Sermon Notes

“What Season Is it?”

By General Pastor Peter F. Paine

May 22^nd, 2011

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What are some different seasons of life?  Dry seasons, planting season, growth season, reaping season, grieving season, crisis season, being thankful season, patience season, strengthening season, rebuilding season.  So, my question to you today is, what season is it in your life?

 Joshua 1:9      Have not I commended thee? Be strong and of good courage…

 I know that God spoke these words to Joshua, but can’t you claim these words today?  God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us; that His ear is not heavy that He will not hear.  Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that, like when you’ve been betrayed.  There are times that we question God.  There have been moments when I was angry at God.  Let’s stop and think for a minute; is there any good reason to be angry at God?  No, there’s not.  Sometimes, though, when you are hurt, or you just don’t understand…  Look to God and ask, “Is this the season I’m supposed to be in?”

 Jeremiah 29:11           For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, saith the LORD…

 God does love you, as much as He does Jeremiah.  He doesn’t love you less than he does anyone else.  Say it with me, “God loves me.” He doesn’t love you any more than He does anyone else, but He doesn’t love you less than He does anyone else, either.  Debbie has a plaque up in our kitchen, and I will probably not quote it exactly, but, basically, it says, “A friend is someone who knows all about your faults, but still wants to be our friend.”  Sometimes we get self-centered, or egotistical, and we forget that we have faults, but God loves us anyway.

 Jeremiah 29:11           …thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

 You may have heard that somebody predicted that the world was going to end, yesterday.  Well, he was wrong about the day and the hour, but he was right about one thing:  The world is going to end.  So, get ready, and stay ready.

 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8        To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose…

 What season is it in your life?  Are you in the season that you belong in?  There is a season of hate, and some of us got have gotten stuck in a season of hate, and just circle around in it.  Have you ever been stuck in a time warp?  I knew a guy that had his house decorated in a 50’s style, and he listened to fifties’ music.  Now I like the fifties, I was born in the fifties, but I don’t want to live that very day.  Some of us have gotten stuck in a season, and we don’t belong there.  Some of us haven’t gotten to the season that we belong in, because we are afraid.  Learn the lesson and move on.

 1 Corinthians 13:11    …when I became a man, I put away childish things.

 David, as a boy, killed a lion and a bear, and then, when they needed someone to stand up and represent Israel on the battlefield, David didn’t hesitate.  Not because he thought he was so great, but because he knew that God was great in him.

When Gideon was getting ready to lead his army against the Philistines, his army was large enough that they probably could have beaten the Philistines by themselves.  God had a different plan.  He told Gideon that he had too many men, and that he should send most of them home, because with that many men, no one would know that God had won the battle.  I’m sure Gideon wasn’t thrilled about that; he probably offered to personally let everyone know that God had won the battle, once it was over.  What season was Gideon in then? 

But we were talking about David.  Years after facing Goliath, David was on the rooftop, and he saw a woman taking a bath nearby (that was the way they did things then, a lot of people took baths outside, but generally out of the public view).  He could have turned away; he should have turned away, but he didn’t, and he entered into a season of sin, self-dependence, and a season of forgetting who he was supposed to be.  Later on, though, we see that David made a change in his life.

 Psalms 51:10-13         …renew a right spirit in me…

             What season was David in then?  If you are down, then get off the mat.  David had victories in his life.  He was able to get healing and forgiveness through contrition.

 Ecclesiastes 3:1-8        …A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant…

 Some of these seasons may last only seconds; they may not last long enough to even get noticed.  Some of them though, seem to be around for a very long time.

You know I don’t preach what I think will sound good.  I don’t sit and plan out, “Oh, that sounds good; that will get their attention.  Oh, that’s clever, that should really impress people.”  I don’t do that; I try to preach the message that God wants me to deliver.  Some years ago, on a Wednesday night, I taught a study on how to be an effective testimony.  After the service, I had a Navy Lieutenant tell me, “That was the most effective study on baptism I have ever heard.  I need to get baptized.”  I looked back through my notes, and I asked some other people who were there, I didn’t even mention baptism in that study.  But he heard what he needed to hear.

Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to kill.  Some of you may be thinking, “A time to kill?”  Let me give you an example:  If a man breaks into my house, and he has a gun…  Well, if he’s just trying to take my stuff, then I would probably just let him do that.  But, if he is trying to hurt my wife, well, then I might just have to kill him and take my chances with the jury.

Are you just taking life as it comes?  Are you letting things go by you?  Are you in a season of comfort?  Do you feel that everything is fine, and that there is no need to change?  Some of you may think at this point that I’m just saying this to pick on you.  Believe me, if I wanted to pick on you, I could do that one-on-one.  I don’t know; maybe you’re in exactly the right season.  Check your season.

This isn’t Biblical, but I think it may help some of you.  Imagine for a moment, a long hallway with rooms off both sides.  Now that hallway represents your life, and the rooms represent situations that you have been in.  Some of these rooms represent times of grieving, or hurt.  Finish your business and move on.  You can’t spend the rest of your life in that one room.  What doors are open?  I don’t mean to make light of it, I know that some of you have had tremendously painful experiences, but don’t stay there.  Live in the moment that God has for you.  That doesn’t mean to forget.  There is a time to weep, but sooner or later, you have to move on.  Make sure that you’re in the right season.

                             Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd