(bright music) (upbeat orchestral music) (congregants applauding) Good morning, everyone. Welcome to worship today. It's so good to see you. Would you stand with us? We're gonna sing and worship the Lord. Blessed be His name. Let's sing. ♪ Blessed Be Your Name ♪ ♪ In the land that is plentiful ♪ ♪ Where the streams of abundance flow ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ When I'm found in the desert place ♪ ♪ Though I walk through the wilderness ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Every blessing You pour out I'll ♪ ♪ Turn back to praise ♪ ♪ When the darkness closes in, Lord ♪ ♪ Still I will say ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ When the sun's shining down on me ♪ ♪ When the world's all as it should be ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ On the road marked with suffering ♪ ♪ Though there's pain in the offering ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Every blessing You pour out I'll ♪ ♪ Turn back to praise ♪ ♪ When the darkness closes in, Lord ♪ ♪ Still I will say ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ ♪ Every blessing You pour out I'll ♪ ♪ Turn back to praise ♪ ♪ When the darkness closes in, Lord ♪ ♪ Still I will say ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your name ♪ ♪ Blessed be the name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Blessed be Your glorious name ♪ Give Him praise this morning. We bless the name of Jesus. We welcome Him in this place as we continue to worship and sing about the greatness and the goodness of our God today. Let's sing together. ♪ The splendor of the King ♪ ♪ Clothed in majesty ♪ ♪ Let all the earth rejoice ♪ ♪ All the earth rejoice ♪ ♪ He wraps Himself in light ♪ ♪ And darkness tries to hide ♪ ♪ And trembles at His voice ♪ ♪ Trembles at His voice ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see how great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Age to age He stands ♪ ♪ And time is in His hands ♪ ♪ Beginning and the end ♪ ♪ Beginning and the end ♪ ♪ The Godhead, three in one ♪ ♪ Father, Spirit, Son ♪ ♪ The Lion and the Lamb ♪ ♪ The Lion and the Lamb ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see how great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see how great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ Amen.
(congregants applauding) You may be seated. How great is our God. Amen and amen.
(congregants applauding) Oh, he's a great and mighty God. (congregants affirming) And I am so glad we are having in-person worship on Memorial Day 2021. (congregants cheering)
(congregants applauding) 'Cause we did not Memorial Day 2020. But we are back and we are strong and we are here to worship our great and awesome God. And we're very grateful to have those of you who are here with us for the very first time today. You may be a guest and you've not been to FBA before but this is your first time to be with us, we're very grateful to have you here. And you may be one of our own members and you've been waiting for a time when either you were vaccinated fully or you just felt more comfortable now that herd immunity seems to be setting in and you're back with us. And only if you're comfortable doing so, if this is your first time either back as one of our own or your first time as a guest, would you stand so we can welcome you here? Any first-time guests who are here with us today? (congregants applauding) Oh wow, this is great. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, God bless you. Back here, thank you so much. And we're so honored to have you with us worshiping today. And as I always say to our own people thank you for being here. I will never ever take for granted people showing up for church again. I don't care if it's five or 500, I will forever be grateful to have people inside our house of worship to sing His praises and to study His Word together. So we just, our cup overflows right now. And you know me, I'm always gonna say thank you for giving. I will never again take that for granted either. We have so many folks who give online. And we don't pass our offering plates anymore we have collection boxes at the exits. And we are so overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God's people. Every need He supplies, and He does it through you as His people. I wonder if we could give a rousing Memorial Day welcome to our online family. Would you do that for me right now? (congregants applauding)
(congregants cheering) And one of the neat things is that so many of our members get away on Memorial Day, a nice three-day weekend like this, and they travel and they go somewhere and they let us know, now we don't have to miss church because from the condo or the hotel or the beach or wherever they are, if they've got a signal they can tune in and many of them are doing it right now. And we're just so thankful to have you watching with us. I'm gonna go to the Lord in a word of prayer. And then after that we have a very special Memorial Day feature because this is not a time to recognize living veterans. We do that too in November. This Memorial Day is about remembering those who fell in the line of duty. And we should never, ever, ever, ever stop pausing to remember those who gave their lives so we could do what we're doing right now, which is to worship God. (congregants applauding) And many of them have been shipped back in containers, and parents have greeted them out on the tarmac of airports. Many of them have been lost at sea through the wars. Many of them have been buried, committed to rest on foreign soil and their remains never made it back. And many of them have never been recovered and their families were only left with memories. But today we pause and we honor them because of what they did we are free today. So remember that tomorrow while you're grilling out or whatever you do on Memorial Day, lead your family to say a prayer of gratitude to God in memory of the fallen. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You for the privilege of being able to worship You recognizing that all blessings come from You. But this blessing of liberty and our first amendment right to gather, to sing Your praises as the assembled blood-bought people of God, to preach the riches of Jesus Christ through the Gospel and the Word of God, this is a right that has been purchased with blood by the patriots who've served in our nation's armed forces who gave their everything so we could enjoy what we have. And so we pause today to remember every one of them who has fallen in the line of duty from the founding of our country through those who gave their lives in recent weeks. We thank You for their sacrifice and for what it has yielded for our freedom. We pray now that after this video You'll bless this music and then open our hearts to receive the message that You want us to hear from Your precious and Holy Word. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. (dramatic music) (calm music) ♪ Jesus, what a Friend for sinners ♪ ♪ Jesus, lover of my soul ♪ ♪ Friends may fail me ♪ ♪ Foes assail me ♪ ♪ He, my Savior ♪ ♪ Makes me whole ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Saving, helping ♪ ♪ Keeping, loving ♪ ♪ He is with me to the end ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Saving, helping ♪ ♪ Keeping, loving ♪ ♪ He is with me to the end ♪ ♪ He is with me to the end ♪ ♪ I stand amazed in the presence ♪ ♪ Of Jesus the Nazarene ♪ ♪ And wonder how He could love me ♪ ♪ A sinner, condemned, unclean ♪ ♪ How marvelous ♪ ♪ How wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous ♪ ♪ How wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ ♪ How marvelous ♪ ♪ How wonderful ♪ ♪ And my song shall ever be ♪ ♪ How marvelous ♪ ♪ How wonderful ♪ ♪ Is my Savior's love for me ♪ ♪ Man of Sorrows ♪ ♪ What a name ♪ ♪ For the Son of God who came ♪ ♪ Ruined sinners to reclaim ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Lifted up was He to die ♪ ♪ "It is finished," was His cry ♪ ♪ Now in heaven exalted high ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Friend ♪ ♪ When He comes, our glorious King ♪ ♪ All His ransomed home to bring ♪ ♪ Then anew this song we'll sing ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ What a Savior ♪ (congregants applauding) ♪ Oh, what a Savior ♪ ♪ Oh, what a Savior You are, Jesus ♪ ♪ You came to seek and save the lost ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, what a Friend ♪ (congregants applauding)
(congregants cheering) (dramatic music) You and I are blessed to live in a place where we observe four distinct seasons. I moved here from a place that only has two. Central Florida has warm and warmer. Those are the two seasons for the most part. And although it's taken me a while for my blood to thicken up and get used to some of these days here in Georgia when the temperatures will drop down really low, I am growing to appreciate it each and every year because seasons are beautiful. Each one of them has their own characteristic that causes us to appreciate it. And then we recognize the signs in the atmosphere that tell us the seasons are about to change; when there is a transition on the horizon. And I think I'm speaking for a lot of us here today when I say I appreciate a long spring that we're enjoying now with these cool warming, cool mornings on the verge of going into June. Whoever heard of it? Only right here in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia at elevation 1,100 feet. But anyway, I digress. I am calling this home each and every day. Here's what I want us to think about though; Seasons are based on the earth's tilt in relation to the sun, as it rotates around the sun. And it has to do with the pivoting of the exposure of the particular hemisphere in which we live to the sun's light. And so when you think about the seasons and the earth's tilt as it rotates around the sun, it's one thing to talk about those climate seasons and meteorological seasons and seasons that have to do with the earth and its exposure to the sun. It is another thing for us to think about the periods of our life that we would call seasons. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning. And I'm calling this message, "Identifying the Seasons." And I want you to open to this book of wisdom called Ecclesiastes, the words of which we believe were penned by King Solomon of Israel. And we're going to talk about identifying the seasons. If you define season literally we would call it one of four divisions of the year: the spring, the summer, the autumn and the winter. And some places based on their proximity to the equator refer to seasons as rainy season or dry season. But I'm talking to you about your season, my season, the seasons of the cycle of life. And in Ecclesiastes 3 these are words that are familiar to people even if you don't have a background in church. Now, if you're a child of the '60s, you know that The Byrd's committed these lyrics to song. Anybody recognize that? We've got some peace children out here today. But it says, "To everything there is a season, "a time for every purpose under heaven: "a time to be born, and a time to die; "a time to plant, a time to pluck what is planted; "a time to kill, a time to heal; "a time to break down, a time to build up; "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; "a time to mourn, a time to dance; "a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; "a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; "a time to gain, and a time to lose; "a time to keep, and a time to throw away; "a time to tear, and a time to sew; "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." And I want us to stop there because that establishes this framework for the fact that God says in His Word to everything there is a season. He obviously was not talking about the four seasons we identify on the calendar. He was talking about the seasons of our life. And in