Ep 153 | Cover to Cover 32 | Pastor Chris Ryan | Aug 9, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praises in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

The other day, the air conditioning unit for the main portion of my house was feeling a little bit under the weather, and since the actual weather out during that time featured highs in the low to mid-90s, large portions of my house also featured low, highs in the low to mid-90s.

It was hot.

And as I was sitting there roasting, I couldn't help but find myself longing for the season of summer to end and the season of fall to begin, and I am not alone in that regard.

According to a recent study, 42% of people declare correctly that autumn is indeed the best season, followed by 25% saying spring, 24% saying summer, and just 9%, and honestly still seems a little high to me, saying that winter is the best season.

Any winter enjoyers out there? This is Minnesota after all.

Good for you.

That is about 1% in this audience, yeah.

Well, as I looked at this poll, it really made sense to me.

After all, there are so many things to enjoy about the autumn.

The temperatures are perfect as far as I'm concerned.

The leaves changing colors, you've got those great fall foods.

Give me some apple pie, give me some pumpkin bread right now.

It's so good.

The 25% have a pretty good point about spring, too, as far as I'm concerned.

The sun is finally coming out for more than an hour or two each day.

The ground is thawing.

The flowers are beginning to bloom.

24% saying summer, they have a good point as well.

So many hours of daylight to enjoy the outdoors, maybe by the lake, and it's so warm at night, you can enjoy the outdoors by the fire.

And honestly, if you think about it hard enough, the 9% have a few good points about the winter as well.

There are some great things there.

We get to celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the New Year celebration, skiing, sledding.

Let's go ice fishing.

There are some blessings in each and every season if you think about it hard enough.

Of course, what I've found over the years is many people don't tend to focus on the blessings as the calendar turns to the next season.

They tend to focus on the negatives.

Maybe you know someone like this.

You'll say, "Yay, here comes spring.

Let's enjoy."

And they say, "You can keep it because here come the bugs.

Wake me up when it's the next season."

So you do.

You say, "Hey, it's summer.

Let's go outside.

This is amazing, all this sunlight."

And they say, "You can keep it.

It's just too hot outside.

I'll stay in here, thanks.

Wake me up when it's the next season."

So you do.

You say, "Hey, it's autumn.

Let's enjoy.

Let's go to the orchard.

Let's get some of those great fall foods that Pastor Ryan was talking about.

What a time to be alive."

And they say, "It's autumn already? Don't remind me.

Now I have to watch as the Vikings ruin every single weekend for me with all their losing," especially when they play the Detroit Lions, right? "Hey, wake me up when it's the next season."

So you do.

Hey, it's winter, Christmastime.

Let's go sledding.

Let's go ice fishing.

And they say, "Winter already? Don't remind me.

It's just..."

Well, you knew what they were gonna say to that.

"It's too cold out.

Wake me up when it's the next season."

We've been spending a lot of time in the Book of Psalms in our two-year Bible read-through, haven't we? And this week, we came across a Psalm that I really enjoyed, Psalm 84, and it's all about how God is with us on our pilgrimage, blessing us in every single season.

And whether or not you realize it, you are on a pilgrimage right now.

A pilgrimage, simply put, is a special, purposeful journey to a holy place or site, and we are all on a pilgrimage, and I want us to see in this Psalm that God is blessing us in every single spiritual season of that pilgrimage.

That's the context of Psalm 84.

We could even call it a Psalm of pilgrimage.

It describes a Jewish person in the Old Testament making their journey to Jerusalem, and the psalmist is watching as God is blessing this person, no matter what the conditions are outside, no matter what the season.

Now, a Jewish person was expected, in the old covenant, to make three journeys to Jerusalem each and every year.

They would go in the spring for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or we might call it the Passover.

In the summer, they were to head to Jerusalem once again for the Feast of Weeks, and in the fall, they were to head to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths.

So depending on where you lived in the world, you could easily encounter any of the four seasons on your way to and from Jerusalem.

If you were traveling to Jerusalem in the spring, it was probably gonna be pretty pleasant out.

Pleasant days, you'd enjoy that perfect warm weather.

You'd look around, the scenery is lush, everything is growing, the flowers are blooming.

It's practically like a Disney movie, the psalmist says, as you watch a sparrow making her nest and a swallow making a home for herself and her young.

It's amazing out If you were on your pilgrimage right now, and you are in what I might call a spiritual spring, you're enjoying some pretty pleasant days.

We all go through these spiritual springs every once in a while.

It's a time of great spiritual growth as God is working through you.

You're feeling closer to him than ever.

Much like the sparrow is building their nest, you've been building your nest in him.

You've experienced, just like how the spring sun thaws out that hard winter ground, as God's Son has thawed out your hard heart.

