Truth in Love Eph 4:15

Hello everyone. Thank you for watching the video tonight. This evening I've got again with me Pastor Jeff from Reedsville Baptist Church. I'm thankful that he is continuing to join me to give us his insights and what the Lord has been teaching him so he can teach us.

Pastor Jeff and I have been going through the fruits of the Spirit and it's been very encouraging. I've learned a lot and I hope it's been encouraging to you throughout this this video and the other videos that we do.

If we can ever pray for you, all you have to do is type me and and we'll see that. We'll see the notification and and we would love to be able to pray for you. Also I wanted to say that if at any point you have any questions, you want to make any comments, I always like to leave the floor open and I have a pastor with me here that that can help me answer questions that you may have.

So just shoot us a question or a comment and and let us know what's on your mind. So without any further ado, Pastor, welcome. Thank you. Good to have you. Thanks. Good to be on here. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So you've been doing okay and anything that we can be praying for? Just for our.

Upcoming services. We're having a meeting tomorrow to decide if we're going to keep just doing the Sunday service or if we're going to modify them with COVID and everything. So we're working on it. So I'm just praying that God will allow that to be a smooth meeting and that we'll continue to honor.

Him and do what he has called us to do. Absolutely. I know you as well as other all other pastors, you know, have that have that weight of making those tough decisions among all the other things that you have to deal with.

So let's let's be in prayer for Pastor Jeff and let's be in prayer for all other pastors and church leaders, elders and deacons in the church that are making these decisions who want to who want to protect their flock and love their flock.

But also the on the other hand, you want to continue to gather together and worship,.

Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I think the hardest thing, one of the hardest things for us is not having a choir. Our choir is really missing the singing. And I know the singing has been one of the big points with the science behind spreading COVID.

So, you know, it's I know our choir director, you know, just just remember him in prayer and our choir because I know they want to get back at.

It. So. Will do. Okay. And and with that being said, anybody who has jumped on here, if we can ever pray for you, all you have to do is type me. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

We'll stop what we're doing and hopefully try to answer any questions that you have. And just let us know that you're watching. Say hello, and we'd love to hear from you. So without any further ado, let's let's jump right in and continue the study and look at the fruits of the spirit.

Tonight we are looking at patience or long suffering. We have looked at love, joy and peace. And tonight is patience. I guess I will go first again. What we've been doing is I've been looking at the counterfeit fruit and Pastor Jeff has been looking at the authentic fruit.

And I think that's important to look at both so that we can see what's evident in our personal life, our individual life. And so that when we see what's manifesting itself in our life, we can know, well, I'm either leaning or trusting or conforming to Christ and and letting the Holy Spirit work in me or I'm trusting in the flesh.

And so I think it's important for us to look at both the counterfeit fruit and the the actual authentic spiritual fruit that God produces in us. And so with the with the counterfeit fruit of patience, I found four things and I want to quickly go over those those four things where we find counterfeit patience.

The first one is we we will simulate patience or give a counterfeit patience when when we are trying to be controlling or or you know a person that is a very controlling person. That person will try to control others and they'll try to control their circumstances to such a degree that they seem patient because you don't ever have frustrations because everything goes your way.

Everything goes your way when you're in control of everything. Hey Brother Roger, thank you for watching. Yes, praying for a revival. Absolutely. Brother Roger at will commented. Can you see the comments?

I.

Cannot and I'm not sure. Yeah, when I do that, the whole screen just comes up. So okay, I'm not real sure. Okay, yeah, I see. So I can click and see the comments, but if I can, can you still see me? I can.

I can. Okay, because I don't know. I can take I can actually see the comments now. Great. It's kind of the comments are in front of the screen, so I can't really see myself good. That's okay, though. As.

Long as you can see me. Okay, absolutely. So yes. Okay, well, yeah, we're right there with your brother, Roger. We're praying for a revival. We'll move with the Holy Spirit, God to be working and we are.

