Praise God there is a better day coming and I'm thankful for that. I want you to turn over to James chapter 5 James chapter 5 tonight if you would and I Think it's interesting again I didn't tell Miss Sheila what to sing, but she was right on target, wasn't she? And chapter 5, we're almost finished studying the book of James, but I want to begin verse number 7, but before I do, I want to turn over to 2 Timothy. 2nd Timothy and I want to share something with you in 2nd Timothy chapter number three now and it will go along with the message I think you'll see where I'm going with this but verse number one says this, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Now how many believe we're in the last days? The word perilous means dangerous correct? For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Are we there? Right? Covetous. We there? Boasters. You think about, again, we say a lot about social media and how it's about me and influencers and all this stuff and it's always bragging about oneself. Proud. Blasphemers. Who would have ever thought we would live in a country now where basically there's an anti-God sentiment in our culture, right? Disobedient to parents. Matter of fact, a lot of places they don't want parents to have any say in what the kid does, right? Unthankful. We there? Unholy. We can't even get holiness right in the house of God, right? We'll fight and argue about that. No, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers. If you've not figured out in this whole election thing, it's all, you know? Okay. Incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Right? There's a day when Wednesday night everybody would be in church, Sunday night everybody would be in church, Sunday morning people would be in church, right? Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. The Bible said from such turn away. That's where we are. Can we agree with that? Now probably every generation has probably said that they've experienced some of that, but I'd say in the generation we live in, we're experiencing all of that. Okay. So, so if you stop there. then what we're looking at is a difficult time. I mean, if you're a believer and you believe this book, then what we're looking at, all that is anti-God, anti-Christian, which makes it more difficult for you and me, if we're going to live for God, to live in this day. Agree? So now you come over to James and chapter number five and verse number seven. The Bible said, be patient, therefore it's almost like you could. And again, I'm not, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to rewrite the Bible. Okay. But I'm saying there's a continuation. It's almost like, uh, you could continue here. Be, be patient. Therefore, all that's going on. Be patient. Therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. That's where we are. Right. Behold, the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. He said, be also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. grudge not one against another brethren lest ye be condemned behold the judge standeth before the door take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience so he's saying look as you study your Bible go back to the Old Testament he's talking to a New Testament church and he's reminding them that they are going through afflictions they are going through suffering but he said think about the Old Testament prophets and the Bible said here that they are an example of suffering uh, affliction and the patient. So they had suffering, they had affliction, but he said, also they had, they're the example you should, you should take a patient. So go on and say, behold, we count them happy, which endure. The people say, well, you know, the Bible doesn't tell you to be happy, it tells you to have peace. Well, right there it says, we count them, what, happy, which endure. Again, that is contrary to human emotion, right? Happiness does not seem to coincide with endurance. Happiness seems to coincide with our circumstance and everything being laid out perfect. Well, that's not what your Bible teaches. It says happiness, or happy are they which endure. So as we continue on, The Bible said, You have heard of the patience of Job, have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. And so as we look at some of the Bible telling us that we will not have a simple life. In other words, we're going to face problems. We're going to face some burdens in life. And many of you are facing that. As a matter of fact, as I usually pray for services, I do pray because, Brother Jerry, I don't know. I know we all come tonight, and at every service, we all come with different burdens on us, and they're not all the same. And, Brother Shane, it doesn't mean your burdens are less than mine. It doesn't mean mine are more important than yours. I may not think that yours are as bad as mine, but to you, I heard a guy say this. He said, the worst thing you've ever experienced is the worst thing you've ever experienced. Right? And you say, well, that's kind of dumb. No, it's not. Because the worst thing I've experienced may not be the worst thing you've experienced. But what you've experienced and you think is the worst thing, at least at that point in time, is the worst you've ever experienced. And so what I'm saying is we have to look at each other and