people that aren't patient. You know what I'm talking about? Like, I understand the irony behind that. Like, I'm not patient with people that aren't patient, yet I know I'm not patient, so I'm not patient with myself. I don't wanna unpack this too much. At the end of the day, here's what it is. We need this, guys, desperately. And I hope that you can hear this with an open heart today. We're gonna start with God. It's always a good place to start. Our God is a patient God. If you're with me, say yeah. If you're grateful, say oh yeah.

Psalm 34, six says this. I, the Lord, this is God talking. I, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God. Okay, no amens for God being. Compassionate and gracious. He says, I am slow to anger. Okay, we're starting to build here, but I'm gonna need everybody to get on board with this idea that he is compassionate and gracious towards you. He is slow to anger towards you, and he is abounding in love and faithfulness towards you. This is the God we serve. He is so patient with you. Man, I am just, I had a moment this week where I was just overwhelmed by God's patience with me. I'm like, God, I know I drive you crazy at times with how I live and just the things that I do, and thank you that you're so patient. Thank you that you don't give up on me. Some of the older people in the room, y'all better get excited this morning because you've been driving God crazier than most of us in here that are on the younger end of things. Come on, where are my 40-year-old people at? That's young, that's young, okay, compared to some of y'all. We got some old people here. I'm just, I gotta, you gotta compare yourself sometimes

just to make yourself feel young. So here's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna look at what God's word says in two areas, patience with God and patience with others. The first place that we're gonna start today is patience towards God. Now, I'm gonna say something right now in this moment that you're not gonna like, but you know it to be true, but you're still not gonna like it. Here's what it is, you ready? The majority of the Christian life is waiting on God. If you look in God's word, there was a guy named Abraham. He said, you're gonna have a kid. You know how long he waited for him to have that kid? 25 years. God told Noah, build a boat. You know how long that took? 120 years. There was a guy named Joseph, got sold into slavery by his brothers. He waited 22 years for God to bring it full circle. The majority of your Christianity, of your walk with the Lord. Now, let me stop and say this, that if you're not a Christian, that is your first step. I'm so glad you're at our church today. So glad you're watching online. If you do not know Jesus, that is your first step today, to begin a relationship with a God

who is patient towards you, who is slow in anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, and wants desperately a relationship with you. But the moment you say yes to God, you start following him with your life. There are gonna be moments where you have to wait on God. There's gonna be moments where, man, you're not really sure what your next step is in life, and so you do what every good Christian does. You pray, and you go, God, what is it? And God's silent. You're wondering, God, can you even hear me right now? Is this thing on? God, are you up there? And in that moment, you could get frustrated, and so many people do this. They start following God, they're asking God for direction, they're not hearing from God, and so they're like, fine, I'm done with you, and they turn and they run away. Don't be that person. The majority of your Christian life is you waiting on God, going, God, I think you're leading me this way. That's what faith is. It's taking steps. God, I think this is you, I think this is you, until he tells you, no, that's not me, then you go, okay, okay, well, now I gotta reverse and figure it all out again. And a lot of times, you will find yourself in a moment.