the Bible we find reference to times and seasons and often these words are used interchangeably. But today we're talking about our season. And I want to define this and I'll give you time to write it down. I didn't find this definition anywhere online. I kind of came up with it so you can tweak it all you want to. It's yours to tweak. But this is what I believe a season is. A season is an extended period of time in which God is accomplishing an overarching purpose in and through our lives. And just so you know, it can be more than one purpose. But it's an extended period of our lives. So in light of that definition, hopefully you'll, if you're not writing it down, you'll think about your life while I'm talking about it. This extended period when God uses circumstances in your life to do something not only in you, but the definition says through you, because none of us is an island. None of us lives to ourselves. What's going on in my life is going to affect those around me. So we're talking about a season. Now, if you were to say, how long is that period of time? Well, I would say at least several months on the short side. And on the long side a season can be decades. One of my friends with whom I visited recently is going to turn 60 this year. He said, "Brother, I've been in a 60-year season. "My whole life is one big long season." And that's how many of us feel that we're in a season that somehow is never going to end. But it will. There's no place I can turn to in the Bible that tells me how long a season is in our lives. But here's something fun to do, and I'm gonna take some time to do it in this message. I just wanna give you some advanced warning, this is not some ripsnorting, knee-stomping, hallelujah, hootenanny sermon. (congregants laughing) This is a sermon that is born out of my own personal journey, my own seasons of growth. And I'll give you a testimony a little bit later on in the message about how this message that I'm delivering today was birthed years ago in my heart. And it's something that I don't, that I haven't been willing to talk about, devote a whole sermon to because I've wondered if people would really appreciate it. Not that you wouldn't appreciate a sermon but it's not something, with all due respect, it's not something Baptist people talk about very much. Now, if we were to take a survey I don't know how many Baptists we have in here, it says it out on the title, out on the sign out there but a lot of our people aren't Baptist. So maybe I should just forget about what Baptist usually talk about and just preach what God lays on my heart. And that's kind of what I wanna do today is talk to you about seasons. (congregants applauding) In the Bible we can identify seasons in the lives of individual people in the Bible. We're gonna talk about that. I think you can study families in the Bible and see the different seasons that families go through. If you look at your life, you can see in marriage and with your children and with your extended family, your family has seasons. There are periods of time that have certain characteristics that can be about unity and harmony, or it can be seasons when boundaries are defined. It can be seasons when there's loss from a loved one and how that launches you into a season of grief and recovery. We could label our seasons. But you know something that's very easy to see when you study the Old Testament pages of the history of Israel, they had very clearly defined seasons in their history which we can talk about. Last week, I took some time to go through the Book of Acts because I'm thinking about launching a sermon series out of it. And somebody pointed out to me that two other pastors they know, that they watch are doing sermons on Acts now. I said, well maybe that's the Holy Spirit calling His church back to the Book of Acts. I don't know, but it's on my heart. So I was looking through that and you can see in the Book of Acts, the key transition point of a church that was birthed on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And as they grappled with different obstacles, they would resolve those and it would lead them into a season of expanded growth and influence. And then they decided how are Jews and Gentiles gonna get together. And they had the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. And they said, we're not gonna put legalistic additions to salvation requirements. And that season of decision led to a season then of worldwide missions engagement. I'm telling you this, we could do weeks and weeks of preaching on this and teaching on this. But what I want you to understand is this is how God works. It is true that a moment, an instant can change your season. It is true that a season consists of a sequence of events and occurrences. But the season is the period of time which is comprised of those individual defining moments. They work together to build this season that we're talking about. And about six years ago, I went off to Florida and rented a hotel room just to get away. I spent about five days down there. And I had ordered a bunch of materials by somebody. I'm not sure who it was. And I sequestered with all of these books and my highlighter and my notepad and my journal because I was in a place in my life where I was literally down on my face pleading for God. Dear God, show me this season. Help me to understand this season. Help me to make sense of my life and what is going on. And in those several days of just being alone with Him, God just opened my eyes of understanding to the fact that seasons are the stage for His greatest work. We simply have to understand it. That even when we don't know what season we're in, we can't make sense of the season, we are still in a season nonetheless and there's somebody who knows the season that He's destined for us. There's somebody who's providentially guiding us through that season, even if it doesn't make sense to us while we're going through it. Amen and amen.
