Sermon Notes – Sunday September 12th
Sermon Title: “Forbearance or for worse”(Click Here to watch Sermon)
Pastor: Dennis Martin
Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:12-15
Forbearance or for worse. When we look at this text, the people of Colossae were newly saved believers under attack from cultural pressure from the world and religious and spiritual pressure. They were always being instructed to do the things of the law while wanting to give their heart to the Lord.
Paul wrote a letter to a people he didn’t know and to a fellowship that he didn’t establish. God gave him the grace though he was in prison to come to the aid of these people. This is something important for us to know. God may call us to help people while we ourselves may be in prison or in an unideal situation. Forgiveness and forbearance are not the same. Forgiveness at times can be a one time thing. The problem with some of us today is that we apply forgiveness where forbearance ought to be applied. Forbearance is necessary. Under the pressure the church was going through – through the pressures of the world and the false teachings of other people – to this church that Paul didn’t know, he realized the only solution he could offer them was for them to fortify and unify each other. Paul’s message was for them to love and fortify each other. There are plenty of marriages today that didn’t lack love but lacked forbearance.
Paul listed a couple of qualities that were necessary in this text. Tenderness of mercy, lovingkindness, and more. As we understand the practice of agriculture – we must sow in order to reap. To get a rose, you have to plant. They don’t come with no effort. There are tendencies and qualities we have that require very little effort such as bitterness – this is a weed. Leading up to the text, Paul tells them to put off the “old man” and to put on the new man. The old man refers to Adam, a bonafide man, an individual made in the image of God.They struggled with putting on the new man. The Bible tells us that we have to put on forbearance. Forbearance is not a ministry of the Holy Spirit to initiate in us, we have to put it on. God’s job was to put it in our closet. It is our responsibility before we leave the house to make sure there is a mental, emotional and spiritual fortitude to ourselves that will enable us to forgive people and to endure the inconsistencies of people and situations. Paul gave this church a fortitude to be able to be at peace with each other. Whenever there is pressure in the house or your family, the only way to fortify ourselves is to increase our love walk. Some situations won’t get better, sometimes it’s the calamities of our lives that makes us stronger and God allows them.
There is no such thing as a perfect person, husband or wife. When we make mistakes, there is a place assigned for God to forgive us. He throws it into the sea of forgetfulness. Forbearance says I don’t have to forgive you, I have made a capacity within myself to acknowledge your imperfection through your process. The pressure facing your family is meant by the enemy to divide you. The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. True forbearance allows you to endure the inconsistency of others. The Bible says that we ought not to “lie to one another, since [we] have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:9-11). We understand that God is putting us through a process. In this process, we have to be uncomfortable in old clothes. Some of us as people aren’t comfortable in fashions we haven’t tried. We have to have forbearance for ourselves too. We are going through changes. We have to allow the fruit of the spirit to have its way in our lives. We need to be patient with ourselves. We have to put on forbearance. Yet it is not easy to discard a garment you’ve had on for a long time.
Pastor Dennis had clothes that he bought as an apprentice that one by one have started to disappear. His wife would discard them even though they were dear to him because they were fading and the colours were running one by one. If you don’t remove the garment sometimes people will do it for you. God will do it for you. The only reason why the pressure in family, finances, marriage, is there is because the old you can’t handle the new things God is doing in your life. God will fix the environment around you first. The walk of forbearance is hard for us because we have old mindsets and we are the old version of ourselves. Paul says the results of the newness of our walk in Christ is that we have the ability in us. When we discard the old us, the new us will open doors. There are no longer Greeks or Jews. We must take off the old clothes.
God is telling us we have got to put on the new man. Some of us are accustomed to the Holy Spirit and God to be doing things for us. God is saying, I purchased the shirt and put it in the closet, you gotta put it on. There is a garment that accommodates man’s eye and then there is a garment that accommodates God’s eye. Adam after he sinned, he put fig leaves around himself as a covering so he wasn’t naked but when God asked him, he had to tell Him he was naked because even Adam knew that there was a garment that accommodates man’s eyes versus the garment that accommodates God’s eyes. There is an accomodation we must do for God.