I want a new job. God, would you open the door? And it's like, God's like, all the doors are closed, man, sorry, and you're gonna find yourself in a waiting moment, and when you do, how you wait is so important, and it's in the waiting sometimes that God is wanting to produce something in you. Anybody wanna be real and open and honest and just say, I'm in a waiting area right now of my life? Yeah, so one, you're not alone, and this probably isn't the first waiting room you've been in when it comes to God. So let's talk about this. Patience is waiting without complaining. Anybody can wait and complain. Anybody can do that. Anybody can wait and get angry about the waiting. You ever been around somebody that complains? You ever been around somebody that's angry about the waiting? You ever been at a restaurant, and you're sitting there, and the person beside you is raging because their order isn't ready yet? Anybody can do that. You're not called to be like everybody else. You're not called to be just anybody. You are called to be a follower of Jesus, and your waiting should look differently than everybody else's waiting. We need to learn to wait patiently for God. Psalms 37 would say it like this.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Now, I highlighted this first phrase right here, be still. still? Because you would think that phrase would say, do nothing and wait on God. But that's not what it means. What it means is you need to stop striving to make it happen and trust that God is going to be the one that does it. So it doesn't mean that you don't take any action. It means that as you take action and you walk in faith, that you trust that God's gonna be the one that comes through for you, not you. So your confidence and your hope is not in yourself, it's in God. Can I get a better amen? Let me give you some real-life application stuff that's going down here at Rise Church right now. For about a year and a half we've been praying for God to send us a student pastor. We need a student pastor, okay? A year and a half we've been praying. We scoured the church because every hire we've ever made at this point in our church has come from somebody within Rise Church. But we looked at Rise Church and we're like, they ain't here. If they are here, they're not ready yet. They're not ready. They're not here. God, I think we're gonna have to go outside for the first time ever. Now we've never done this. So what did we do? We said, well we're gonna put a job like application out there for people to fill out and we'll just see what comes in. We started getting people applying for the job. A lot of people that lived outside of Jacksonville. A lot of people that lived inside of Jacksonville in our own city. And so we're like, oh wow, first guy that responded lives in Jacksonville. We were like, look at here, we nailed it. But after they filled out the application, we sent them a round of questions for them to answer. Just for us to get to know them a little bit. You know what the round of questions simply asked? Are you currently in a group in your church? A small group? We love small groups. We think that's how you get to know people in your church. You should come to Brotherhood and Sisterhood over the summer. Very casual, laid-back environment. Get to know some people. It's gonna be awesome. Didn't get an amen for that. That's okay. Now it's too late. It's too late now. It's too late. Cancel it. We're not doing it. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. The second question we asked was, do you

currently serve in your church? Third question we asked, do you currently give in your church? The person that applied to be the student pastor of our church answered no to all three of those questions. I'm not in a group. I don't serve in my church and I don't give in my church. So you want to be our student pastor of our group of students. You want to serve our students and you want to receive a paycheck from our church, but you don't do any of those things in the current church you're in? I looked at my wife and I said, they're hired. No. That would be ridiculous, right? Why would we hire somebody that's not even serving and doing the thing? We're gonna require so much more for it. You're not even doing the small stuff. But if we were to be like, no, we're just gonna be still. God's gonna send them to us. We don't have to do anything. We would just take the first person that applied for the job. Instead, we've had to go through the weeds, man, to try to find the right person. And application after application, you would be shocked how many people applied for the position and answered no to those questions. And we're just like, God, what do we do? What do we do? And God was like, you keep pursuing. Keep trusting, though, that I've got the right person lined up for you. And so we're going through different avenues trying to find. Come on, Lord. Do it, God. Because we got a bunch of jokers trying to come in. And we're not hiring a joker to come and lead our students. We need the right man of God, woman of God, the couple to come and lead. And we're believing for that. Can I sprinkle something else to you? We love what God is doing here in our church, in this area. When we started our church, we started at Eagles View Academy right around the corner, portable in the school, because we knew this was the area that God had called us to. Well, we're coming up on 13 years of being a church, and God has done amazing stuff. Amazing stuff. But we're looking at the landscape of our city and going, God, I think you're calling us also to now go reach another area of our city. And I've shared this with a lot of you. Maybe you've never heard this, but you need to start hearing this. We feel in our hearts that the Lord has called us to go reach the people who live off 103rd Street. And you're not excited about that, because you're like, I ain't going to