Amen. So when you think about the four seasons we celebrate: the spring, the summer, the autumn and the winter, notice how each one of them is distinct in its own way. It has its own features. And yet they combine. And the four of them added together constitute the complete cycle of a year. This is what God is doing with the different seasons of our lives. One season gives way to another season, and before long God has woven together your seasons of life. And they have formed such a beautiful picture of the completion of what He's doing in your life. But no one season is the whole of your experience. It takes all of them merging together under God's gentle hand to form the complete picture. You know something, when we were reading a moment ago in Ecclesiastes 3, those different times and seasons that he identified they are in contrast with each other, aren't they? When he talks about a time to plant, that's a season of sowing, and a time to harvest, that's a season of reaping. It's not one moment. Those are two contrasting activities. One is investing, the other is reaping. And this is how our seasons work as well. How many of you have come through a season and you've gone right into such a drastically different kind of chapter of life and you wonder, these things have nothing to do with each other. I was here for several weeks and all of a sudden now I'm down here and it makes no sense. It's because there's been a change in the season of your life. And that's what this passage in Ecclesiastes talks about. But here's what we must not miss. No matter if they are contrasting and they are dissimilar from one another, no matter if one is a period of joyful ecstasy and the other you're wallowing in despair and heartbreak and loss, here's what we know. Every season is a chapter in the biography God is writing of your life. Amen.
It is a chapter. Everything you're going through, these extended periods of time, they are God's contribution to the volume that will describe your life's journey with Him and my life's journey. So I hope you understand that getting a hold of this truth is a huge part of knowing how God works. Now, that's just the introduction. (congregants laughing) Now you ready to take some notes? (congregants laughing) I know not everybody's a note taker and I don't want anybody to ever feel bad if you don't have a note pad in front of you, or you're not comfortable, you like to listen to it instead of write down. For those of you who do take some notes I've got some things for you. And here's the first thing. When it comes to seasons, you ready for it?
Yes. Discern your current season. Discern your current season. In Ecclesiastes 3, he talked about planting and harvesting; tearing down, building up; weeping, laughing; a season of being close and intimate versus a season of pulling back and having distance. We see these in our lives. Hey, how about a season of collecting things versus we go into seasons where it's time to let go of some things? Hey, we go through seasons where we want to expand and then we realize we're in a season of downsizing. Oh, I need a witness up in this house today. And so there's a season where you know we gotta duke this one out. There's a season when you know it's time to make up. These are seasons. And the question is, what season are you in right now? God will show you what season you're in right now. Now the fun thing is to identify, to put your discernment antennas on and to identify the season somebody else is going through. And there are people with that spiritual gift. I call it the gift of season exposure. And they will expose your season. They will reveal to you, God has told me you are in your season. And I'm gonna tell you something. I believe there's some validity in that kind of thing because God can give somebody insight to speak into your life and to tell you, this season is temporary or this season is about to give way to the next season of your life. Hey folks, I'm telling you, this is real stuff I'm talking about. But here's the thing. Not every time you see what someone is going through in terms of a season, should you tell them. (congregants chuckling) Because you can spot someone and you've heard from children whose parents are entering into a different period of life and the parents refuse to accept it. Or it could be that a spouse, she sees her husband moving into a different phase of capability and you can see the shifting of a season but you have to be very careful about sharing what you observe and you have to ask God, help them to see the season into which they're entering. That we're entering into a different chapter. Oh come on, you understand what I'm saying But today, I don't want you to think about anybody else. I want you to think about you. What season are you going through right now? That's the point of the message today. And it's this window of time that you're living in. Hey, it is your season right now. It's what you're living. It's what you're feeling. It's what your circumstances are all around you. This is your season. And what I'm teaching today is that you look up to God and say, God, will You please show me this season? Show me how all of these circumstances are fitting together so I can assign a label to this season. This is my season of investing. This is my season of sacrifice. This is my season of abandonment. This is my season of waiting and trusting in silence. This is what He will help you to see. This is my season of whatever it happens to be. And here's the thing. If this season comes and goes and I don't learn what God wants to show me in this season I have wasted the opportunity of the season. Because it will come and go and if we fail to learn what we're supposed to learn from it, we wasted this valuable