“In your patience, possess ye your souls.” How do we become patient? St John Kochurov, 2022

Video: https://youtu.be/RGq-uU8LP9Q
Video:
Audio: http://www.orthodox.net/sermons/saints-10-31_2022+john-kochurov_rom-8-28-39-luke21-12-19.mp3

The two usual readings for commemorating a martyr teach about patience, purpose, and endurance. These things are not just for martyrs who gave their blood; we all must be martyrs (witnesses), and we must live aggressively, with patience and purpose. The answers are in the scripture, if we are willing to act upon them, and “settle it therefore in our hearts”, and “in patience, possess (our) souls.” St John Kochurov, 2022 Romans 8:28-39 Luke 21:12-19

YouTube timestamps
0:00 – 2:50 In your patience, possess ye your souls. We have the wrong idea about patience. It is active not passive. An almost synonym is “endurance”.
1:16 – 2:50 Common things that show that most Christians are not patient!
2:50 How are we going to become patient?
3:16 The Gospel for St John Kochurov.
4:06 HOW do we do this?!“Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: 15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” Luke 21:14-15
5:02 Patience is endurance. Patience is ALWAYS making a choice.
5:52 – 6:47 Our society does not like effort. And Christianity is not “dopamine hits.”
6:47 – 11:38 How do we “Settle it therefore in (our) hearts”?
8:12 – 9:42 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)
11:38 -12:50 Life was easier not so long ago, but now we must prepare ourselves.
12:50 – 13:59 Deficits most people must work on to be ready.
13:22 – 13:59 Faith is NOT passive. It is very active and even violent!
13:59 – 14:42 But there shall not an hair of your head perish. (Luke 21:18) Only with endurance!
14:42 – 15:57 One of the biggest challenges to a priest: endurance!
16:00 – 18:05 Patience is not passive! And about a prayer rule, and how I learned to increase my prayer rule after becoming a priest.
18:07 – 22:45 Right now we are free, but it will not always be this way. And a sad story about a friend who did nothing to be ready, and when there was a crisis, he committed suicide.