Let Patience Be Perfected In You — Zac Poonen

Faith and Patience in Inheriting God’s Promises

I'd like to begin the verse in Hebrews chapter six. See, we've been taught in Christendom almost from our earliest time we were born again that faith is the great thing by which we get what is promised.

Something's promised in scripture. If you don't have faith, you won't get it. It's true. You don't get forgiveness of sins if you don't believe that Christ died for you, even though he did die for you.

He died for the whole world, but only those who have faith receive it. But as Christians, we need to see it's not just faith. Turn to Hebrews six and verse 12. Here it says in the middle of that verse, we must imitate those who through faith with patience inherited the promises.

Abraham’s Twenty-Five-Year Wait for the Promise

And then he makes mention of Abraham in verse 13. So Abraham is considered the father of faith, but he had to wait 25 years from the time God promised him through you, your seed, the whole earth will be blessed.

There was no seed for 25 years. And it's in that context, he said, it's not just that he's the father of faith, he's also the father of patience. And very often we, in situations, we say, I've got faith for that.

Sure, good. But do you want to inherit the promise also? Then you must have patience. It's like the two wires and electricity that touch when you put on a switch and the light comes on. Otherwise, you know, in that electric switch, those wires are pretty close, but the lights not come on because they don't touch.

Noah and the Patience Learned in the Ark

But faith with patience, and then you inherit the promises. And that's not only in Abraham's case, it's throughout scripture you find that, you know, we think of Noah as we heard about Noah being in the ark.

And what a temptation it must have been, not only to distrust God, but to be impatient. Because I've been so faithful, Noah says. Okay, the rain is over, everybody's dead now, the whole world has been wiped out.

There's not a single fellow alive. Why do we have to still be here? And remember, that family, they were not born again or spirit-filled or they didn't have the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine? They were good people, but one family with father, mother, and two, three girls there, he was the mother-in-law there, living together in tight quarters for one year.

Just try to imagine that with animals and everybody's got to work hard and feed them and take care of them. That must have been a tremendous temptation to be impatient and irritated with each other, et cetera.

God permitted it. God permits different circumstances in our life to teach us patience. And with all the men of God, it was like that. Think of Joseph. God gave him a dream when he was 17 years old. Your brothers are gonna bow down to you, even your father and mother.

Joseph’s Long Preparation Before Ruling Egypt

And you know how long it took for that to happen? 20 years. When he was, he got this dream when he was 17. He became a ruler in Egypt at 30. And then there was a seven years of plenty. And at the age of 37, his father and mother and brothers come.

And that dream that he saw 20 years earlier was fulfilled. And those 20 years were not easy years. A lot of those years were spent in jail, imprisoned, misunderstood, wondering what's gonna happen next.

He helps Pharaoh's cupbearer with the interpretation of his dream. But he promises to help Joseph, but he forgets about it. And at the right time, the cupbearer remembers. If the cupbearer had remembered, I've often thought about this.

You read that story. The cupbearer forgot. He told Joseph, I'll tell Pharaoh about you, that you're unjustly imprisoned. But it says he forgot about him for two years. You read such incidents and you realize that if he had remembered and told Pharaoh, Pharaoh would have released Joseph.

At the age of 28, and he'd have gone back to his parents. But God allowed Pharaoh's butler to forget, cupbearer to forget. And at the right time, when Pharaoh had a dream, then the Lord reminded the cupbearer.

Do you know that God can remind people and God can make people forget? And meanwhile, he's working in Joseph, saying, trust me, trust me, I won't let you down. I gave you a promise, I showed you that dream.

It will be fulfilled one day. It's wonderful when you have such a relationship with God that he says something to you and it looks as if nothing's happening. And you wait and you wait. And people who promised to remember you, they forgot all about helping you.

Have you had that experience? Somebody promised they'd help you and they completely forgot about it. And to learn to give thanks, even in such situations. Be patient. And finally, at the right time, the butler, the cupbearer remembers.

David’s Refusal to Seize the Throne

This is, you know, same with David. He was, the Lord anointed him through Samuel when he was around, maybe around, the age is not mentioned, but I reckon he was around 20 years old or 19 or something like that.

And he proves before all Israel that God has anointed him by killing Goliath. And all the people in Israel began to praise him more than Saul. But he could not become king. He did not grab it. He did not try to grab, even when he was wandering around in the caves and Saul was one sleeping there, he could have killed him and he didn't kill him.

He said, I will not grab. It's a great lesson. In times when we have to wait, not to violate scriptural principles by grabbing something before God gives it to us. And you trust him. And I see that in David.

