Sermon Response Guide

Sermon Response Guide En Español

PRIMARY SCRIPTURE:James 5:7-11

Key Points

• Patience looks like:
  1) The farmer (Galations 6:7-10)
  2) Job
  3) Jesus
• Christian patience is actively waiting until the Kingdom is realized.
• What do we do in the waiting?
  1) We sow seeds.
  2) We persevere.
  3) We do good.
• There's an urgency in the waiting.
   

Memory Verse

Ask God to write this word on your heart this week:

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” -Romans 12:12
 

Questions for Reflection

Take time to reflect and respond to these questions on your own in the presence of the Holy Spirit, or with trusted friends or family members:
 
1: What are you waiting for today? How does it make you feel when you think about having to continue to wait?
 
2: How would your understanding of what you are waiting for today change if you began to see this time of waiting as a blessing God wants to use to grow you, rather than a burden you need only to get through?
 
3: Patience is not just the ability to wait, but how we act while we are waiting. The way we act reveals where we have placed our trust. When you consider how you have been acting in your waiting lately, where does it appear you have placed your trust?
 
4: Our demonstration of patience in personal relationships, trials, and persecution reveals we belong to Jesus. Why do you think patience is arguably the primary way the world recognizes the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work within us?
 
5: What spiritual seeds are you sowing in your waiting? What seeds of the Spirit could you be planting in your waiting?
 
6: Read Exodus 34:6. When God’s character is marked by patience in Scripture, it is often speaking of his being slow to anger. How about you? Would people say you are marked by patience and slow to anger? How might remembering God’s patience toward you help you to slow your own anger toward others?

Pray

Lord, you are merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. We confess that we, on our own, are not. Yet, you consistently choose to love us. Even in our impatience, you are still patient with us. Lord, let your Holy Spirit produce the fruit of patience in us. Remind us of your patience and compel us to be patient with others, with ourselves, and with you. We choose to wait on you, Lord. Our hope is in you.