Letting Our Troubles Develop Passionate Patience in Us (Testimony Sunday)
Testimony Sunday – Sunday, Aug 16th, 2026
Today is the fifth Sunday of the month, which means it is Testimony Sunday here at Liberty Vineyard Church! In place of our regular weekly sermon, today we will share stories with one another about how we have experienced God in recent months.
As I sought the Lord for direction for today, I was lead to consider Romans 5:1-5 in The Message interpretation: “1 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us – set us right with him, make us fit for him – we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. 2 And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand – out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. 3 There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, 4 and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. 5 In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary – we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
How about you today? I want to invite us to consider places in our lives or in the lives of others where troubles seem to be coming in on every side. Pay attention to what you’ve been paying attention to in your thoughts, your words, your actions, and your responses or lack of responses. We don’t really have a choice as to whether or not we will experience troubles in this life. Having troubles is part of our human condition. Where choice comes in for us is that we get to choose how we respond to the inevitable troubles that come our way. We might pray that God will help us in our troubles or pray that God will take these troubles away. We might pretend that those troubles don’t exist or avoid thinking about them in the hopes that they will transform or go away without any attention from us. We might fix whatever we can fix and seek advice on how to address the troubles that we have the power to do something about. We might look for emotional support or comfort from others to give us the strength we need to face those troubles. We might use humor to lessen the tension that invariably accompanies troubles. We might distract ourselves from the troubles by focusing on other areas of our lives that are in good shape or more stable. We might do some combination of these things. Or, we might be tempted to give in to despair or just give up.
Tucked into these Scriptures are invitation upon invitation – to enter through faith into having it all together with God through what Jesus has already done for us, to throw open our doors to God, to stand out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, to stand tall, and to shout our praise to God. We do these things because God has already thrown open his door to us! Romans 5:3 assures us that even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, we keep on shouting our praise because troubles can develop passionate patience in us. It depends on how we choose to respond to the troubles that come our way. We can choose to accept the reality of our lives and throw open our doors to God as Jesus did in his prayer in Luke 22:42 – “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” Humble acceptance and total surrender is what develops passionate patience in us, which most other translations render as perseverance or endurance. And that leads to virtue, or proven character. And that leads to hope, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.
I want to say a word here about what it looks like to let our troubles develop passionate patience, perseverance, and endurance in us. It’s not about checking things off a to-do list to make God or others happy. If we find ourselves getting stuck on a hamster wheel of performance or achievement, we need to remember that Jesus invites all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens to come to him and receive rest (Matthew 11:28). It’s not about checking out and filling our lives with distractions to stave off the despair inside. If we find ourselves inordinately attached to hurts, habits, or hangups, we need to remember to give all of our cares, worries, and anxieties to God who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Letting our troubles develop passionate patience, perseverance, and endurance is about waking up, breathing in and out, showing up, and trying as best we can, moment by moment, to live as Jesus lived, in radical obedience, humble service, and self-giving love.
New Testament scholar Scot McKnight wisely notes that “sometimes the greatest victory isn’t winning the battle, but refusing to leave the field … This is the human condition. We never finish … there’s always one more thing that should be done … we never see the church finished … I’ll never finish being a dad. I’ll never finish being a husband. I’ll never finish being a friend. I’ll never finish any of it … Finishing is what God does … We are invited by Christ to make our mark in a moment, all the time knowing our moment will soon pass. We also know, however, the day will come when everything will be finished in Christ. Then, we can lay it all down. Then, we can quit. But not until then. Now, we work. Now, we show up. Now, we keep trying – knowing all the time we’ll never finish. And on that day when Christ makes all things new and announces His kingdom finished and His redemptive work done, we’ll join with those, who like us, never finished, but never quit. Abraham, Paul, Mary and all the rest – faithful souls who never finished, but never quit. I’ll be glad to have joined that tribe. Those of us who never finished, but who never quit.”
Romans 5:5 is worth emphasizing and remembering every time we’re tempted to let troubles get us down. The NRSV puts it this way: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” And The Message renders it like this: “We can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
Here at Liberty Vineyard Church, Testimony Sunday is one of the ways that we intentionally cultivate passionate patience, perseverance, and endurance. We turn to Scripture, we pray for and encourage one another, we embrace our trials as God’s chosen way to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ our Lord, and we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the mystery of magnitude of God’s great and generous love, which overflows to every part of our lives, we let our troubles develop passionate patience, perseverance, and endurance in us.
If you have a testimony you would like to share today, I invite you to make your way to the front seat over here in readiness. If you are on Zoom and would like to share, please let Paul know and he’ll give me a signal. Come, Holy Spirit!