He did not kill Saul. He said, well, if it is God's will, he'll give it to me. And sure enough, God dealt with Saul at the right time when David was 30. See, all that period from the age of 20 to 30, David, just like Joseph, had to be prepared by running for his life and almost killed.

And so many, it's a very interesting passage there in the last chapters of 1 Samuel, the last half of 1 Samuel, how he had to wander here and there. What was God teaching him? Be patient, be patient. Go through these trials.

It's gonna be a tough time, but one day I'll fulfill my promise. If David had endured like that, there would not have been that sad chapter in his life where he fell into sin. And that's the danger we face too.

David’s Prosperity and Fall into Sin

In the days when we are running from cave to cave, or we are imprisoned, it's easy to trust God and wait. Because in struggle, we don't know where else to turn. Danger comes when we are prosperous and everything's going well.

That's the time we are in danger, not when we are in a pandemic, when you don't know when you'll get sick and you don't know what's gonna happen. You're not in danger then. It's when things become comfortable.

That's the time our Christian life is in danger because we read, let me read this to you in 2 Samuel chapter 11. At the time when kings go out to battle in the spring, David did not go to battle. All the other kings go to battle.

In those days, kings were the ones who led their armies. And David did that for years. And now, I don't know how old he was. Maybe he'd been a king for 10, 15 years by now. And he does not go out to battle like the other kings.

He says, I think I'll relax now. Let me send Joab and the generals and they go and fight. And what does he do when he's staying in Jerusalem? Is he waiting on the Lord and fasting and praying for his army battling out there?

No, he's sleeping. While God's people are fighting against the enemy, here's the leader sleeping. And he gets up. What you should do when you get up from bed, first thing is to pray. Morning, afternoon, any evening, anytime when you get up, when you're asleep and you get up, the first thing you should do is pray, even if it's for one minute.

Concentrate on God when you get out of bed. Learn a lesson from David. He just got out of bed and walked around the terrace. And the next thing he knows, he falls into sin. He was far better off when he was in the tent running from cave to cave.

God’s Timing and the Scale of Eternity

God works in us to teach us to be patient. And like we heard, one day, in 1 Peter, 2 Peter 3, it says, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. So how much is one year? If one day is like, if a thousand years is like one day, then one day is very, very little, one and a half minutes.

One and a half minutes is a day in God's eyes. Sorry, one and a half minutes is a year. If 1 ,000 years is a day, one year is a minute and a half. How long has this pandemic been going, brothers and sisters?

One and a half minutes. You've been sitting under the pandemic for one and a half minutes and you're getting impatient? One day is with the Lord as a thousand years. A thousand years is like one day. So God works slowly, but he works according to a particular plan.

And the reason why he does this, why he allows us to suffer for one and a half minutes in the last 2020, or any other suffering that you've been going through, calculate the rate of one year equals one and a half minutes.

The length of period you've been waiting for something and you haven't got it, calculate the rate of one year equals one and a half minutes and ask yourself how long you've been waiting for something, you've been waiting for an answer to prayer.

God has a time for everything. And we read in James's letter, James chapter one, verse four, let patience, verse four, have its perfect result, endurance, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Patience as the Path to Christian Perfection

One of the things we stress in CFC is we have to press on to perfection. And the way to press on to perfection, here is a description of perfection. It's one of the finest descriptions of perfection. James one, four, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

That's the goal. Lord, I wanna be perfect, complete in likeness to Christ, lacking in no area, okay? Then the Lord says, you've got to endure. Let endurance and patience have its perfect result. When you find various, James one, verse two, when you encounter various trials, like Joseph for 13 years, like David for 10 years, like Moses in the wilderness for 40 years, remember in those days that that is the test of your faith and patience, because only then it'll produce that perfect result.

But faith alone without endurance and patience does not produce a perfect result. There are so many people today who boast about faith. I had faith to be healed, or I had faith to get this. When I was in financial need, I got this money and all these things.

Brothers and sisters, don't be fooled by all these testimonies. The God wants us to trust him that we will be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. That is the goal of our faith. Not just that I trusted the Lord and I got healed of some sickness, or I trusted the Lord in some financial need and he met my need.

I trusted the Lord for my child to get admission somewhere and he got admission, or I trusted the Lord to find a wife and I got, that's all great. But the final result, purpose of faith is that we might be perfect and complete like Jesus lacking in nothing.

And for that faith alone is not enough. It requires faith plus patience. And that's the lesson we learned from Noah and from Abraham and all the other examples in scripture. And that's why the Lord allows us to go through various trials and difficulties in our own life.

