A Time to Build Up: Ecclesiastes 3 and the Church’s Path Through Transition

You?

Yes, sir.

Oh, I agree with Brother John.

I'm of the conviction if you're going to have a Wednesday

night service, that you call a Wednesday night prayer service, you

better have prayer.

And if.

If it's not going to be prayer, don't call it Wednesday night

prayer.

Thank you, Bible.

Please join with me to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

I'll let you find it.

If you find Psalms, you're on the right track.

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes Chapter

three.

And some of the Psalms have been talking about sheep shepherds.

Right in track with what we got going on tonight as well.

Klesiastes Chapter three.

Look with me.

I hope you're there by now.

In verse number one.

Ecclesiastes Chapter three, verse number one.

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose

under the heaven.

Time to be born, time to die, time to plant, time to pluck up that

which had been planted.

A time to kill, a time to heal, time to break down, time to

build up, time to weep, Time to 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 get and a time to lose.

A time to keep and a time to cast away.

A time to rend and a time to sow.

A time to keep silent and a time to speak and a time to love

and a time to hate.

A time of war and a time of peace.

In these eight verses, Solomon, under the direction of the

Holy Spirit, gave Bible wisdom of seeing life through seasons, seasons

of change, or.

What I'm looking at tonight is transitions.

Transitions that we all face.

Meditate for a few seconds.

Verse number one, as you think about Heritage Baptist Church.

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose

under the sun.

We're all experiencing a purpose.

We're all experiencing a change.

We're all experiencing a.

Yes, transition.

And Lord willing, tonight we're going to see and hopefully

understand how Heritage Baptist Church is going through a

transition period as ordained and purposed by God.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, speak to us now.

Help us to see your word clearly.

But Father, I pray that we'll see your purpose and your plan for

us clearly.

Maybe we've never thought of it in this way or acted upon it in

this way.

But Father, clearly there is a reason.

Clearly there is a plan, there is a purpose, and we thank you for

that help.

Us to see it, accept it and embrace it.

And use us now as we open our eyes spiritually to see the things

you would have us to know.

For it's in Jesus precious name we ask.

Amen.

We're familiar with transitions of life.

We see it every time.

Every family, every generation, they have babies.

And we've got a slew of babies around here.

In the beginning, they're all cute, they're all cuddly and they're

wonderful.

However, a couple of years later, there's that transition to

the terrible twos.

Some of you remember them, you're laughing about that.

Some of you would like to forget them as well.

Transition.

How to walk.

Kindergarten, transition to primary age, middle school, then

high school transition.

More changes coming on.

What do I do?

Do I go to college?

Do I go to trade school?

Military?

Get married?

Perhaps the ministry if God's calling.

So there are all kinds of transitions that we make in our life.

We see here in Psalms 144, verse 12, it says this, that our

Psalms 144:12

sons may be plants grown up in in their youth, and that our daughters

may be cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.

Wow, I love that.

Transitions in each and every way.

Adults, yeah, we adults go through transitions, don't we?

Marriage, family, needing a bigger house, me, maybe a bigger

car for all the kids.

Then we get to the senior age and let me tell you right now, being

there myself, our seniors today, many of them come here with

church aches and pains and hurts and battling this and battling

that.

In my estimation, they still come to church faithfully.

They are the real heroes of Heritage Baptist Church because the

average person with that kind of hurt, that kind of pain, oh no,

you're not going to find me in church.

They come, they're faithful and God bless them.

We appreciate their faithfulness in each and every way.

But also we go through unpleasant transitions, don't we?

Jeanne and myself, we've experienced changes and transition

in our 59 years of marriage.

God gave me for an example, for I consider the perfect wife.

Couldn't have any other wife better than she is.

And we find that God gave us four children.

However, two miscarriages.

Our oldest died in 2012 due to complications with lupus and died

on our son's birthday in 2007.

I had kidney cancer.

So needless to say, we've gone through transitions and by God's

grace, we will learn to adapt these God ordained changes and transitions

in her life as the years of experiences come along with that

come wisdom, a little bit of Wisdom, how to handle that, and godliness

and maturity and also our gray hair.

All of it comes together with transitions.

But as we physically change, that doesn't automatically translate

or transition into, into maturity, spiritual maturity change.

For an example.

Sometimes a 25 to 30 year old Christian may not have grown or developed

or transitioned spiritually into the maturity level.

I know many of our teenagers are more spiritually mature than

many adults I know.

They've never really grown, they've never really spiritually

grown in their Christian life.

Paul knew this at Corinth.

For an example, First Corinthians 3, verse number one.

And I, my brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,

but unto carnal, even as the babes of Christ.

For I have fed you with milk, not with meat.

For hitherto ye are not able to bear it, neither now are able

for ye are yet carnal as whereas there is among you envying

strife.

Divisions are ye not yet carnal and walk as men.

From the Kingsians, chapter 3.

God has planned all along a set of time, a determined time, era

we call it, maybe dispensations in the word of God.

But there are certain times where transitions take place, and

we see that many, many times.

For an example, in the Old Testament we've got the Old Testament,

sacrifices in temple worship, prophets, and the trust and faith

in God and also for the future coming of the Messiah.

Then between Matthew.

I'm sorry, between Malachi and Matthew are 400 years, silent years,

no prophet, no word given, nothing at all.

Then we translate into the New Testament.

Then suddenly in Bethlehem, there is a baby born by the name

of Jesus.

