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Now in James chapter one here, I'm going to be starting off in the very beginning of the chapter there. Look at verse number two, it says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Now I'm going to be preaching tonight on this subject of patience and having patience. Now the Bible says here that he's saying, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. So when you have temptations, when you're trying, when things come into your life, this is a time that is usually of great turmoil and it can be very high stress and you can just feel like, man, like nothing's going right. What's going on in my life? You know, I can't believe this, you know, I have to deal with this and this and this and this and he's saying, look, when you have these temptations, when you have big things come into your life, be joyful, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this, so you can know this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And then he continues and says, but let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. So having patience, the Bible saying here that, you know, if you let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. And that's a good definition of the word perfect. The way it's typically used in the Bible here is entire, complete. It doesn't mean like, you know, perfect doesn't mean just sinless and there's absolutely no sin. That's kind of the way that we typically use the word perfect today as just completely faultless with zero errors, whatever. That's not really what the Bible means when it uses the word perfect. It's mostly just meaning complete or entire, you know, like you have, you have all these different aspects of your life and they're all come together to make a whole. Doesn't mean they're, they're all just without error. And the Bible saying here that if you let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, that's this one aspect of your life that we need to have is patience and count it joy when you go through these trials and by and large, when it's talking about our patience, it's tied in with our faith. Okay. Now I think we can apply this to many other aspects of our life. There's lots of places where it's going to do us well to have patience. And obviously if you have patience, look at verse number 19. This is, this is also an aspect of patience where he says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So when you have patience, you are going to be slow to speak, you're going to be slower to wrath. Typically when someone is not patient, what's, what is the thing that you think of, of somebody saying, well, man, they're not patient at all. It's usually frustration and irritability and anger and wrath. Those are the typical attributes you're going to see when someone is not patient. So when things happen, when they're tried, it's just quick to anger, quick to wrath, man, nothing's going right. I can't, you know, why does all this stuff have to be happening to me right now? And we ought not to have that, you know, just being a quick to anger, quick to wrath. We need to have this patience because we're going to be tried. It's going to happen. Now being angry in and of itself is not always a sin, but I think for the majority of people, the majority of reasons why we get angry today, it is a sin. There are a few times in the Bible where it says, you know, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. It's not always just a sin in every single situation to be angry. Like just when Jesus Christ, it says he was filled with anger when he knocked over the money changers tables that were in the temple and he made a whip and drove out the people that were buying and selling in the temple. But with Jesus Christ, one of the things that was important to note here is that he saw what happened. If you have to understand the story, he walks in, he sees what's happening, and he didn't just fly off the handle immediately and just go into a rage, okay? Jesus Christ was temperate. Jesus Christ was without sin. He didn't have this problem of not having patience or not having temperance. And those two are tied hand in hand, having temperance, patience, and faith as we'll see a little later. Jesus Christ, he saw what was happening. He knew something had to be done about it. You know, the Bible says that the zeal had eaten him up. So what he did was when he saw it, he went and he made a whip. Now I don't know how long it takes to make a whip, but it's not something that's just, you know, he just pulled out of his pocket and had ready on waiting. He took enough time to contemplate and think about what's he going to do. He saw what's happening. He didn't like it and it made him angry. So he decided, okay, I'm going to make a whip. And then he goes in and he had thought, I mean, he knew what he was going to do, tipped over the tables and he made, I mean, he was making a big show. I was making a big point of this and it was something that made him angry. It was something that he was showing you shouldn't be doing this at all. And then, you know, obviously whipping people out of the, out of the temple was a pretty, it was a pretty big deal, but, and he had anger, but he wasn't sinning, okay? He had a righteous anger against people that were doing things that ought not to have been done in God's house. We could have those type, that type of anger against wickedness and against sin and against, you know, things that ought not to be done in God's house or whatever, you know, righteous anger, but you still shouldn't be flying