Expect God’s Patience | Jud Wilhite | Central Church

all right nice to see your masked faces this afternoon good to have you guys here with us today i want to talk to you today about the patience of god i don't know about you but my kids have this tremendous sort of ability to have selective memory uh when they were kids growing up lori and i would would take turns putting them to bed at night and putting kids to bed at night is a big deal come on all the parents in the room say uh-huh that's a big deal it's not easy man it's like a two-up for us it was like a two-hour process we'd have to take the kids up and then i would brush their teeth with them and then tuck each of them into their beds read them a bible story pray a blessing over them and my kids man they got used to this and they were like dogmatic about it if i missed any part in the process my daughter be like what you're not gonna bless me tonight like jeez you know so i pray a blessing over and then my son ethan he couldn't sleep very well so he would always get up a million times so eventually we just have to sit outside um of his bedroom door until he would finally fall asleep i see some parents nodding right now and so that was anywhere from a half hour to an hour so the whole process was like two hours and i want you to know hundreds of times i took my kids up i did the whole deal i prayed i talked to men we brushed their teeth we did all the things i sat outside the door again and again and again because i'm trying to be a decent father and if you ask my kids what they remember about their entire childhood the hundreds of times i put them down they would tell you well this one time my dad totally lost his cool and threw the toothbrush at the sink it's the only thing they remember from all those times and i did i totally lost it i was standing in the bathroom they were brushing their teeth and they were supposed to brush them for a certain amount of time and my daughter had the little hello kitty toothbrush that was battery operated and you're supposed to brush till the movement stops you know but she never would and i had a total full-scale you know childish meltdown and i took this toothbrush and i yelled nobody listens to me and then which by the way if you've ever wondered am i really in charge when you have when you yell that you're no longer in charge you're like nobody's lit nobody listens to me i threw the toothbrush into the sink the battery explodes out of it it flies across the room both my kids are like and i'm like you know listen if you just listen to me even this week my daughter came downstairs her grandmother was there i said watch this i said emma what do you remember about being a kid growing up when dad would put you down at night in no life she goes i remember that one time you threw the toothbrush i mean all the time you guys all the times i watched talking dog movies with my kids all the times we went to mcdonald's all the times that i lost at video games so they would feel better about themselves all the times that i went to musical performances to watch my daughter sing and heard all the cute kids that went before that are cute but you don't really care about them and i was i'd all this stuff and all she remembers is when i threw the toothbrush we have selective memory and i think sometimes when it comes to god we can get a little bit of selective memory going on as well i think sometimes spiritually if we've experienced anger in our lives or we're raised in a home where anger was shown we can project that onto god and believe that god is mostly angry with people that god is mostly upset with people some of you walk around like that every day you feel that tension you believe god is about to zap you at any given moment in your life some of you um you read a story in the old testament and if you read through the old testament or the new testament you'll see periodically stories of god's anger and his judgment and his wrath you know it's it can be really kind of freaky right you don't know if you ever opened the old testament you read a story you're like and then god boom and you're sort of like whoa where's that where's that stuff judd talks about you know romans a god is for us who can be where's that stuff that's scary and sometimes we can have a tendency to think that god is primarily an angry god and i want to encourage you today because just like me with my kids almost the entire time of my relationship with my kids has been mostly patient and loving they tend to focus on the one or two times or three times i my anger got the best to me i think sometimes in our relationship with god we lose perspective on who he is god is not primarily an angry god god is a god who is filled with patience for his people doesn't mean he doesn't have moments of anger in the bible but it's if you look at the whole arc of the bible it's such a small poor part of who he is god actually describes himself as a patient and loving god and that's what we've been looking at over the last few weeks we've been diving in to exodus chapter 34 beginning in verse 6. so cool because listen this passage that we're looking at is the most quoted passage in the old testament kind of by old testament writers so this was like their anchor passage they go back to it again and again and again throughout the old testament and it's a place where god described his own character to moses god reveals in his own words who he is he says this is who i am this is what you can expect and here's the thing listen i don't know what 2021 holds but i know we can have great expectations because we have a great god we have a great god and he reveals his character in exodus 34. we've been looking at this the last few weeks so here's what god says to moses in the most quoted passage in the old testament by old testament authors he says he is the god of compassion and