Every Season Has a Seed

For everything there's a season, a time for every matter under heaven,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break 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,

a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away,

a time to tear and a time to sow a time to keep silent and a time to speak a

time to love and a time to hate a time for war and a time for peace the Bible

is showing us there's times there's seasons for everything,

it goes on and says what gain has a worker from his toil I've seen the business

that God has given to the children of man to be busy with but then it goes and

it's really what I want to focus with,

regarding all these seasons we read about the Bible says He has made everything

beautiful in its time. Everybody say, in its time.

Notice there, the Bible says there's ordained timing for all these things that

he makes them beautiful. We'll talk about that in a moment.

Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what

God has done from the beginning to the end.

We're going to talk about what

that means in just a moment and why we struggle with timing sometimes.

But I want to preach on this subject just for a few moments.

I believe it's going to speak not only to our graduates, but for every person

in here that's navigating the seasons of life.

I want to speak to on this every season has

a seed every season has a

seed so let's pray this morning as we open up in prayer i

want us to remember uh brother aaron collier he's still

in the hospital he's in holston valley right now he showed some

improvement last night and we're believing for a

miracle i know you have needs to let's remember all those needs as

we open up this morning let's let's pray father in the

name of jesus we come before you we thank you

for your goodness we thank you for your provision in

our lives god we pray for brother aaron right now god that

you would be the healer send forth your word and bring

healing in the name of jesus father we pray over every need that's in this house

father we pray right now that you would open up the ears of our understanding

open our hearts this morning to hear your word holy spirit speak into our lives

so that we could be changed by your word and we thank you for the word this

morning in the name of jesus we pray and the church said.

Amen. Amen. Preaching on this subject this morning, every season has a seed.

Now, as I said, I've lived long enough now. I remember that when I was young

and started preaching, I was just around 20, 21 years old when I started preaching.

And I thought, I can't wait.

I know this is a weird thought. I thought, I can't wait until I'm 40 because

people will listen to me when I'm 40.

I went places and I felt just because I was 21 or 25, people didn't want to

listen because they saw me as inexperienced and what I learned is,

it wasn't because I was 25 that people didn't have as much confidence in some

of the things, it was because maybe I hadn't seen enough in life.

I've seen enough in life now, I've lived through enough seasons in life now

to know this and I want you to remember this, that every season has a seed and

what you plant in this season is going to be what you harvest in the next season.

What you plant in this season of your life is going to be what you harvest in

the next season of your life.

We believe in sowing and reaping. It is a biblical principle.

We're going to talk about what that looks like. See, here's the issue, though.

In our culture today, our culture has declared war on seasons.

They want it to be, our culture wants it to be sunny year-round.

Our culture wants it to be the spring and summer season all around.

Now, you look at Instagram and everybody, nobody posts a picture other than

Lucas of shoveling snow on Instagram.

Everybody wants to be that picture of you're on

the beach and everything's going great and you're eating at this restaurant

and you're enjoying a steak and nobody posts a picture of their air fryer potatoes

that they left in there for too long and that's all you got because you've had

too much month for the money, right?

Nobody posts a picture of that on Instagram. our culture has declared war on seasons.

And because of that, we want the promotion without the preparation.

We want the harvest without the planting. And we want the testimony without the test.

It's set up expectations that are not realistic.

As a matter of fact, social media and everything has set up the comparison trap

in our life so that every generation now, someone wants the harvest season and

their own planting season.

That's why we have young married couples that have been married for two weeks,

and they want the same house and the same car as their parents who have been

working for 40 years to get that harvest.

Can anybody say an amen right there?

Just know this, that there's different seasons of life.

There may be a season. Listen, there are those seasons when we had to drive

cars that we were We're hoping, people say, well, it's just point A to point B.

I had cars before, it was point A to hopefully I can make it to point A and

a half, and if we can get to point B, I was praising the Lord for point B.

Different seasons. Sometimes my current car is like, there's different seasons

of our lives that we have to go through.

And because of all these seasons of life and the way that our culture has confused us about these seasons,

we find that there's an increased anxiety because we feel like there's so much

uncertainty about the next phase of our life.

Most adults are stressed about the future because they don't know what the future holds.

And the reality is we're not supposed to know what the future holds.

We're going to go through difficult times. In this world, we will have tribulation.

