Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12553
11:00 AM on 07/30/2023

P. Schaller –

That song we sang, You are holy. Did you hear that? Did you sing it? You are holy, right? God is holy. I want to
introduce our theme this morning. We’re going to speak on the patience of God. We also have
the word “longsuffering.” And also endurance. God is patient. The primary aspect of this is that
God is love. So, we read in 1 Corinthians 13 about his love. How patient and longsuffering God is with
us.

The primary issue is that God is holy. I’ll make a short picture here. God is holy, and what are
we? Without Christ, what are we? Unholy. Sinful. So, we are not holy. We are sinful, and we see
a book in the Bible called Leviticus. I’d like you to turn there for a moment, as we grasp this
concept of uncleanliness, of defilement, of holiness. It’s a great word. Holy, holy, holy. This is
what the seraphim were crying out in Isaiah 6. God is holy, and heaven is enjoying the holiness
of God. It is so enjoyable, so clean, so powerful, so incredibly awesome to us people and
angels.

And in the history of the Jewish people when they came out of Egypt, anybody remember how
the map goes? The map, the geography. We have Spain, right? We have Italy. We have
Croatia. Greece. We have Turkey. We have Africa. That’s not bad! And here is Israel. Here is
Egypt here, and the Promised Land is here.

When the Jews were here in this part of the world, in Goshen, the mouth of the Nile River, they
were multiplying in number. Two or three million of them, and they were slaves in Egypt. God
brought them out. Where did he bring them to? When he brought them out of Egypt, where did
they go? This actually happened in history. Where did they go? They went through the Red Sea.
They came south, went through the Red Sea into the wilderness. Why? Why did they go to the
wilderness? Why didn’t God bring them to a place like Miami Beach? Or some place of comfort,
convenience, plentiful food, water, and everything that they need for life?

It says in Deuteronomy 8:3, turn there with me. Deuteronomy 8:2-3, there’s three phases. #1. They are slaves. #2.
They are in the wilderness. #3. and then they come across into the Promised Land. They’re in
the Promised Land. Those three geographical locations have a spiritual message.
#1. You’re a slave. You don’t have any rights. You don’t own any property. You can’t make
decisions. You can’t leave the country. You are a slave.

You’re a prisoner. You’re a slave. You’re a slave in Egypt. That’s like people in the world today. They are slaves in the world. They are slaves to sin. They are slaves to themselves. They are slaves to the complexities of their own
soul. They’re slaves to bad habits. They’re slaves to where they live, how they think. They’re
friendships. Their relationships. They’re in bondage. They don’t have liberty. They don’t have
freedom. They don’t have authority. They are slaves. They are slaves to their vices. They are
slaves to negative speaking and thinking. It’s an incredible life to live as a slave.

Have you lived that way? Turn to your neighbor and ask them. Looks like you’re still there!
You’re still a slave. Are you a slave? Remember Jesus said if you sin, you are a slave to sin.
This picture is really about God is holy and man is sinful. And the problems that he has,
because he doesn’t believe God. He doesn’t believe God. He doesn’t know the ways of God. He
doesn’t have the mind of God. He doesn’t have the Spirit of God. He doesn’t have the heart of
God.

Why did Christ come? Christ came to give us a new life, a new heart, a new spirit. Christ came
to change your life. Christ came to take you out of Egypt. In the same way he brought the Jews
out of Egypt physically, he has brought us out of the world spiritually. And Pharaoh says you
cannot go, and God says let my people go. Pharaoh says, no. They can’t go. And Christ says,
I’ve been raised from the dead. They are gone. They have entered into death, been raised with
me. They are free. I set them free from Egypt and the world. They have been crucified with me,
and raised with me. They are seated with me in Ephesians 2:6. They are free. They are free. These
people that are born again, they are free. They are free by the grace of God. Okay.

The story doesn’t end there. Because even though they came out of Egypt, they are brought
into the wilderness; and that wilderness has a lot of meaning to it. It’s a place where a tree that
big a round is 50 years old. We were there in the wilderness in the Negev Desert. And we were
told by our tour guide, see that tree? How old do you think it is? And we talked and guessed. He
said that tree is 50 years old. It’s this tall and this big around. Why doesn’t it grow? He said
there’s no water here. A quarter inch. With your fingers make a quarter inch. That’s the amount
of water that falls there in a year. There’s no water. It’s a desert. That tree doesn’t grow. It’s
alive, but it hardly gets any water.