mercy i am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness and so we pulled out five characteristics that god uses to describe himself he's filled with compassion he's a god who cares about his people and by the way this is the first characteristic god uses to describe himself compassion right and he has mercy or grace or favor it could be translated god has favor and loves to show favor to his kids he says i am slow to anger right so god is filled with patience and we're gonna unpack that today and filled with unfailing love this loyal love that's based in his covenant and his commitment to his people more than our performance and faithfulness god is faith this is who god is and friends this is this is good news listen uh several years ago i talked to somebody out in the community and they didn't know i was the pastor at central and somehow central came up and they go oh yeah yeah central that's just that big feel-good church and i remember standing there for a minute and i wasn't offended takes a lot to offend me all because i actually thought well it's better to be in the depressed church and it's better being better than being the angry church it's better than being the judgmental church it's better being than being the hate-filled church and i don't know about you when i look at who god actually is when i look at his character as he has revealed himself compassion favor patience loyal love and faithfulness it feels pretty good to me maybe that's why the gospel of jesus christ is the good news i don't mind being the feel-good church i ought to feel good because i worship a god and this is how he describes himself just a thought but look at the next verse right after this one where god in exodus 34 7 unpacks some more of his patience and what that looks like this is so good exodus 34 7 when we get to the red word here i'm just going to ask you to read it out loud real loud wherever you're at keep everybody awake but god says this i lavish unfailing love to a what thousand you see that to a thousand generations now let's just whoo just read this again i lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations i forgive iniquity rebellion and sin god's saying you want to know who i am you want to know my character i'm patient compassionate full of mercy he says i i have loyal love i'm faithful and i bless people to a thousand generations who love me and follow me i forgive their sin their rebellion but look at this but i do not excuse the guilty i lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren the entire family is affected even children in the third and fourth generations now some people read that and i think the temptation can be to jump to sort of forget all of this that we just read and to jump down here and be like what the heck did you just read that god visits the sins of his of the parents onto the children up to the third and fourth generation that's not fair god is he just an angry god is he just vindictive like what is up with that and i think we miss a couple things on the one hand what god is saying in exodus 34 is first of all a statement of reality i don't know if you've ever thought about it but abuse often runs in cycles through families and through generations and that sin of abuse can not only devastate the abuser but the abusee and it can turn the abusee someday into an abuser and that cycle continues to go in families addiction can run in cycles through families and the sin of a parent can visit the kids and through the kids can visit the grandkids and through the grandkids can go forward in future generations greed in successful families can be poison that not only begins to destroy that family unit but it's the sins of the parents that get delivered to the to the to the kids and then to the grandkids and then to the and the effects the consequences of sin and self-destructive things that we engage in our life it goes forward that's just a statement of reality second thing let's go back to this scripture if we can bring this slide back up what the original readers of this passage would have understood is that this is about a contrast and the the point of the passage is not that the entire family can be affected by sin to the third and fourth generation that's not the point the point is god lavishes unfailing love to a thousand generations that's the point so the comparison a thousand generations three or four the comparison is to show us who god is and remind us of his goodness and this isn't like set in stone you may have come from an abusive family you may have come from a selfish angry hate-filled family but that does not have to be your destiny you can be a chain breaker you can be somebody who turns to god for his unfailing love and i want you to think about this it will affect you but it will go way beyond you some of you you made an effort to be in church today some of you made an effort to watch online you're trying to walk faithfully with god and i want you to know you're setting a new course some of you in your family and in your life you're you're leaning on to god for his blessing in your life but it'll affect not only you and not only your spouse or future spouse it's going to affect not only your kids but your future kids or your grandkids it's not only affect you your future your grandkids it's going to affect their kids and their grandkids up to a thousand generations the unfailing love of god is available to his people that's who god is don't lose sight of who he is if you read a passage in the old testament that freaks you out because he's angry and judgmental in the moment he's a good god you wouldn't want a god who never got angry because that would mean he doesn't have any sense of justice for people right we get angry you hear about kids going missing in the midst of basically uh human trafficking situations we get angry right we we hear about people being abused or taken advantage of we hear about greed and corruption we get angry because we care and so god while he shows moments of anger defines himself not by his anger but by his patience the long arc of the bible is that god is good and patient and kind we've got to keep that in perspective even when we lose patience god remains patient with you and so first thought going into the new year having great expectations anchored in god is that we can trust his patients and we can give thanks for god's patience we can give thanks for his patience uh i don't know if you have people in your family that that like to move the thermostat around anybody have somebody in the family always adjust in the thermostat drives me crazy right like like this is where i lose patience thermostat invaders i got up in the middle of the night a couple nights ago we're supposed to keep our thermostat sat at a certain place y'all and it was freezing and by the way anytime temperature goes below 50 out here in the desert man i'm a desert rat at this point i'm like oh man it's like it's like the winter of our discontent out there it's like 48 i'm dying right anybody you know like get the thermal underwear you know a heated blanket something i'm laying there i wake up in the middle of the night and i'm like i'm shivering i'm shivering in the middle of the night and i go and one of my kids has gotten at some point in the day got a little toasty and turned it from heat to air conditioner come on don't touch the thermostat you pay for that you're lucky i even let you live here just don't touch the thermostat just kidding we can lose oh by the way i thought this was funny here you go just need a laugh today one guy says uh i don't know who needs to hear this but if the house is 73 and you want it to be 68 turning the thermostat down to 60 doesn't make it happen any quicker then he says this and by i don't know who i mean my wife but i can't tell her because she's pregnant and she scares me yes and amen get a bigger jacket bro we can lose patience over a whole lot of things the bible says god is patient sometimes that that impatience in our lives can turn to anger now here's the interesting thing in the hebrew language that the old testament was written in anger could be translated as hot nosed you know that hebrew language is very descriptive and so you know when somebody gets angry right their face gets red they just kind of look like a bull their nostrils flare we say somebody's a hot head but in the hebrew old testament they would say somebody's hot-nosed but this phrase to be slow to anger that god uses to describe himself it could be translated long of nose not like pinocchio but god has a long nose meaning he's got a he he's slow to get hot nose he doesn't lean towards anger he leans towards patience for us in our lives and that's good news for all of us today in fact there's one person in the old testament that really struggled with the goodness and the patience of god and that's a prophet named jonah let me tell you a story real quick jonah was a prophet which meant he was a spokesperson from god to god's people in the old testament god comes to him and says listen i want you to go to the land of uh to the city of nineveh and i want you to tell them that if they don't turn back to me in so many days i'm gonna destroy them now the city of nineveh was not a religious city it was uh you know you know considered a quote unquote pagan city if you will uh they were known in history to be very violent i mean when they defeated a nation they didn't just kill everybody but they killed the men the women the children they hung them up they hung them by their intros they pulled their body parts apart i mean they weren't messing around they were cruel and unjust people and god says jonah these are your enemies but i want you to go and tell your enemies that if they don't stop and change their ways and turn to me my anger is going to overflow against them and i'm going to destroy the whole city so jonah says like nope i'm not doing that and he runs from god and then he's on a ship and he's out in the water and he gets swallowed by a whale and he gets thrown up on the shore and eventually if you go through all of that you're like okay i'll go and so he goes to nineveh and he tells the people of nineveh like listen man god is gonna destroy you if you don't turn over turn to him and change your ways and and this miraculous thing happens the people of this irreligious city far from god no sort of religious connection stop and listen to jonah and they're convicted about the things that they do and they're like yeah man this is wrong and they turn their hearts to god many of them and god relents and he doesn't destroy the city because that's his heart that's who he is and he shows them compassion here's what's fascinating jonah was frustrated by this move of god it was the patience of god towards the ninevites that actually angered jonah and when jonah first ran from god we often think that he did it out of rebellion because he was afraid if he went to nineveh told them about god and you know they wouldn't listen and he would fail no no jonah was afraid they that he would succeed that he would go to nineveh tell them about god they would turn to god and god wouldn't destroy them and what jonah really wanted more than anything else is for god to destroy his enemies if you don't believe me here it is in his own words jonah chapter four beginning in verse one god chooses to show mercy to nineveh check it out this change of plans greatly upset jonah gotta love it and he became very angry very hot-nosed so he complained to the lord about it this is what he says to god didn't i say before i left home that you would do this lord i mean think about what he's saying right here didn't i tell you before that you would do this he says that is why i ran away to tarshish i knew that you were a merciful and compassionate god slow to get angry and filled with unveiling love and you are what eager to turn back from destroying people jonah is mad because god didn't destroy his enemies and he's mad because he shows up and tells people god's judgment is coming and the people turn to god and god changes his mind and now who looks like a fool jonah does hello notice he says i knew that you were a merciful and compassionate god slow to get angry filled with unfailing love does that phrase look familiar because that's an illusion back to exodus chapter 34 6 again the most quoted passage in the old testament by old testament writers this is who he understood god to be and jonah basically was like listen man god i want you to take him out but you showed him mercy gives you a whole new insight on jonah right but we can be like jonah you ever looked around and been like man these people are evil they're doing some wicked stuff god why don't you show up and take them out god why are you taking so long my ex why don't you show up and make it right you know this this split this divorce guy why don't you why don't you move and make it right my my sort of step family on that they're lying about me they're saying things about me god why don't you show up and make it right that other political party you know whatever one other one is those people why don't you show up and make it right listen but then we got to stop and think about who god is you know what god says to jonah he says should i not show mercy to this great city and he leaves it the book of jonah ends with a question jonah's upset god's forgiven the ninevites and the question is left for us should god not show mercy to be is it not god's prerogative and not ours and when you think about it if we get in that rut like jonah shouldn't we step back and think about all the times god has shown patience to us in our lives all the times he's been kind and merciful to us when we didn't deserve it shouldn't we stop and think about our own hearts and lives and all the patience god has shown us and then start looking out and thinking differently about others or even our enemies or even people we disagree with shouldn't that shake i mean think about it god was patient with you when you didn't listen hello god was patient with you with me when uh you know you disrespected that person who bears his image and god was patient with you he was patient with me when you broke your promise god was patient with you he's patient with me when you hurt those you love god was patient with you patient with me when you wallowed in your woundedness god was patient with you when you refused to admit that you were actually part of the problem hello god was patient with you when you let evil go unchallenged god was patient with you when all those years you chased after money or power or status or fame instead of seeking your significance in him god was slow to get angry because listen he is eager to know you he is eager to help you he is eager to save you he is eager to bless you he is eager to restore you in your life his anger is slow but his grace is quick and his love is faithful to a thousand generations give thanks for god's patience and when you look around and you're frustrated remember god was patient with you and pray that god will be patient with them remember all of the mercy god shown you and pray that god will show the same mercy to them second thought is this be patient with yourself be patient with yourself you know when i was a kid growing up i got called plenty of different names uh judd the dud judd the mud people would sing oklahoma poor judd is dead a few other names that i can't repeat in church and those were the names i was called but they weren't nearly as bad as the names i would call myself stupid judd ugly judd slow judd dumb judd hypocrite judd and even as i got older toothbrush throwing bad pastor bad dad judd and all of those things may be true but it's only a part of the truth about me look i'm a sinner but i'm also a saint through jesus christ and what he did for me i may be ams right but i'm god's mess in my life i'm not where i want to be but make no mistake friends i am nothing like i used to be god in his goodness has me on a journey and he has you on a journey as well and my encouragement to you is be patient with yourself on that journey and if you'll learn to be patient with yourself because you receive god's patience it will help you then be patient with others in your life look at this um first thessalonians chapter 5 beginning in verse 9. paul kind of breaks it down when we get to the red word let's say it out loud together he says for god chose to save us through our lord jesus christ not to pour out his anger on us now i feel like this is this is like the re this is why you should have come to church this weekend this is epic this is the line i'm going to say it again for the people in the back for god chose to save us through our lord jesus christ not to pour out his anger on us christ died for us so that whether we are dead or alive when he returns we can live with him forever so what encourage you see that so what do we do with all this we encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing listen every weekend is central my commitment to you my goal is to encourage you and pour into you out of the goodness of who god is in my life now i there are times where we will talk about sin issues that people don't want to talk about there are times we'll talk about race issues people don't want to talk about there are times we're going to talk about things that make people uncomfortable i'm committed to declaring the whole counsel of god's word but don't miss this that whole counsel of god word needs to be positioned in line with the character of god himself as he has described himself