Jesus promises that. And because we are here in this culture,

we have somehow gotten this wrong idea that we're never going to face temptation or difficulty.

The reality is empty nesters are feeling a little anxiety because they're wondering

what their purpose is now that all the children have left the home.

Retirees are facing anxiety because they're wondering what is my identity built

in now that I've retired from a career I've been in for 40 years and people

have known me as the doctor or the lawyer or the construction worker or whatever

it is that they know you as the teacher,

and now I'm just that person that's not in the occupational field anymore.

Married couples that's been married more than two weeks and the honeymoon is

over is wondering, what is it like now that I figured out that,

man, she has to brush her teeth too, and figured out that, wow,

he leaves his clothes on the floor after he takes them off.

Why is that pile of clothes behind the bathroom door? Doesn't he know where

the hamper is? and this is not what I expected in marriage, and we face anxiety.

And reality is we have widows and widowers that have spent their lives with

people and they've lost that special someone.

And now they're trying to figure out what does the future, will I ever be happy again?

And we don't realize that there are seasons to life.

And I've been saying it for years, but it's very applicable in this situation.

And here's the danger about seasons. When you don't understand them,

you make permanent decisions based on temporary circumstances.

When you don't realize that you're going to have some difficult seasons in marriage,

then you're ready to walk away, not knowing that that's a season that you walk

through, and there's going to be a different season.

When you don't realize that when you switch vocations or you switch jobs,

there's going to be difficult seasons in every occupation, and sometimes you've

got to just press through.

But because we don't understand seasons, we quit before we had a chance to let God work in our season.

Somebody listen to me right now. We can't quit before we allow God to work in the season where we are.

We quit in the winter when God's saying, if you just would have waited till

spring, I had glory ahead of you, but you weren't faithful.

Where I planted you. Can I get an amen somewhere? In this church,

we have to understand seasons.

See, when we began to understand seasons, we realized that there's a certain

rhythm sometimes to life, that we know that just because, as I know this,

just because everything's great today doesn't mean that I'm not going to face difficulty tomorrow.

As a matter of fact, we probably will all face some kind of difficulty this

week because we're living life. We got a shared experience as human beings.

But at the same time, just because you face difficulty doesn't mean that there's

not glory somewhere on the other side of that difficulty.

And so God is wanting you to see today that you've got to learn how to navigate

these seasons because every season has a seed.

Every season and what you're planting in this season is going to be what you're

harvesting in the next season, and I don't want to fail to plant,

even if this is a difficult season,

I don't want to fail to plant something in this season that God can turn glorious in the next season.

Even if I'm having difficulty in my relationship right now, I don't want to

fail to plant in this season.

Even if I'm having difficulty at work right now, I don't want to fail to plant

in this season so that God can bring forth harvest in the next season.

Amen. I know our graduates are like, is this what life is like? Yes.

It is. This is what it's like when you've got to pay your own car payment. Amen.

We see here that we've got to get back to where we believe in the providence of God.

This is a truth that God is not absent from us,

that the happenings of life are not random, that God chooses to insert himself into our lives,

that it's his good pleasure to insert himself into

our lives and work things together see that's

what we said in the book of Romans chapter 8 28 we

Romans 8 · chapter mention

quote it all the time around here well there it

is Romans 8 28 that we know that all things

work for together for good for those that love God and called according to his

purpose it's not just random it's God working all things together for good see

when you understand seasons you realize that this is not just a random hard

time that I'm going through.

This is not just a random difficulty that the universe has decided to let come upon my life.

No, this is God working things together for your good.

See, here's the reality is when you're in a waiting season, God's present.

When you are in a pruning season, God is present.

When you're in the harvest season, that's when we want to sing all the gospel

songs and shout, and you're sending the shouting, the running through church

gifs to people on your friend group and all this. No, no.

In every season, God is present with us.

See, Solomon realized this. Solomon wrote this passage.

And if you didn't learn anything else this morning, you learned that Solomon

wrote this and not John Lennon or whoever, one of the Beatles wrote this passage.

And so if nothing else, you learned this this morning that Solomon knew this lesson.

Solomon was a man that, first of all, he identifies himself in the book of Ecclesiastes

as the preacher or as the son of the king.