off the handle and just, and just acting impulsively. You need to have control and temperance over your spirit. We need to have a patience to be able to endure this stuff. And we need to have patience, especially in our day to day lives. And you know, none of us is perfect. You know, I have this fault to you and I'm sure everybody probably has this to some degree, but especially if you're married or if you have children, you need to have patience. This is something that we need to have because living with somebody where you're in close contact with people, I mean, even coworkers, whatever it is, when you are really spending a lot of time with somebody, there's going to be things maybe that aggravate you, things that happen that you don't like. And we ought to strive to have a spirit of patience to be able to have a long suffering and be able to put up with things and not be soon angry. You know, when the kids are just running around and making a nightmare of everything, okay, I understand it's frustrating and it could make a lot of work for you and it could be really trying. And you know what, maybe they have to be disciplined as well, but what we don't want to do is let ourselves just get angry and then, you know, go to discipline them when you're just full of anger or rage. We ought to try to control ourselves, have a temperate spirit and be able to say, okay, recognize the fact, just like Jesus did, you know, something needed to be done. And he decided what he was going to do and he went in there with a whip and he, you know, dumped over the tables and sent them out of the temple. It had to be done, but he did it with temperance or with control. And it's the same way, whether it be our children or anybody, you know, the children is a good example because if they do something wrong and they need to be disciplined, absolutely go right ahead in discipline, but don't let yourself just get soon angry, have the patience and have that, you know, the temperance within you to be able to just be in control and not foolishly speak, not say things that you ought not to say, things that maybe you'll regret later because what happens is when people get angry and they get upset, they have a tendency to say things that later on they wish didn't come out of their mouth or to do things that they wish they hadn't done. I mean, people, and it happens all the time, people end up doing, making actions or saying things that they ought not to. And it's, and ultimately what it is, it's a lack of, of temperance and a lack of patience and acting on impulse. And this is not a spirit we ought to have. We ought to have that spirit of patience. Let's look, go ahead and turn to Psalm 37. I'm going to read for you out of first Peter chapter number two, because Jesus Christ is a great example for, for patience. I mean, we saw that one story and, um, you know, we know that God is long suffering and merciful and yes, of course God has wrath, right? God created hell. There is wrath. God is, um, you know, not just all love, but see the wrath of God doesn't just come immediately. It doesn't come at the drop of a hat. It comes after his long suffering and his mercy has just pretty much been exhausted. Then you're going to see God's wrath. God gives many chances to us and he's very merciful and very long suffering and very patient with us. And we ought to likewise be very patient with others and just recognize that. Now, um, I'm going to read for you out of first Peter chapter two, because Jesus Christ is a great example for us to learn patience from, and it says in first Peter two 19 says for this is thank worthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully for what glory is it if when you'd be buffed in for your faults, you shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is acceptable with God. So at first he's saying, look, if you do something wrong and you, you have to suffer for it, you have to pay consequences and you, and you do so patiently. Yeah, of course you should, but that's expected. I mean, of course you should take it patiently when you're the one that screwed up, you did something wrong and you're just receiving what you, you know, you're reaping what you've sown. Of course you ought to take that patiently. That's, but you're not going to get anything special for that. The Bible says though, but if when you do well, if you're doing what's right and you do it, you know you're doing what's good and then you still suffer for that and you still go through your persecutions and you take that patiently. God looks at that and God sees that and he's going to, you know, that's acceptable with God. God, that pleases God. God likes that. It says, for even here unto where ye call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. Jesus Christ is the perfect example for this because first and foremost, Jesus Christ was without sin. Like we saw here, he didn't know sin. He didn't have guile. He didn't deserve to be punished. He didn't deserve to be put up on that cross. He didn't deserve to be hated and ridiculed and beat up and spit upon and whipped and going through everything that he went through. He didn't deserve that, but he suffered it and he suffered it patiently. He didn't get angry with the people that were doing it to him either. He said, Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do. He had that perfect spirit. He was reviled. He didn't just go and feel the need to revile them again. He suffered, but he didn't go and just start threatening them and saying, oh man, you know what's going to happen to you now because you're doing this to me. He didn't do it. He took it patiently. He suffered. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't deserve it, but he took it patiently and then it says he committed himself to him that judges righteously. He committed himself and said, you know what, God's a good judge. He did all of that as an example for us. That's one of the reasons why he did all that and suffered all that. That is the perfect example for us. We could commit ourselves. We know that God is a righteous judge. We know that God sees everything that happens. We don't need to be the ones to go out and right every wrong. Anytime someone crosses us and you're doing good and man, you're doing everything you're supposed to do and then someone else comes and they do wrong to you, you don't have to worry about it. Just suffer it. When people curse you out and you're going so away or whatever you're doing that you're serving God and someone just goes and maybe they hit you, maybe they do something to you, you don't have to go right that wrong. You don't have to go sue them. You don't have to go yell at them and get angry and curse them out. God sees what's happening. Commit yourself unto God. He's a righteous judge. Suffer it and take it patiently and be joyful when that happens because you know what? The Bible says that that's going to work patience in you. When you suffer, when you follow this example, hey, be glad. Don't let it get you down. Don't let it discourage you. Help that. That'll help build your patience and you can improve on that. We don't need to tell you. You're in Psalm 37. Look down at verse number one, the Bible says a Psalm of David fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green earth. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shall thou dwell in the land and barely thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Let thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the new day. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospered in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil for evil doers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Now notice here, look at in verse seven, it says, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. So on verse one it says, look, don't fret, don't worry about evil doers. Don't be envious about the workers of iniquity. He said, look, don't look at them and covet their lifestyle and be envious of them and get all worried and say, oh man, you know, these evil doers are getting away with all this stuff. He says, look, they're going to be soon cut down like the grass. Don't worry about it. He's saying, you trust in the Lord and do good. You do what's right. Don't worry about what all these other people are doing. That's wrong. You don't have to worry about it. Put your trust in God, put your trust in the Lord. Verse number five, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust in him. We need to keep our trust and just understand, I mean, the same way you commit your trust unto the Lord for salvation. You put your soul into Christ's hands and say, God, save me. I'm only trusting you. You're the only way that I could even get to heaven. I've been trusting you completely with my soul. I trust on you. Well, you know what? We don't need to just trust on the Lord for salvation. We can trust on the Lord for everything. God's a righteous judge. Trust in him. Don't worry about what these workers of iniquity are doing about them maybe not getting away with something because I'll tell you what, they're not going to get away with it. God knows everything and God sees everything. Jesus Christ paid for everyone's sins and if they don't accept Christ as their savior, they're going to pay for their own sins. Don't worry about what you think they're getting away with in this lifetime. We need to wait patiently for him. It's in God's time. We have to understand that he does things in his own way and we're going to just patiently trust in him and wait for him and notice in verse eight, it also says, cease from anger and forsake wrath. This is tied hand in hand with waiting patiently for God. We don't need to get angry. We don't need to have wrath. We don't need to fret ourselves and get caught up in what the evil people are doing. The evil doers are going to be cut off. Trust in God. God's able to do that. Turn to Romans 15 if you would. Now we can take comfort in the scripture because the scripture is going to help us to have this patience. We all need to work on this. It's something that I don't care who you are, I think just about everybody probably needs to work on this in their lives. It's something, again, in the day to day life, it's probably easy to maybe lose your patience and to not be able to handle it properly. If you already know, though, in advance that certain things are going to happen, you can be prepared for it and you can use that as comfort to be able to be patient and to be able to get through it. It makes it a little bit easier. You're in Romans 15. I'm just going to read John 16 four for you. It says, but these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them and these things I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you. So he's saying, look, I told you these things that when the time does come, you can remember that I told you of them. He's saying, I'm telling you in advance. So it doesn't take you by surprise. You're going to be able to understand, oh, okay, yeah, God already told me about this. So I mean, yeah, it's still going to be, you know, maybe a tribulation. It's going to be a trial. It's