Job’s Patient Endurance Through Suffering

We read in James also about the patience of Job in James chapter five. James chapter five, he speaks about, we count those blessed, James 5, 11. We count those people as blessed who endured patiently, not just those who have faith, but those are really blessed who have endured patiently.

You know, every godly man whom you've ever heard of in Christian history who's been a blessing to others, they may not always reveal what all they've gone through in their life. I don't think David and Joseph went around talking about all that they went through or what he went through in his life.

But every godly man in history, I believe that if God is able to fulfill something through their lives, it is because he took them through many deep trials where they endured. It wasn't just faith. We count those blessed by God who endured, James 5, 11.

And he takes the example of Job who was not even in the old covenant. He lived before the old covenant was established, 500 years before Moses. And he endured, endured till the end. He didn't have the grace we have so that we don't have to complain, he complained.

I don't compare myself with Job because he did not know about Jesus. He did not have the Holy Spirit. I read the book of Job and I say, I will never complain like this. Why is God treating me like this?

Why is God treating me like that? That is the mark of people who are either not born again or who are still under the old covenant. A new covenant person will never complain. Even if his children are killed, his property is all gone.

He's got sores in his body and he is rejected. He says, this is part of my education. I have to endure because God is doing a perfect work in me. He's not trying to make me attractive to people. He's trying to make me like Jesus in my character.

And Job, you see the outcome of the Lord's dealings. The Lord is full of compassion and merciful. So remember this, any of you who are going through a trial, remember Job went through much more than you.

And he says, learn from there, how God blessed him. The Lord is full of compassion and he blessed him double at the end of what he had in the beginning. And spiritually that'll happen too. Any one of us who's going through some trial right now and count your trials as one year equals one and a half minutes.

Paul’s Light Affliction and Eternal Glory

Paul says like that. He says in 2 Corinthians and chapter four, he says, our light affliction. You know what all he suffered, stoning three times, imprisoned so many times and beaten times without number with whips on his back.

But he calls it all in 2 Corinthians 4, 17. It's a very light affliction. And for how long was it, Paul? Oh, just for a moment. He counted one year as one and a half minutes. 10 years. Did you suffer for 10 years, Paul?

No, no, no, no. 15 minutes, that's all. I suffered for the Lord for 15 minutes. It's actually 10 years. How long have you suffered, my brother, sister? You feel that people have treated you badly or you haven't got what you wanted or there's something you desperately wanted and you haven't got.

And you've been waiting, waiting, waiting. How long, how many minutes? One and a half minutes, one year. This light affliction is producing for me, 2 Corinthians 4, 17, something far better than what Joseph got, ruler of Egypt.

I'm not interested in that. King of Israel, David, no. It's going to produce for me something far greater than being a ruler in Egypt and far greater than being a king like David. It's going to make me like Jesus Christ in my character.

There's nothing to equal that. It's going to produce in me, he says, this light affliction, which is just for a few minutes, will produce in me an eternal weight of glory way beyond my comparison. So we must endure.

Sharing in Christ’s Reproach Outside the Camp

I just want to add on a few things to, we heard from Arnaldo about leprosy. So I was, the lepers were outside the camp, rejected, not accepted by people. And do you know, it says in Hebrews 13, that Jesus suffered outside the camp.

We know that Jesus became a servant for everybody, washing people's feet. We know that Jesus was treated like a criminal because only criminals were crucified. But do you know that Jesus was also treated like a leper?

Have you seen that? He was put outside the camp, Hebrews 13, 11 and 12. Let us also, Hebrews 13, 13, be willing to be treated like lepers by the rest of society and put outside the camp. I remember in the early days of CFC in Bangalore.

Today, CFC is a little respectable in different parts of the world. But in the early days, we were considered rank heretics. People would write articles about us saying the head of the serpent was in my house.

And we were all types of names. I don't even remember all of them. We were called terrorists and everything imaginable. We were lepers, but we were blessed. We were just a few. We didn't have any honor or respect, but we said, fine, if that's what God allows us to be considered as lepers by the rest of Christendom.

The non-Christians didn't treat us like that. It was born again believers from other groups who called us heretics for preaching that Jesus was tempted like us and for preaching that God still gives the gift of tongues to those who are filled with the spirit, even though we didn't insist everybody should have it.

And a lot of misunderstandings. And the Lord told us, keep your mouth shut. Don't ever open your mouth to defend yourself. Let them consider you as lepers. Outside the camp, bearing his reproach, that's where he was crucified.

And that's where we must be willing to be crucified. Don't seek for respect from your unconverted relatives. If you're put outside the camp, remember Jesus went ahead of you as a leper outside the camp.

