Sermon Notes, April 30, 2017
Rev. Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry started a new sermon series this week called "Strange Love,"
how to love like God loves. Today's
sermon was titled "Strange Love is Patient," and was based on Matthew
26:36-46. This passage takes place the
night before Jesus was crucified. Jesus
knew He was going to die, so He gathered His disciples to join Him in the
garden of Gethsemane to pray and prepare.
If there was ever a time when Jesus needed prayer warriors it was now!
In
verse 40, we see that Jesus comes back to where He left them and finds the
disciples asleep. I wouldn't be surprised
that at this point Jesus was feeling a bit annoyed with them: He needed them to
keep watch and to pray for Him, and they fell short. They obviously felt that sleep took priority
over praying and keeping watch for Jesus.
It's a good thing that Jesus wasn't a normal man, because his response
would have been much different!
God's Patience--Have you ever stopped
to think about how much you've tested God's patience? Every sin is more than a pet peeve: it's
really a major outrage. God hates
sin. Yet in 2 Peter we get an
understanding that it is God's patience that has held back His wrath all these
years so that we've had time to receive salvation. Day after day, year after year, we just keep
on proving how amazingly patient He is.
Jesus
brought out God's patience for all to see.
Remember when James and John, the "sons of thunder," wanted to
burn a village to the ground for its spiritual apathy? Remember when the disciples whined,
"Jesus, we can't get the demons out"?
Remember their fear in the storm?
Their dim-witted response to His sermons? He was patient all the way, though they
tested Him relentlessly. One minute they
walked on water, the next minute they screamed for a flotation device. How old did their act get?
This
story of some sleepy disciples is a prime example of Jesus' patience. In His time of deepest need, His disciples
failed him most. They couldn't even stay
awake with Him. Yet He didn't berate
them. He just reminded them of what was
"annoying" Him and then put up with their weakness. In this story we can draw our first lesson in
this series on how to love like God loves, through our patience with others.
Practicing Patience--So if we are to
love our neighbor and our enemy, then we need some guidelines to help us love
them more effectively.
Seek
Help from God. Prayer is always
needed. We can't show tolerant love
without God's help--especially to those who annoy us most. When you get really annoyed, tell God first
and tap into His infinite patience.
(Matthew 26:36)
Stay
Positive. We're usually too quick to
think that a person is intentionally annoying us. They probably aren't. So don't judge their whole character by their
weaknesses. When the disciples slept,
Jesus did challenge them, but He didn't call them lazy, insensitive, or
selfish. He believed the best about
them: their spirits were willing, but their flesh was weak. (Matthew 26:40-41)
Check
Yourself. Remember that you have
plenty of faults yourself, so don't be quick to judge others. Let's not forget Christ's instruction in
Matthew 7:3, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's
eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" You need more tolerant love from God than
others need from you. (Matthew 26:39)
Confront
in Love. Putting up with someone
doesn't mean you can't say anything about it.
Jesus told the disciples that they were bugging Him; He just did it in a
very kind way. (Matthew 26:45)
Hold
No Grudges. Tolerant love does not
keep tabs on who annoys you the most. We
see this played out later on when Jesus reinstates Peter in Matthew
26:69-75. You prove that you are
forgiving by intentionally forgetting. We were created to be in rhythm with God and others. We are to reciprocate His love by the way we treat others.
Go
in love and peace today, and may you forever extend the patience of our Lord
Jesus Christ to all those around you.
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