1. A pastor preached from this passage of Scripture and called his message, "If the Outlook Be Dark, Try the Uplook."
2. In light of the frustrations we have been encountering in our building search, I believe God gave me the right text to preach today.
3. Five times in this passage we find the word "patient" or "patience" (5:7,8,10,11).
4. "Patient" means capable of bearing affliction with calmness (5:10,11).
5. "Patience" is the capacity of calm endurance, even under great stress.
6. One preacher said "patience means to stay put and stand fast when you’d like to run away" (W. Wiersbe). Pastors often feel like running away (and unfortunately too many do!), but God wants us to stick it out.
7. Patience is so important that James begins this epistle with it and he ends with it (cf. 1:1-4). Quite frankly (as some of you already know), patience has never been my strong point.
8. The motive for patience is the coming of the Lord (5:7-9). I try to look at our building situation from this perspective: if the Lord would to come today, we would not care about a building!
9. God is not going to straighten everything out until the Lord returns, so in the meantime, we must be patient.
10. James gives three practical examples of patience:

I. THE HUSBANDMAN (FARMER) – (5:7-9).

1. Farming takes patience. Crops do not appear overnight and farmers have no control over the weather.
2. Too much rain, not enough rain, an early frost, all these things can kill the crops. The farmer must be patient. "Behold, the husbandman waiteth…" (5:7).
3. Soulwinning and church-planting is like planting seed. We sow, we pray, we wait, and God gives the increase (Ps.126:6; Luke 8:11-15).
4. Soulwinning, church-planting, missions work, building a Sunday School class – it takes patience.
5. The early rain (October-December) would soften the soil, causing the seed to germinate, and the latter rain (Feb.-April) would help to mature the harvest and bring it to fruition (5:7b).
6. Back when I first started this church, I used to go out knocking on doors every week night (except Wednesday). People on the street used to ask me what I was doing and I would tell them that I was breaking up the fallow (dormant, left untilled or unsown, inactive) ground (cf. Jer.4:3; Hosea 10:12).
7. I would ask them when was the last time someone passed through with Gospel tracts (obviously excluding the cults) and they would say "Never."
8. So the Lord began to teach me patience, but I still have a long way to go. I am glad that I went to the church-planters conference upstate – what an encouragement!
9. The apostle Paul said: "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap we faint not" (Gal.6:9).
10. We are to establish our hearts: "for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (5:8). Is your heart established? Too many Christians have their hearts filled with worldly pleasures. The Lord is coming back; we need to get busy serving Him.
11. We are not to "grudge" (5:9) or murmur or complain. This type of behaviour hinders God’s work. Some Christians think that God has called them to straighten out everything in the church! James says, "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned" (5:9).
12. "Behold, the judge standeth before the door" (5:9b). God is in control. Let’s allow Him to run His church. He has given us instructions on what we are to do – it’s all right here in the Bible.

II. THE PROPHETS WHO SUFFERED AFFLICTION - (5:10,11a).

1. These phony-baloney charismatic preachers teach that once you are converted you should never get sick or encounter any difficulties. But we know from experience and from the Bible that this is not true.
2. Paul says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim.3:12).
3. Many of the Old Testament prophets had to endure great trials and sufferings. Jeremiah was arrested, accused of being a traitor, and thrown down a pit. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den (5:10).
4. But they kept on speaking "in the name of the Lord" (5:10; cf. Heb.11:33-40).

III. THE PATIENCE OF JOB - (5:11).

1. Job is a good example of patience (Job 1:13-22; 2:7-10). But Job never turned from God and his patience was rewarded in "the end" (5:11; cf. Job 42:10-17).
2. We need to always remember that with God payday isn’t always on Friday. Asaph the Psalmist "was envious of the foolish" (Ps.73:3) until he went into the sanctuary of God and understood their end (Ps.73:17).
3. There can be no mountain tops without first going through the valley. A young Christian asked an older friend to pray that God would give him patience. The older man got on his knees and prayed that God would send the young man tribulations and afflictions and pain and problems…when the young man said: "Stop! Why are you praying this for me?" The wise old man showed him Romans 5:3 – "But we glory in tribulation also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience." And James 1:2,3 – "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (trials); Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
4. Impatience under stress often leads to swearing. As Christians, we must choose our words carefully (5:12; cf. Matt.5:33-37).
5. I do not know of any Christians who use profanity (though I occasionally hear reports from others), but I do hear Christians use "minced oaths" such as "Gee whiz" and "darn" and "gosh" and "golly," etc. This kind of talk should be avoided.

CONCLUSION:

1. There was in Colorado a number of years ago a man by the name of McPherson, who had both of his eyes blown out and both of his arms blown off at the shoulder in a mine explosion.
2. The doctors told him he would soon die, but they were wrong and he lived.
3. Having no fingers or arms with which to read Braille, he had a special table made, and he learned to read Braille with his tongue, spending all night learning to read one letter.
4. The Braille Bible consists of 20 huge volumes. Mr. McPherson read the Bible through four times with his tongue. Oftentimes his tongue became so tender it would bleed!
5. Brethren, that is patience! "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord" (5:7a).