Letting Patience Have Its Perfect Work

Be patient. Let patience have its perfect work. If you're constantly upset and irritated with people who are troubling you, patience will not have its perfect work. It's like when a person is being operated on the operating theater.

Some operations, they are conscious. They're not put under anesthesia completely. They just paralyze the lower part of the body and operate and the man is conscious. So he knows something is being done, but he doesn't feel anything.

And imagine if he gets there and he gets all upset, saying, well, when are you gonna finish with this? And why are you allowing doing all this to me? And it's already three, four hours this operation is going on.

He'll mess up the whole thing. The surgeon knows what he's doing. And if any of you were in operating theater and all that was being done, then you'd know that the surgeon is doing it for your good. I believe that's where we can learn to be patient.

Don't get upset because if you get upset, you're gonna spoil the operation. The Lord is doing something far greater than any surgeon does to make us more into the likeness of Christ. Let's not only have faith, that man who lies on the operating table has not only got faith in the surgeon, he has to have patience.

This operation may take nine hours. Okay, just lie quietly. Don't open your mouth. Don't move around. You would do it in an operating theater. Well, what do we have to be patient for one and a half minutes?

Or say three minutes? Or four and a half minutes? Can you be patient on the operating theater for four and a half minutes? Three years? Let patients have its perfect work. I believe that the more we get worked up, the more the operation is delayed.

But if we can rest patiently like that man lying on the operation theater, I trust my surgeon. He's doing a work. I'll come out much healthier at the end of this operation. I'll come out more like Jesus at the end of this one and a half minutes of pandemic.

Don't get impatient. If it extends to three minutes, let's say. Let's say this pandemic extends to six minutes. Some people predict that. This pandemic may last for six minutes, not just one and a half minutes.

Okay, Lord, that's fine. If it has to extend for six minutes, I'll wait another four and a half minutes. What is it? You'll do a perfect work in me. And Christians must be exemplary in this. And I wanna say one last thing.

Teaching Patience Through Family Life

That is, Sunil was emphasizing how this work must be done in our home. Where are your main professors of patients? Where do you find them? In your home, your children. You have those professors right there teaching you patience.

Learn from them. Don't get upset with the professor trying to teach you some patience. Let patience have its perfect work. Don't look to be patient out there where you'll get honor. Oh, brother so-and-so is so patient in his place of work.

He's such a fine worker. Or in the church, you're patient with other brothers and they appreciate you. Your children are not gonna appreciate you when they teach you patience, but you'll acquire something.

It's blessed to have children and they are imperfect. And those imperfect children can teach their parents patience. See me also, the memory verse. Going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Going to all the world and, sorry, not that. Go then to make disciples of all nations. Teach them to do everything that I've commanded you dear sister, married sister. Where is your world? Your first world is in your home.

Make disciples there of your children. That's where your world begins. Don't think of going to some other state or some other country or going to Mexico to build people's houses and all, forget all that.

Build your own home with your children. Go there and make a disciple. Make disciples then and teach them, teach those little children to do everything that Jesus commanded. And that will take you many years.

And if you fulfill that and you're working on that, the Lord's promises, I will be with you always. So many people try to take the promise without fulfilling the condition. That's not the promise given to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

It's not given to every Christian. Let me tell you that. Read the condition. If you go and make disciples, if that's your goal in life, I'll be with you always. But if you're a lazy Christian thinking only about yourself, don't claim that promise.

Go and take some other promise like, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us, that's good for you. But Lord, I'm with you always. That's not for you, brother, sister. That's for those who have a passion in their heart to make disciples.

First of all, in their own home, make a disciple of your wife, make a disciple of your husband, make a disciple of your children and lead them by example. Say to all of them, follow me. If your husband and wife are not spiritual, say, follow me, be an example by your life.

Teach them to do by your life all that I commanded you. Let them see it. Let them see the graciousness of your speech. Let them see the humble way you accept insult or the patience with which you accept things going wrong in the house and then don't get upset, make disciples.

And the Lord says, I will be with you every moment of the day. I've been tremendously encouraged by that verse. And I can tell you, I've experienced it. I say, Lord, many years ago, I decided I'm not gonna make converts, I'm gonna make disciples.

I'm gonna make disciples in my home. I'm gonna make disciples in anybody who comes to CFC. I'm not gonna lower the standards. If some people get offended and go, let them go. But I'm gonna make disciples.

And I wanna testify the Lord has been with me throughout these years. And I believe that'll be true for all of you, my dear brothers and sisters. That's my prayer. And I pray that God will bless you. Amen.