The Fruit of Winter | Ps. Lindsey Brenner

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Thank you so much.

Good morning.

What a beautiful time of worship, right?

That was just what I needed.

So thank you as always, worship team.

But uh that was specifically perfect for me this morning.

Um I am honored and humbled to be with you this morning.

I think I already cried off.

I don't wear a lot of makeup, but what I did put on for you guys this morning, because I was gonna be up here, I think it's already gone.

So if there's mascara, I'm sorry, I didn't look at a mirror before I got up here, but I truly am honored and humbled to be up here with you again this morning.

Um it is not an easy burden and weight to carry this platform.

And I didn't know that until last time in December when I it was my first time to speak to you guys.

Um, and what transpired over the preparation days was hard and heavy, and it wasn't just physically hard, it was mentally hard and especially spiritually hard.

Um, and so I wanted to take a moment to actually pastor uh to honor Pastor Keith because um he carries that weight every weekend pretty much.

And um, I know we all kind of rotate, but he carries the primary burden, and that's a heavy burden to carry.

And um, I just am super thankful for how you carry, you steward.

Obviously, he's gifted in grace to speak, but that does not remove the weight that he has to carry, and that's a very serious weight, and he takes it seriously.

I see him seek after God fervently to bring the word to you guys, even in this series, allowing God to work in him while he's preparing to share with you.

And I just appreciate that.

How you steward this platform, and even Pastor Megan, the way you two lead and love this church, I say it all the time, but I'm super thankful to be under their leadership and under their pastorship more than anything.

So thank you guys so much.

I love you guys, and thank you for this opportunity once again.

Okay, so I have loved this series.

I don't know how who else has loved this series.

We did this fun little round table we had never done at the beginning of this series, and the pastor Keith pulled the staff together and he's like, Okay, this is what I'm thinking.

What do you guys think?

And we all kind of chimed in, gave our thoughts, and so I'm actually standing here because I spoke up too much.

So now I know maybe don't speak up so much during those round tables because then this is the punishment, I guess.

I don't know.

Um, but I I've loved it.

All the metaphors, all the beautiful truths that we've pulled out from this the plant kingdom and the what Godish teaches us through it and in his word.

I have actually loved gardening and outdoors from a very young age.

Um, my grandma was someone that I most identified with growing up.

I saw myself the most in her, more than even my my family and my like my immediate family and siblings.

Uh, she was an incredible painter, she was incredibly creative, um, but she was an avid gardener.

And my favorite times were going to her house when my mom said, Hey, you're I'm dropping you off for a Saturday.

I was always so excited because I felt like I was gonna be with my kindred spirit that day.

She dropped me off, and almost always on the kitchen table, she would have this meticulously planned out craft for me, which I never knew what it was, but I was super excited to do it.

We would bake or go outside.

But the other thing that was almost always a cornerstone of our time together is we would garden.

We'd go out to her garden.

And if you walked out to the backyard, she had like a perimeter of garden beds on in her backyard, and so she would begin to work from one side and go all the way around it.

And I had, I think she got it for me, like this Fisher Price plastic gardening wagon with like tools in it.

I don't even know.

I just remember being feeling superficial and like carting it along the perimeter, like six-year-old Lindsay.

And um, I just loved that time, you know.

I think I thought I was helping her, but really what made it most exciting is we'd get up to a plant and she's like, Okay, that tomato's ready.

It's you want to pick it?

And if like, yes, let's pick it.

So we'd immediately grab it, go inside, wash it, and eat it.

And if you have never had a radish or a tomato, pretty much anything directly from a homegrown garden, you're missing out because it does not taste like store-bought.

It is good stuff.

Um, and what I loved about it, I think, was the immediacy of it when I was six.

I loved picking it off and enjoying the literal fruits of her labor, right?

But I didn't know as a six-year-old what all went into eating that tomato.

I just loved it.

It was fun.

Fast forward to my mid-20s, we became first-time homeowners, my husband and I.

And one of the first things he and I both wanted to do is we're like, we have a backyard, let's do a garden.

And even though I was kind of exposed, I didn't understand anything about gardening.

So he and I went into what you do if you're gonna start something out from scratch.

You grab a book, you read an article, you ask around, you research methods, and we kind of decided.

We built four different um large plant garden beds in the backyard, and then we began to try our hand at gardening.

And I have like a rap sheet just so you guys realize we we got, you know, we were really kind of legit.