103rd, man. I don't even drive down to 103rd. That's where I grew up, on 103rd, the 103. And if you drive down that road, I'm gonna tell you what you're not gonna see. You're not gonna see any life-giving churches. You drive around that area, you may see a few, but we feel in our heart that the same thing God has done here, that he's gonna open up a door for us to go buy a building over there, go portable into a school, give us a building just like he gave us this building. Like, we believe that with all of our heart. That means nothing changes here. We're just going over, and we're gonna send about 200 of you to go over to that area to reach people. that don't even know our church exists and they don't know Jesus and so we want to take that good news. How are we gonna do it? I have no clue. I just know God told us to do it. But here's what we're not gonna do. We're not gonna run ahead of God and just go, we'll figure it out. No, we're gonna take action. We're gonna pursue things and trust that God will open that door and we will know that it is Him in your waiting room. When you're waiting on God, do not run ahead of Him. That's a recipe for disaster. Trust Him. Listen, sometimes you're gonna wait longer on God than you want to wait. What's your other option? Do it yourself. He is a God worth waiting on and when you wait, listen to me, wait patiently. A lot of church people are gonna go to restaurants today. A lot of church people are and they're not gonna wait patiently for their waiter and their server and they're gonna treat their waiter or server like garbage and they're gonna be dressed in church clothes the whole time. Don't be that person because what happens is they get treated that way then they lump all followers of Jesus into the same category. We got to let them know we're not like everybody else. God doesn't give patience. I thought it was a fruit. It's a fruit that's produced. It's a fruit that's produced on the inside of you. Patience is forged in the fires that we walk through. You ready? You can't just hit your knees today and go, God give me patience. A lot of famous preachers have preached that. You pray for patience, you're gonna get trials. That's actually how patience grows. Patience doesn't grow when everything's good in your life.

Patience grows when you're walking through the storm, when you're walking through the fire and you learn to rely on God. How many of you know God is a trustworthy God? How many of you know exactly how he works though? I've been talking a lot about watermelon in this series. Anybody go get a good watermelon this week? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My family and I, we were actually at Costco the other day and I was doing my whole watermelon deal and there was another guy that was doing his watermelon deal and we started having a weird watermelon conversation. He looked at me and he was like, I don't know man, that melon you got, that looks like a lot of water and not a lot of melon. I was like, bro, I don't even know what that means. So I put it down and I was like, yeah, maybe he's right. Maybe this guy knows something I don't know. And then he walked away and I was like, no, that's a good one. I picked it up. It was good. Let me go. Come on, just let me cook. You know what I'm saying? Like I know my watermelons. But if I walked up to you today and I said this, hey, here's some watermelon seed. I want you to go plant it today and let's eat some watermelon tomorrow. Doesn't work like that, does it? Takes time. God is the farmer of your life who is planting seed in you and you can't see it growing. You can't see what he's doing because it's underground. It's under the surface. But there is something that he is producing in you that only the waiting room can apply to you. You're not gonna get it anywhere else except in the waiting, except in the fire. So just trust this as you walk through the waiting room. He's with you and he's always working. If you're with me, say yeah. Psalm 40 says this, I waited patiently for the Lord to help me. And here's the good news. He turned to me and he heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit, out of despair, out of the mud, and out of the mire. He did it. I didn't do it. He did it for me. Let's read on. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Here's the reality. You ready? This is good preaching so I'm gonna need you to respond right now in this moment. You ready? When you come through the waiting room and God works in you and you learn to rely on him in a greater way than you ever have before, and he brings you

through it, you're gonna come out stronger than you were before you went into it. And because he brought you through it, you're gonna have a greater song of praise to give to him. Why do I need to wait patiently? Here it is. Because many, many will see what he has done. They're not gonna walk away and go, you did it. Look at you. They're not gonna pat you on the back. They're gonna go, how did you get through that? And you're gonna be able to tell them, I have no idea. I didn't think. I think I was going to make it through, but my God brought me through. They're going to see what He has done, and they're going to be amazed. And then catch this. You ready? Because you waited patiently, they will put their trust in your God. They're going to put their trust in the Lord. They're going to look on at you and go, I thought you were toast, man. And you're going to go, I thought I was toast, too. I thought I was done. I thought this was the end. But look what God did. They're going to go, I know, I'm amazed. I want to know the God you know. And they're going to put your trust, they're going to put their trust in the Lord. Why? Because you waited patiently for Him. You trusted in Him. If you're in a waiting room right now, one more time, lift your hand. Don't waste it. He's working. And if you didn't raise your hand, I got great news for you. You have a waiting room around the corner that's waiting on you. It's coming.