stop looking and say, well, Brother Johnny's going through this. And well, that's not that big a deal. But I'm going through this. And it's a much bigger deal. We all are going through burdens. Right? And we're not immune from it. And other Christians are not immune from it. And you say, well, if I quit serving God, I wouldn't have these things. Sure you would. Listen, it rains on the just and the unjust. So just because you're not serving God does not mean you will be immune from the burdens that we face. So the Bible doesn't tell us that we'll have a simple life. Nowhere in your Bible does it say, if you get saved, your life will be simple. There's nowhere in the Bible does it say that we'll have an easy life, right? A lot of folks say, well, if I get saved, my life's going to be easier. No, it won't be easier, but you just have hope, as she just sang about. You've got a hope of heaven. And may I say, if our life was easy, we would not want heaven as bad. And what we'd like is to have it easy here and then when we expire one day, long time after a while, we'll just usher on into heaven. And I'll say this, honestly, brother Jimmy, we probably, this generation of Christians, We probably have it as easy, if not easier than any other generation. I mean, you think about it, we have need of nothing. And you look at the church at Laodicea, they were lukewarm and the Bible said they think they have need of nothing. And that's where we are, right? I mean, we're looking at our nation right now and all the turmoil going on in it. And again, we're saying, well, if this one wins and we'll get this, if this wins, we'll get that. Well, you can't guarantee that. See, the fact is, until we get our eyes off of this world and get it on the next, We will not ever have that peace that we desire. So life is just going to be full of burdens. Now, I didn't preach this tonight. Some of you came and said, man, I'm holding on to the knot of the rope. I'm about at the end of the rope. I didn't preach this tonight to make you drop. I'm letting you know that as long as you're here, you're going to have burdens. But there is a better day coming. And what a day that'll be. And as she's saying, it's heaven. Amen. So James, in his practical writing, gives to us the practicality of dealing with different types of burdens. And again, there's not one that's greater than the other. They're just different, right? The Bible talks about diverse temptations. There's not one greater. It's just different. And we're being attacked from all sides. So as we, as we, and we know that here's the amazing thing. We know that yet we almost feel like that a second Timothy chapter three is not going to apply to us or that this chapter does not apply to us. We know that we're going to face burdens, but we're saying, but I don't want them. I'd rather have somebody else have them and me have an easy life. Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings tonight, but you're not going to have an easy life. So the first thing he deals with is the burden of poverty. And that does not mean necessarily a lack of money, but basically the burdens that really just beat us down. I mean, the fact is, there's a lot of Christians today that are beat down. I mean, they're not living the abundant Christian life. Right? There's no joy, there's no hope, there's no victory. The burden of poverty, I'm not talking about financial, I'm talking about being robbed of that joy and that peace and that victorious Christian life that Jesus wants us to have through him. So how is it that you and I can combat that? I mean, we're going to go through it. You're going to have it. So there must be something in here that God's telling us, if you'll do this, if you'll do this, you can get through it. Well, that's what we're finding here. So two things I'll share with you. He gives us, first of all, a call for simple patience. Now this part's not gonna be theologically deep, right? Patience. Endurance. There's no secret sauce. It's like, well, That's good preacher, now give me the secret sauce to this thing. Ready for this? You're just going to have to hold on until it's over. That's deep, amen? You're just going to have to hold on until it's over, right? You say, well, I didn't, I don't want to hold onto us over then, then you're going to be a casualty. You're going to be a statistic, right? You're going to be one of those that you, you're going to be a used to Christian, right? So, so here in verse seven, here's what, now again, if I, if I understand my Bible right, and if I don't, you Bible scholars correct me. When he says, be patient, therefore, he's not making a recommendation, he's giving us a command. Right? Am I right? Well, Barry, am I right on that? Well, Jimmy, I'm not off base, right? So therefore, if I'm not patient, it's what we call sin. Maybe we need to give an altar call now, right? But what amazes me is how many of us will brag about our lack of patience. I just don't have any kind of patience. I have a bad temper. See, we're bragging about things that God says we should be the opposite of that. See, if you have a bad temper, don't run around bragging about how bad your temper is. That is evidence that you are not exhibiting fruit of the Spirit, which means you're not being controlled by the Spirit of God. And if you say I lack