But he knew what it was like to go through seasons, seasons in his life.

Solomon knew what it was like to be at the height of life and everything being

wonderful, building the temple for God.

But Solomon also knew what it was like to be disobedient and to face difficulty

in his life. From the highest highs to the lowest lows, Solomon knew what it

was like to go through seasons.

As a matter of fact, Solomon uses a Hebrew word there for seasons that means at an appointed time.

He uses different vocabulary than we use in our English language.

The word there for seasons is at an appointed time.

In other words, things come into our life at appointed times,

not just seasons that are at randoms, but at appointed time.

NJR was talking in between services today, we struggle with this because we

hear the word seasons, and we actually, we line that up to the seasons that we live in,

fall, spring, winter, and so when we can't predict when the winter is going

to end and the spring is going to begin.

Then we get anxious about it.

That's why this translation of the original writing here gives us grief,

gives us trouble because Solomon is not saying it's like our natural seasons.

He's saying it's at an appointed time that God has preordained for us,

that we may not, as a matter of fact, I can relate to that right now because

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking about that by, you know,

the second week of May, I should be able to wear short sleeves.

But this week, I was breaking out the coat and the sweater and everything else.

I was like, man, we need to put Mother Nature on medication.

We've got some issues going on here. But that's the way it is in our lives sometimes.

We're saying, God, when are we going to see the next season?

Because I feel like I should be out of this season by now.

That word there for time is a word that means the fitting moment or the right thing at the right time.

I love that right there, because I know you think, well, I'm going through this difficulty right now,

and I don't know when God's going to bring me out of this, but what the Scripture

teaches us is that what you're going through right now is the right thing for

the right time in your life.

You may not see it right now, but I look back 15 years ago, 20 years ago,

and I see battles that I went through, and it was the right thing for the right time in my life.

I think about difficulty I had as a parent, and I think about how I had to weather

through some of those storms.

Carter's like, what do you mean? It was Lucas. All right.

I think about some of those difficulties that I had to go through,

and I look back, and I say, man, that was difficult, but it was the right thing for the right time.

I think about spiritually some of those times when I'd lay on the altar, and I'd pray and I'd cry.

And I think, God, where are you? And when are you going to show up?

But I look back now with faith that has increased all throughout some of those seasons.

And I say, God, it was the right thing at the right time in my life.

And so I'm speaking to somebody that you're going through seasons and just know

you're going to look back on this some point in your life and say, God.

According to his purpose. See, historically, the Jewish people understood seasons

better than we do because they didn't look at things in terms of time,

but they looked at things in terms of their calendar was built around what was

the agricultural and the religious time clock of their seasons.

And so they looked at things as planting and harvest and Passover and Pentecost and tabernacles.

And so they looked at things through a bigger lens than what we look at things.

Think about this. Our lives are ruled. We are anxious because our lives are

ruled by a time clock. Have you ever thought about that?

We're not looking to the next great spiritual festival. We're looking at a time

clock that's going to lead us to Friday.

How many people have said, I want you to be honest, all right?

This church is a good thing to do in church.

And so how many people in the last month have people said, how's your day?

And you'd said, it's Monday.

I've said it. All right. So I got to raise my hand. How many people have you

said to somebody in some form or fashion, well, thank God it's Friday.

Has anybody ever said, yes, there we are.

How many people on Sunday evening has said, or on Monday morning when somebody

says, how was your weekend? You say, too short.

Has anybody, okay, that shows me that I'm preaching to the right group of people

because the reason why we're anxious is we can't see life through the lens of

a season that God is taking us.

We are ruled by a time clock.

Everything is predicated on if I can just make it to Friday,

and unfortunately, Saturday and Sunday is too short, and,

oh my gosh, I've got to go back there on Monday, and it causes anxiety,

and we can't see the work of the Lord, even though the Scripture says everything,

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, He has put eternity into a man's heart.

See, we look at that. That word beautiful right there means appropriate, right.

In other words, He's not waiting on Friday. He doesn't have to do the work on

Sunday. that he's not confined to the weekend, in God's season,

he makes everything beautiful when it's appropriate.

He brings you through that circumstance when it's right for you.

When it's ready for you, when you're ready for the next season,

that's when he brings you through.

See, what we have to realize is God doesn't make everything beautiful eventually.