going to be something you're going through. But when you already know, hey, this is coming, it's going to be a little bit easier to deal with it and to bear it because it's not just taking you off guard or at least it shouldn't be. And if you're reading the Bible and we're getting, you know, these great truths from the Bible, then, you know, it shouldn't take you by surprise. Look at verse number three of Romans 15. The Bible says, for even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So he's saying, look, whatever things, all the things were written before, they were written for us to learn. All the scriptures are written for us to learn that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures, we can have hope. We might have hope. We can have hope in the scriptures. This has already been written. This is written a long time ago, yet it still is applicable for us today. We can still learn from this and learn from things that are going to happen even in our own lifetimes today from the things that are written in this book, and we can take comfort in that. We can have hope. We have hope. God's given us the answers in his word and answers to our day-to-day life and stresses and things that we have to deal with and the tribulations of persecutions that are to come. He's already told us it's going to happen. We have to believe it, first of all, I mean, believe it, and when you see it and say, hey, the Bible says that we're going through persecution, we will, and don't count it as some strange thing that happens unto you. He already told us, and we can take comfort in that, knowing that, okay, it's going to happen. We can prepare ourselves a little bit for it. We need to make sure that we're patient and able to endure it. Look at verse number five, because remember the state that you were in when Christ had patience with you, and this could also help you to have patience with others. Look at verse number five, Romans 15, where it says, now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. So it says in verse five, the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. So we need to have that like mind of God, that like mind of the patience of God, one toward another according to Jesus Christ. I mean, this is something that we need to have is patience one toward another. And it says in verse seven, wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us. Now I don't know about you, but I know that when I got saved and when Christ received me, I was a wicked sinner. I was not some righteous person. I was not someone that just did right all the time. But Christ still received me. When I called upon Jesus Christ to save me, he did it. And he kept it true to his promise, first of all, in the word, but he received me. I was far from perfect. I still am far from perfect, yet he received me. And we need to have that same type of patience and attitude towards others. You know, it's easy, again, and in a church like ours, it could be easy for us maybe to fall into this trap of thinking that, you know, you're learning the Bible and you're growing and you're getting sin out of your life, right? And you're, and hey, man, you're doing great. I mean, you're really doing a lot of good works and you're improving yourself and you're getting more, like less worldly, you're getting more righteous and more godly. To then not want to really receive or have anything to do with people who haven't gotten to that point yet. And we need to make sure that we never get that type of an attitude. I mean, that's the attitude of the Pharisees. You remember that? When, when they were questioning Jesus Christ and say, oh, you know, he knew what manner of person this was, watching his feed, you know, he would have nothing to do with it. If he knew, you know, look at him, he's sitting down with, with sin, with publicans and sinners. He's eating with them, you know, like, because the Pharisees, the Jews at that time, they were separating themselves and saying, you know, we're too holy to actually participate in that and to get down to that level. No way. That's not the attitude we need to have. We need to be receptive of people, you know, whatever their sins are. Hey, they need to grow. Jesus Christ said, you know, they that behold me, not a physician, but they that are sick. We need to, you know, they need the most help. They're going to need, you know, help and guidance and comfort from you more than anyone else that the people that are in the more worst state. And we need to keep that in mind and have that type of patience to be able to let people grow too. And, and that's another thing, you know, when someone first gets saved, man, you can't expect them to just turn their life around overnight and just all of a sudden they're super Christian, you know, all the sins out of their life and they're just, just, just doing everything for God. It's going to take some time. We need to have some patience with them. It's the same way with anybody. I mean, you have to treat everyone the same way. Now you want them to be moving in the right direction, you know, hopefully they're, they're, they're trying to learn and trying to grow, but you can't expect just everything to change in just, just overnight. There's going to be a lot of things. They're going to need to purge out certain sins are going to need to see it from the Bible, be convinced of it and not only that, just to follow through on it. It takes a little bit of time. We need to have that patience and extend that patience on to others because God has given you a lot of patience and has been extremely