This is where God brought the Jews. When they came out of Egypt, he brought them there to
teach them, and to teach them something they would never know otherwise. And by the way,
your troubles in life are ordained of God that he might teach you something that you would not
learn if you are left to yourself in Miami. Or some other place where you’d like to be. Or on a
farm in Montana or whatever. I mean, I don’t want to lose you with the illustration. I just want you
to understand if life was your way, how would you find God? That’s the sad thing about people,
that we just feel the problem isn’t me.

The problem is I don’t have enough money. No, you need
God. No, you don’t need the money. You need God. You go, yeah, but the real world works by
money. We go, yeah, well, the real world. You really want to know? The real world, it’s about
God. This world is about God, but you don’t know that. But I will teach you.

It says that. Didn’t he say I brought you this way to humble you, that you would learn, that you
would find manna. And it says there in the Scripture that you did not know before. And that
means when they were in the desert and going, what are we going to eat? And the manna
literally, food came. It was there in the morning, and they walked around and picked it up. It was
like oil, coriander seed. It had a certain color to it. It was called manna. Which means, what is it?
They didn’t know what it was. But it was what they ate for 40 years. And it kept them alive as
they were in the wilderness for 40 years.

But here’s an interesting point about the geography? Do you know how long it takes to go from
Egypt to the Promised Land? By bus, it’s an eight hour ride. Walking it’s 11 days. How long did it
take for them to get there? Forty years. What does that mean? The Promised Land of milk and
honey is very close to you. It’s very close to you. It is enough. The Promised Land of milk and
honey is yours and mine. The only thing is, in our unbelief it takes so long to get there. In our
unbelief, we struggle with the ways of God. We don’t understand the ways of God. We actually
resist it. And so, we’re going to speak about that today. Let’s close this part.

The Jewish people for hundreds of years, – we’re now at the 4,000 year point. Four thousand
years, and God is patient with the Jewish people. And he said I cannot let you go in Hosea 11:8. I
cannot leave you. I cannot forsake you. I cannot let you go. You are my people. This is a story of
patience. And to this day, God gave them the Messiah, and he will make himself known to them
in Zechariah 12:10. They will be deeply broken as a family that would lose their only son. The grief
will be so great. The Jewish people have such great grief when they realize that Jesus of
Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ. And they will discover him in large numbers in the
Tribulation period. And it just shows that God is patient. That God works with us. That he’s very
kind.

So, there’s two parts to the message. One is: who is God? How patient is God. How kind is
God. And then it transfers to us. How patient we are. How kind we are. How gracious we are
with each other and with ourselves and in the world that we live in. Amen. Okay. Welcome P.
Eugene for the announcements and the offering.

Okay. You may be seated. Years ago when I was in Bible school, I remember Dr. Stevens
saying a sentence about Revelation 1:9. He said the patience of God is a mystery. So, I want to share
that verse with you as we make our way in our message. Revelation 1:9, John was on the island of
Patmos. vs. 9. By the way, I heard recently about the Indian believers in Manipur, India in the
eastern part near Burma that are persecuted for their faith. You can look it up on YouTube.

And these are our brothers and sisters, and we want to remember them in our prayers. It’s a tragic
thing that’s happening to them. We pray for them and love them. They are our brothers and
sisters.

John was on the island of Patmos it says here in tribulation. vs. 9. Why was he there? For the
Word of God. Meaning he was a pastor in Ephesus. He was apparently arrested. Put on this
island where they detained and kept mentally ill people and political dissidents and other people
they didn’t like. John was there for the Word of God, because he was a man of the Word. And
he was therefore targeted and put there. vs. 9.

Turn now to James 1:4. This morning we heard P. Ellis share about the mission to Scotland. And
he said that Scotland is open for the gospel. They had an outreach. They were in England first,
for the the first part of the trip for four or five days or a week; then they went up to Scotland to
evangelize in Glasgow and Edinburgh. They didn’t have a loud speaker or microphone, but
some people were singing on the street with a microphone. So, they borrowed it to give the
message of Christ to the people on the street. There were four or five young men that gathered
to pray. They were not believers, but they heard the gospel.