He makes them beautiful in their time.

God knows the appropriate time. But see, the struggle is, the Bible says he

has placed eternity in man's heart.

So what issue that causes for us, we serve a God that lives,

that he stands at the end and he sees the beginning. He is the alpha and the omega.

And so we're standing in a season saying, God, I want you to show me what's

at the end because eternity has been put in our heart.

We know there's something else out there, but the problem is we can't see it from where we are.

We get frustrated because we're saying, God, we want to see chapter eight,

but we're standing in chapter three, and God says, no, there's something that

you need to learn in chapter three, but you've got to endure this season.

There's seasons to our life. Every season has a seed, and what you plant in

this season will be your harvest in the next.

Okay, three seasons I want to talk about this morning. We're going to honor

our graduates after that.

The first season is the season of beginning, the season of beginning.

That's the season I want to encourage you to plant with faith and not fear.

And when I say the season of beginning, that could be the season for our graduates

of a new experience in college. That could be a new job experience for college graduates.

That could be for some of us in this building.

That could be a new season of our life that, man, I know for us,

a new season was when our boys, when Lucas was already going away to college,

and when Carter got married, it was a difficult season for me and Ashley.

It took us about, gosh, it probably took us six months to figure out who we

were. because our identity had been kind of built in our boys,

and that's who they were, and we had our rhythm kind of, you know, that's who we were.

And then when we came home and there was just the two of us,

I'm thinking, man, I hope she loves me a lot, right?

Because I don't know if I can stand me this much. It's just me.

And listen, I know how it is. I talked a big game leading up to that.

You can ask Carter. Leading up to his wedding, I told him, I said, hey, pal,

I said, this ain't your house no more you got your own place in

here in a few weeks when you when you say those vows walk down

that aisle i said you that fridge that's not your food anymore

i don't want you coming over here in my garage and getting coca-colas out

that's not your coca-cola that's my coca-cola as a matter of fact i i got listen

i i got all brave right so i ordered i ordered big totes and i i put a tote

in his room i said hey pal listen i've heard these horror stories about kids

getting Married and moving away and 17 years from now,

your clothes are still in my closet. That's my closet right there.

I said, everything you put in this tote right here, we're going to preserve

for posterity's sake, all right?

So if you've got anything you want me to put in the attic and save,

put it in this tote, because everything else is going to the bargain barn.

We're giving everything else away.

And we did, didn't we?

You put it in there. I said, everything either goes to your house or the bargain

barn, it's not staying in this house, it's his dad's house.

I was talking a big game, and then they got married, and about two weeks in,

I gave them a call. I was like, hey, you guys want to come over and hang out?

Because there was something about life that had changed.

There was a different season of life. I talked to retirees and people that retire,

that are ready for retirement, and they've worked for 40 years for this moment,

but they can't bring themselves to it because their identity has been built

in their career, and they don't know where they go without their identity being,

I talk to people who have now, their loved one has transitioned to heaven.

They've been married for 50 years. Their loved one's transitioned to heaven

and now their identity, no longer do they have children at home and no longer

do they identify in that career and now their loved one is in heaven and they

got to figure out, can I ever be happy again?

There's going to be seasons of beginning all throughout our lives and so I'm

not just talking to those who are graduating today. I'm talking to everybody in this building.

We've got to know that there's going to be seasons of planting that we've got

to plant with faith and not fear.

See, I look at this. I started thinking about Joshua. Joshua is standing at the Jordan River.

He has followed Moses all these years, but now it's his turn to lead.

And the Bible says that the Lord speaks to Joshua and says, Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened.

Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

This is a season that Joshua has not walked in before.

And Joshua, I know that Joshua was anxious. I know that Joshua had fear.

I know that Joshua was pausing like, I don't know if I can do this.

And I know you're saying, well, Scott, how do you know that?

Because God said, do not be frightened and do not be dismayed.

So obviously, there was something on the inside of Joshua that God had to speak

to because this was a transition season in his life.

Just know this, church. We're going to be like Joshua. We're going to be standing

on the bank of a Jordan River in our life somewhere.

We're going to be turning a corner and starting a new beginning,

and it's going to be unfamiliar to us, and you're going to be afraid.

I know some people have said, well, you know, it's been so difficult that it

must not have been. No, no, no.