patience, what you're saying is that I am not full of the Holy Spirit of God. I'm not being controlled by the Spirit. I don't have the fruit of the Spirit. So I'm saying it again, I say it often, we almost embrace a secular philosophy on things, but try to make it spiritual. Right? I mean, well, I'm not Jesus. Yeah, but you're supposed to be like him. You and I are supposed to be like him. So when he says, be patient, you say, well, I can't do that. Some of you have already turned me off because you're saying, well, I just can't do that. Because you're trying to do it in your flesh. You can't do it in your flesh. See, as you draw closer to him, then more of his character rubs off on you if you want to get kind of, you know, vague about it. You become more like Christ the more time you spend with him, and the more like him you become. So if you're not patient, what you're saying is, I'm not being controlled by the Spirit, and I'd rather be impatient and be okay with it than to recognize my sin and say God help me with being more patient So here in verse seven and eight, he said, be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Well, what does patient mean? Endurance. Well, now he tells you how long you're supposed to endure. Well, you say, well, I, you know, I used to serve God, but I got hurt, and I, you know, I got, this happened to me, and I've got all these things going on in my life, and I just don't have time to serve God. Well, look what he said. Be patient, therefore, brethren, how long? Unto the coming of the Lord. Anything less than that is a failure. Here's what he said, Behold, the husbandman, here's the example he gives, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. So you that have a garden, you understand this, you don't put the seed in the ground, run out there the next day and say, I can't believe there's no tomatoes growing. I would do that. But if you garden or whatever you know you don't go out there and say well put seed in the ground and I just can't believe we have no tomatoes yet. Right? You understand there's a process that you have to or put the plant in the ground whatever and it has to grow and has to mature and it takes time and one day if everything goes right and you know we don't hit a North Carolina drought or whatever it is that you're going to have some type of fruit off of that. Well why is it we understand that but when it comes to spiritual things we're going to know I want it now. Right? So he said he has long patience for it. Long patience. I've had enough so therefore I'm going to expedite the process. He said you have long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. So here's the, first of all, the prospect of it. He first gives a biblical reason in verse 7. Why? Because Jesus is coming. He's coming. When's he coming? Don't know. But he's coming. Right? Now understand, when you study the last days, we've been in the last days for 2,000 years. So we're like, well, we're in the last days. We've been in the last days. But see, God's timetable and yours are not the same. God's timetable and mine's not the same. So he's just telling us instead of being so concerned when he's coming, we ought to have patience because he's coming, right? And so James points to the suffering of the saints until the Lord's return for us to have patience. Well, I want the secret sauce. No. There it is. Patience. Well, how do I have patience? Sometimes you've got to grit it out. I mean, you've just got to dig your heels in the ground, say, I'm not moving. God's been too good to me. He saved my soul from hell. I'm going to church. I'm reading my Bible. I'm living for God. If the whole world turns against God, I'm just saying you've got to have some stubbornness about you. You've got to have some godly grit and some backbone. and say I mean you know sprinkle gunpowder on your cornflakes whatever you got to do but just say I don't care what happens I'm gonna keep serving God well his second coming will be a time when all wrongs will be righted so again we look at things and I know you're looking at things and I you know Miss Ellen she'll see something and she'll go can you believe this that's not right and I'll say you're right and I'm like I don't understand why you're so amazed Nothing makes sense. Right? You're saying, well, you know, according to the law, doesn't matter anymore. According to what it should be, doesn't matter anymore. You'd better quit waiting for things to be turned around in this lifetime because they won't. right you better quit you know I mean you think about I think about and I get so irritated with this brother Matt I mean I get every time I hear that the withdrawal from Afghanistan that those soldiers were killed and all of our equipment and then the Afghan the Taliban's got a parade with our stuff going down the road nobody's saying anything about it right? There's no outrage. Why? Because the news cycle about every 15 minutes switches to something else so it won't settle in. And I'm like, we ought to fix that. Praise God. I mean, there ought to be something done about it. Well, there's probably not going to be anything done about it. Right? I mean, when you look at all the ills of society, when you look at, you know, whatever it is that people aren't being treated fair, prejudice, you look at inequality. I mean, all