Seasons
Spring 2019 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 17 viewsLife happens in seasons so what can we get from that process
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There is a very important day coming very soon that probably has all of us excited
In fact this day is so special that it is recognized and celebrated by billions of people all over the world
That’s right, in a mere 15 days it is the anniversary of my birth
The day 50 years ago that this world was blessed by the presence of Daniel Marvin Wood
OOOOPs sorry wait one second I seem to have gotten my sermon mixed up with my dinner speech to my family
Let me just back up and try this again
There is a very important day coming very soon that probably has all of us excited
In fact this day is so special that it is recognized and celebrated by billions of people all over the world
That’s right, in 3 days on Wednesday March 20th, 2019 at 5:58 p.m. EDT winter will officially end and it will be spring
Now hopefully somebody will make sure that the weather knows about this and is adjusted accordingly but regardless of if it is sunny and warm, or dark and snowy, it won’t change the fact that the season has officially changed
That’s how it works, regardless of what happens weather wise, at the spring equinox, spring begins and even if winter is refusing to go quietly, we can be assured that it will go because the seasons change
The same thing can be said of life, for life is driven by seasons and the one thing that we can always be sure of is that, if God grants us enough time, we are going to go through seasons in our life
The reason is because God is a God of seasons
Listen to what Solomon said about this from his book of wisdom
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:
Everyone and everything go through seasons, that’s just the way that God does things
Nature goes through seasons, the church (both big “C” and little “c”) go through seasons, people go through seasons, marriages go through seasons
Sometimes people call them cycles or patterns or dispensations but they are all the same thing seasons
And although nature only has 4 seasons and we are able to, with moderate accuracy, predict those four seasons, when it comes to the life we often go through many more than that and often they are much harder to predict
Of the life cycle of the human being has often been described using the the 4 seasons of nature and there is a lot of truth in that kind of analogy
But equally true is that in each major season of our lives we are going to experience many other seasons
As you come into young adulthood and experience the summer of your life, you may come into a season called marriage and you may come into a season called children and you may come into a season called sickness
During the fall of your life you enter into a season called empty-nest, or perhaps you may find yourself in a season of losing your spouse
In the church we see seasons of growth and seasons of great harvest and we see seasons of difficulty and seasons of decline, seasons of great unity and seasons of great discourse
So if seasons are so definite, why do we spend so much of our time and energy trying to fight them and trying to hold on to the season that has gone instead of embracing the season that we are entering?
This morning I want to give to you 3 realities about the changing of seasons, both Biblical and natural and show you how we can embrace the new season for what God intended it to be in our lives
The first inevitability about a new season is that New Seasons bring change
Each season is different and unique and the same can be said for the seasons that we go through in life, things WILL change!
They have too!
The trees need to drop their leaves in the fall so that they can be made ready for winter and in winter they cannot continue on as if everything were the same, and then in spring the sap begins to run
If every season was harvest season when would things have to grow or if winter never happened when would the plants have time to rest and regenerate
Seasons have to bring change in order to accomplish their purpose
But if there is anything that is true about mankind is that generally speaking we resist change
Klaus Schwab is a very smart man, born in Germany in 1938 he has doctorates in Economics and in Engineering as well as 17 honourary doctorates and medals from countries all around the world, his books have been translated into more than 30 languages and he is the founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum
Listen to this quote from him, “Change can be frightening, and the temptation is often to resist it. But change almost always provides opportunities to learn new things, to rethink tired processes, and to improve the way we work”
God created things to work on a system of seasons and He created seasons to bring about change and we need to learn to embrace and work with change, even changes that are hard to accept or that we don’t like
In Romans chapter 8 Paul speaks to us about seasons of change in the life of the believer
In fact we can back a couple of chapters and watch as Paul talks about this progression, this change that happens in the life of a person when they come to Christ
We used to be this way but now we are this way, and we used to do things this certain we but now we do them this way, and we used to be dead in sin and now we are alive in the Spirit, and this is how things are now but it’s not how they are always going to be because things are going to change even more
And then he says this, “And we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose”
The nut that falls from the tree and dies sprouts forth new life but first there had to be a change
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Matthew 4:18-
You want to talk about change, they went from being fishermen to being the principle agents in bringing the message of the gospel to the world
God called them and then led them into change, God has called you by His Son’s name and likewise you can expect change
God has called this church and placed His name upon it and just as there has been in the past, the future is going to contain change, we can’t stick our head in the sand, we have to trust God and ask Him what it is that He wants to accomplish in us through this season
Which brings me to the second thing, a change of seasons brings challenges
The Apostle Paul was another person who saw a season of change in his life as he went from persecuting Christ to serving him
Paul also faced many challenges because of these changes, challenges which he could have allowed to stop him from his calling and purpose but he had this to say in his second letter to the Corinthians
You are probably familiar with this passage but I am going to read it from The Message Bible because it is so poetic,
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
2 Corinthians 4:7-
(The Message)
7–12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us.
Elsewhere in his writings Paul compares the Christian life to a boxing match, a long marathon, to the life of a soldier
In fact in his own life Paul faced many challenges
Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
2 Corinthians 11:23-
Yet in that same letter he declared,
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-
And near the end of his life he was still able to say to Timothy,
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Like the tree that faces the strong wind, these challenges that come our way can serve to strengthen us or, if we allow the, tear us up from our roots and topple us
When it comes don’t face it in your own strength but rely on His strength and you WILL find that His grace is sufficient for you
The winds will still howl and the troubles will still come at you but you will come out the other side better if you rely on Christ
Colossians 1:9-
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
(The Message)
9–12 Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you, asking God to give you wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work. We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.
Which leads us onto the third point which is that changing seasons bring conformity
Now this one may not make sense to you right now but let me take you back to one of the other verses that we have already looked at
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Through each and every season of your life and in each and everything that God allows into our path, the Father is trying to help you become more and more like the Son
When we find ourselves facing things that take us to our limit and even beyond we need to ask ourselves, “What lesson can I learn from this? How can this season make me more like Jesus?”
Sometimes it just might be a lesson that you’ve already learned but the Father wants to take you deeper which He couldn’t do if things remained as they were
In Paul talks about how we rejoice in the hope that is ours because we have by faith come to Jesus Christ and received the glory of God
But listen to what he says in the very next verse,
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-
Seasons
As surely as, if Jesus should tarry, we will all celebrate the arrival of spring this Wednesday, we can be sure that in our lives, in our families, in our church, should Jesus tarry, we will experience different seasons
But let us rejoice in that for even as the new season brings with it change and challenges, it also leads us into conformity, conformity with the Son of God
So let me close with one more scripture passage,
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.