long suffering. Second Peter one five, you don't have to turn to, I'm going to read this for you. It says, and beside this giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and the brotherly kindness charity. So there's all these, these attributes, these aspects that we should have as Christians. He says, giving all diligence. So, so carefully, I mean, be diligent about it. He says, add to your faith virtue. You start off with faith. You start off with believing on Jesus Christ, add to your faith virtue. Virtue is just doing good, doing what's right, according to the Bible, just start, start doing what's right. Add that to your faith. Start doing some good works on obeying, add to your virtue knowledge. So before you even necessarily understand the virtue that you're supposed to be doing that's written in the Bible, just start doing it. And as you're obeying it and you're doing it, okay, you're going to start to increase and learn and increase your knowledge. It says add to knowledge temperance. So the ability to control yourself, you have the knowledge, you're seeing these commands in the Bible, add that to your knowledge to be able to control yourself and the temperance and the temperance patience. So to be able to basically just continue with that temperance, to make it last longer, have that patience and then the patience godliness and the godliness brotherly kindness and brotherly kindness charity. It says, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So look, if you have these things in your life, if you're diligent, you start adding these things and you're working on all these aspects of your life, just if they're in you and they abound, if they're increasing in you, it says they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. You are not going to be unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are going to do the works. You are going to go out and give people, God's going to bless you for that. And you're not going to be barren or unfruitful. It's really important that we go out and reproduce it by winning other souls to Christ. And if you have these things and these things abound in you, God promises that you won't be barren or unfruitful. And then verse number nine says, but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see it far off and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. So this is someone that, you know, is saved, he is purged from his sins, but because he doesn't have these different aspects of which one of them is patient, what we're teaching tonight, he's blind. He can't even see that far off. He's already forgetting that he was purged from his old sins. We ought not to have that attitude. We need to be diligent to make sure we're adding these things, getting the knowledge, getting the, you know, we have the faith, getting the virtue, you know, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Go ahead and turn to Revelation 14. So the first point of my sermon, I don't think I even mentioned this, is, you know, we need to be patient towards others. That was mostly what we're focusing on is just being patient towards other people, being patient when people wrong you and, you know, just in general kind of being patient when other people need to grow. Turn to Revelation 14. I'm going to read from Romans chapter 5. It says, And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So he's saying here, we glory in tribulations because the tribulation that you go through, we saw this kind of early on in the sermon, tribulation works patience. So when you're going through trials, when you're going through that tribulation, it is going to work patience. And 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10 says, But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose of faith, longsuffering, charity, patience. This is Paul, again, writing to Timothy. He said, You've known my doctrine, you've known the way I was, you know my purpose, you know my patience, my persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, all these places, you know, all these things happened, the persecutions, afflictions. He says, What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. And again, that's a great comfort to have out of every single one of the persecutions that the apostle Paul endured, which is a lot, and he lists off all of these things that he went through, you know, being shipwrecked, being robbed, you know, being sick, all these different things that have happened to him, God delivered him out of all of them. Now, I'm sure at the time when you're going through them, it probably doesn't look that great of an outcome for you. When you're spending a night and a day out in the deep, out in the middle of the ocean or out in the middle of the water somewhere, you're shipwrecked, you've got nothing around you. Who knows if anyone's going to be around to save you? If you're just out there for an entire night and a day, the outlook probably doesn't look that promising for you. When you're among robbers, when people beat you up and take your stuff, I mean, Paul was stoned to death, but, you know, people stoned him and dragged him out as dead, God delivered him out of that. Now, did he go through hard times? Yeah, of course he did. That wasn't pleasant being shipwrecked. That wasn't pleasant being robbers and being among thieves. It wasn't pleasant going through the things that he went through, but he counts those things as joy. They work patience. It says here, it says, the persecution, but out of all the Lord delivered me, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So