that stuff, we can get it. But it's not going to be fixed on this side of eternity. And you've been wronged in your life and you're saying, well, I wish this would happen to so and so. You better quit wishing things would happen to people and just live for God. Because one day when Jesus comes back, he's going to set everything right. Amen. And if you get caught up in all the not fair and this isn't right, what you'll do is you'll lose your patience and you'll quit. So the Lord's saying, listen, James, you tell these people that things are going to get worse. Paul tell Timothy, things are going to get worse. And so therefore you have hope because the second coming is going to happen. Amen. You better, you better grab onto that. The Bible doesn't promise that wrongs will be settled in our lifetime, but they'll be taken care of. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. See, our job's not to fix every situation. Our job is to live according to the Bible. And you say, well, I don't like this, and I'm gonna fix it. Well, you look at what Paul said in Romans 13. He said a couple things. One, that God sets all the government in order. It's His. Now I'll say this, you always have to submit to the higher authority. People say, well, you ought to listen to everything the government says. I don't agree with that because remember in the Old Testament, Daniel, they told and said, you can't pray what Daniel do. Nope, I'm following God. In the book of Acts, we ought to serve God rather than man, right? But we have to understand that if you stay tore up about everything that goes on, everything you see on your TV, and the wrongs going on, you'll lose your patience. And so, just as the farmers, one virtue must be patience. I mean, that's what he's got to have. You can put it in the ground, you can get the best seed in the world, you can put fertilizer, but if it doesn't rain, it's probably not going to grow. And even if it does rain, it still may not grow. You've got to have patience, right? So you and I, we must sow and wait. Sow and wait. Sow and wait. We must do the same. Don't quit. Just don't quit. You know how you win? Don't quit. Just don't quit. It's easy to quit. We all want to quit, right? When you lose patience, when you lose hope. See, there's the thing. When you lose hope, you'll quit. So don't lose hope. So number one is the prospect. Simple patience is the prospect Jesus is coming. That's all we need to hear. We keep hearing songs like that about heaven. That's what we need to hear more of about what's coming. Amen. Listen, you can endure some stuff if the results are worth it, right? You can go through some pain if the results are worth it. If it's not worth it, then you won't do it. Well, I will say this, heaven's worth it. So the prospect of verse 8 gives us the promise. He said this, Be ye also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. God can't lie. so in verse 8 he's given us a promise that the coming of the Lord is getting closer well in this scripture the word be patient means to be still and the phrase establish your heart means to be strong be strong be strong be strong and see the fact is Jesus is coming it's going to be soon you say well I don't know maybe today I've heard that my whole life well you'll hear it again so We got to have the inner strength that comes from knowing God. See if you don't know, if you've got some kind of fringe Christianity where you don't really know God, you'll quit. Right? Because here's what's going to happen. Even amongst, because here's who he's writing to. He said brethren. He's writing to believers. He's not saying get your eyes off of the world necessarily. Hey, you can get discouraged by brethren. Right? I mean think about the book of Romans Paul's writing and he's talking about he's talking about this talking about a weaker brother and a stronger brother and he's telling this he said we're to restore the weaker brother all right well here's what he's saying and here's see our mindset is the stronger brother would be the one that abstains from things but Paul's saying the weaker brother is the one that has the problem with abstaining from things because here's what he's saying see what they were doing the Jews We're looking at these guys, or the pagans were those that had saved out of paganism. We're looking at these Jews and saying they're eating meat that was sacrificed to idols and they're not being a good Christian because they're doing that. Paul said, no, they bought the meat at the market. They didn't sacrifice the meat to idols. So what you're doing is you're putting your perspective of what good Christianity is on them. Well then he looked at the others and the Jews were looking at these pagans and they were saying, you know what? You're not observing the festivals and the holy days and you're not a good Christian. And Paul said this, he said, some of you are going to elevate one day over another. So what? Right? I mean, I know folks that, listen, if you don't have, well, you know, if you don't have church on Christmas Day, you don't love Jesus. Can I tell you something? Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. That's when we celebrate his birth. He wasn't born on December 25th. Right? I love Christmas, but sometimes it's like, well, you know, if you don't do this, if you don't have Sunday night, well, I'll give you another example. Wednesday night service. I'm good with that, but there are some churches that have it on Thursday night. I can't believe that. It's called midweek service, not in the Bible. Right? Some of them have it on Tuesday night. See what I'm saying? But it's like Wednesday night, that's Wednesday night service. You know, you gotta have Sunday night service. You look at the book of Acts, they went to church every day. Let's be honest, Baptist, if you have a revival, if you can get them there two days, praise God, you start shouting victory. Right? So what I'm saying is if we're not careful we get discouraged looking at other brothers and saying well they're not the Christian they ought to be and they're not living for God like they ought to and they're not doing this. I get it. But what will happen is you'll get discouraged and you'll quit on God. You'll be like Elijah. Remember Elijah? Oh Lord I'm the only one standing for you. God said no you're not. I got 7,000 of you that haven't bowed the knee to me. So the devil will use that isolation in your life and it may not be a physical isolation it may be a spiritual isolation that you think well there's no need me continuing because nobody believes like I do and I'm the greatest Christian ever walked face the earth. I can't find a church that I think is right enough. Well don't go because you'll mess it up, right? There's not any churches standing for God. There's thousands of churches standing for God. The thing is, if you were the pastor, you'd mess it up when nobody comes. So what I'm saying is, don't get so caught up on everybody and the devil will keep you looking at everybody else instead of Jesus. Amen. So we're to have perfect peace because we can rely on God's promises of his return. Listen, I'm telling you this, we may get to heaven and God will say, y'all all messed it up. I'm serious. You read this book and let me say this, you ought to be dogmatic when God is clear on something and you ought to be less dogmatic when God isn't clear in it. And we may get to heaven and God say, y'all messed it all up, that's not what I meant. Thank God for his mercy, that's all I can say. So there's a call for simple patience, but then in verse 10, 11, there's a call for sublime. What do you mean by that? Well, it's a supernatural patience. Here's what I mean. Look at the example he gives. He said, verse 10, take my brethren, the prophets. So here, understand James is writing to people that are on the modern side or the new side of Calvary, right? I mean, Calvary's already happened. So they've got witness of people saying, James, who is James? He's the brother of Jesus, right? Well, now he said, listen, you've got to have some patience until the coming of the Lord and you're going to have some problems. But he said, here's the supreme example of patience. And he says, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. He said, Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord. And the Lord is very pitiful and tender mercy. So, two things. He gives an example of the prophets, first of all. And James has in mind the patience that is not natural. What do you mean by that? Well, think about the prophets. When God raised up a prophet, He didn't raise them up to give them good news. Right? I mean, you think about Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. It wasn't like, hey, Israel, you're doing great. Just keep serving Jesus. He's like, here's what I need you to do. You go down there. Can you imagine the kind of, Lord, I'll do anything you want me to do. All right. Here's what I need you to do. I need you to go down there and tell them I'm getting ready to put them in bondage. What about if I tell them how good they are and how good you are and how much you love them? Tell them I'm getting ready to throw them in bondage. Probably going to kill some of them. I don't know if they're going to like me if I preach that now Lord. Right? Those prophets had to preach knowing, I mean Jesus even said this, a prophet is not accepted in his own country. Right? These guys are going in there and God's saying I got a message you need to deliver and it's not going to be good but you're my guy to do it and I need you to go in there and tell them what I say and don't, don't, don't be, because what they wanted, does this sound familiar? The Bible said there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine. Right? We there? Itching ears, right? People want to hear what they want to hear. You want to grow a church, make it big, you know what you do. Don't preach anything. Don't upset anybody. Don't tell people to repent. Just tell them Jesus loves them. He forgives them and just keep living your life. You can grow a church that way, numerically. Well, same thing. He said, listen, the prophets, when they'd go in there, And then they had false prophets, they'd go in there and the king would say, all right, tell me what I want to hear. Because there was always the danger that if that king didn't like what you were going to say, he was going to cut your head off. So you had those true prophets that were given the word of the Lord, and then you had the false prophets that were almost like, now king, what do you want to hear? Right? What is it you want me to hear? And matter of