They gathered and prayed without shame, and asked Christ into their lives. Great testimony. Jeremy over here was in Finland. What a good time we had there. This whole summer has been, and today in Indonesia Gary
Groenewold is there. P. Scibelli yesterday in the church showed me – he videod on the Face
time call like more than 2,000 people there in the church hall shouting and yelling praises to
God.

All right. What about us? Here we are. We want to say a few things about this subject Patience.
First of all, theologically we have God. I’ll put here three circles. God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. He is infinite. There’s no limits. Everywhere present. All knowledge. All power.
The word omnipresent. All. We have omnipotent and also omniscient. Knows everything.
So, what is it that God does not have? He doesn’t have limits. He’s infinite and beyond what we
would say as humans, where are the limitations? God does not sin. He cannot contradict
himself. He cannot lie. He is light and no darkness. He is infinite, beyond himself. The Jewish
rabbis would say that God is unlimited, and what he cannot do is be limited. But then, he did it
by making someone like himself that is limited. That’s us.

So, he made man, and this is where we have limits. We are not infinite. We are finite. We don’t
know everything. But we can know God and do know God. We can also sin. And we have. We
can rebel. And we have. We can be unclean. And we are. We can be blind and ignorant and
proud and arrogant. We are limited. God made us with the possibility to sin and we have.
So, now, what do we see? We see God. How? In our sin, we see his love. God is love. In our
failure, we see his patience. In our rebellion, we see his humility. And he draws us by this love,
by this patience, by this kindness. He draws us. He does the best he can. God who is all
powerful, but he is not the kind of God who will take ahold of a thing and make it right, make it
clean by his power without you, without me, without us in it. He asks us permission. He asks us
to believe. He asks us to come to him.

But what if we don’t come? What if we don’t come? Or we come and then go away and don’t
come anymore. Where is this written? Where do we find this story but in our Bible with the
Jewish people primarily. Cause the Bible is about the Jewish people. It’s about them. It’s about
their rebellion. Their unbelief. About how they – he brought them out of Egypt, but they don’t
understand. They don’t care. Let’s read it.

Turn to Ezekiel. Did I ask you to turn to James? Okay. We’re going to do that later. Go to, let’s
see. We could do Jeremiah now. Let’s go to Jeremiah 7. At the 9:00, we did Ezekiel. But at this
one, we’ll do chapter 7:4. It’s a good memory verse for us. I really want you to follow me in your
Bible, in your study. I really want you to learn to concentrate, to listen. I really want you to sense
the Holy Spirit in the teaching. I really want this to grow in you. So, you have to keep coming.

You have to have your own Bible, and your own Bible study and your own reading. And it grows
and it grows. You learn little by little in Isaiah 28:10, but it happens. And when you find it, when you
find it, the joy of it, the clarity of it, it makes sense. The value of it. And what it does in your heart.
How will I cleanse myself from my sin? By taking heed unto your Word. How can my life
change? By your Word. Your words are living, Hebrew  4:12.

They’re living. They’re powerful. Your words. They made the universe with words. Words. Take up your bed and walk. Those words and the man was healed. Words. That’s what we do here. We are listening to words.
So, we have Jeremiah 7:4. It’s like a religious statement that’s said by rebellious people. They say the
temple of the Lord, temple of the Lord. The Lord says, knock it off! Don’t give me that. Don’t give
me that. How are you living your life? What do I require of you? What am I looking for? Not your
words. Remember Jesus said your heart is far from me. You have words. You learn how to talk,
but your heart is far from me.

So, if we go back to this sketch here about the holiness of God, and man is sinful. I’ll just use an
illustration for this concept. We all have physical clothes on. We actually have layers often. We
have a shirt, and in my case I have a shirt and an undershirt. Taking off the old man is said in
Ephesians 4. Take off the old man. If I was to compare that to taking off my clothes, my shirt and the
undershirt is pride. The last thing to go is pride, cause I’m a sinful man. And when I get dressed,
the first thing I put on is my undershirt which is pride. That’s the primary thing that we live by is
our pride. It’s another message, but I just want to have you think with me about this.