if you want to live godly, it doesn't say that everybody is, that's a Christian, everyone that believes that Christ is going to suffer persecution says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. When you decide to live for God, when you decide to live for Christ, when you will it, when you want it, that's what you want to do, you're going to suffer persecution. Don't be surprised when it comes, but when it does come, be glad. Have that, train your mind to just be happy about that because it's going to work patience in you. The more you go through that stuff, the more, it's going to spiral, it's going to snowball that like, hey, I've been through this before. It's going to build up your hope and it's even going to encourage you. I remember the last time I went through this because the more tribulations, the more persecutions you endure, you start to realize, like one, you'll probably start to see, hey, God's going to deliver me out of this because it's already happened to me once before. I was in this other situation and God delivered me out of this. And the other thing, I mean, you're going to get through it when you're all, when everything's said and done, you're going to be like, you know, I was terrible at the time and I didn't know what was going on and everything was unclear, but looking back, it really wasn't that bad. Now I could see a little bit more, you know, why things happened the way they did or whatever and the good that oftentimes will come out of these situations, but God will deliver you. But, you know, don't be surprised when you do suffer persecution. Now I had you turn to Revelation 14, right? Because doing the work of God, obeying the commandments and remaining true to God, this is going to demonstrate your patience. This is how, how we can show our patience, essentially. Look at verse number 12 of Revelation 14, it says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, said the spirit that they may rest from their labors in their works to follow them. Then I looked and behold, a white cloud and upon the cloud, one sat like unto the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time has come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. Now here we see, this is clearly talking about the rapture. He's reaping the earth. He's going to come, he's going to, he's going to reap the earth, he's going to reap the saved. Jesus Christ is there, the son of man, having a golden crown on his head and he's on a cloud, he's going to come in the clouds. It's talking about the, you know, again, the end times of the rapture. And it shows the patience of the saints at that time basically coming to fruition. It's their patience because at this time they've gone through, they've gone through this great tribulation right up to the point where this event is taking place, the rapture. The devil, the Antichrist has already waged war on the saints. They've already been going through severe persecutions, severe tribulations. And it says here, like in verse number 12 where we just read, here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God. These are the people that have been enduring and have been, that have also been keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, it says. And what's cool is that, you know, they, they've been patiently enduring these afflictions. They've been going through this, they've been, they've remained steadfast. They've kept God. They've kept the commandments that even though they're being persecuted and being tried, they're staying true to God. And this is important because you can be saved. And when persecution comes, as we saw this morning and afflictions, when these things come, they can, they can, they can silence you. They can get you to stop living for God. The devil can make you backslide and just not want to do anything for God. Okay. But if you let that happen, you're, I don't believe you're, you're going to be, you're not going to be rewarded for that when you get to heaven. Even you're probably going to end up losing all the things that you had maybe built up to that point. And the Bible says in verse 13 here are these people that, that keep the commandments of God that they're staying true, that they've endured this stuff. They have the patience and now their patience is finally coming to fruition. It says at the end, the latter part of verse 13, that they may rest from their labors. They were working. Now they're able to enter into rest and their works do follow them. So all the works that they have been doing, keeping it, keeping steadfast with God, because up to this point, up to this reaping, it was, it was all done by faith. It was unseen that, I mean, we have faith now that we're going to go to heaven or not. We don't see that. I mean, you don't, you don't know that under, and for any other reason other than we, then we have faith. Now, eventually we're going to, we're going to know that and we'll experience that and it's going to happen, but until it happens, it's all just hope. It's all faith. We have this something that that's unseen and in this, in this passage here, the patience of the saints is, is, is, is occurring and they're, they're finally receiving what they have been patiently enduring and that's, that's going to be an incredible time when we finally get to enter into rest, when we get, when we, when we get to heaven, when we, when we pass away on this earth and we can enter into the Lord's rest and we don't have to worry about going through those trials and tribulations and persecutions. And so that's going to be a great, a