Like we did tomatoes and corn and watermelon, spinach kale, herbs, we did bell peppers, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, squash.

We had uh blackberry bushes, I mean a blackberry vine and blueberry bushes, and we even planted a lemon tree.

Um, it was fun, we loved it, and obviously through those years we learned a lot.

We didn't always produce something.

Sometimes it didn't work, or some sort of insect came in and ate up a crop, and we had to figure it out.

Like, okay, what do we need to do differently?

And I'm organic, so I didn't want to like use a pesticide.

I had to figure out what's a you know a natural pesticide.

But through the years, what I learned then, or you know, in the future, was that everything that went into the fruit was just as equally important and vital as the produce.

So while some people just enjoy the fruit, everything that went into it, the entire cycle, was extremely important.

And the best part was is you got the harvest, and that was actually not the end of it.

It was like, okay, it was good and I loved it, but then let's uproot that, let's renourish the soil, let's decide our next seed, what's work, what will work seasonally, and then we'd plant it and start to go start it all over again.

So the cycle was continual, it never ended.

And what I love about that, and what the truth that I gained from that is that the whole cycle is equally important, of equal weight, right?

Not just the harvest.

You know, I used to actually think life was more kind of, I think this is a natural thought, but I think I used to think life was more cumulating and linear, meaning that the older I got, I would learn more, I would gain more, I would understand more, and you kind of just add it to the bag and you continue on linearly in life.

But um, as I've gone through things and actually aged and grown and experienced life, I actually believe that life is cyclical, just like this example of gardening, and that it has to do more or equally, not just of growth and success and produce, but also about loss and surrender.

I think that life is beyond just conquest and gain, but it's also about rest.

And just like gardening, every step is necessary and vital to the entire process.

And so, like that, us, we are never fully arrived.

Amen.

We are constantly in process.

And if we allow God, he wants to keep us in that process so he can make us more like him, that he can sanctify us, refine us over and over again because we've never arrived.

Amen.

Last week, Pastor Keith said something very powerful.

I know you know this, but no, I'm kidding.

Um He said something that perfectly aligns with this concept and leads us where I'm going today, and that is time ages us, but but seasons mature us.

Ecclesiastes chapter three.

I'm gonna start in verse one.

We're gonna read this part of it together.

There's a season, a time appointed for everything, and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

And then if we can jump down to verse 11, and what does the worker gain from his struggles?

I've seen the burden God has placed on all of us.

He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time.

This morning I want to talk to you guys about the topic of seasons, but before we jump in, let's pray.

God, thank you so much for this opportunity.

God, thank you so much for this church, Lord.

We invite you into this time, Lord, of reading and studying your word together.

Lord, this is beyond just a message, this is beyond a sermon, God.

This is a time that we open ourselves, open our hearts, God.

We invite your Holy Spirit in.

God, we ask that you would reveal to us the truth of your word, God, that you would speak truth where maybe there's unbelief or misunderstanding, God.

We ask that change would happen this morning beyond what any human could cause, Lord.

God, I ask that you'd be in this time.

I submit my words to you, God.

Be in every single one of them, that you're glorified completely.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Okay, so seasons.

This morning is actually the beginning of springtime.

Does anybody know that?

Today's first day of spring.

It is.

So happy springtime, if you did not know.

Um, I had a different outfit planned, and then I realized this is not springy at all.

So I'll just clarify.

I know I did not meet the springtime mark mark, but um, I was like, this jacket I had, I was like, no, this is this is not spring.

My mom would be very sad.

But uh what's what spring is is a beautiful time.

It's actually one of my favorite seasons because what you see is the sun is out longer, the days are brighter, you can enjoy being outside.

It's not too hot, it's not too cold.

Obviously, I'm gonna speak in generalities because we live in Florida and our experience of summer, I mean of seasons is a little bit limited.

But for the purposes of this message, please go there with me that we're speaking generally.

Not too hot, not too cold, okay?

Colors begin blooming everywhere, greens are begin to cover the ground and fill the trees again.

It's a beautiful season, right?

Of life, of new growth, of beautiful colors, and of peeps candy.

People like to remind me of that because there, I'm not a like, I'm I'm sorry, I'm not a huge peeps candy person, but there are friends of mine that like run to the store when they know it's gonna be there.

I don't know, it's a thing.

And she claps, so apparently it is a thing.

Who loves spring in here?

Show of hands?

You love spring?