Why? Because the majority of our Christian life, it's waiting. All right. Patience towards people. Now, here's what I know, because I know this to be true in my own life. There are moments where I have to be patient with the Lord and wait on Him. But those are moments. With people, it's not moments. It's every day of my life. Why? Because people do people things. And people are annoying. And people are frustrating. Let me just give you like a little, like just a little snapshot of just my marriage a little bit, okay? We work, we work Sunday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday are my day off. On my day off, Friday and Saturday, one of my favorite things to do is get up in the morning and make a big old breakfast for myself. I love, I don't get to do it the other days. I got too much going on. I love making breakfast. I will look at my wife. I ain't no rookie. I will look at my wife and I'll go, I'm making breakfast. You want anything? She'll look back at me and say, no. I will make my eggs, my pancakes, my sausage. I got it all. And I sit down to eat.

And then she pulls up a chair. She says, that looks good. Can I have a couple bites? And I said, I would like to replay a conversation that we had earlier where I said, do you want anything to eat? And your words were no. But now you want a bite of my food. Of course I will give you a bite. And that was frustrating for a while until your boy learned. You don't want anything to eat? I'm going to crack an extra egg for her. I'm going to put an extra pancake on there, a couple more strips of bacon. And now if she don't want it, I'll still eat it all. You know what I'm saying? I ain't mad at it. But now when she pulls up that chair and goes, can I get a bite? Of course you can, you little liar. Of course you can. I prepared for you. Hey, sometimes, listen, sometimes you need to prepare for those people that are annoying and frustrating. You need to. I have to prepare mentally every Sunday that half of y'all are going to get up and go to the bathroom during my sermon. I'm like, they're going to do it. Little small bladders over here. It's a 25 minute message. They can't hold it. Okay. And it's like y'all play musical chairs.

Like you look at each other and go, well, I'm going to go right now. When I come back, then I'll give you permission to go. Like you're in school again. Because it's never all of you at the same time. That would be weird. You just wait. Well, they went. I'm going to go. So I'll come back. And it's always the people in the front row because they just walk out and then they come back in. So now nobody's going to go to the bathroom, which is awesome. Let's go during the music people. Let's go. Because I'll get mad. I'll get frustrated. If you ever hear my preaching start going up a little bit, I just mad at the people that are peeing. You know what I'm saying? So that's just the frustration that I have to deal with though, because people are people. And if you have to go to the bathroom, like we love you, but we're all going to judge you. So let's go. All right. Colossians three says it like this. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. That was good news. None of you. Amen. That you're chosen by God.

You're holy and you're loved by him because of what he's done for you. But here's the thing. You've got to now clothe yourself. And this is something we could use throughout this series because you've got to close yourself with compassion. You've got to do it with kindness, fruit of the spirit, humility, gentleness, fruit of the spirit and patience, fruit of the spirit, clothe yourself, meaning you ain't got it on. So you need to put it on. You don't have it on your own. You need God to put it on for you. You got to get dressed in this stuff, just like you put on clothes today. Let me applaud you for that. Good job. We are. We are not a clothing optional church. Okay. We're not rolling like that. You have to wear clothes to come in here. Maybe that's why you're watching online. You're like, I'm not down with that. I don't know. You got to get dressed. You got to get dressed in the things of God. Because let me say it like this. The Holy Spirit produces patience. Your flesh, your sin nature produces impatience. I truly believe this. And I hope that this, if this applies to you, I hope it convicts you in the right way. I heard a pastor say this, or I heard people say this in our.

