Features of a Transition | Transitions Part 2 | Word Therapy | Rev. Dr. Patrick L. Daymond

[Music] so [Music] well what's going on everybody and welcome to word therapy where each week we seek to have a conversation centered on principles found in the word of god that would help us to live spiritually healthy and whole lives listen if you don't mind and you're willing and able to do so i want to invite you to share this experience to like this experience if if you're glad to be on and a part of this formation experience we want you to be a digital evangelist it's your sharing and liking that helps us to reach as many people as we can so that we can help as many people as we can if you went with us last week for our first episode and this is your first time joining us i want to welcome you to this virtual experience as i shared last week this whole experience of word therapy comes out of me being a big proponent of therapy and i believe that with along the with the scientific psychological resources that are available there's something therapeutic about reading and studying the word of god now i hope you have your bibles ready so that we can jump right in but before we do that as always let's open up with the word of prayer god we thank you for this day thank you god for your grace your mercy for allowing us to get through all that some of us had to get through some of us face some hardships some difficult moments on this day but we're thankful god that you saw us through so that we could gather and connect and study your word god we're praying that as a result of our time together that there would be healing that there would be transformation that we will be able to take these principles and apply them to our daily walk so that as we go through the world our lives might be pleasing unto you we thank you god we love you we give your name the honor the glory and the praise in the mighty name of jesus we do pray and all the redeemed of the lord said amen so tonight i want to pick up where we left off on last week last week we began this conversation about transition and we talked about the necessity of planning as it pertains to transition now this week i want to take us a little further and what i want to do is give you some important features of a transition now what happens oftentimes when we don't understand the process of transition many of us allow the wounds of our past to cause us to experience transition and change as rejection but in order for god to get you to where you need to be and do what he needs to do in you god has to transition you now last week we were in luke chapter nine we're going back there on tonight i hope you have your bibles or your bible apps with you please open your bible back up to luke chapter 9. as you'll remember jesus is on his way to jerusalem he's making a transition but he must go through samaria and interestingly the bible says in verse 53 i hope you have it that the people of the village did not welcome jesus because he was on his way to jerusalem verse 54 the disciples james and john saw this and they said lord should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up but jesus turned and rebuked them i hope it jumps out at you that in this text there is an adversarial relationship that comes up when the people of samaria realize that jesus was not coming to them he was coming through them and the bible says that they did not welcome him now it's not simply that they ignored him it was a little more forceful than that when he came to the border of the village they literally came out and said you gotta go you're not welcome here they didn't want him coming through them their thing was either you're coming to us or pass by us but don't come through us when james and john saw this they said lord should we call down fire from heaven and and burn them up but jesus turned and rebuked them now get this the disciples saw rejection but jesus understood this as a part of the process of transition understand that there are blessings and challenges in every transition there is a process to transition and we're going to get more into that on tonight as i shared with you last week the bible says that the time came for jesus to ascend to heaven and jesus resolutely set out for jerusalem another virgin says he he turned his face and he sought to go up to jerusalem where he would offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins and although luke started this record of transition in chapter 9 i shared with you last week that it actually took 10 chapters for him to get to jerusalem he doesn't get to jerusalem until chapter 19. so he leads for jerusalem from where he was in luke chapter 9 and there was so many things that happened to him so many people that he met so many miracles that he performed so much he experienced in those ten chapters the transition happened ten chapters later now now watch this just because god is speaking to you about transition now it doesn't mean he's telling you it's time to leave god may be stirring you about your job but it doesn't mean that you quit if you quit now you got another problem you got no job you've got no income here's what you need to know about transition god has a set time for shifting your life and normally what happens to us is that we live out of two seed bags i'm using an agricultural metaphor first there's the seed bag of your flesh your own nature and second there's a seed bag of the spirit if i'm planting from the seed bag of the spirit it's bringing up a spiritual harvest it's bringing spiritual fruit into my life but if i'm planting seed out of the seed bag of the flesh from my old nature then a harvest of flesh is coming up and even though god has dealt with your flesh in jesus christ although the penalty of the sin nature has been dealt with on the cross of calvary get this sin still has consequences jesus has dealt with the penalty of our sin but the consequences we have to deal with you see consequences are the children of your decisions all your decisions will give birth to children and whenever children are born they start another generation they start another legacy so if i want to go into the future with a legacy of life and strength and blessings i need to make good decisions although in the moment i may be charged to make poor decisions sometimes poor decisions will speak to my now but not to my tomorrow and so i have to be careful because what the enemy does when he realizes you're in transition he tries to get you to make these fleshly carnal decisions that's all about you and nobody else and what ends up happening watch this now is that when you are