season. Not only that, but here's the thing. If it's a season of adversity and seemingly unbearable hardship and God's trying to show me something, until I learn it He may prolong the season. It could be it's not until I learn what I'm supposed to learn, that He'll cause the heat of the summer to give way to the refreshing cool of the autumn. And we just have to learn what God wants us to learn. And what we have to know is, whether it makes sense right now, we have to believe that He's not only an all-powerful, sovereign God guiding the changing of seasons and sustaining us until the seasons change, but, listen, He's a loving God. He loves us too much to abandon us when we're going through whatever season it is we're going through. So one of the things that was fun for me over the years, I've gone back and I've just looked at these Bible characters and tried to just label something and stick it on that chapter of their life. And I think about Adam and Eve. Think about Adam and Eve with me for a moment. Have you ever thought long and hard about Adam and Eve? What life was like in the garden before sin? And people say before she sinned. Hey, they both did, right? (congregants laughing) They both did. He checked his spine at the door because he followed. So they're both at fault, right? They're both at fault. But you know what you could call that? You could say that was their honeymoon season. And I don't just mean as newlyweds that God had joined together. It was a honeymoon season of he woke up and said, "Good night alive, I ain't never seen nothing like that." And that was his wife. (congregants chuckling) His heart started racing so fast. And then they're walking in the garden, and God comes down and talks to them and has fellowship with them. And then sin ruined it all. But there was that sweet season. How long did it last? I don't know, but it was a sweet season, wasn't it. There are times in relationships, friendships, marriages, job opportunities, becoming pastor of a church where it's a honeymoon. I didn't have that, but anyway, let's move on. (congregants laughing) There are times where you know it's a sweet period of time. It's a sweet season of time. So relish the moment because every honeymoon comes to an end. (congregants affirming) (congregants laughing) I know some of you are afraid to say amen on that. But I think about then there was Noah. Remember Noah, he built the ark. How long did he build it, 120 years. That's what I call a season, brother. 120 years, he's the only one out there cutting the timber down, planing the pieces of lumber, and filing it, sanding it, driving the nails, putting everything up in place. He's the only one who gets it, the only one who knows. And I wonder how many times he said, dear God in heaven how long is this gonna last? And God's answer would be long enough for you to get it built because you are gonna be talked about for thousands of years as the man that I used to save the human race from extinction and also all the animals that people are gonna love. You wouldn't have your little she-doodle and labradoodle, golden doodle duck. You wouldn't have anything that you love. We wouldn't be able to go and see the zoos and the wildlife if it wasn't for Noah, right? (congregants affirming) And you know what he called it? The season of building. It's the season of building. Years and years before the finished product comes to fruition, he would call that a season of building. I think about a man who was, his name was Abram. God changed it to Abraham. He was the father of the Jewish nation. And in Genesis 12, the Bible says, "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your native country, "'your relatives, your father's family, "'and go to the land that I will show you.'" Leave that up there for a moment because here's what I wanna show you. Leave what? Your homeland. That's everything you've grown up around. Leave your relatives. Leave your father's family. Guess what this was? This was a season of separation where God says, "I don't have to explain myself, "but I'm leading you through a time "of letting go of everything that you have clung to, "everything that is familiar. "We're going into a season of separation." That's what he was going through. And then not only that, but he says and go to: Did He give him GPS coordinates? No. Did He give him a city?
No. Did He give him a country?
No. He said, go where? To the land I'm gonna show you. Now that's real reassuring. I'm leaving everything familiar to start a journey to somewhere unfamiliar. Not only unfamiliar, but unknown. That is a season of unknown direction. Have you ever been in one of those seasons? Lord, I have no idea where this is taking me, but I'm trusting you every day. Oh, come on, are you seeing where I'm going with this? Yes. And I'm just walking through these seasons. I think about Abraham and Sarah. They were told you're gonna have a baby. It was a season of waiting. How was the waiting working for them? (congregants chuckling) They didn't work too well, did it. They came up with this crazy plan. Abraham enjoyed it, but it was sinful. It was not right. (congregants laughing) But God was good and still honored the plan, didn't He? And listen to me every senior adult in this room, he was 100 and she was 90 when they gave birth to the child of promise. Hey, there's still hope out there, amen. (congregants laughing) But I think about, how many of you have gone through where you were holding to the promise and you even took missteps along the way, but God continued to make you wait? It's a season of waiting until what God was birthing would come through. (congregants affirming) I think about Jacob. You know he tricked his brother out of the birthright, and God says, you reap what you... Sow.