We must make sure we put on the new garment. To be uncircumcised and circumcised was a deterrent. When you put on the new garment, the doors will be open. In verse 12, Paul tells us how to fortify ourselves against the pressures of life, against the pressures of religiosity. All these pressures are designed to break down the people. Paul tells them one simple thing – as the elect of God – because we are the elect we are chosen, we have the ability to forbear. Because God has chosen us, we can forgive. Even Judas in his selection wasn’t a mistake, he wasn’t to preach the gospel but to expose it. If there wasn’t a betrayal, there would be no conviction, if there was no conviction, there’d be no cross, no death and no us today. Jesus never makes a mistake. Because Jesus chose us, there is no mistake.
As the elect of God, holy and beloved according to Colossians 3, because we’ve experienced the love of God, we should have the propensity to dispense it. We know what love is because we know it from God. The pressure from outside the house was coming from people with ill intentions, the only thing Paul could send to fortify them was the instruction to love one another. When the church is strong, the family is strong. To be chosen means we won’t crumble under pressure. If you feel like you are under pressure, it is not of God, God pressures no man. But there are inconsistencies in life and in people and you have to exercise forbearance; it is either forbearance or for worse. Our situation won’t change at times but you have to have that hope for tomorrow. You must know you are the elect. You aren’t inadequate, God called you for this. Anytime you are under pressure for anything being done, it is in the flesh. This is what makes it frustrating at times. When you know you are the elect of God, you know the pressure won’t make you crumple because you are the chosen of God.
Believe in yourself that you are chosen for this, God called you for this. This will help you endure situations and processes. We fail to acknowledge at times that there is nothing perfect under the sun. A lot of divorces took place because people couldn’t handle the inconsistencies of people. The pressures are set to divide the body. As we grow as a fellowship, and as a family, we will find we won’t always see eye to eye, but God gave us a remedy to endure each other and love each other.
God told us to put on tender kindness and humility. He tells us to be tender: sensitive to the touch of peoples’ misery and voices crying out for help. Be sensitive to those touched by depression and pressure. Don’t be callous to people or your life. Don’t believe because you have bad days that you have a bad life. Function in tenderness, kindness and humility. Love one another and be kind. Forgive as God has forgiven. When we remember that God has forgiven us from so much, this will give us the capacity to have forbearance for others. Understand that there is process in everything. Forbearance gives us patience to endure certain things. Employ forbearance; He has given us capacity, we just need to put that garment on.
God has called us to a place where we can trust Him and believe in Him. He has given us the grace for the race. Situations are not perfect, people are not perfect, we need to put aside something in ourselves to endure. The Bible tells us about the parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). There were 5 virgins that were wise and 5 that were foolish. They needed oil to get to the place they would get to. 5 of the virgins didn’t bring enough oil. The other 5 brought extra oil not just for the journey but for the wait. Some of us are frustrated. The pressure of the world and the religious system is threatening our relationships and situations. Marriage is good but we lack forbearance. Sometimes we can forgive easily but without forbearance there is no system in place. Forbearance can also be considered patience. This enables us to endure when someone is doing something against our philosophy in life. In these cases, we can bear it.
The Bible says how can we two walk together if they don’t agree? (Amos 3:3) Sometimes we break perfectly good relationships over matters that don’t concern destiny as verse in the book of Amos does. The problem is not major, the problem is that you are wearing thin. So what is it that we’ve put in place, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically? The thing is called forbearance. Can we endure the inconsistencies of other people? With Covid, we are spending more time in the house. You will see the inconsistencies of others in your house. There are some things also that are pressuring us, but to endure this process that God may not remove, we need forbearance. Forbearance is more than forgiveness, forgiveness is a one time thing. And, love is not to keep a record of wrong or keep score (1 Corinthians 13:5). Even when we sin, God casts it into the sea of forgetfulness. We must do the same. But, God couldn’t do this unless He had a spirit of forbearance too. It is either forbearance or for worse. Forbearance doesn’t remove the problem, but it maintains our peace. God is not intimidated by problems but He is obligated to maintain our peace.
In summary, Paul wrote this letter to fortify the body of Christ under pressure from the world and religious systems. Paul didn’t tell them to pray judgment on people but forbearance for the process was required. We have to be a people that can endure. As God has forbearance for us, so should we for others. Don’t quit on people, ministry or yourself.
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