on your way to your new place in god you have to deal with all these children so to speak of the decisions that you've made now if you're with me so far please just give me a thumbs up in the chat if this is resonating with you i want to make sure that i'm being clear tonight and all of us need help with this all of us need to ask the lord to help us to make better decisions just drop that in the chat real quick say lord help me make better decisions so tonight i want to share with you four important features of a transition there are four things that you and i need to know and i want to bring this up to you really quickly on tonight as we go into this lesson i'm gonna say them in order then i'm gonna go back and i'm gonna review each one here's the first one number one transition always has purpose number two transition always demands preparation number three transition always involves process and finally number four transition always creates progress it requires process but it makes progress and i'm going to show you this in the word of god so number one transition always has purpose transition is always to something not from something let me help you out acts chapter three i want you to look at this i want you to look at the first three verses turn with me real quick acts chapter three we're going to look at the first three verses i want to show you something i want to show you what happens to many of us and what happens to many of us is that because we don't understand the process of growth we desire transition not because we have somewhere to go but there's somewhere we want to leave listen if you never settle in your heart what you want to do for who you want to be or or where you want to go your life will have no aim so whenever you get around people you always want to do what they're doing you want to wear your hair like that person you want to wear the same clothes as someone else you want to be like that person because you don't know who you are the first part of your transition that you have to settle in your heart is that i can't be everybody i meet this chameleon spirit this shape-shifting this morphing into everybody i meet you you have to shed that you got to get rid of that because god created you as a unique individual what what most people are starving for is not their destiny but acceptance transition has a purpose jesus knew that it was time for him to go to jerusalem the bible doesn't even mention where he was leaving from because it's really not about where you're leaving from it's where you're going to now it is important why and how you leave a situation and we'll get more into that in some of the upcoming lessons but but if you think the reason to leave a place it's because it becomes uncomfortable here's what i know things don't start to work until they become uncomfortable let me let me help you with this here's what i learned about the chinese bamboo tree the chinese bamboo tree when you plant it for the first four years all of the activity of the tree happens underground for four straight years you water the ground when you planted it and you see absolutely nothing four straight years the only reason chinese farmers keep doing it is because they know what's going to happen so they'll show up and water that ground for four straight years here's what what they know that we don't know they know that in the fifth year once that stem comes out of the ground it's going to grow 90 feet 90 feet in five weeks you invest four years of watering four years of taking care of it four years of staying in this uncomfortable place four years of people looking at you and and saying what the heck are you doing are you watering the ground what the uninitiated don't know is that the bamboo tree over the course of that four years builds a deep root system so that that when it shoots up it doesn't topple over and it's an uncomfortable place to be watering what you can't see oh god i hope y'all felt that how many of you know how many of you know watching right now that you are in a position where you're watering what you can't see well that's a part of your transition but but here's what you have to believe for just know the first time you see any life from that tree you got five weeks so you better move quickly you got five weeks because it's going to be 90 feet tall what that means is is that after that long period of waiting after all that watering and waiting you have to be prepared for things to start developing rapidly in your situation it's about to grow transition has a purpose to it it's about moving to something not away from something chapter 13 acts chapter 13 verse 1. you have it it says among the prophets and teachers of the church at antioch of syria where barnabas simeon called the black man i wish i had time but that's another bible study lucious from cyrene those are also black people monaean the childhood companion of king herod antipas and saul verse number two one day as these men were worshiping the lord and fasting the holy spirit said appoint barnabas and saul for the special work to which i have called them that's acts chapter 13 verse 1 and 2. now notice the bible doesn't say from it says to watch this this transition is not from antioch but to the place where i'm sending them to one of the worst things you can do is to leave a place you have been planted and then go to a place of wandering just for the sake of wondering talking about child i can't do this no more well why can't you do this anymore listen if a tree is planted regardless of where it is planted it has the potential to bear fruit now you can talk about where the garden is located all you want but if the tree is uprooted there's no chance of it bearing fruit and you're allowing people who have never bore fruit in their lives to speak into and over your life and they're messing with your fruitfulness telling you you need to uproot uproot for what and the people telling you that they don't have anything to offer you let me tell you something that this is going to help you when you decide to leave anywhere the two most important things in life are you're coming out and you're going in nothing shifts life quite like that matter of fact when solomon first became king you know king solomon and he stood before god and god says to him in the dream asking me what you want and i'll give it to you do you know what solomon said he said teach me how to go out and how to come in from before your people for who is able to stand before such a great people he said i'm but a child he said my issue with being king is i don't know how to go out and i don't know how to come in and