Nice, so do I, good.

Um, spring cannot help but remind us of hope, new life, rejuvenation, potential of future, right?

Amen.

Then comes summer, okay?

So what the new growth of spring was, summer is it's fully mature.

Trees are giant green umbrellas where we can bask under their shade, we can enjoy the reprieve from the hot sun.

Typically, the hot sun rejuvenates us, but it also calls us towards water, right?

We're at lakes or beaches or your swimming pool to stay cool.

That's part of our summer experience.

The sun is out in all of its glory.

And what summer reminds us, and I think about this too, because it's like the perfect combination of rain and sun.

And typically, and I know this because I was a homeowner, I still am, but we're in a townhome now, but it's so it's not the same.

But when you're responsible, responsible for grass growing, something about like the combination, it's like it grows crazy, right?

Summer reminds us of bounty.

And in summer is springtime fully actualized.

So I know I'm kind of moving quickly so far.

We just got two seasons out of the way, and that's actually purposeful because in preparation for this message, um, I I thought I was gonna get equal weight and equal time to every season, but I heard God tell me very specifically to stay in winter, and that was heavy, and I was like, okay, how am I gonna do this?

So I had to kind of refocus and and change my perspective.

But last week, um Pastor Keith spoke a very profound message on pruning, the idea, the importance of it.

Who who heard it in here?

It was incredible.

If you did not hear it, I highly, highly encourage you to do so.

You can go to our YouTube, watch it there, or in our podcast.

But he spoke about why pruning is so important in our lives.

And in fall is nature's natural time to prune.

Okay.

So what happens in fall, days get shorter, temperatures drop, the sunlight is not out as much, and all of those things actually triggers a response in the plant kingdom.

It sends signals to them and they start setting a lot of things in motion.

And one of those things that we see visibly are trees, are leaves falling, right?

Well, maybe not Floridians, but continue to track with me.

But these leaves actually are not receiving chlorophyll anymore, which is the what's happening scientifically.

But what actually the tree is decided to do is it's it can't expend its energy anymore to the leaves.

So what it does is it takes that energy, turns it inward, and then those leaves slowly die and eventually fall to the ground.

It's beautiful, and the drastic colors are awesome.

Um, but trees are pruning themselves, okay?

And as a gardener, fall is actually one of the most important times to prune.

As like with your crops, you have to pull back dead, unnecessary things, disease things, especially overgrowth.

And it's also in that same idea of conservation.

And all of this, that I just these couple of examples is actually in preparation for winter.

Um and this is where we're gonna kind of settle in, okay?

I'm gonna read an excerpt from uh one of my favorite books, Anonymous by Alicia Britcholet.

Um Though my skin prefers the role of trees in summer, somehow my soul prefers their lessons in winter.

Then when growth pauses, the trees have become often my teachers.

What the plenty of summer hides, the nakedness of winter reveals infrastructure.

Fullness often detracts from foundations, but the stillness of winter, the tree's true strength, is revealed.

Life does not sleep, though in winter she retracts all advertisement.

And when she does so, she is conserving and preparing for the future.

And so it is with us.

Seasonally, we too are stripped of visible fruit.

Our giftings are hidden, our abilities are underestimated.

When previous successes fade and current efforts falter, we can easily mistake our fruitlessness for failure.

But such is the rhythm of spiritual life.

New growth spring, fruitfulness summer, transition fall, and rest winter.

And then this cycle begins again.

Abundance may make us feel more productive, but perhaps emptiness has greater power to strengthen our souls.

In the absence of anything to measure, we are left with nothing to stare out, stare at except for our foundation.

If you are taking notes this morning, I've titled this message The Fruit of Winter.

And that may sound like a complete juxtaposition, but the trees actually tell a different story.

Like in this example I just read.

Trees seemingly to us during winter are completely empty, empty and lifeless, just waiting for spring, right?

Just waiting until it gets warmer so they can bloom again and be happy.

But it's actually the exact opposite.

Trees are turned inward to work diligently, tending to its core.

They don't continue to expend energy on things that are just are superfluous, like leaves.

You know, they're like, this is not worth my energy right now, let's turn inward.

During the trees, tree during this winter, actually, trees do a lot of incredible things.

And one of the things I uncovered is they do something really cool where they create their own antifreeze.

Cool pun, I guess, but they create their own antifreeze, they turn starches, it starches internally into sugars.