We are praying that the Holy Spirit would use us in that and you as well. So yes, we want to see a move of God for sure, for sure. But yeah, the first counterfeit evidence or sign of counterfeit patients is being controlling or a controlling person.

And you can't ever get frustrated. So it will it will stimulate patience because you don't ever get frustrated. The second one. Oh, mom and dad. Hey, mom and dad. Thanks for watching. Yeah. The second counterfeit patients is being naive.

Wait, before I go there, I do have scripture to go with these verses, or these, these four different types of counterfeit patients. The first one being a controlling person, I've got Galatians chapter four, verse 17.

And it says, they eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out in order that you may seek them out. So what's going on here is, I believe, and I need to do some further research to confirm this, but Paul speaks often warning the different people in the different churches at that time of the Judaizers who want them to get back into being underneath the law.

And some of them were even, they were okay with being a Christian, but they wanted to make sure that you remained under the law as well. And you know, those folks that wanted you to, to be under the thumb of the law, they would, it says that they eagerly seek you out to shut you out so that they, so that they, you will see them so that they can keep some type of control over you.

And so that's kind of why I pick Galatians chapter four, verse 17, because that's what a controlling person will do is try to, Hey, Tammy, thank you for watching. Tammy Rogers is with us. They'll, they'll try to have control over you.

And like I said, no frustration is a, is a counterfeit patience, but you're, you're controlling the situation. The second one is being naive. So a person that is, is naive, they, they only see the, the general goodness in others so that, so that when someone sins against us, they can, they can have a lot of resentment towards God.

You know, why, why are they doing this to me? So they're so naive that they, they just see what's supposedly good. You know, scripture says there's no one good, no, not one, but you know, the, the general good, the common grace that God gives all of us, that's, that's all they see.

And they'll let people run over them. They won't eat. They won't stand for truth. So that when bad things happen to them, they will, they'll have this resentment towards God and it will, it will counterfeit or simulate patience, but it's actually a counterfeit patience.

And the verse that I chose for this one is Proverbs 27, 12, a prudent man sees evil and hides himself. The naive proceed. They, they ignore it. They just see the good and they pay the penalty. So, and then the third one is, is someone who is, is being cynical.

Being cynical is a, is a counterfeit or shows a counterfeit patience. Someone who is cynical is learning to live with sin by lowering the standard for themselves and lowering the standards for others.

And so that they say, well, you know, everyone's a sinner. We're, we're all sinners. And so you just kind of ignore sin by lowering the standard just to that degree that it almost doesn't exist. And you, and you say to yourself, well, nobody will change.

And, and maybe even everyone's out to get me. Kind of mentality. So, so it can be a, it can be a form of counterfeit patience to, to be a cynical person because you, you just, you overlook sin. You, you lower the standard so much.

And the first verse that I saw for that one was 1st John 4, 1. It says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

So we don't, we don't want to be cynical and lower the standard. We want, we want to test the spirits. And, and that can give us a false sense of, of patience, relying on the flesh. And then the 4th one, my final one, counterfeit patience, an evidence of counterfeit patience is being a self-righteous person.

You elevate yourself above others to the degree that, you know, you're too good to even help the naive person or the cynical person. You know, you may, you may see the problem with their lifestyle and who they are, but you know, you've elevated yourself above them so much that you don't want to be bothered by them.

So you, you portray this counterfeit patience where you're, you're not being bothered by the, the meek and the lowly or the weak, the people that need your help. And so the verse that I saw for that one was Romans 14, 1.

It says, now accept the one who was weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. So we won't, we, we don't want to ignore them. We think we're, we're better than them to try to give a false sense of patience.

You know, showing some kind of false piety in ourselves, but we want to accept those who are weak, help those who are weak. And I hope, I hope those 4 things were helpful to you as you examine yourself and say, do I have, you know, counterfeit patience or do I have authentic patience, Holy Spirit patience?

And, and with Holy Spirit patience, authentic patience, I want to turn it over to Pastor Jeff to look at what, what does that actually look like?