somebody right now your problem is you don't know how to go out and you don't know how to come in because how you go out is going to affect how you come in if you don't go out the right way you won't go in the right way are y'all getting this if you go out with problems you're going to go in with problems some of us are like like that song we're we're runners we're we're track stars we run away when it gets hard you're always running from something and never to something so so you end up anywhere life takes you transition is not about where i'm leaving from you got to get to a point where you say i will stay in this uncomfortable place in my life until god says it's time to move god god do you want me to stay or do you want me to go once god gives me the green light and a goal then i set up objectives because i know that god is going to order my steps is this helping anybody plea please let me know i want to make sure that you're getting this all right that's number one we'll talk a little bit more about that next week second feature of transition is that it always demands preparation you don't run into it you walk into it you don't leave out running because if you leave out running you're gonna come in running i prefer to walk into something than to run into something do you know what you call running into something an accident if i leave out running chances are i'll end up running right into a situation talking about oh we just ran into each other that didn't always work i prefer scheduled meetings if i can you got it so this demands preparation the word prepared by definite definition rather means to make ready by adding what's missing or by cutting away what's unnecessary the word pear p-a-r-e pear is a word used uh when you pair apples if you're into the culinary arts you'll understand that terminology of pairing or pairing apples when you pair apples what do you do with it you peel it you you cut away the the unnecessary parts of it that that you don't need for your cooking well what i'm talking about here that's the same word the word prepare means to cut away beforehand the word pre means before the word pair means to cut away or remove what's unnecessary so to prepare is to make ready by adding to or taking away transition always demands preparation when you transition from the moment you sense that it's time to transition you enter into a period of preparation everything that god does in the moments leading up to your transition they are preparatory let me help you with this god will add people into your life that when it's time for you to transition that will not be with you when you get to where you're going their responsibility was not to permanently stand with you their responsibility was to walk with you for a season their job is to walk you out from where you are and walk you up to where you're going and then most times they leave you the reason you end up falling out with these people is because you get mad because they don't stay oh i'm in somebody's driveway now i know it there are people right now you don't talk to that are frustrated because in their mind they did what they were supposed to do with you and now they've moved on to their next assignment but you thought they were supposed to stay with you forever and sometimes they leave before what you thought they were there to help you with comes to pass when you're in transition sometimes you think that everybody that comes to you is the angel that's going to bring food to you some angels are messengers not feeders some angels just tell you what god is doing their job is not to give you anything else listen you can't depend on people to transition you you have to look to god for that and the same thing that god in the same way that god is transitioning you and and and and the same god that is transitioning you has everything you need scheduled for you the worst thing that you can do during transition is to depend on people to do what god told you to do now i know y'all don't like this i know you're mad but but let me give you a couple of scriptures to give you an understanding of how it works let me show you how this works in scripture hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 hebrews 11 verse 7. it says this it was by faith that noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood those who watch us during worship will recall that we talked about noah during our october sermon series he obeyed god who warned him about things that had never happened before god told him what was coming he said the way the world is right now is going to be like that it's not going to be like that in a few years so he began to prepare something for what was to come here's the thing if you believe you're in transition what are you saving what are you pulling back on what are you cutting off what are you stirring up you can't transition doing the same thing you've been doing let's look at luke chapter 12 verse 47 luke chapter 12 verse 47. it says this and a servant who knows what the master wants but isn't prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions will be severely punished watch this now your transition can be punitive if you know what god wants from you and you know what god asks you to do and you don't prepare yourself for it and then you back up from it you know what the bible says life is going to punish you here's the way it happens after a while god will come tapping your shoulder saying all right it's your turn it's your turn and you say god god i can't do that and god says no you can do it just prepare and you say i i i don't know how to i don't know how to do it it's uncomfortable for me i've never been in that space and you keep and if you keep making excuses what god will do is god will tap somebody else on the shoulder and allow you to see it happening for them what god was trying to do with you he will promote the person in the place he was going to promote you and keep you around to see it here's another scripture you know this one uh john chapter 14 verse one uh y'all know this one you know it by heart don't let your hearts be troubled trust in god trust also in me there is more than enough room in my father's home if this were not so would i have told you that i am going to prepare a place for you jesus says i'm preparing a place for you verse 3 says when everything is ready i will come and get you so that you will always be with me where i am here's what he's saying the time is going to come when the church is going to transition from earth to where i am what i'm going to do is i'm going to send the holy spirit and the holy spirit is going to be in charge