and that's why you're going to hear a lot more compassion and favor and mercy and faithfulness and loyal love then you're going to hear judgment and sin and getting your act together it's not a negation of the other it's keeping it all in its proper context just as god himself does in his character when it comes to our lives we can be patient with ourselves not only because of all god has done for us but because we're all at different places on the spiritual journey a lot of times we think that becoming a follower of jesus looks like this like you get saved placed your faith and trust in jesus christ you believe that he died on the cross for you and rose again and through that act of faith you receive forgiveness the gift of god's spirit you start the spiritual journey you're saved and then a lot of us think like we should be on a straight line to change so you know all of a sudden like everything goes right for us we get our act together we attend church every week we give faithfully we serve we put our hearts out for others we share our faith with others we stop committing personal sin we stop committing sexual sin we stop lusting we stop lying we stop exaggerating we don't even cuss when we stump our toe we're basically mother teresa that's what we think should happen on the spiritual it's like a straight line from here to there and you know we'll be there in a few months i'm going to tell you you don't get that in the bible when you actually read the bible you realize if you want to know what the spiritual life really looks like read the psalms the prayer and praise book of the old testament followers of jesus one psalm everything's amazing next psalm everything's falling apart one psalm god's good god's rules god's work and next psalm god you better show up and save me from these people right one psalm god i praise you you're so awesome you're filled with love and faithfulness next psalm god destroy my enemies before they destroy me the spiritual life is actually more like a roller coaster i would tell you it looks more like this than a straight line and the reason i think this is important is because i want to encourage you to be patient with yourself just give yourself some grace god's given you grace you're you're being changed and you one day will ultimately be changed but it's a journey and we want to make progress but i think it often works like this when you first come to god in faith it's all about god and his goodness and all that he's done for you and you're learning and it's all new and it's incredible so it starts all god and then after you journey for a while somewhere in that first few years you can fall into a temptation of making it all about me you know it goes from albeit about god to all about me my performance my obedience you know how faithful i am i show up at church i try to do all the right things i'm trying to keep it together but inevitably somewhere in year two three four five depending on how much you sort of try to walk with god here's what's gonna happen i'm just gonna tell you right now if that's you if that's where you're at you're gonna fail because you're not good enough and strong enough in your strength to live there and you're going to get to a place like i got to and hundreds of others in this room have gotten to where you're either going to give up because it's too hard or you're going to come to what i call the third level of spiritual maturity which is to move from it all being god to it all being me to then realizing you know what it's all grace it's all because of what jesus has done i obey god not to earn my favor but because i already have favor with him in jesus christ i serve him and i believe that god responds to that and moves in people's lives but it's not about me it's about him right it's not about my goodness it's about his goodness if it's about my performance if it's about how good i am today versus how good i am tomorrow one guy told me like man i just feel bad you know i drink a beer or you know i still cuss when i stump my toe i'm like who cares there are way bigger issues in the world than that being transformed by jesus is way bigger than that right it changes how we view other people it changes how we treat other people it changes how we even treat ourselves that's spiritual growth so be patient with yourself and be patient with others see i believe over time god will turn you into a chain breaker exodus 34 7 lays out two paths right on the one path you could be blessed by god uh for a thousand generations as you follow him on the other path you could see the burden of sin going down to three or four generations in your family but god loves to show mercy so if you turn to him if you if you look to him he will show you his goodness and his blessing he will show you his mercy and his kindness now i heard a story about a little girl who grew up with an alcoholic father and a very broken mother her mom was her home was marked by bitterness by sadness by dysfunction in fact when her dad was too drunk to drive home which was often she would sit on her dad's lap in the car and tell him when to hit the gas and when to hit the brake and she would steer she learned to drive at five uh her mom's past had been so painful and she found it really difficult to express any love or affection to her family so that was the home she grew up in filled with alcoholism and addiction and a lack of love and human kindness and affection her story about a little boy his dad was a leader in the church and his mom was a sunday school teacher life seemed sort of perfect on the outside but deep down his dad was quietly struggling with depression and mental health issues that had actually gone on in their family for generations undiagnosed and undiscussed when the little boy was drafted to go to vietnam his father to the shock of everyone took his own life so that little