Thank you. Absolutely. And I just want to go ahead and say, if y 'all see a kid walking behind me, I know he's there, you know, mom's working. So he's in, he insists on being in a room with me. So I hope it's not too distracting, but it is what it is right now at this point.

So y 'all just try to bear with me. Yeah. So, you know, the, the, the King James says long suffering. We translate that into patience and patience is one of those things that we, we look at sometimes and a lot of people have a hard time with.

A lot of people will say, you know, I just, I'm not blessed with a lot of patience. They get angry quickly. They fly off the handle quickly. And maybe, maybe that's someone that's watching this. I want you to know something that, you know, if that's you don't, don't beat yourself up over it, but just give it to God and let him help you through that and let him help you change that.

So I think, and thinking about patience, you know, as all of the fruit of the spirit, I think this is important for us to remember all the fruit of the spirit that we're doing. The Lord demonstrates, or he has demonstrated these fruit.

He has demonstrated patience toward us. We are initially, we're reflecting that, that he has, that he himself has demonstrated. So to reflect God's patience in the way, to be patient toward others in the way that we ought to.

First of all, we've got to understand his long suffering toward us, his patience toward us. I think far too often we take for granted, we take for granted his long suffering toward us. And we kind of take advantage of it.

And, you know, that, that ought never be the case. Some people say, well, you know, I can, I can just do whatever I want to. After all, he's a loving, forgiving God. So I can do whatever I want to. That is not, that is not God's idea of grace.

And that's not his idea of us being the Christians that we should be. So when we're thinking about authentic long suffering or patience, I think first of all, we've got to see individuals through the eyes of Christ.

We have to see others through the eyes of Christ. Understand that we're all, every, every person, every man, woman, child, everybody watching this, we're all flawed human beings. Every single one of us, myself, you, Brother Robert, we are all flawed human beings.

And, you know, it's important for us to know that because we all have the, have the, you know, we can all get it wrong. We can all miss the mark. We can all have an attitude that we shouldn't have toward others.

And, you know, there's, there's people maybe in our lives where we, we struggle with patience. And so how do we have patience with those particular people? You know, and I know, you know, maybe we're, we're not thinking about necessarily just people that we're dealing with.

Of course, patience spans a lot of different facets. But I think a lot of times we have a hard time dealing with other individuals. And so the reason I bring that up is because what we must do, we must see not just a difficult person, but we've got to see that person through the eyes of Christ, that they are, they are, you know, just as flawed as we are.

Okay, they deserve nothing just like we do. But God is still gracious. God is still faithful. He is long suffering toward them. And he's been long suffering toward us. And I think it's imperative that we remember that we're supposed to reflect that same long suffering toward others.

You know, he's told us to love others, as he has loved us in that same way. And to do that, we must have patience. You know, when we think about, you know, people say, well, you know, they're just, you know, we people have said, you know, that person is just a jerk, that person is just, you know, they're difficult.

Well, we don't understand, we cannot know the things behind other people's demeanor. We don't know what led to that. We don't know what their upbringing was. We don't know what kind of day they've had.

So it's important that we be patient with others, and, and reflect God's patience to them through patience, because we can do a lot of damage if we don't. You know, like it says, this is a fruit of the Spirit.

There's nothing that we can do on our own. This is something that we have to trust God to do in our lives. And when we submit it to him, then we're going to see that we're going to see that come to fruition in, in our interactions with others.

Another, another way that we can show, we need to show true authentic patience is in the trials that we face and in the, the, the hardships that we face as, as individuals, as Christians, everybody's going to have trials, it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or if you're a sinner, wherever you are in your life, we're all going to have those trials.

It rains, as the Bible says, on the just and the unjust. So, you know, for us, we look sometimes when we say, man, it's really getting hard, life's really getting hard. When people say when it rains, it pours.

And, and they, people say, and I've said myself, it seems like when one thing goes wrong, 30 things go wrong. But I think it's important for us to try to stop seeing these trials, not as a, as a hindrance, but as an opportunity.