You've experienced Ezekiel 36:26 in full, where God promises he will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, and remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

During that spiritual spring, for whatever reason, your heart is just better able to receive, and better yet, show the love of God to those around you.

It's during that spiritual spring that you've really embraced what Jesus has done just for you on the cross.

You truly believe that he has given you a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning, that you're a new creation, that through his life and then death on the cross, your sins have been forgiven, removed from you as far as the east is from the west.

The Holy Spirit, he is active in you, helping you live a God-pleasing life, producing those spiritual fruit.

You're experiencing God's love.

You're living a life of joy, of peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and the like.

During that spiritual spring, oh, man, are you excited to spend time with God.

You can't wait to do your two-year Bible read-through in the morning.

You wish it was morning right now, right? Maybe you're one of those people in the spiritual spring that come up to me and say, "Pastor Ryan, I'm actually a week ahead in my Bible readings right now."

You're experiencing what the psalmist says, at least in part, in Psalm 84:10.

Psalms 84:10

You're realizing that better is one moment with God than a thousand elsewhere.

Spiritual spring, ooh, it's fantastic, and it is easy to see the blessings in that season.

But on this earth at least anyways, spiritual springs will come to an end, and you will find yourself experiencing maybe the next spiritual season as summer.

If you were traveling to Jerusalem during the summer as a pilgrim, it would have been hot.

In fact, the psalmist says about the summer pilgrim that they go through the Valley of Baca.

The Valley of Baca probably wasn't a real place.

It was most likely a metaphor for a hot, dry, and difficult place to travel, and that would describe the conditions traveling to Jerusalem if you were a summer pilgrim.

And it in part describes a spiritual summer as well.

If you're in a spiritual summer season, you're probably not seeing quite as much fruit as you did maybe a few weeks ago during that spiritual spring.

It's just not as easy to love and have patience and that self-control.

Maybe you're feeling the heat of Satan's attacks a little more regularly.

But most of all, in the spiritual summer, we're just plain old tired, weary, exhausted, maybe a little burned out.

You're not quite as excited to spend time with God as you once were.

Where is God's blessings in all of this? Well, the psalmist says in Psalm 84:6 about that summer pilgrim, "As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs," or wells.

Psalms 84:6

Did you know that no matter where you're at in the world, it could be the driest, dustiest, sandiest place around, if you dig deep enough, you know what you're gonna find in the earth? Eventually, you will find water.

If you dig deep enough, you will be blessed with water, and there is the same truth when it comes to our spiritual lives as well.

Now, it's during that spiritual summer that we wanna dig deep the least so often, isn't it? We're tired, we're weary, we're burnt out, but it's so often when we need to dig deep the most.

God wants us to dig deep into the well of scripture, into the well of prayer, into the well of our church family, and be refreshed.

As we dig deep into the well of scripture, God meets us, and He refreshes us with His beautiful promises.

As we dig deep into the well of prayer, we're refreshed with His loving, comforting presence.

As we dig deep into the well of church family during those hot seasons, sometimes we're even blessed with portable air conditioning units when your house is in the low to mid-90s, like I was this past week.

And you will absolutely be blessed with their encouragement during a hot and dreary season.

It may be the toughest season to dig deep, but it's when we need to the most so often, and God says, "When you seek me, you will find me."

And of course, like Kelly actually said when she was just up here, the summer will come to an end.

And on this earth, our spiritual summers will absolutely end.

And maybe the next spiritual season you'll pass as a pilgrim is the one of autumn.

If you were a pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem during the autumn, you would've experienced the autumn rains.

In Psalm 84:6, the psalmist says about the fall pilgrim, "The autumn rain covers their path with pools."

Psalms 84:6

You say, "Great, Pastor Ryan, that's not exactly what I'm looking for, a nice rainy walk."

But it would be exactly what you'd long for after a hot season, right? That rain is exactly what the earth would need after that hot summer, and it's what we need too if we're coming off the summer of our pilgrimage.

It's during those times that we have been digging deep.

It's during those hot and dreary seasons that we need God's provision the most, and that is what that autumn rain is symbolic of, God raining down His blessings on you after a hot and dreary season.

Maybe you're experiencing the season of autumn spiritually speaking right now.

Has God unexpectedly, or maybe better yet, suddenly provided for a need that you have had for a long time? You feel the blessings raining down on you? Maybe you're in a spiritual autumn.

Maybe it's a new job after a long time laid off.

Maybe it's a spark of revival in your relationship with Him after a dry spell.

That would mean you're in a spiritual autumn.

And there's a reason that the 42% declare that autumn is the best.

It's during that season that we're able to see that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine.

The spiritual autumn, it's fantastic, isn't it? Of course, just like the spiritual spring ends on this earth and the summer ends as well, autumns too will end, and maybe your autumn will pass into winter.