fact, if you'll just tell me, yep, that's what the Lord said. Right? And he said, you've got to have the patience of them, right? And so when we look at it, we're living in a day much the same. People don't typically want to hear what you've got to say, but we still got to go out there and tell them Jesus is coming. And so the prophets were very unpopular preachers among their countrymen. and a prophet arose in a time of crisis or apostasy so much of what they preach was future events and think about this they start preaching that a Messiah is coming all through the Old Testament they're expecting this Savior to come and he didn't come Well, we're the same today. We know he's come the first time, but we're preaching he's come the second time. And even the brethren are getting weary, saying, OK, well, when's he coming? I don't know, but he's coming. And so if we're not patient and endure till the end, what's going to happen is we're going to be like a lot of those Old Testament Israelites, and we're going to set up our own idols and quit worshiping God. And the Bible said there's another generation that knew not the Lord. So the prophets, he said, they had to understand God's timetable was much, much different than theirs. I don't know when he's coming. I don't know. Listen, this is what I'm saying. We're not going to go through the great tribulation, but that doesn't mean we won't go through tribulation. There's a difference. And I think sometimes we think we're going to escape everything. We're not ever going to face any hard times. Hey, listen, the early church. Look at the you ever read Fox's Book of Martyrs you realize some of them burned at the stake cut in half. You can't tell me that God's respect their persons if he let them go through that. Don't you think God won't let us go through it. See, patience was the essence of their calling. They had to be patient because they knew they wouldn't be accepted by men. Listen, if you're thinking in the back of your mind, if you're a closet Christian, right, if you're a FBI Christian, right, and I'm incognito, I don't want anybody to know I'm saved. No. Remember Jesus said if you were ashamed of him, he'd be ashamed of you. You're going to have to realize that you're going to stand up for God and you're going to have to be the example of who he is and people aren't going to like you. But you, if you endure, if you endure to the end and have patience and you'll hear well done, good and faithful service. So there's call. of the prophets but then the patriarchs verse 11 he said you've heard the patience of Job everybody's heard that I mean you look at the book of Job here's a poor guy let's be honest he's living for God and God's listening there's nobody like him on the whole earth Satan said I'll tell you what you let me get a hold of him and he'll curse you to your face so he He took away his kids, took away his cattle, right? Took away his health. Just kept on. God said, go ahead. Right? Now if you went through that, and I went through that, let's be honest. Most Christians I know, they'd have quit a long time ago. Then his friends, and by the way, if you got friends like this, I'd find new friends. They weren't there to help him. They kept, well, you know, Job, it's probably your fault. Right? Then it got to the end, God gave him more at the end than he had in the beginning. He had patience, he endured. His own wife didn't, she cursed God and died. So those who hold on until the end are usually those whom we can count as blessed. I mean, you look at Hebrews 11, that great hall of faith, right? Look at Abraham. I mean, think about this for a minute. God said, all right, Abraham. Leave your country. We talked about this Sunday. Step out in faith. Leave your country. Where are we going? I'll show you. Just go. Then said, I'm going to give you a son. Right? Well, you remember the story. Abraham said, we'll just do it our way. We'll get ahead of God. What were they lacking? Patience. Right? Messed that up, didn't they? And I say this, when you get ahead of God, you'll mess it up. Every time. So then God said, OK, Abraham, you old now. Now if she has a kid, it's all me. Right? So she has a kid. He goes up on the mountain later. God said, all right, put him on the altar, kill him. He said, oh, and his son said, hey, daddy, where's the sacrifice? He said, God will provide himself a lamb. That's what he did, right? Well, let me ask you this. Did Abraham see that great nation in his lifetime? Nope. Did he see the Messiah in his lifetime? Did David see the Messiah? Did Rahab the harlot see the Messiah? Nope. Listen, they're believing God for something that will not happen in their lifetime, that will happen thousands of years later, and God's saying that's the kind of patience you have to have. If you are waiting to see the results of God's promises in your lifetime, you may not see them. You've got to have the kind of patience to say, even if it's not my lifetime, I still believe the Word of God. And let's be honest, if we go about six days and God doesn't answer our prayer, we don't understand the Word of God, don't understand, well, this doesn't work. And we'll move on to something else. And by the way, time out. Ready for this? That's why we've embraced this secular philosophy in with Christianity. Because we're trying to explain