So he finds him somebody he's gonna marry and works out a deal with the dad and says I want her. He says work seven years. So he works seven years and they go to bed in the dark of night in the tent. And he rolls over and realizes, dog, I got the wrong one. (congregants laughing) I got the wrong one. And he comes out of there and says, you tricked me. You lied to me. He says, oops, sorry about that. Seven more years. Now, is this in the Bible or is this in the Bible? Now what you call 14 years to get the right woman, that's a season, my friend. That's a season. And it's a season of deception. It's a season, it could be a season of reaping because if you sow seeds of deception, you will reap a harvest of deception. (congregants affirming) And then I think you wanna talk about a man you could label some seasons on the chapters of his life, is Joseph in Genesis. I mean, think about it. His brothers sold him as a slave. They threw him in the pit, remember? And he was carted off by a tribal group. It was a season of betrayal. That's a painful season; when the people you should trust and love the most turn their backs on you. And then I think about his season of injustice when he was faithful as a servant in Potiphar's house, and the crazy wife, witch, she accused him. She accused him of rape! And he's thrown into prison under these false accusations. A season of injustice. You ever been through one of those? And what happened? He got down there and he interpreted the dreams for the baker and for the butler. Remember the story? And the butler got put back into service up in the palace and forgot all about Joseph down in the dungeon. For two years, he was forgotten about, that's the season of abandonment. And then I think about when those knothead brothers had to come in there, they were starving to death and here's Joseph, the king of Egypt. And they're bowing down and he's thinking, yeah, you all are bowing down, that's the dream I told y'all about back then, y'all were going to and y'all got all. And so they're bowing down. You know what I call that? It's a season of vindication where his enemies bowed down and said we are so sorry. And here's what Joseph said. What Joseph said is when y'all threw me in that pit and sold me, you really opened the door. He could say it now. You really opened the door to a season of repositioning. And in Genesis 50, his brothers are in there bowing down before him in verse 18. And they said, "Look, we are your slaves!" I mean, they're trembling. And Joseph said, "Don't be afraid of me. "Am I God, that I should punish you?" And look at what he says. He said, "You intended to harm me, "but God intended it all for good. "He brought me to this," what? Position. "He brought me to this position "so I could save the lives of many people." And yes he did. He filled up all of the bins with grain and saved that part of the world from starvation, including his own family who betrayed him. He saved them. And what they did to him set in course a season of positioning. It was hard, it was hell, it was difficult. But now he is where he is. And they're bowing down before him. Look at Moses: put out in the bulrushes; picked up by Pharaoh's daughter; raised in an Egyptian household. Do you think that was a season of preparation? That he could walk into Pharaoh and speak to the Pharaoh knowing the customs and say, "God sent me as a messenger. "Let my people go." Yes. And then remember when he killed the Egyptian who was mistreating one of his fellow Hebrews and he fled for refuge, guess what? During his season of refuge in Midian he found his wife. And he started his family. And he got a good father-in-law, who spoke wisdom into his life, named Jethro. But it came in a season of refuge. And then a season of closed doors. God said, "Go tell Pharaoh, let my people go." And Pharaoh would say no. And God knew Pharaoh was gonna say no. And He kept sending Moses back saying, let my people go. And God knew he's gonna say no every time. He said no nine different times. Why would God tell you to keep knocking on a door that God already knows He's locked shut? 'Cause He's God. (congregants affirming) 'Cause He's God. (congregants affirming) And when you're going through a season of closed doors God has not forgotten you, God's protecting you. And God may have been the one to lock the door He's telling you to knock on. God don't have to make no sense either. (congregants affirming)
(congregants applauding) 'Cause I got news for you. The 10th one did the trick. It's called the death angel. And the next thing you know, those Israelites they're walking through a parted Red Sea. What I am telling you is He is the God of seasons. Hallelujah.