If you were a pilgrim making your way back from Jerusalem and you were on the road for a long time, you could have experienced the winter, and we know what that is like, right? Their journey would've been a little bit colder, and the wind would've been harsh and biting.

Maybe you're in a spiritual winter right now.

It's something that we will all experience at some point in this sinful and fallen world.

You're looking around, and life, it doesn't feel quite as warm as it used to.

It feels cold.

The world's treatment of you feels harsh.

That happens in this sinful and fallen world.

Your heart, it feels frozen.

It's not like the summer where it was struggling to love.

It feels incapable of loving and producing those spiritual fruits Maybe you're going through a season of dark trials.

The winter is a season where there's not a whole lot of light, is there? And you feel alone, you feel isolated.

Where could God possibly give you blessings in all of this? Well, in Psalm 84:11, the psalmist remarks about the winter pilgrim that the Lord God is a sun and shield.

Psalms 84:11

Even then, the Lord bestows favor and honor, and no good thing does he withhold.

It might seem awfully dark during those spiritual winters, but God's son is still with you, keeping you warm, and God is still that shield protecting you from that biting wind, and he is giving you good things because no good thing does he withhold.

In fact, he uses those spiritual winters to develop you in an amazing way.

This is what God does.

God actually uses the winter to make you and the plants bloom.

I was doing a little research this week, and it turns out that many plants require a period of cold winter temperatures.

It's a biological process known as vernalization.

It's to break dormancy, develop strong root systems, and trigger flower bud formation.

Without that vernalization, we wouldn't have the beautiful blooms that the daffodils give us or the tulips give us.

They need it to develop roots and have those beautiful flowers God uses our spiritual winters in a very similar way.

He uses them, he works through them to give us deeper roots and to help us bloom in the way that he intended us to bloom.

That's what I'm reading here in James 1:2-4.

James 1:2–4

God uses our trials to make us more like Jesus.

It says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

That is what God is doing through your spiritual winters.

Let's keep it simple.

He takes the bad in our lives, and he works it for our good and his glory, the good of making us more like Jesus, and the ability to give more and more glory to Jesus.

And I want you to remember that as you pass through those spiritual winters.

And in fact, as we close out this message today, there are three things that I want you to remember no matter what season you are in spiritually speaking right now.

The first one, I hope you didn't miss this.

This is what the whole sermon was about, that God has a blessing for you in that spiritual season.

Make sure you focus on it.

All right? During the spiritual springs when everything is going so well, don't get bogged down by little things bugging you during that particular season.

During those spiritual summers, don't focus on how hot it is outside and your exhaustion, and say, "I just want to lean back on the couch and do nothing today."

Dig deep into those wells and receive God's refreshment through that well of his presence in prayer, the well of scripture, and the well of your church family.

During those spiritual autumns, embrace that rain falling down on you, God providing for you after so long.

Thank him for it.

And even in those spiritual winters, thank God for his promise that he is working through your trials for your good and his glory, and to make you more and more like Jesus.

God has a blessing for you in each season.

Focus on it.

Second, remember the calendar will keep on moving.

Sometimes it seems like certain seasons are never gonna end, doesn't it? Will this winter ever end? And you think it's about to end.

There's, oh, a peak of sunshine, and the next week it's winter all over again, isn't it? But the calendar is going to keep on moving.

The psalmist says in Psalm 84:6 about that pilgrim that they are just passing through the Valley of Baca.

Psalms 84:6

It's not a permanent destination.

They are just passing through.

This too shall pass.

The calendar will keep on moving.

Until one day you will experience a permanent spring.

That's the last thing I want you to remember.

This is what Jesus says in Revelation 21:5.

Revelation 21:5

He says, "See, I am making everything new.

Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

He is talking about the spiritual spring that we will permanently experience in heaven when we are with our Lord and Savior face to face each and every day.

That is the destination that we are all headed to.

That is where our pilgrimage ends.

Our special purposeful journey to a holy place or site is gonna be in God's holy presence each and every moment of each and every day in heaven, where he makes all things new permanently, no longer capable of sin.

He wipes away every tear from our eyes.

We've got the new heavenly body, and we are with him always.

And as we experience that spiritual spring, in a verse that's well worth highlighting today, Psalm 84:10, we're gonna declare in permanence that, "Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

Psalms 84:10

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Remember, that is where you are headed, pilgrims.

But while you are on the journey, my prayer for you is this: May you realize and experience and see that God is blessing you in each and every spiritual season, no matter what spiritual season you're passing through on your way to the permanent spring, and you get those blessings and the ultimate blessing because of Jesus.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.

stjohnsbuffalo.

org.

Thank you and God bless you.