And with that, you know, just thinking about in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul was citing his thorn in the flesh, he's talking about this thing. We're not told specifically what it is. We, we can, you know, kind of guess about it, but in reality, we don't know.

But this thorn in the flesh, he says, you know, I've got this thorn in the flesh. He prayed three times. And every time God says, what my grace is sufficient for you. And so he realized that his trial that he was going through was not a hindrance.

It was an opportunity. And in 2 Corinthians 12, in verse 10, Paul says, after the Lord has told him, my grace is sufficient for you. He says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, and necessities, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then am I strong. I think that's important for us to remember that those trials are not just things to, to mess with us. There's ways that God can show himself faithful in our lives.

People say sometimes if God loved me, this wouldn't be happening. Or if God loved me, this wouldn't be happening again, over and over again. Sometimes we might feel like Job or, or Joseph, you know, he goes over and over in the pit again, over and over again.

And, and Job lost everything all in one swift act. And people say, man, you know, I kind of feel like that. I feel like, you know, not, not one thing happened wrong, but 20 things happened wrong. Well, and we say, if God loved me, then, you know, why is this happening?

The answer is this. God does love us, but God desires for us to learn. God desires for us to grow. And nobody ever really shows growth on a mountaintop. It's in the valley that we grow. So, we've got to change our attitude maybe towards those trials that we're facing.

And things are hard, I know, but the trials are seasons that God desires to teach us, that to grow us, to mature us. And we look sometimes and say, well, I've been waiting, I've been struggling, and, you know, I've been patient for a long time, and I'm about to my breaking point.

The thing we got to remember is that God's timing is perfect. If we, if we look back to John chapter 11, when, when Jesus was going to Lazarus, and he finds out Lazarus is sick, he initially more or less just tells his disciples, well, let's wait around here two more days.

If I have a friend and I have the way to heal him, my obvious answer is to go and heal him. But Jesus had a greater purpose. And Jesus waited around two more days. He shows up, what everybody thinks is four days late, but he knows what he's going to do.

What I'm trying to get you to understand is, and everybody to understand, is that his timing is always perfect, every single time. If you've waited 10 years, I'm telling you, if you've been patient for 10 years, and you feel like you're out of patience, give that to the Lord.

Get honest with God. Tell him, God, I'm struggling with this. And I want to tell you, God will give you strength. He will give you power that you didn't know you had. And he will grow that patience within you.

So understand that trials are not just God picking on us. Trials that we face are opportunities for us. And thirdly, let's remember how he has been long-suffering toward us. When we think about, you know, his patience toward us, I didn't deserve God's patience.

I still don't deserve God's patience. His amazing grace. When I mess up, he still says he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When I mess up, when I blow it, when I repent, he is patient with me and he loves me.

And in spite of me, how many chances has he given us? He said, well, you know, an innumerable amount, you know, just time and time again. We deserve nothing. Yet, you know, Romans 5, 8 says, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So, you know, I think when we remember how patient he is toward us, it can help us say, wow, you know, maybe I need to be more patient with other people. And you say, well, I can't really do anything about that.

Well, the great thing is that there's everything God can do about that. So if we're lacking in true, genuine patience, and by that, I mean, you know, just when you hear something, when you feel someone being difficult, give that, give those initial feelings to God.

Okay, God, help me with this. Help me to be patient as you are patient with me. And furthermore, don't take his patience for granted, his grace toward us. Yes, his grace is there to pick us up when we fall.

But it's important that we don't intentionally say, well, I can give into the flesh now because, you know, I know God's gonna be patient with me. I think if that's the case, and that's where we are, we need to come to know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, because we don't truly understand his, his amazing grace and his love toward us.

So, you know, and I may have digressed a little bit, but that's what God laid on my heart tonight for patience. So, brother, I'm gonna turn it back over to you.

Oh, and when I was looking down, I hope nobody thought that I wasn't paying attention. I was, I was taking notes there. And, man, you brought out some good points that really encouraged me. Let's see here.

We want, we want to look at how God, God is patient and learn from that. Let's see, what else did I write down? Oh, trials. Don't see them as a hindrance, but an opportunity. Wow. I had to jot that down.