great time for, for every believer. Now what my last point here, go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter number six, we need to have patience in our own labors and our studying of the Bible and our own, basically our own growth and the things that we do for God. And I'm going to read for you from Isaiah 28 verse 10 says, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line here a little and there a little for with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people to whom he said, this is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest. And this is the refreshing yet they would not hear, but the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line here a little and there a little that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snare to take a note. What we learned here is that it's similar to what we're saying, you know, have patience with other people and their growth towards God, have patience in your own growth with God and your own learning because you have to learn precept upon precept, line upon line. You're not going to be able to understand all of the deep things of the Bible until we understand the simple things first and we have to keep building on that foundation. Now, of course, the foundation is ultimately is Christ, Jesus Christ, death and burial and resurrection for us, we put our faith in that, that is the foundation, Jesus' foundation and then we build upon that, we look at that, we can start adding to that, we could learn other doctrines and that's why it says in chapter six here, I have to turn in Hebrews, it says in verse number one, it says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection. So first, you have to have that doctrine of Christ but now we're saying, okay, look, we're going to go on to perfection, we're going to make ourselves complete here. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God, we're not going to get into the fact that you have to turn from trusting in your own dead works and you're thinking that works are going to save you and a faith toward God, you know, putting your faith in the true God, into the Lord Jesus Christ and we're not going to go over that anymore, we're going to go on to perfection, we're going to make you complete and he says of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying out of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment, basically, these are all things that he's saying, this is the milk of the word, right? These are real basic concepts that, yeah, you need to learn these things and you ought to learn these things first and that's why Paul is saying too that you weren't ready for meat, you were just ready for the milk of the word and we ought to, you know, every babe, every newborn, I mean, my little four month old, she can't eat a T-bone steak, she's not ready for that yet, she has to grow and that growth is going to take a while before she's even able to do that and to chew up that food. Even so with us, if you're a new believer, maybe you haven't read a whole lot, you haven't learned a whole lot, whatever state you're in, you don't get to a place overnight where you just have an amazing amount of knowledge and you can start to learn real fast, you can grow fast, but there's still that growth that needs to take place and it's not going to be extremely fast, when I say fast, I mean, you know, when someone first gets saved, if they actually like read their Bible and go to church a lot and they're learning and growing, you can learn a lot and grow real fast within the time frame of maybe like a year and really kind of get a lot, but even still, in the grand scheme of knowledge, you're probably still going to be a little bit lower on the totem. If you're in God's word and if you're in church and you're studying, you're learning things all the time, you ought to be, and the way you do that is just precept upon precept, you know, the Christian life is not measured in days or in hours or even in years, I mean, it's more like decades and lifetimes, I mean, that's what's ultimately going to measure my work and you know what it is, it's perseverance and persistence, it's just doing things, just, you know, God's giving you a light unto your feet, so you can see just at the time, you're not necessarily going to see the whole road in front of you, you worry about what you need to do today, take no thought for the things of the mind, the mind will take thoughts for the things of itself, do what needs to be done today, do what you know is right, and you do that every day, and you know what, over time, you won't even realize over time, you're like, oh man, if you actually think back to what you thought you knew before or the level you were at before and you say, oh man, wow, I really did learn a lot, I really have grown, but because the growth doesn't, you know, it usually happens so slowly, just like the, you know, our children, you know, to us, you know, it's harder to see how tall they get and how much they've grown in whatever timeframe, but when people don't see them very often, if someone hasn't seen them in six months or a year, they'll look at them and go, wow, you know, you've gotten really tall, you've really grown, but to us, because we see them every single day, we're with them every day, that we see that growth and it's happening slowly, it's not as noticeable, but, so what I'm saying, ultimately what I'm trying to say is just have the patience, okay, don't expect to understand everything about the Bible, don't expect to just know it all immediately, don't think that you even