And what this does is it lowers the freezing point of the cells with the goal that it literally has one goal to keep its life, its life-giving cells alive.

Alive cells, that's its goal, which I think is pretty incredible when you think about that.

Um and the lowering of the freezing point allows it to withstand drastic temperatures.

There's nothing lifeless about that.

Another incredible thing I discovered is fruit trees, particularly have something called chill hour requirements or minimum chill hours.

And what this means is there is a minimum, not a maximum, amount of time in which it must be in the winter.

And they have some sort of internal calculator that knows if it had the proper amount of time to turn inward, rejuvenate itself, refresh itself, so that it will properly produce in spring.

And if it's and if it's delayed, not delayed, if it's what's the opposite of that, if it's triggered too soon, it actually can lead to some really horrible things where it will not produce buds and fruit.

Um so if a tree does not, let me, I want you to understand, if a tree does not experience enough winter, when spring does finally come, the blooming and the foliation will be delayed and erratic, and the fruit quality will be poor.

So much happens inside trees during winter.

And I think it's teaching us something, right?

It's spending its time focusing on what actually matters in time during that time to ultimately produce life in the spring and be able to sustain that life through summer.

So winter is bare, but winter is not barren.

It looks lifeless, but winter is not barren.

For us, winter can look like a lot of things.

It can look like seasons of being overlooked, underestimated.

It can look like being unutilized, that you have so much potential in you, but you're being overlooked or maybe not appreciated by the people around us.

Winters can also look like job transitions or starting college or moving to a new city and having to re rebuild a community around you.

Winters can also look like something you never asked for or never prepared for, like an unexpected divorce, a scary medical diagnosis, financial hardship, loss of a loved one.

But what winters are, they are isolating, they are overwhelming, and they are disorienting.

But what is true for the tree, I believe is true for us.

Instead of looking at winter as something that we hope doesn't come, or that we just want to, when it is there, we just want to get through it, that we need to hunker down.

I believe we should shift our perspective like the tree and learn from the tree that this is actually a vital time for us.

Winter is necessary and needed.

And if we allow God to do internal deep work in us, what produces is really incredible things like purified faith, strengthened character, because nothing is wasted with God.

Amen.

So I want you to hear this our winters are bare.

We are bare during winters, 100%, but we are not barren if we allow God to do his work in us.

Something that I I I'm gonna shift right now.

And I believe it's true about winters being incredibly vital, 100%.

But when I said allow God to do the work in us, I think there's uh something I want you guys to grasp this morning.

Originally I was gonna give you guys, okay, this is somebody in the Bible who exemplified this, and this was somebody in the Bible that exemplified that.

But um four nights ago, I was laying in bed and I just felt like God said, You don't need to look any further than Jesus.

Because Jesus's life was full of winters when he was here on earth.

And I don't have time to unpack the life of Jesus.

In fact, switching to that as my example was a little bit intimidating because I'm like, how do I summarize the life of Jesus to help you guys understand that his life was full of life?

Of winters.

I am not going to do that, so don't worry, you're this is not going to be like a 45-minute message.

What I do want to do is give you guys a Spark notes version of some of the winters that he faced, okay?

So I'm going to kind of read through some of these so we can, if you've, I'm sure you've heard it, but I want you to kind of understand it somewhat chronologically and understand it from this perspective that these are winters he's facing, okay?

So he was born and overlooked for his first 30 years of life.

I want you to understand Jesus was an uncelebrated boy from an unroyal family and grew up in a small and very insignificant town.

Not anything that people would expect from the Messiah.

In fact, the Bible says, Nathaniel said, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

People didn't think that the Messiah was going to come from where he was, God had chosen him to be born and grow up.

Jesus had God's divine power and calling bursting inside of him.

Yet what we see Jesus do for 30 years of his life is he waited.

He remained overlooked, overlooked and unrecognized, very much in a winter.

And can you imagine?

I try to think about, I'm 34.

Could the first could I have dealt with the first 30 years of my life remaining in a season of being under overlooked or unrecognized?

Like that, I can't imagine.

That's difficult.

So day after day, month after month, year after year, Jesus patiently waited until his father said it was time for him to step into his calling.

Talk about a winter season, talk about a way to learn to embrace and learn from hiddenness and winters, right?

Then, after waiting 30 years, he he walks into his public ministry.

He's baptized and he's affirmed publicly by his Father in heaven, who says, This is my son, my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

The very next scripture says, You ready?