In Leviticus, when the Lord brought the Jews out of Egypt, he brought them to Sinai to teach
them. And he taught them they had to take off – if you’re a priest, you had to take off your
clothes and put on other clothes. Holy clothes. Holy garments. And you have to be anointed with
a fragrance, a perfume. And when you went into the holy place, you had to come being clean.
You had to be clean. You had to be set apart. You couldn’t be dirty.

Well, all of this is physical. But it all has a spiritual meaning. And that is in your life, it’s not the
outside external layers that we talk about when we come to God. It’s deeper. It’s that complex
we have in our soul about our self-importance. About our identity. That whole thing about me.
That’s the thing that troubles us, and the thing that God is saying you can’t come to me with
that. You’re unclean. We could say, no I’m pretty good. I’m pretty good. God is saying you’ll
never be clean enough. I am God. I search the heart. I know who you are. I know what you
need. There’s no way you could be clean. There’s no way without the blood.

In Leviticus, the word “holy” is in this book Leviticus is 80 times used. Holy. And it means when
you come out of Egypt, the first thing God wants to do is show you how you approach God. How
much God is for you. How God is holy. What God will do for you as a people. How he will clean
you up. And make you very clean.

Remember the Jews are very good at this. The Jews are very good about bleeding and
defilement by dead body or by mildew or bacteria or by mold or by leprosy. They’re very serious
about it. The pagan people are not. But the Jews are from God. And they’re taught by God that
you can’t come unless you’re clean. And you have to come with blood. The blood. Yom Kippur is
the Day of Atonement, and the only way for the priest to enter in to the very holy place where
nobody could go is by the blood. And when he went in once a year and came back out, the fact
that he came back out was evidence that God had accepted the sacrifice.

Well, this is all on the earth. But there’s something bigger about you as a person, and it isn’t
about your perfume or cologne or your hair style or your latest clothes or your undergarments.
It’s not that. By the way, in the Mormon religion, they do wear linen underwear as – I know that
the men do. I don’t know about the women, but they have linen garments underneath in
harmony with the whole idea of the levitical priesthood. And Mormonism is a cult. So, you know,
I hope you know that. It’s not my underwear that’s going to change my life. That’s not going to
do it.

You know what does it? It’s that this incredible, – I just want you to understand it in the most
sacred context. What has happened to us is extraordinarily incredible. That God was incarnated.
That God was humble and is humble. That God became filthy. And that word “filthy” has a lot of
meaning to it. It’s so vulgar. But maybe it should be said that in Zechariah 3, when the high priest had
filthy garments, it means they were smeared with excrement. That he was totally smelling. That
he was a filthy man, and he’s supposed to be the high priest clothed impeccably and clean. And
Joshua the high priest is very dirty and smells filthy and at his right hand is Satan. It’s a picture
of how far the Jewish nation has gone away from God, and they cannot make it.

So, God sent another high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Not a Levite. Jesus never went
into the temple in his lifetime in Jerusalem. Jesus was outside in the courtyard, but he didn’t
have any right to enter, because he wasn’t of the tribe of Levi. He was of Judah. But this high
priest is different. Not of Levi. For he entered into a tabernacle not made with hands in Heb. 8.
He went into heaven itself on our behalf, and he sat at the right hand and there Christ is our
high priest, and he cleansed our conscience by his blood. And that he was crucified on the cross
by the Holy Spirit holding him on the cross. It was his decision, but it was also he was crucified
by the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that amazing? Who through the blood of Jesus our consciences are
clean from dead works to serve the living God.

It reminds me of a story about a man. I think he was a European guy who went to Latin America
with a backpack. Heavy weight. He was in Argentina climbing in the Andes mountains for six
months, and he did it on purpose to pay for his sins. That he felt if he could carry this weight
through the mountains for six months, that he could somehow atone for his sins. That is a good
picture of a dead work. That doesn’t mean anything to God. Whatever you or I would do by way
of atoning for our sin, paying the price. Being guilty for two weeks. Being depressed in an
apartment somewhere. Shut the door. Turn out the lights. Stay there for a couple of weeks to
pay for your sins. It’s dead works. Dead works. Dead works. Paying for our sin. It cannot cleanse
us. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can do that.