Church from time to time man preacher you really stepping on my toes today. Listen. I'm not trying to step on your toes I actually want nothing to do with some of your toes. Some of y'all got some nasty toes All right, I don't want it. The Holy Spirit doesn't want anything to do with your toes He wants to do some surgery on your heart So hear me when I say this Patience is a sign of spiritual maturity Hear me If you don't have patience for the people in your life, and it's never patience towards complete strangers It's always patience and impatience that we deal with the people closest to us If you don't have patience for the people in your life That's your sin nature and there is a spiritual maturity that you desperately need And let me say this Because you might not be aware of this, but the people closest to you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Your impatience is destroying your relationships The way you talk and the way you act is destroying the relationships in your life, why are we impatient? Let's break it down. It's really about control and It's about unmet expectations. I Wanted you to do something a certain way and you didn't you should have done it like that You should have done it the way that I told you to do it. You should have you should have known better and Here's the reality nobody is Ever gonna do things Exactly the way that you want them to do it Nobody is ever gonna do things perfectly the way you have it in your mind your way might be the best way But it doesn't mean they can't do it a different way And you are gonna kill the people in your life by controlling them It's why we get so frustrated in the doctor's office, right? Because you scheduled my appointment for Thursday at 1 o'clock I'm here Thursday at 1245. I got here early one o'clock rolls around and you're not calling me back into the doctor's office Why because you scheduled the appointment at one and I'm here

but because I have no control over it and I had an expectation that when I showed up you were gonna see me when when you told me you were gonna see me and now I Can feel my blood starting to boil I can feel it in me That impatience that you have towards people now, I'm telling you it's ugly in its sin And it doesn't honor God and it doesn't honor them and you need to be aware of it because if you're not aware You can never change And God is calling you Don't just pray for patience towards people get in God's presence Repent I wish I wish we could put like a red light alarm on your head and Every time you were not patient with somebody it just went And you go, oh man, man, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry I'm so sorry because most of the time you are not even aware That's why you just keep lashing out at people Guess what people are never gonna talk like you talk drive like you drive dress like you dress vote like you vote People are different praise God. We're not all like you Praise God. We don't all do things the way you because that's what makes this thing beautiful You stick around rise church long enough. We're gonna annoy you We're gonna frustrate you the people you serve with they're gonna get on your nerve like that's a reality We got to figure out how to work through it though. And the only way is the Holy Spirit guys It's the Holy Spirit producing it on the inside of us So pastor Jonathan come up and I'm gonna close this thing out If you are walking through a moment where you are waiting on God and your patience is Struggling. It's not an accident that you're here today God is trying to speak to your heart and remind you you can trust him If you're here today, and you know, man, I'm the person It's me I'm the problem. I'm not patient with the people in my life God wants to change you

He wants to do some surgery on the inside of you my wife loves me so much more when the Holy Spirit is at work in me and Patience is coming out of me My kids love me so much more when the Holy Spirit's at work in me and patience is coming out of my life You're gonna like me so much more When the Holy Spirit is producing patience in me And that's what our world needs less of you More of Jesus less of you more of Jesus If you know, I'm the person who needs to continue I need you to wait patiently on God. Would you lift your hand right now? One more time. Thank you. And if you wanna double dip today, and you would say, not only do I need to wait on God patiently, I know I need to be patient with others. Anybody in the room today? Amen. As a sign of receptivity, of saying, God, we need you to work in us, would you just hold your hands out with me? Everybody. I love being a part of a church where people walk in and go, man, I know, I know I'm broken, and I know I need God. Let's be that, people.

This whole series is all about spiritual growth. Something you need to be patient with yourselves, because you feel like you should be further along. Okay. You're a work in progress. The way we say it is, you might not be where you wanna be, but you're not where you used to be. But don't be content with that. Say, God, keep changing me. Keep changing me. Let's pray. Thank you, God, that you are in this place. For those in the waiting room, God, remind them you're trustworthy, and remind them that you're working, even when they can't see it. For those that have lashed out with impatience at those closest to them that has affected some of their relationships, God, I pray that you would work in them first, and as you work in them, pray that you would bring healing to some of those relationships. Thank you that you're patient with us, God. Thank you that you don't give up on us. You're slow to anger, abounding in love. Amen. Amen.