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

For 40 days and 40 nights he fasted and became very hungry.

So what you're what I'm reading here, now I don't know how many days passed in there, but I'm assuming it's not like a ton of time.

He came out of 30 years.

He has this moment of walking into his calling, and then spirits leading him to the wilderness for 40 days, 40 nights.

He goes from this incredibly long winter to here's another one.

And that's in has to be incredibly hard.

But he also had the power, if he wanted to, to shorten or fast track that next season of tempting.

And in fact, that is what the devil, we see the devil do when he's being tempted.

The devil said to him, If you're the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him no.

The scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So instead of fast tracking his winter and using his power to make bread so he wasn't in this 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, he said, No, I'm gonna stay here, I'm gonna be obedient, I'm gonna embrace it, and I'll be tempted in every way that that human is, and refrain from sin.

He chose to stay in his winter.

Jesus was also rejected and criticized by the people that grew up with him and knew him the best.

The Bible says, after he stepped into his public ministry and was traveling, teaching and performing miracles, he returned to Nazareth, his hometown.

He, when he taught here, there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed.

Where did he get this wisdom and power to do miracles?

Then they scoffed.

He's just the carpenter's son.

And we know Mary, his mother, his brothers, James, John, Simon, and Judas, all his sisters live right here among us.

Where did he learn these things?

And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

So he is as at this point has actually stepped into the public ministry.

He's doing miracles.

And just because of where he came from, those people that knew him, they saw the character of Jesus for 30 years.

And they just said, No, I'm offended and I refuse to believe.

And that wasn't just Nazareth, even though that was hard.

He constantly was misunderstood.

He was constantly doubted in his ministry.

He was betrayed by one of his disciples.

We all know that.

One of his closest people to him, who walked daily with him, witnessed his character, saw those same miracles, watched how he loved the people around him, was probably the recipient of that love.

In spite of that, Judas decided that money, 30 silver pieces to be exact, was worth it to give Jesus up to be arrested, betrayed by that guy.

And then what in one of his darkest hours, right before his death, Jesus pleaded with his friends to stay with him and pray.

It says he took Peter and James and John.

He became anguished and distressed.

Jesus told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

He bowed his head to the ground, praying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

And then he returned to his disciples and found them asleep.

He said to Peter, Couldn't you watch with me for one hour?

Like he really needed his friends.

And they did.

Not long after this, Peter actually denies.

We see Peter deny Jesus three times.

He acts like he doesn't even know.

Could you imagine being in literally the one of the hardest, darkest hours of your life?

And the people who are the closest, it's not like they're just acquaintances.

They literally are have been that close to you this whole time.

And you need them, and you try to draw strength from them and support from them, and they're not there.

They literally say, I don't know you.

Talk about a winter.

We see throughout scripture, through these examples, that Jesus did not have it easy, right?

He suffered tremendous agony, he even to death on a cross.

And in that process, people wishing for him to die, feeling forsaken by God.

And yet he says, God, I want your will, not mine.

What I want us to take away is that Jesus was not exempt from winters.

And when we look at Jesus, I think oftentimes for us that have been in the church today, we can think about his miraculous things.

We can think about his redemptive work on the cross.

And we can think of him, that's God.

Jesus was God.

But sometimes we have trouble realizing that he was also fully man and that he was confined to the limitations of humanity.

Philippians 2, 6 through 8 says, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges, he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross.

He faced all the feelings that humans do.

But he chose to walk through it and he chose to learn from each one of them.

Because Jesus was not some hu superhero.

He did not, he was not born into this character already developed.

That did not happen.

He was not a baby with all of this already developed inside of him.

He actually had to walk through the process of developing it.

Do you understand that?

He wasn't like, I didn't arrive on the screen, he didn't arrive on the scene fully developed.

He walked through winters and developed.

He allowed God to do a work in him.

And each winter that we face, we have to realize that God, that Jesus Himself also did the same thing.

And he learned to trust and depend on God every time, more and more.

He was strengthened in each season to face his next season, his next winter.

At this time, the band can load.

Today I want you to hear me.

You don't have to walk through winter alone.

You can invite the Lord to walk through it with you, and he wants nothing more than to do that.

And I feel like who better would you want to invite in in your winter to walk through it with you than a God who fully empathizes with it and understands because he himself also did?

You're not alone even in your winters because God is with you.

Romans 3, sorry, 5, 3 through 5 says, we can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help develop endurance.

Endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love.

God is with us through our winters, but he also wants to produce these things in us.

Last time I spoke in December, I had an opportunity to share with you guys what I would consider the spring and the summer side of something that I had walked through.

And that was in my son's life, Adler.

I was able to share with you guys about a very long season that we walked through before he was even born, and then once he was born with basically undiagnosed kidney issues.

And we didn't know what it was, why they were looking underdeveloped, why things were happening.

And I basically walked through a season, unlike any I had before, as a mom facing this big question mark for her child.

And I remember walking through that season and learning to pray differently, learning to see God differently, learning to surrender my child in the hands of someone I knew cared about him and loved about him, loved him more than me.

And when I shared with you, I was able to rejoice and celebrate that he was completely healed.

And it was an awesome moment.

And it still is an awesome moment.

I want you to hear that.

But last, what Pastor Megan was referencing earlier, but um last week on Monday, um, I found uh something on him that we had to go get looked at by his pediatrician, and it was diagnosed as basically a developmental hernia.

Didn't know what it was, but basically, what that means is there's a part that did not develop the right way.

And now, because of his age and size, it can be problematic because his organs can can slip into that area and it can become emergent.

Um completely shocking, out of the blue, um, still hard to kind of stomach, but we have a surgery date for this Thursday.

And in that time, I did really like I contemplated, do I back out of this engagement today?

But God told me through that, you've just completed this long season of winter, and what I I knew he wanted me to talk about staying in winter before I knew about this.

And I'm here in my next winter season, and what I see that God did through me during that season has perfectly prepared me for this one.

And it may not be the outcome I wished for or hoped for, but I want you to understand it's not about the outcome.

I understand that that same God who healed him and loves him deeply is the same God that's with him in this surgery on Thursday.

And I don't know what's gonna come of it.

I don't know.

I pray it's healing, I pray he's whole, I pray there's no complications.

But I really have this deep dependency on God in a different way now.

That even if the outcome doesn't even go the way I plan, it's okay because God has him and he has me.

And that's what a real real winter is it's this surrender.

We sang this song this morning about waiting on God, and that scripture it kept referencing is in Isaiah is actually my son's scripture.

His name Adur means eagle, and he will rise up on wings like eagles, he will run and not go weary, he will walk and not go fate, and we're gonna wait on the Lord because he will renew my strength and his.

And so I want you guys to understand from my example that winters come, they will happen.

You cannot wish them away, they are vital.

But if you invite God into those times, there is incredible work that can happen.

Eternal, important fruit is gonna be birthed inside of you, and that cannot be traded during just a spring.

Springtime is awesome, it's great, but it cannot be what it's supposed to be without winter.

And for us, we speak about hope, and hope is important, but equally, it cannot be what it truly is without loss and surrender and suffering.

And I know that's not a fun message to speak on a Sunday morning, but it's reality.

And I don't know where you guys are, I don't know if you're in a winter right now, I don't know if you're about to be in a winter, but if you take nothing else from this, I want you to understand that he's with you and there's it's okay.

Simple as that.

Okay, let's pray.

God, I thank you so much for that you have proven to us time and time again through your example that there is necessity and beauty in winter.

And this morning, if you are going through something right now, or if you, I'm sure at some point you have experienced a winter, and maybe though you don't know the person of Jesus, maybe you've never walked through a winter with him.

I want to give you an opportunity to respond.

I want to give you an opportunity to invite him, to be the Lord of your life, and to be a friend through winters.

So if that is you in this place this morning, if you want to say, Lord, I want to follow you, I want to be with you, you can raise your hand at this time.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your life.

Thank you for your example.

Lord, I need you.

I acknowledge that I fall short.

Come into my life, be the Lord of my life, I surrender to you, I embrace my winters with you.

Be my Lord and Savior.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

And with your heads still bowed, God, maybe you're in a winter right now, or maybe you're about to walk into a winter, and you know this Jesus I'm talking about, but you have not invited him to walk with you in these times.

If that's you, if you feel like he is asking you to create space for him, if you want to respond and say, God, walk with me.

I don't want to just rush through it, I don't want to just fast track my way through it.

God, be with me in this time.

You can raise your hand at this moment.

Lord God, we thank you so much.

Lord, that you are with us and you are ready to walk, you're ready to lean in, you're ready to teach us, you're ready to develop us.

We submit and we surrender to you with everything we have.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening.

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