And when Jesus came, he goes deep like with people, because we are sinful. We could never
do it. Jeremiah 22:2, though I cleanse myself with nitre, with an acid and a base is mentioned there.
The cleansing agents of a base or alkali or a vinegar or an acid. What could take away my sin?
Nothing can do that but Jesus Christ does that.

So, let’s make this clear that the gospel is unique. There’s nothing in the world like this. Nothing
can take away our sin except Christ and take away our guilt. That’s another subject. A very
important one. The guilt that we have as people. Guilt that is somehow bonified guilt, because of
something that I did wrong. And guilt that I have because I was raised a certain way, and I’m
guilty though I haven’t done anything wrong, but I feel guilty. I feel guilty. I’m not really guilty for
anything, but I feel the guilt. And on the other hand, I have done very sinful things and I feel the guilt. Both guilts need to be dealt with by me, believing what Christ did for me. Don’t be self-
righteous.

Don’t be afraid to talk about the fact that you are a sinner. Don’t be self-righteous and think that you are growing up out of sin or that you’ve become an amazing saint, cause of the way you are living and thinking and so on.
This is not about you comparing yourself. This is about learning who is God as a sinner that’s
saved by grace and growing in grace. I have not made it. I am still a sinner, but the patience of
God. How God is patient with the Jewish people. He says in Romans 10:21, my hands have been
stretched out all day long to a stiffnecked and gainsaying people.

You cannot help but see in that verse my arms are stretched out all day long as a picture of the cross where God is saying to the human race, here I am. I could have a clenched fist ready to destroy you, but I am patient.
I am waiting for you. I love you no matter who you are, what you have done, how bad you are,
how filthy you are. How much you are from the inside having this defilement.

In Leviticus, the Jews would say if you go to a graveyard, you’re defiled. If you touch a dead
body, you are defiled. Remember Jesus cast out demons in a man who was living in a
graveyard. By law, Jesus would be unclean. By touching a leper, Jesus would be unclean. By touching a dead body, he’d be unclean by Jewish law. But Christ came and was above the law.
He fulfilled the law, but he was beyond the law. He is the grace of God. He is the reality of what
we need. We don’t need to be condemned. We need to be saved. We don’t need to be
destroyed. We need to be called by a new name. We need our name in the book of life. We
need to be loved by God, and this is what we’re saying. God, to the Jewish people, was very
patient with them.

Let’s read Jeremiah 7. And we can go to vs. 8. Wow. How about our society today? What’s happening
on the streets and in the neighborhoods. Listen. We say this not to condemn, but to say that the
Jews were called out to be a different people, but they always went back. Excuse me. They
always went back to sin. They always went back to idolatry. They always went back to swearing
and lying and adultery and murder. They did. That’s what the prophets are saying. Ezekiel 20.
Many places. Hosea. You make altars to sin in chapter 4 of Hosea. How come? Stephen said it
in his farewell message in Acts 7. You do always resist the Holy Spirit. It’s a pattern in life, but
it’s not only with the Jewish people. It’s with Christian people. We go our own way. We don’t go
to church anymore. We go our own way. We are not reading the Bible anymore. We don’t even
know a proverb.

I once lived, I used to live in eastern Europe, and I would always have when I would meet
someone in their home; I would say you can ask me two questions and I can ask you two
questions so we can get to know each other. It was a simple exercise. So, they had to think.
What should I ask? I have two questions. What should I ask him? You could change it to one.
You have one question and I have one question. What do you want to ask me. Oh, what should
I ask?

Are you thinking? Are you prepared in a conversation? Do you have something in your heart? Is
God doing something in your life? Has he answered a prayer? Has he given you a promise? I
remember they say it’s your turn or you go first. I’d say what’s God doing in your life? Do you
have a proverb? What’s your favorite place in the Bible? Do you have anything to say to me that
would help me and encourage me? Could you encourage me?