Joshua had to fight battles. Joshua had to face difficulty.

Just because it's difficult doesn't mean it's not the will of the Lord.

It means it's a different season, and you've got to be faithful in the season that you're in.

If you believe that, give the Lord a hand clap of praise. I believe that.

Spurgeon said the Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highland of afflictions.

That's what I say to not only every graduate but every person in this building

today is that we have to be faithful to the season that God is calling us to.

Don't ever let fear convince you that just because it's uncomfortable, it's not the will of God.

Don't ever let fear convince you that just because you're afraid,

you shouldn't take that step.

There's different seasons that we must enter into.

Every season has a seed, and what you sow in this season will be your harvest in the next season.

So number one, there's going to be a season of planting. Number two,

though, there's going to be a season of endurance.

This is the one right here that's difficult for a lot of us, right?

We will have to endure something. We are going to have to grow where we're planted at times.

There's going to be seasons where you say, I know this can't be the will of

God because I hate going to that job every day.

This can't be the will of God because I feel like I'm persecuted.

This can't be the will. If that was the case, then the apostle Paul must have

been the most out of the will of the Lord person in all of the scripture because

there was constant persecution.

He said there was fighting on the outside and fear on the inside.

They were facing things all throughout the scripture. And yet we see here,

it was a season of endurance.

Not every season is a beginning. There's going to be seasons that you're in

the middle of that season.

There's going to be seasons that it's a long season. Amen.

I mean, I travel, I was preaching up in Alaska about 20, wow,

a lot of years ago, 26 years ago.

I was preaching in Alaska about 26 years ago, and I was up there in the summer.

And while I was up there, it was, it was daylight, like 23 hours a day.

It's talking about weird.

You know, it got about 10 o'clock at night and I thought, this needs to be changing, right?

I put on the airplane blinders and convinced myself it was night because things weren't changing.

For some of you, you're in a season right now and you think it should be changing.

You need to put on the Word of God and start reading about God's faithfulness

and know that it will change in due season.

As a matter of fact, isn't that what Paul told the Galatian church?

Paul told them, and let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season,

we will reap if we don't give up. We're going to reap if we don't give up.

And I know this morning you're saying that, yeah, but the apostle Paul,

he don't know what I'm going through.

You're right. He didn't have to go through what you're going through.

He was beaten and shipwrecked and imprisoned and abandoned.

He didn't have somebody gossiping about him on the job. I bet he did, actually.

I bet he did. As a matter of fact, we know he did have some of those believers

that had said things about him. they criticized him for the way that he treated John Mark.

He faced things just like we face things, and yet he said,

we can't grow weary of doing good because in due season, there's that word again,

in that due time, the appointed time, we will reap if we faint not.

See, here's what I got to let you know today. For everybody that you're raising

kids and you feel like you're losing your mind,

for everybody that you're holding a marriage together by a shoestring at times,

for everybody that you feel like this job is just about going to kill you,

and you're wondering when God is going to move, I want you to know this,

that God has not forgotten you, that where you are right now, God sees you.

Where you are right now, God hears you. And whether you believe it or not,

He is working all things together.

I've got to get that in. Everybody say all things together.

You know what that means? That means even when you feel like those tears or

you're weeping tears night after night, God's working it together for good.

Even when you feel like the world has turned against you, God is working it together for good.

Even if you wonder if you're the worst parent in the world, God is working it

together for good as long as you're called according to his purpose.

As long as you're trusting in the Lord is what the Bible is saying.

So we have to endure in those seasons.

But this last season, I think it may be the most difficult season of all.

It's the season of release. It's the season of letting go is what that means.

What I was saying, this is the season where you got to trust what you can't

control. You got to trust what you can't control.

Solomon speaks of a season to let go, a season that,

You know, when your children leave home, I know we got a lot of different age groups.

I got to ask at least some of those that are my age or older,

isn't, I know, don't be offended if your children are in here right now, children, all right?

Isn't parenting your adult children some of the hardest things you've ever done in your life?

Shout me down. I know. Yes, because you can give them advice,

but guess what? They don't have to take it.

As a matter of fact, let this be God's word to you today. If your child is an

adult and you give them advice, they don't have to take it.

Solomon speaks of a season of letting go when you have to put it in God's hands and trust him.