boy was sent home from the military to care for his mom and his brothers and soon found out that not only did his dad take his life but his granddad had taken his life as well so here's a family marked by depression and suicide now that boy he went on to fall in love with that little girl i told you about earlier they got married and rather than pass on all that pain and all that trauma they made a choice to break the chains that had bound their families for generations the chains of addiction the chains of depression the chains of heartache the chains of anger and they broke those chains with the help and mercy of god they said our home is going to be different than the homes we grew up in they said our life is going to look different than the life we grew up in we're thankful for our parents we honor our parents but we're not going to pass on the sins of our parents to our kids we're going to humbly come before god we're going to get ourselves in church we're going to get our kids in church we're going to serve and pray and over time we're going to believe that god's unfailing love will impact not only our family but our kids and so they patiently sought out that blessing that goes a thousand generations they had two kids and both of them grew up in the church and both of them went into ministry one of them was a boy named sean who for years served as our teaching pastor here at central and the other was a girl named lori who became my wife she's not only blessed me but she's blessed thousands of women through her ministry called leading and loving it and she's also blessed thousands upon thousands through her teaching and her leadership and her example but listen all because two people decided to be chain breakers rather than pass on the hurt that they had experienced that's the power of god that's the grace of god that's the restoration of god you don't have to settle for the chains of your past right you don't have to settle for what you inherited you can break those chains and let god's faithful love flow to a thousand generations in your life listen you're not perfect but you are being perfected you're not just a sinner you are a saint you're not a victim you are a victor you're not lost you are found you're not overcome you're an overcomer you're not abandoned you are adopted you're not forgotten you are forgiven you're not a lost cause you are a found treasure you're not an object of anger you are an object of god's favor in your life and not only in your life to your kids lives and your grandkids lives and their kids lives and their kids lives and their kids lives that's the faithful patient love of god for all of us listen somebody needs to hear this today i don't care where you came from you can break the chain of addiction in your life you can break the chain of abuse in your family you can break the chain of poverty you can break the chain of rage you can break the chain of racism you can break the chain of discrimination you can break the chain because jesus broke the chains for you if you just turn to god and follow him his unfailing love will fall on you and your family and change the direction of your future listen i must say before i came out when our worship team was playing that last song i want you to know i have my hands in the air backstage and i'm praying over each and every one of you and i pray that god would drop his favor and his blessing on you and your kids lives to a stupid degree because he's god and he can do it that he'll be faithful to you as his kids even though you're unfaithful just like me see we can have expectations going into the new year it's not about covet not expectations about work hours even though all those things are important we can have expectations because of who god has revealed himself to be man if he's faithful patient loyal if he's filled with favor and compassion i can have a good year because i have a good god in christ in christ god is not mad at you he's mad about you and his patience is what defines him some of you are here today and you've never surrendered your life to jesus christ and i just want to give you an opportunity to open your heart to him and receive his unfailing love that'll affect not only your life but your kids and your grandkids lives as you follow him in faith would all of you bow your heads and close your eyes if you'd like to become a follower of jesus today you can begin that journey by repeating this prayer after me just to open your heart to god and declare your faith in him just say dear god i thank you for loving me thank you for sending jesus into the world i believe he died on the cross for my sins i believe he rose again forgive me for my sins give me the gift of eternal life help me face the challenges that i'm up against [Music] god i surrender my life to you in christ's name my friends with every head bowed and every eye closed if that's your prayer today if it's your commitment when i ask you wherever you're at to just slip your hand in the air just make eye contact with me if you're in the room today just let me know you're going to follow god and trust him in your life today god bless you guys hands are going up around the room thank you guys thank you thank you thank you reach out to him today thank you thank you god i thank you for each person reaching out to you and i pray you'll fill their life with your goodness your kindness your mercy your compassion and your patience and i know that you will because that's who you are may we all walk towards you in faith may we come to know you and love you and serve you maybe we we be filled with hope because of who you are we thank you in christ's name amen

Channel: Central Church

Views: 1,248

Rating: 4.7948718 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: uHr3JWRsLSI

Length: 40min 43sec (2443 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021