What am I talking about? Our conversations. Our exercise in our spiritual life comes from our
church. It’s the church where you are challenged to be sharpened. It’s in church where you learn
how to talk. It’s in church where you learn how to listen. It’s in church where you’re exercised in
your faith.

But why did the Jewish people go away from God? And they did. The prophets would say come.
And they would call them back to God. Let’s look at Jeremiah 7:9. Did those gods save you out of
Egypt? Did those gods give you manna in the wilderness? Did those gods make it so your
shoes did not wear out. Did those gods visit you in the night? Guide you by a cloud by day and
fire by night? What did those gods do? Nothing. They’re empty. Just like pagan gods and
Roman gods and Greek gods. Those temples are empty. Nobody cares about it, cause it’s all
foolishness. It’s all empty. They are not God. You want God. You have God. You and I have
God. But we do go away and fall away. But God is patient.

Let’s go to the text again. vs. 10-11. Who used that phrase? Jesus. You made this a den of
thieves and robbers. He’s quoting from Jer. 7. It hasn’t changed. People play bingo instead of
going to the church. The church has bingo and not a service. A church is studying psychology
and not the Word of God. The church is political and not fervent in the Spirit, evangelizing and
making disciples and leading people in faith and praying for the sick and lifting up our eyes to
the fields where they have never heard about Jesus Christ. And send out people to places
where they have never heard about Jesus Christ. This is our mission. God is in it. God says go.
I’ll be with you. I will anoint you. I will bless you. I will utilize you. I will answer your prayer. I will
heal the sick. I will save the souls. I will do this work. Yes, Lord. Will you? Yeah.

How do we know this? Cause that inner garment of pride is taken off, cause Jesus did it at the
cross. When he died, we died with him. We have the authority to walk in the newness of life.

To walk in the spirit of humility, the Spirit of God. And to walk with him. God is patient with us. Very
patient. He’s very kind with the wicked every day. The wicked every day – look out there. Look
at the wicked every day. We’re not judging people, but we’re recognizing they don’t think about
it. They are just living life. That’s all. They’re just betting on the fact that there’s nothing. But
judgment is coming. There’s a judge.

Actually, that’s the cry of our society for justice. They cry about it, but they think that it’s on this
level. Oh brother. Wait a minute. Justice is coming on a huge level. A cosmic level. Judgment is
coming for everyone of us. For everybody. For every word said. For every attitude I have.
Judgment is coming.

But remember. We have White Throne Judgment and Bema Seat judgment for the believer. You
and I will be judged but not condemned, Romans 8:1. It will just be burned up in fire. All the
foolishness and the flesh that we’ve had and lived in it in this life. We are not – Jesus was
judged, so we will not be at the White Throne judgment judged. Hallelujah! We will not go to hell.
We will not be judged for our sin. Jesus was judged for us, so now we are free. Now, we have
the newness of life, but in that newness of life, we want to walk in such a way that the Almighty
God is manifested in this world as a loving, patient God who cares. He cares.

Let me finish up here. Why children and teens need to come to church. It’s biblical. Family time
together. To be in the, kids need role models and mentors. Teens need to know they are part of
the Body of Christ. They need to be led to see the importance of the pastor and the pulpit. They
need to see others worship and learn. This is from the internet. Somebody did this work here.
It’s a better use of their time than TV, Spotify, video games, and sports even. Encourages older
ones to see the coming generations.

Their energy and focus and attention helps the
atmosphere in the assembly. They may learn what it means to participate in missions and
prayer and vision. The parents can see that they are not in this alone. They see that there’s a
team that can help them with their family. They’ll be with adults who see them, and are led to
pray for them. Young people with adults is a beautiful thing when there is a lot of patience, a lot
of kindness. There is prayer. There is joy. We have a good time. It’s a family time. We are a
family.

Come to church. You cannot replace it with anything. Come to church and bring your children
and teens, and they get to see it and realize mom and dad are serious about this. Yes, it works.
Yes, it works. The undergarment is taken off and there is that deep holiness or cleanliness that
happens in our hearts. We discover a new motivation. We are motivated. We are excited about
what we have. We have Jesus is alive. We celebrate it in our church, in our meeting. We
celebrate it. We believe it.