(congregants affirming) I think about David and all of his seasons. Where was David when the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem to Jesse's house and Jesse paraded all of the better sons in front of the prophet? And no, not him, not him, not him, not him. Is this all you got? Well, I've got the little runt of the litter, David. Where was he, out in the back 40. He was in the artistic class. He was strumming. He was,
(congregants laughing) he was strumming his harp. He was one of those little right brain creative types, and he's strumming his harp and singing songs. He was in the band at school, he wasn't athletic. And he's out there in the back 40 watching over the sheep, and he was in his season of obscurity. And God used all of those sad, lonely days to build a heart of praise and worship into that man. And he wrote so many of the Psalms including, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. "He maketh me." Look what God taught him in obscurity. Don't waste the season. You know what I think of with Nehemiah? Nehemiah went and he rebuilt broken walls. He didn't tear down the walls, the enemy tore them down, but his assignment was to go rebuild them. He's our season of rebuilding. I think about Esther as the queen. She represents the season of intervention. When you realize, God, I can't fix every problem but God has given me the influence and the authority that I can fix this one. And she saved the Jewish people because of a season of intervention. Mordecai put her in a beauty pageant. Do you see what I'm talking about today? I mean, I could keep going, I really could. But you don't have time and we gotta land the plane. I think about Israel's examples. They were in Egypt oppressed, a season of oppression. The Red Sea, a season of deliverance. Season of unbelief when they voted no to going into the promised land. And then you know what happened as they voted no? God was so insulted, He took them through, listen, a season of purging. In Numbers 32, it says, "The Lord's anger burned against Israel, "and He made them wander in the wilderness 40 years, "until the entire generation "of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord," was what?
Destroyed. He left them out there long enough for every person who voted no in the business meeting... (congregants chuckling) to be purged from the flock. Don't tell me God does not take us through seasons of elimination. Whatever it happens to be. And then there was the season of conquest in Joshua, where they went in and they took the land. And then when Nebuchadnezzar invaded them there was a season of exile where they were living as captives in a foreign land. And then God says, "I'm not gonna leave you there. "I'm gonna regather you." And there were three successive migrations of the exiles coming back to Judah. There's the season of ingathering. Then the season of new beginnings. God had told the Jews in Isaiah He would regather them and start something new even after He had chastised them. He said in chapter 43, "Don't remember the former things, "nor consider things of old. "Behold, I will do," what? A new thing.
Say it out loud. A new thing.
"I will do a new thing." "Now it shall spring forth," and on and on we could go. But here's what I want you to understand. There are seasons in your life, hallelujah, where He does a new thing. Where He brings you out of the wilderness, He brings you out of exile and He says, "I'm gonna do a new thing." And I don't wanna be too bold or presumptuous but dear people, I feel like that's the season our church is in right now. I feel like He's taking us into a new season. We thank God for the seasons we have come through. It's made us who we are. We thank God for our larger than life shepherd and pastor of over half a century. And don't think that I was chomping at the bit to take the reins and to try to fill those shoes. Those shoes cannot be filled. So I'm just gonna have to stand in my own shoes. And I'm gonna have to say, God, I can't compete with the past but I'm trusting You for the future. (congregants applauding)
(congregants affirming) And I've told you before that the transition happened in an empty room. None of this happened the way I would have wanted it to happen. But God does not let us determine the events in our season. (congregants affirming) And all I had to say is, dear God, I'm gonna have to figure out how this works, but I am trusting You. You are over this season of my life. This isn't my church, this is Your church. I'm trusting that whatever You're doing You're birthing a new thing, a new thing a new thing, a new thing. That's what I'm speaking over this season right now. It's the season of a new thing. (congregants applauding)
(congregants affirming) And from my study of Scripture, don't try to take it down, it's gonna sound like I'm speaking in unknown languages, but I'm gonna tell you these are the seasons I found in Scripture. Alienation, alignment, brokenness, cleansing, conviction, correction, deliverance, despair, drought, emptiness expansion, exposure, failure, grief, harvest, healing, increase, investment, planting, priorities, promotion, pruning, realignment, rebellion, redirecting, refining, renewal, repentance, reprogramming, reset, risk, restoration, reward, sacrifice, sifting, silence, solitude, suffering, transition, and tribulation. (congregants cheering) So those are just a few.
