If you go to any bookstore trying to find a book on patience, you will not find it.

Trust me, I tried.

I thought I might get some help somewhere, but I couldn't find a book on patience.

And I finally came to the conclusion that probably there are very few authors who feel qualified to write on the subject, including yours truly.

And very few people can develop, let alone maintain patience.

But I am convinced ultimately that in this fast-paced society in which we live,

in which we crave for instant food and instant drink

and instant publishing and speed-dialing

and even antique being manufactured while you wait,

that in this kind of a situation, patience becomes irrelevant to people.

And under these conditions, there's no such publisher who wants to publish a book on patience.

He knows nobody's going to buy it.

But here's the real problem.

I want you to listen to me carefully today, please, because I do speak out of experience. Here's the problem, and it's a major problem, is that most Christians are being carried along by this current of culture. And therefore, instead of resisting it and stand firm, we go along with it.

Not only that, but we bring this kind of thinking, this kind of impatience, into the Christian faith.

We bring it into the Church of Jesus Christ.

We bring it into our lives, just as the world does.

So we want instant prayer being answered and instant holiness and instant worship and instant sermons.

And like somebody said, you know, those are sermonettes that develop Christianettes.

And we have plenty of those.

Now, let me tell you at the outset, I am no expert on the subject. I have some experience with it,

but not an expert. As a matter of fact, I know less about this subject than probably some of you.

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