can, I mean, there's so many things, don't be quick just to rush out and find the answer on everything that you need and just like go to the internet and say, well, I need to know what this means and just, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, find someone to tell me what it means. Pray to God that He'll open up your understanding and the Holy Ghost will teach you and if you don't understand it, that's fine, get back to it, keep that in the back of your head, continue to read your Bible, continue to study and to learn, it's gonna be precept upon precept, so in Hebrews 6 there, jump down to verse number 10, because we need to endure patiently to receive God's promises and He promises we're gonna be rewarded for our work, but you do have to patiently endure. So look at verse number 10 of Hebrews chapter 6, it says, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister, so say, look, God's not unrighteous to forget all the work and all the labor that you've put in, He sees it, He's not an unrighteous God, He sees what you're doing for Him and that you ministered to the saints, you know, you're helping people out, you're helping out the saints, you're doing things for Him and you minister, it says, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater to swear by Himself, saying surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. So we see here, you know, in verse 12, it's saying, look, don't be slothful, don't be lazy, don't just say, oh, yeah, the work's too hard, I don't want to do it, and then just be slothful, it says, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. If you want to inherit the promises of God, the blessings, the rewards, all these things He has for you, it's going to have to be through faith and patience. Faith, I mean, you have to believe that they're there, right? Otherwise there's no way to go out, why would you even do it? And patience, you just, you have to endure it. It's just something that's going to take time, realize it's going to happen. And then in verse 15, he's talking about Abraham, he says, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. I mean, Isaac wasn't born until way later, and it wasn't even until later, you know, God promised unto Abraham that of his seed, you know, that all these blessings would come forth on him, you know, that Christ was going to be born of him, and he had to wait, I mean, he patiently endured, but he did patiently endure it until the end, he didn't, you know, he obtained the promise, he eventually obtained it, and that's due to his strong faith and the patience that he had. Now if you're in Hebrew 6, just jump over real quick to chapter 10, I'm going to close with this, jump over to chapter 10 and look at verse number 35, it says, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. So you're saying, look, don't cast away your confidence, don't fall back, don't start doing the work and then just cast away your confidence, because it has, you know, it has a great recompense of reward, there is a great reward out there, it says for ye have need of patience, again, we need to have this patience that after you have done the will of God, after you're putting in the time, that then you can receive the promise, if you have that patience and you're going to receive that promise, just endure, keep working, keep doing that, you know, have the long suffering, have the patience. So what I hope we'll walk away with today is one, we need to have the right attitude towards others, be patient towards others, our children, our spouses, other Christians, you know, other people in our lives, co-workers, bosses, whoever, try to have that patience, try to have the long suffering that Jesus extended unto you to be able to extend unto others. You don't have to right every wrong. God is a righteous judge and He's going to judge. We need to be patient in our trials and tribulations, know that they're coming, you know they're going to be there, expect it to happen, take comfort in God's word, take comfort in the fact that God's already told us that these things are going to happen, and you know what? God delivered Paul out of all of his troubles and persecutions. God is strong, God is capable, and God is willing to save us out of our trials and tribulations and our persecutions. He'll do it. You just have to have faith and have that patience and endure. And thirdly, you know, be patient in your own growth, in your own work for God, in your own study. Don't think that it's just too much for you and you can't do it. Don't get overwhelmed. Have the patience. Just continue to do what you're supposed to do. Eventually you'll be able to look back and see how much you've gone, just take them one step at a time. Let's bow our hands and have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you for the truth that you've provided for us, and your words do ring true here. God, we can see them happen. If we're looking for it, we can see the truth in everything that you've said and you've told us about and you've warned us about, and we know that Jesus Christ is coming back one day. We know that there's going to be great persecutions and tribulations prior to that. And Lord, I just, I pray that you would please help us all to work in our own spirits to give us a spirit of humility and the spirit of patience, dear Lord. Patience towards others and just patience toward the work and help us to make it through and have the strength and faith in you to make it through our own struggles and trials and tribulations, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.