of your sanctification and your development he's going to teach you to know me and while he's teaching you to know me i'll be preparing a place for you i'm trying to get you to see that transition does not happen without preparation now i want to quickly move to the next thing and that is transition requires process drop that into chat say process and whenever there is process that means there are stages involved now god will start the process and gently nudge you and let you know it's time to change or he'll begin to show you something over and over again i remember when i graduated from college and i started working at the bank it was one of the most painful seasons of my life i was making money i bought a house but i wasn't happy now i connected with the church at that time and and the only time i felt at peace during those years was when i was at that church and so i started volunteering to do a lot of stuff at the church because it was the only time that i felt peace and what god was doing is that god had started me in the process of transition in the process your of your transition a lot of things can happen some people will get sick and they start going through the process of healing and the process can be painful sometimes you have to take a medicine that makes you feel sick other times you're praying and praying and you don't realize that god is not so much interested in the immediate healing in some cases as he is in the mentality that comes out of it god wants to make sure that the next time that you're challenged like this you know exactly what to do so instead of instantaneous deliverance he takes you through this process of development and you say god god why are you taking so long but what you don't realize is that he's changing everything about the way you process life and everything about the way you see people and see things process is your friend i'm going to say that in the chat just in case somebody missed it process is your friend a lot of change happens in the process let's look at galatians chapter 4 verse 4. galatians 4 verse 4 but when the right time came god sent his son born of a woman subject to the law verse 5 god sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children now notice that god didn't just adopt us he started a process that worked in the fullness of time and he put jesus under the law that had us a slave the whole thing was a process for jesus so we have a process as well let's look at ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 6. ecclesiastes 8 and 6 it says for there is a time and a way for everything even when a person is in trouble when god wants to transition you god has a set time for your transition to happen and nothing you do can speed it up you have to go through the process to get to the fullness of time right now you're in the process and it's excruciating it's hard it's difficult it seems like god is not hearing you that god is ignoring you but here's the word of the lord for you tonight god is saying i can't move the time i can only move you i can't change the time i can only change you god says i scheduled the change to happen there because of where you are right now and what i have to do in you and what i have to do for you i've scheduled it such that it'll happen in my time and what you have to die to and come alive to for some of you everything you do is based on emotion and god is moving you into a place where the next thing you do will be based on rationale and the leading of the holy spirit you say but i i don't even know the voice of the holy spirit by the time you get to the time you will you say you say i don't know how i'm going to figure out you won't have to figure out when this thing of you living for yourself and living to yourself dies what will awakening in you is the ability to hear the voice of god the reason you can't hear the voice of god is because you hear you too much i gotta wrap this up ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11 yet yet god has made everything beautiful for its own time he has planted eternity in the human heart but even so people cannot see the whole scope of god's work from beginning to end well that's a lot in there but let me give you the cliff notes version here it is it doesn't look beautiful now but god makes everything beautiful in its time have you ever seen a painter paint something and when they start out it doesn't look like anything and then later on you can see what it is that's what god does what god is doing is he's sculpting something out for you and it will become beautiful in its time the next part of it says this he has planted eternity in the human heart but even so people cannot see the whole scope of god's work from beginning to end now let me tell you what this is saying this is going to help your life god planted eternity in your heart so that when he tells you i'm going to bless you and your family when he gives you the word you don't just get the beginning the word deposits the beginning and the ending in our heart and because we hear what god says immediately here's how it works in our mind our mind begins to envision what the blessing of the lord is going to look like so for example when you need a car and god's going to help you get a car and so you start envisioning what kind of car you want and you say oh it's got to be a a range rover or or a mercedes or a bmw you know all that kind of stuff because you know something you can ball in right because eternity is in our heart we have the ability to imagine things when we hear words and the way i see myself is the way i see what god is going to get for me but as i go through the process god begins to shave off my selfishness and shave off my need to be looked at by people and my need to impress people the closer i get to it i'm like man i don't care what kind of car it is all i know is i'm tired of walking so you stopped saying it is it's going to be a mercedes or of 700 series or a range roll by the time you get over here it's just a car i don't care give me the keys if it runs i'm good what did that to you process by the time gets you through the god gets you through the process he's changed who you are last thing we're doing transition always creates progress let me show you how this works it moves us closer to the end game which is the will of god and the bible says that the will of god is good acceptable and perfect it's good for others it's acceptable to god and it's perfect for me now i want to show you something and we'll be done for tonight the old testament is set up structurally as a series of stories that happen historically but the bible