Let's see. Oh yeah. When Paul says, when I am weak, you are strong. And he found, I take pleasure in my firmness. Wow. Wow. That is amazing that he was able to rely on God and trust in him that much. Oh, this was a good one.

No one shows growth on the mountaintop. I mean, if you think you're on the mountaintop, you don't have any further to go, but, but you show growth when you're in the valley. And that was, man, that, that was a good point.

And Tammy, Tammy brings up a good point that you made. God is always on time. You said his timing is perfect and that's exactly right. He, he knows he's in control. He knows what he's doing. And his timing is perfect.

Absolutely. And then I thought that last one was really good. Don't take his patience for granted. Wow. That, that was really good. And, and, and we'll keep us from abusing grace and, you know, getting into justifying our sin and, and things like that.

That was some really good points. And I'm glad I jotted those down tonight. One of the things that you talked about several times, I've heard it described as preaching the gospel to yourself. When you're interacting with, with other folks who it's, it's becoming difficult to be patient with them.

I think basically what you were describing is what I've heard before is preaching the gospel to yourself. You know, look at, look at who I was before Christ and, and look at what Christ has forgiven me.

You know, how, how can I not treat them with patience, with grace because of what God has done for me? That's, and I think that's basically what you were, you were saying several times. That was just encouraging to me and I, and I hope it was encouraging to you who are watching.

If it was, we hope that you will pray for us as we continue to go through God's word together. Look at the fruits of the spirit. We want to, we want to sharpen each other. We want to share God's word with you and to be an encouragement.

And we, we want revival to come. We want to pray for that. And we want to reach out to, to our community. And we're, we're trying to do that together. And we thank you for your prayers and your comments.

Thank you for watching. Thank you for your support. For, for those who haven't experienced, you know, we've covered love, joy, peace, and now we've talked about patience. For those who have not yet experienced God's love, joy, peace, and patience, they need to come to Christ, right?

We, we, we want them in our family. We want you to come to Christ. And so we're going to flip flop it again. And Pastor Jeff, if you have just a moment, if you'll share the gospel for, for someone who may be watching that has not responded to Christ and come to him in faith.

Absolutely. I would, I would love to. And, you know, I think it's, I think it's important, especially in, in these times that we're, that we're facing right now, there's so much uncertainty. And there's a lot that a lot of people are afraid of what's, what's coming and the things that are going on in our lives.

But, you know, we don't have to be afraid when we know Christ. The, the Bible tells us that, that one day there's, there's coming a time that, you know, we're not going to have to worry about this world anymore, but that's only for those who have accepted Christ as their Savior.

And the reality is it doesn't matter. We say, well, I've been too bad or I've done too much wrong. I've heard people say, you know what, I'll come to church one day, but I have to get some things right in my life first.

And that is so backwards. And Satan has blinded so many people by that. They think that they've got to clean up the outside first. What Christ does is when we surrender our lives to Him, which I'm getting to that in a minute, but when we surrender to Him, He begins to clean us up in here.

And then those, this manifests itself to the outside. So we don't clean ourselves up. He cleans us up from the inside out. But, friends, the only way to do that is first we have to admit that we are a sinner.

Admit that, yes, I am damaged goods just like every other person. I have missed the mark. Romans 3 23. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is no one that has ever been good enough to get to heaven.

So understand that none of us are good enough. Admit that you're a sinner. You know, we all, we all are. We've all missed that mark. Then we've got to just acknowledge Him as our Savior and Lord. Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for me.

I believe that you rose again three days later. You paid for my sins and trust Him as your Savior. Jesus, I trust you as my Savior and Lord. And, you know, believe on Him, believe on His finished work, and then commit to Him, commit your life to Him.

Admit, believe, and commit, confess to Him. And I'm telling you, once you do that, the Bible says it's simple. It says if we confess with our mouth, Jesus, okay, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, then we shall be saved.