Because we still got, okay, I'm going to preach on us. We still got parents

in this room that you're giving your 28-year-old, your 32-year-old,

or 47-year-old advice, and they're not taking it, and you're offended.

Amen? There's a season that you just got to let go.

Now, let me go ahead and back up just a little bit because I did say what you

sow in this season, you're going to reap in the next season.

For all of you that still have children at home, then make sure you're doing

the best job you can while they're still under your roof so that one day,

hopefully, they'll make some choices that...

Can I say this with love right now? Don't be mad at your children for not taking

your advice as an adult if you did not sow something into their lives when they

were children to cause them to take.

Amen. We have to learn how to trust. And you know, here's the craziest thing.

You got to let go because they're not going to do things the way that you would

necessarily want them to do things.

So this is, this is, I use this example at the 9 a.m. I'm going to do it again.

So Carter, this week Carter had a birthday. I pick on Carter because,

you know, he's my favorite child. So there, there we go.

I had, I'm just messing a little bit. All right.

Lucas is my most expensive, Carter's my favorite. But anyway,

it's, so, so Carter had a birthday this week and I asked Carter,

I actually asked Carter what he wanted for his birthday, and what did he ask for?

A PlayStation gift card. This dude's married with a job and tithing into the

ministry, like the whole thing, and he asked for a PlayStation gift card.

I know, I know. At almost 50 years old, I'm thinking, Ashley's like,

I gotta go get him a PlayStation gift card.

I'm like, he needs to get another job. You know what?

A PlayStation gift card. But you know, in between services, he came up to me,

he said, hey, I love that you used that example about my PlayStation gift card

when I'm 21 years old and could be a raging alcoholic, to which I said, amen.

That's where we are though. This is where we are is that sometimes we get so

offended when they're not taking our information.

And sometimes it's trivial, like a PlayStation gift card.

And at other times we've got to learn how to trust God with the letting go.

And it's not just what that, it could be our careers. It could be the next phase

of our life. It could be retirement, and you're wondering, who am I going to

be when I don't have my job as my identity? Trust God.

God created you for more than just working the nine to five,

and if you believe that he created you for more than just the nine to five,

then he's going to— I know, listen, there's no retirement in the kingdom of God.

That's one thing that the Albrights talked to me about with our senior adult ministry.

This is not going to be a retirement club that plays bingo. It's asking God,

what is our next that we're doing in the next phase of our life?

Because just because you're retiring from a job doesn't mean you're put out to pasture.

It means there's a new season of your life.

Everybody over the age of 50 needs to clap your hands and say,

thank you, Lord. That's who we are right now. It's the next season.

So here's what we got to realize. We got to be able to give it to God.

Ashley, if you'll come up and help me land this plane.

I could preach. I got too many notes for what I got, time I got left. I got to go.

Here's, I thought about Hannah. I thought about Hannah. Here's what the Bible

says. Because Hannah had prayed for a child.

God gave Hannah a son. And the Bible shows us that Hannah turns around and gave

that son right back to God.

Brought him back to the temple. The Bible says this.

Hannah's saying this. For this child I prayed. And the Lord has granted me my

petition that I made to him. Therefore, I had lent him to the Lord.

As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.

Notice there. Hannah didn't lose Samuel. She planted him.

She planted him. She trusted him to the Lord.

That's who we have to be today. We have to trust those things,

whether it's our children, our career, our finances, whatever it is, our identity.

We trust it back to the Lord. God, I give it to you.

And no matter what this season is that I'm in right now, I trust you that you're

going to take it and use it to better me for the next season.

Now, there's a caveat to that.

We've got to be faithful in this season.

We've got to be faithful in this season. You know, the reason why the children

of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness is because they stayed in rebellion.

They could have shortened that season. Right?

Our attitude has a lot to do with our seasons.

That was almost like point four right there wasn't it our attitude has a lot

i didn't say that to the 9 a.m so you guys are going to live better than they are all right,

our attitude has a lot to do with our seasons and so if you're going through

that difficult season that season of just holding on your attitude is going

to have a lot to do with can have you learned enough where God can open the door for your next.