says that we have them for our learning we have them for our admonition upon whom the end of the world has come that's what it says in first corinthians we use these stories to see how god interacted with and dealt with his people under the law and before the law and there's something i want to show you and it's found in numbers chapter 33 i want you to read this later on read this this week we'll look at it a little bit more on next week but i want to share it with you because it lists at least 40 different places when israel left egypt they did not go right to the promised land but in the course of 40 years they stopped at 42 different places and they are significant because the bible mentions the name of each place and when you start looking at the definitions of the names you begin to see a story emerge that tells something about how god progressively leads his people the bible says in numbers chapter 33 verse 1 this is the route the israelites followed as they marched out of egypt under the leadership of moses and aaron number two at the lord's direction moses kept a written record of their progress don't miss that here's practical application if you're going to see progress in your transition then one of the things you're going to have to do is to get a journal you need a journal you need to write down what god is saying to you what you feel in your heart write down the things that impressed you the things that hurt you write down the people that blessed you write down the ones that confused you and and hurt you not so that you can go back over and relive it but so that you can have a record of it it says that they kept a record and the lord told them to he said keep a record of your progress these are the stages of their march identified by the different places where they stopped along the way so watch this the bible says that as god moved them in stages they ended up in places and in each place there was a lesson to be learned about god read it when you can matter of fact when you look at the old testament whenever there was a new discovery about god they would build altars and name the place they built the altar after the new thing that they learned about god and the more they learned about god the more they trusted in god and the more they trusted god the more progress they made so when you look at the record of where god has brought you are you in the same place or are you making progress the only way to make progress is to acknowledge where you are and ask what is it that i need to know about god in the place i'm in what place are you in can i be transparent with you a lot of times we act like pastors are not human and that they don't go through things but i remember being in a place where i felt dry and empty but i had to go to that place so that i could learn that god could refresh me and refill me i remember being a place where i couldn't find god when i prayed and it was there that i learned that god is not just in the yes sometimes god is in the know i remember a time when i was battling depression yes depression i was looking for other things to give me joy it was affecting me physically but i didn't understand that god is the only one who could give me lasting joy [Music] there was a stage in my transition where i was vulnerable and easily wounded but i had to go through that place in order to progress closer to the will of god for my life where are you tonight what i want you to understand is that you are not meant to stay there it's a stage that's why you have to keep a record of where you've been so that you don't forget that god knows where you are and god knows where you're going it's not just something for you to come to but to go through just like jesus going through samaria on the way to jerusalem you have to go through some difficult places where you learn more about god and what god is trying to do in your life and everything you go through has the capacity to make you stronger wiser better so that you can continue to make progress in the will of god for your life transition has a purpose it demands preparation it requires a process and the end game is to make progress on your way let me pray for you god we thank you we give your name praise for what you have shared with us on tonight god we thank you that you have outlined some critical features involved in transition that we realize that every step along the way that you are teaching us something about who you are and who we can be in you and so god wherever it is that we find ourselves i pray god that we will will see you in everything that we'll see the process that is involved with that we will see progress being made that we will make the proper preparations o god that we will see your purposes in everything that transpires so that in the end god will move from where we are to the places that you'll have us to be in god please don't allow us to leave those places until we have finished our assignment god no matter how uncomfortable it may be god we recognize that we can't move successfully into something if we leave from something in the wrong way [Music] so god help us fill us with your truth and your power and we believe oh god that victory is on the horizon we thank you and we love you in jesus name we do pray amen listen i hope this has been helpful and healing for you tonight if you have been blessed by this teaching if you feel as though something has been added to your life that is of value i want to invite you to support the ministry of covenant united church church of christ so that we can continue to expand our reach with the life-changing word of god you can use the information that's on the screen if the lord has moved you to make a faith response and i want to thank you in advance to those whose hearts have been stirred in this way to support this ministry from which you are reaping a harvest be sure to follow us on social media stay up to date on all that's happening in our ministry and be blessed by the content that we put out to help you to grow in god please join us for worship on sundays at 7 30 a.m and 11 a.m on our facebook live and live stream platforms we're in a series on the seven churches in the book of revelation chapters two and three i've been getting incredible testimonies of how that series is blessing people's lives we're excited about what god is doing as always i love you in the lord love you tonight we pray god's blessings upon you [Music]

Channel: Covenant United Church of Christ of South Holland

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Length: 50min 12sec (3012 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 12 2021