And it's not just for good people. It's for all of us. He loves us so much, you know, the whole world, all of us. So we've not gone too far. If the Lord is stirring in your heart right now to give your heart to Jesus, it's not too late for you.

He's stirring in your heart for a reason. That's because He is compelling you. He is drawing you by the power of His Holy Spirit right now. And all you've got to do is, you know, admit you're a sinner, believe on Him, trust in Him, and His finished work on Calvary.

Repent of your sins and take Him as your Lord and Savior. I guarantee you one thing, you will not regret that decision. It'll be the greatest decision you ever made.

Amen. Amen to that. And if today, if that is you, if you've come to Christ today, contact one of us. Let us know. Let us know around where you live. And we will point you in the direction of a good Bible believing and preaching church and where you can get involved.

You can get baptized because that's the first commandment, the first act of obedience that we want to follow after God has saved us, where you can get baptized, where you can hear good, good Bible preaching and you can learn, grow and also participate and obey Christ by loving others and participate in His kingdom.

If you're around our area, if you're around the Reeceville area, Vail area, go visit Pastor Jeff at Reeceville Baptist. Him and the folks there will welcome you and you'll get discipled there. Go visit those folks.

And if we can pray for you, let us know. All you have to do is type me. I haven't seen anyone so far request prayer, but we want to remember. We'll remember Pastor Jeff and all the other pastors who are preparing to preach tomorrow.

And as they are also trying to make decisions, not just in these difficult times, but when you may have a congregation that opposes some of the decisions that those in our government make, there's so many factors that make your decision, Jeff, and so many other pastors' decisions very difficult.

So pray for our pastors as they prepare to preach, as they make decisions with the leaders in their church. Pray for Reeceville's choir and their choir director. Let's see. Tammy says, please continue to remember April.

Wow.

Okay. You want to remember April?

Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you, Tammy. We'll remember April. Got it. All right. Remember your choir director and your choir as they deal with the things that they're going through and missing, missing getting together and probably missing the choir practice as well as singing during worship time.

So I know I enjoy choir practice every time I was able to do it. So if you're still with us, we'd love for you to pray with us. And let's go to the Lord, worship him and pray at this time. Father, we thank you so much for this time that you've given us together to fellowship with one another, to sharpen one another, to encourage one another and to share with our community.

Father, we love you. And we want to see others come to you, those who already know you as their savior. Father, we desire for ourselves and for them to continue to grow in you. And for those that don't know you, Father, we desire that you would continue to be saving souls in our community.

Father, we want to pray for Pastor Jeff and all the other pastors as you prepare their minds and their hearts as they prepare for preaching tomorrow, preaching your word. We ask your blessings on them.

We ask that you would anoint them as they preach and proclaim your word. We pray for them and the deacons and the elders of each church as they are making decisions on how to proceed moving forward as we take a couple steps forward, take a couple steps back.

These decisions are not easy and they're difficult. And so, Father, we lift these folks up in prayer to you, that you would give them clarity and understanding and wisdom in their decisions. Pray for all the other ministries and ministers in the churches, specifically the folks at Reesville, the choir and the choir director and the difficult things that they are battling and dealing with.

And also those folks who are just missing getting together and singing. And leading their congregations in worship and in song, Father, will you comfort their heart and help us all have patience as we wait to get back together?

Father, we want to pray for this lady named April and her family. I'm not familiar with the circumstances, but Father, we know that you are and we pray for your help. We pray for your encouragement. We pray for your glory.

And Father, we pray for your intercession in that circumstance. We know that all things work together for your good, for our good and your glory. And so, Father, help us to trust in your work. Father, we pray all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right. Thank you, everybody, for watching. Thank you, Pastor Jeff, for being with me. I really, really appreciate you and your insights. And like I said, if you watch this video later, let us know how we can pray for you.

If you've turned your life to, if you've submitted to him, submitted to Christ, reach out to us. Let us know that, too. So remember that Jesus is king. Go live in that victory. Let's continue to get out there and proclaim the gospel.

Hope to see you soon. Good night.