You might say, pastor, you don’t know my life. I say, I know your life. You and I can have a dirty
t-shirt on, way deep, deep in me. I can say I don’t know how it can happen to me. How could it
really happen and I’m saying, if Jesus can’t do it for you, nobody can. If he didn’t do this for you
and me, nobody, nothing will work. But Jesus did it. He’s raised. And it’s for you.
You might say, I’m an artist. It doesn’t work for me. I’m old. It doesn’t work. I’m young. I never, I
don’t know about that. And I’m saying, no. It’s beautiful. It’s real. It’s for you. It’s real. And think
on a good day in the Jewish nation, and the priest comes in and he has the fragrance of the
perfume, and he’s clean and brings the blood and there’s the holiness of God. And he comes
back out, and he’s saying it’s real. I went in and came out, and God has given us favor. That’s
almost nothing compared to what Jesus did.

Jesus goes in with his own blood into the holy of holies of heaven and he comes out to us and
he says you are clean. You are free. I brought you out of Egypt to bring you into the Promised
Land. You have it. Stay, walk in it. I will show you. I will visit you. I will anoint you. I will help you.
I will strengthen you. And that’s how we live from faith to faith. That’s it. God’s patient with us.

And let us be very patient with each other. I mean it. Like sometimes I get a little upset maybe in
my marriage, but I know enough to be quiet and to be patient. My wife doesn’t need me to be
her critic. She needs me to be her comforter. Let me repeat that. Wife or husband. Wife could
say my husband is always angry with me. He’s always yelling at me. And that makes me angry.
And I’m upset. My husband, he’s a bad guy. He’s always on my case. He’s just frustrated and
angry with me.

I would say, wait a minute. Someone shared this with me the other day. What if the wife could
say, I could be like the Holy Spirit and a comforter for my husband. I could say to my husband
just like the Holy Spirit is patient with us. And he’s just there quiet and he’s loving us. Have
some strawberries. Take an hour. I’ll see you later. I love you. You got space. Go fishing. I’m for
you. I’m not on his case. I’m the comforter. I am patient. I am kind. My husband is starting to
relax. He knows my expectation. I care about him, but I can be patient with my husband. I can
be patient with my husband. Isn’t that amazing? He starts to relax and starts to see something.
My wife is so kind. She’s relaxed. He’s patient. She’s kind. She’s helping me. I’m starting to
relax.

It goes the other way. The husband, be like the Holy Spirit and love like the Holy Spirit. And be
quiet sometimes. Be quiet. Do not accuse. Do not blame. Do not get rippin angry. Just go
marching in there and straighten it out and give them a piece of your mind. We don’t need a
piece of your mind. We need a piece of God’s mind! We need God’s Spirit, God’s heart. We
need patience, kindness, wisdom. We need a message from God that comes oftentimes in the
church. When you drive home today, enjoy it!

In closing, God is kind with the wicked every day. Here’s your strawberries. Here’s your NBA
basketball team. Here’s your nice sleep. I give you a beautiful night’s sleep. The man is a
wicked man. God is kind to the wicked every day. Here are your children. Here is your money.
Here is your whole life. Who am I? I am God. I am treating you very good every day. I am God. I
hope my goodness will lead you to me. Cause not only am I good and kind and patient, I am
humble dying on a cross with arms stretched out to speak to your heart and say, come to me.
Please, come to me. You have dirty clothes on. I could just go away from you and I don’t need
you. But I want to show you who I am.

Remember when God said to Moses, step aside. I’m going to destroy the Jews, because they
are constantly a rebellious people. Moses said, no, no, no. Hold it. These are my words. Hold it.
You can’t do that, because in Egypt if they will hear that you brought them out and destroyed
them, and that’s not who you are. I know who you are. Keep these people. Work with them. Be
patient with them. I am interceding for them. That’s a picture of Jesus who is interceding for us,
and saying to God they are a great people. I have redeemed them by my blood. We have sent
the Holy Spirit into them. They are my bride. They are my people. They are my people.
Therefore, let us learn from God to be very patient and very kind with each other. Very kind.
Very patient. Very encouraging. Very gracious and help people that need him. Okay. Amen.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.