something supernatural that our finite little brain cannot wrap around. We're saying, I've got to figure something out, or I cannot endure, I cannot have patience unless I can explain it. And so we hear a podcast, or we read a quote, or we do, oh, that's good stuff, but it's not biblical stuff. And so we're bringing that stuff in and we're cluttering our mind instead of just enduring and knowing God's gonna set everything straight one day and just keep serving God. So we're trying to pull all this stuff in on us and trying to make ourselves feel better so we don't have to have patience and trust God and we make sense of it which means we trust self and we trust others but we stop trusting God. And so spiritually we're in poverty. We don't know how to endure. So here's what happens, ready? I'm done, hang on. Look how it's affected Christianity. Now, every Sunday school lesson's got to be about hard times. Every song has got to be about hard times. Preaching, hard times, right? I mean, right? I mean a lot of times, and I want to say this, time out, I'm not ever against people coming to the altar during a song. Okay, I'm not. I think God tells you to get up and go to the altar, you ought to go right then. Don't wait until the invitation. But there is a segment of Christianity that knows that hey, if I sing these sad songs about all this stuff, we're going to have a move of God. we'll sing them 47 times and we'll talk about how bad life is and you know God's gonna rescue me and pull me I get all that but what I'm saying is if that's it has affected Christianity we don't have hope anymore we have hope in this we want God to fix it now what happens if he doesn't fix it now you better learn some patience Right? Young people, you better learn some patience. Here's another thing, ready for this? You can't rush God's will for your life. I see this all the time. Preachers, you know, I'm ready to go pastor a church. Okay, but you're not ready. But I know what God showed me, and here's a church, and they call me and want me to pastor. God's will. and they end up going to 47 churches, and their family looks at them, and listen, the man's supposed to be a spiritual leader in the home. Ready for this? And all of a sudden God's will has changed 14 times in 10 years for them and they run their family up and down the road and their wife's exhausted and their kids, they don't have a bit of confidence in their daddy and the wife doesn't have any confidence in her husband because he doesn't a bit more than a monkey know God's will because he's been all over the place. You can't get ahead of God when it comes to God's will. Fellas, I'm trying to help you. You still ain't no preacher, but you still head the home. You ought to be alone with God, know God's will, and your family ought to be able to trust you that you can find God. These ladies shouldn't be the spiritual leader of the home. Amen. But you got to have patience. We don't like that. What's the spiritual virtue? You can't have patience unless you spend time with God and you trust him. Unless you believe in your heart, 100% Romans chapter eight verse number 28, if you don't believe that you'll never have patience in God. Just won't. You'll have to see the results. Show me. Nope, trust him. Just trust him. So here's, I'll close. I believe we're in spiritual poverty because we've not learned patience. We're in financial poverty, let's be honest. I saw the second quarter, over a trillion dollars in credit card debt. You know what that is? No patience. Right? Think about this, paying 30 cents of every dollar to Visa 30 cents, 30%, 29.99, you can say what you want to, that's a fancy way, and 30%, right? You're paying 30% of every dollar you spend paying them back is going to interest to put money in their pocket. You say, well, I got to have this right now. I got to have it right now. I got to have it right now, right? No better time to have it right now. And so we're in, our country is in financial poverty. families are in finance, unless you say what you want to about the grocery prices, and I agree with that, right? But that ain't our problem. I mean, I'm sure I'll get criticized for this, but let me go ahead and say back during the pandemic, they started handing everybody these checks. Instead of putting them in the bank and paying stuff off, so here's free money, I'm gonna go buy me a new TV. Right? I'm going to go put me a down payment on a car and all that. And so you know what we did? Further in debt. We don't have patience. Right? Finance it. TV. Dog. Amen. I got a dog that's $2,400. We had to finance that thing. You go down to the dog shelter and they'll give you one. You have faint and no doodle. Right? But they free. Free is good. We don't have patience. Why? Why is the divorce rate 60% in Independent Baptist Church? Because people don't know how to wait on God. Oh, we're in love. He saved, she saved, we're in love. Nope. It's not God. You ought to marry somebody because of God's will for your life, not because you're in love. Good preaching. Every success and every bit of gain spiritually comes with patience. You've got to wait on God. Right? I believe we're in spiritual poverty today because we quit waiting on God. Amen. I'm done preaching. Let's pray around the altar. You come if you can. If you can't, you pray at your seat.