You know there was there was jobs that i worked i hated those jobs,

nobody say man your boss might be in here right now but

there's previous i love my current job previous i hated some

of those jobs but what i realized was

and if nothing else that my

purpose on that job site until the lord opened the door

somewhere else maybe god was waiting for me to evangelize every

person in that workplace before he's gonna let me maybe

there's a lesson that i had to learn we get

so focused outwardly externally on our boss and on our co-workers and on that

job and on this company that we we forget to look internally and say god what

is it you're trying to do in this season in my life the season is more about

you than it is about those things around you,

let god work there is let's all stand on this building gosh there's a lot of things i'd love to,

I'm going to preach on the gap in between the two seasons when we get home.

I'm going to preach on enduring. All right, Ashley. All right, you can't wait.

That response was not sarcastic at all. It's very.

It's the steroids.

Yeah. Every season has a seed. Every season has a seed.

The bible says that sowing and reaping is a principle it's a law it's a principle

kingdom law that whatever you sow that's how you also reap and for some of us,

hey there's there's pain that i have in joints right now i can take you back to stupid junk i did,

you know some some of you we know what it's like we built wooden ramps in our

backyard and and uh jumped with BMX bikes from the flea market.

And we wonder why our elbow hurts today.

That's sowing and reaping. That's not the devil. You're like,

that devil's hurting my elbow. No, that was you. It was you, sowing and reaping.

So what we have to do is make sure that we're sowing today what we want to reap tomorrow.

Don't curse the environment because you're reaping something you sowed yourself.

If nothing else, start learning today. I've got to sow better.

I've got to plant better so that I can harvest better tomorrow.

It's all about what you plant. It's going to determine. You don't plant beans and expect to get corn.

You got to be planting what you want to harvest tomorrow. All right?

Every head bowed, every eye closed. Nobody looking around. If you're here today

and maybe you're in one of those seasons of life,

You're in one of those seasons where Maybe you're transitioning to a different

season You're starting It's the planting season And you're just starting out

Maybe this is the enduring season And you're facing things It's difficult Maybe it's your job,

your marriage, children Whatever it could be But there's an endurance that you're

having to push through right now And you're in that season You're saying, God,

teach me what I need to know Maybe you're here today And the season of life

that you're in You're having to let go You're having to trust God with things

that you can't control Wherever you are,

God's saying I want you to show you the lesson this season I want you to be

conscious of what you're planting In this season If you're here today and you say, Pastor Scott,

that's me I'm planting in one of those seasons right now I'm in one of those

seasons If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand Who are you?

All over this building Yeah, that's a lot of us Obviously, there's a lot of

us in different seasons Here's the way I want to do this today I want us to

join hands right where you are.

Can we do this? Can we just join

hands all across this building if you're comfortable doing that? Amen.

If not, that it's okay. But I want us to pray for each other that God,

that you would help us navigate these seasons.

As a church we're in a growth season right now we're still trying to navigate

some of that what does that look like uh going from a church that's you know

been traditionally just a,

you know you know a church that's not as big of an

impact as we have right now did not multiple multiple services and

whatever else and how do we navigate some of these things running out

of space how do we navigate this we're in a season but we're

going to trust god in your life you're going to learn to trust god

with your children you're going to learn to trust god with your families your

occupations let's do that right now father in the name of

jesus we come before you we just thank you i thank

you for every person under the sound of my voice right now

lord thank you that you are navigating you are

with us through these seasons right now as a church.

You are with us as a church you are working all

things together for our good for all of

us that love god are called according to his purpose but at

the same time god we thank you for every individual we thank

you for those Lord that are in planting seasons that are

just started out in this new journey whatever it is

Lord and they're learning through the anxiety through

the fear they're learning to push through getting started we

pray for those Lord that are in the enduring seasons and

they're pushing through this fear and the loneliness

and the anxiety of going through this season for so

long and Father we pray for those right now that

are having a hard time letting go they're having a hard time

saying God I trust you They're having a hard time Not

wanting to try to work it out themselves But Father

right now in the name of Jesus I pray that you would be

with us That you would lead us And Father our prayer is right now That from

this point forward That we are conscious of what we plant That every word that

comes out of our mouth Is a seed that we're sowing Every deed that we do is

a seed that we're sowing Every decision

that we make Is a seed that we're sowing And God let us sow better,

So that we can harvest greater in your kingdom and we thank you for it in the

name of Jesus we pray and the church said.