Worship & Word: Sundays at Empowerment Temple- with Rev. Dr. Robert Turner

Main message: Patience (Colossians 3:12) is an active, faith-filled endurance that resists instant gratification and oppressive systems without becoming like the oppressor; if you remain faithful and keep your spiritual "fire" burning, God will bring breakthrough in due season.

Key points:

• Biblical patience (makrothumia) is not passivity or consent to permanent suffering — it preserves the soul and equips believers to outlast injustice and overcome evil with good.
• Irritation (depletion of physical or emotional resources) is the precursor to impatience; warning signs include growing annoyance, seeking quick fixes, and abandoning long-term faithfulness.
• Examples from Scripture (Israelites/Golden Calf, Esau/Jacob, Lot/Abram, David and Saul) show the danger of trading long-term promises for immediate gratification.
• Contemporary examples (Malcolm Brogdon quitting vs. Mike Brown persisting) illustrate the cost of quitting just before breakthrough and the reward of long-term faithfulness.
• Practical counsel: keep waiting on God (don’t quit jobs, marriages, children, or callings), volunteer and be faithful in small things, “measure many times, cut once,” and keep your spiritual lamp/stove burning even when there seems to be no visible fuel.

Scriptures mentioned: Colossians 3:12, Romans 12:21, Galatians 6:9, Exodus 32, Genesis 25, Genesis 13, 1 Samuel 24/26, Luke/Matthew (parable of the lamps/ten virgins), 2 Corinthians 10:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Job 13:15, Psalm 23:6, 2 Peter 3:8