(congregants applauding) And I bet you out of that long list, you could find one of those that applies to your season today. (congregants affirming) And my question is, what season is it? And here's something crazy is God will even give you preparation, advanced notice when a season is about to change. Because when a season changes you always have to let go of something. Dr. Henry Cloud, one of my favorite authors writes this, "Everything has seasons, "and we have to be able to recognize "when something's time has passed," when something's time has passed, "and be able to move into the next season." Do you see what he's saying there? We all have to recognize that something's time passes and the season changes. So before I pray for us today, I wanted to focus this whole message on the types of seasons there are, and then I wanna give you just two final points that I think are very helpful. And one of them is this. Not only should you discern your current season, everybody understands it's important to know what season you're in, but I want you to get a little historical. I'm not asking you to do something I haven't first done myself. And that is go back and label the seasons of your past. Label the seasons of your past. It could be your childhood, your college years. Maybe you didn't go to college and it was military. Maybe it could be graduate school. Maybe it could be your first marriage. Maybe it could be your career. Maybe it could be the time when your spouse was suddenly taken from you or left you. Go back and build your own biography of seasons because they are the chapters in your story. They are the mile markers of your spiritual progress. And when you label the seasons, what you're doing is you're creating a roadmap which shows the ground you have covered and, listen, how God was there through every season. (congregants affirming) Who in this room or watching me online can look back and say no matter what seasons I have gone through in my 30 years, 50 years, or 80 years, God has been faithful through every season? (congregants affirming) He's been faithful through every season. (congregants applauding) And some seasons when we're going through them made no sense. And it wasn't until years later we could look back and label that season for what it was. I don't know if this guy knows Jesus but I found this quote. And if he's not saved, I hope he is, so don't tell me he's some crazy heretic but I gotta quote this. Bob Goff, a motivational speaker says, "Embrace uncertainty "because some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives "won't have a title until much later." And you see what I'm asking you to consider doing is going back and looking at the chapters in your life that don't have a title and assigning a title to that season of your life. And then the final thing is to trust God for the seasons of your future. So if you have followed me today, here's what I've said. This is a heavy message, isn't it? I'm not saying a good message, I'm not bragging. I'm saying it's deep, it's heavy. Discern your current season. Label the seasons of your past. Trust God for the seasons of your future. Now here's what all of us know, is that there are seasons coming we don't know. And do we trust God to prepare us for future seasons? Do you believe seasons happen by chance or do you believe God guides us into the next season? I believe in a God who is very involved in the lives of His children. And I have to believe in times when I've labored, labored, labored, sacrificed, sacrificed, sacrificed, cried, cried, cried, and yet it wasn't enough, I still have two more calls I should have made, somebody wanting to visit. I get to the end of my day, so many days, and I wanna cry because I think, oh God, I didn't get to it all. Oh, God, I feel like there's more undone than done. Oh, God, I feel like there's so much more ground I need to cover than has been covered. I deal with a crippling sense of inadequacy every day of my life. And God brings me to the place of showing me it's a season. "It's a season. "You have to trust Me. "I've got the reward. "I've got the harvest. "I've got the increase. "You take care of being faithful, "I'll take care of blessing you. "Trust Me for the future season." (congregants applauding) Because God promises a season of reward. And my favorite verse about this is Galatians 6:9 where he says, "Let us not grow weary while doing good," for in what? Due season.
In what? Due season. "In due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." He says if we will just keep on keeping on, we shall reap. And I've gotta trust Him for that future season of reaping, of reward, of increase, of yield, of dividend. I'm trusting Him for it, in Jesus' name. Let's pray together. Dear God, I thank You that You're the God of the seasons. You are never caught off guard by the circumstances of our life. You are never in a panic like we are. You're never wondering the outcome, You already see it and know it. You've already ordained it. You sit enthroned above the changing seasons. Our seasons change, but You are our God who never changes. We trust You today. Help us to discern our current season. God help us to label the seasons of our past. And Heavenly Father, help us to trust You for the seasons of our future. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
Amen. Thank you so much for your attentiveness today. And I wanna tell you, the Bible says, "Behold, today is the day of salvation." This is the season of new life for someone who needs to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And we don't ever gather here in-person or have an online audience viewing when we don't know, we believe with all of our hearts there's somebody who needs to be saved today. Someone who needs to say, oh, Jesus I want You to be my Lord and Savior. Oh, Jesus I wanna receive what You did for me on the cross. So in this room, watching online, I'm asking you to consider getting the conversation started with us about how you can take your next steps to learn about God, to have your questions answered, and to have someone help you take those important steps towards giving your heart and your life to Jesus. So there's a number on the screen. In here in this room or watching online, would you text us that number? Put Jesus up at the top and we'll communicate with you however you're most comfortable. We just wanna get the dialogue going because there is no more important season of your life than the season of being drawn into faith in Jesus Christ. And if you're even thinking about it, that's not you, that's the Holy Spirit. That's God with His arms of love. The Bible says that we don't come to God on our own, He draws us to Himself. So if you're thinking about it, He's got His eyes on you. He wants you. He loves you. Let us hear from you. Well, we have had church today and I just wanna praise Him for the sweet Holy Spirit who lives in us and visits us when we worship as His people. I hope you have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day. And please, please don't forget those who gave it all. God bless you. (congregants applauding) (pipe organ music) ("Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us")