He lived for 33 years and the disciples were saved and they were

called to be learners and followers until another change or

a translation, until we see a transition to that of the cross and

the resurrection.

And then the transition, I'm going to leave you.

He says this in John 14:16, and I pray the Father and he will

John 14:16

give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever.

I'm going to go into heaven, and you're going to be left with

another who's going to lead you and direct you.

And he will be called the Holy Spirit.

He's the comforter.

So there's another change.

There's another transition.

Holy Spirit is going to come and live and dwell within you.

And he will empower you.

Acts will.

1, 8.

You shall receive power after that.

The Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto

Me both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the

Earth.

That is another change.

It's another transition they went through going into the church

age, another one.

And then there will be the one we're all waiting for.

And that will be the transition of the rapture, looking

forward to heaven, the time when this old world is over and we

are up in heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

These are all transitions, things that we go through in our

life.

God has ordained transitions.

He has made them with a godly result.

Old Testament to New Testament, from the life of Christ

to that of the Holy Spirit, from the apostles to pastors, from

the temple to churches, from.

From Israel to now, the Gentiles.

Transitions, transitions, transitions.

But there are times recorded that there are some that did not

like transitions.

And most of us are kind of that way.

We don't like change.

I'm comfortable just the way my life is, you might say.

But there are transitions in our life that come, and sometimes

it's resistant.

It's even rebelled against Adam and Eve.

They didn't like the garden.

Who could not like perfect conditions in the garden?

But they didn't.

And they thought they knew better.

And consequently sin entered in because God was put down by the

devil.

And the devil offered Adam and Eve something they thought was better.

You shall be as gods.

Knowing good and evil.

Their life changed forever.

It continued to change in a transition which they've never experienced

before.

Their oldest son, Cain, killed Abel.

The first murder never happened before.

What a transition that took place.

Their life changed forever.

Moses, 40, 40 and 40.

40 years with Pharaoh.

40 years in the wilderness taking care of sheep.

And.

And now 40 years with the children of Israel griping and complaining

because they wish they had gone back to Egypt.

Moses not, of course, was disobedient and ended up not going

into the promised land.

He transitioned as well.

Adam or Abraham, a child was going to have a child.

But 100 he knew and he grew impatient and had a child by another

woman.

Ishmael was born.

Arab people now oppose God's children.

Changes.

Transitions have come in our church and our life.

And we may not like it, but we can't fight it.

And we must learn to accept it.

We must learn to embrace that timing.

According to Matthew 6:10, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on

Matthew 6:10

earth, on earth as it is in heaven.

God, you've got a will in heaven, you've got a plan in heaven.

Let thy will be done on earth.

For whatever you have written down up there.

We are in the transition of finding a new pastor for the first

time in 25 years.

It's never been done before.

That's why you need to pray for a pulpit committee that's never

been done in their lifetime here at Heritage Baptist Church.

These changes, these transitions are not only a time to

remodel and maybe reshape our church, but it's a time to remodel

and reshape us as well.

As we go through it, it gives us a chance to refocus on God once

again because we're in this turmoil we're in.

What am I do, God?

What do I do?

Good.

Pray.

Focus on the Lord once before.

It's wonderful.

I think it's wonderful.

We have this honor, we have this privilege of seeing God at work.

Do you know how many churches have never, ever been able to see

God at work because they've always been content with the status

quo?

We have the opportunity.

We have that privilege of seeing God being able to work in

our life over time.

It does seem like, and it happens from time to time, that well

established churches like ours seem to get comfortable, maybe even

too comfortable.

I mean, we've had the same pastor and we have a calendar and.

And we do maybe, maybe the same thing every year.

And we perhaps don't put enough prayer into it.

We don't take church seriously.

Maybe we have told God in our minds, I got it.

Don't worry.

Don't worry, God, I got it.

You don't have to do anything.

We've all been through this before.

We know what to do.

It's easy to get comfortable.

Like Israel AI.

They didn't pray about AI, and they got soundly defeated.

You can get too comfortable in your Christian life.

Transitioning to a new pastoral leadership is not easy.

Not easy.

But take note, we're not the only churches to go through it.

Not long ago, Brother Knickerbocker, one of our evangelists,

came and he spoke and wrote somewhere, I guess on Facebook.

There are over a dozen churches looking for pastor.

We're not the only one.

We're not the only one.

They're out there.

This transition our minds into what we need to be looking for.

Please do.

I've often wondered and I could not remember because we've

been faithful in services, but have we ever.

Have we ever spoken to the congregation about where and what

passages define the qualification for a pastor?

Would you know where they are located?

Would you know where they're found?

And do you know what it says?

Well, if you don't.

And you're kind of.

Now that I picked your curiosity and write it down.

First Timothy, chapter 3 verses 1 to 11, first Timothy, chapter

1 Timothy 3:1–11 1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

3, verse, verses 1 to 11, first Timothy 3, 1, 11, and Titus

Titus 1:5–9

1:5 to 9, Titus 1:5 to 9.

Titus 1:5–9

Now, don't leave that up to the pulpit committee.

You're the church.

You vote.

I vote.

You have to know what you're voting for.

You have to know what you're looking for.

So familiarize yourself with these passages of scripture and find

out what's going on.

As you look at these qualifications, you'll see something

right away.

At least I do.

It's more about the pastor's character than it is his preaching

style.

In fact, nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, you'll never find anything

talking about how he preaches.

And yet, nine times out of 10, pastors are selected on how they

preach.

What about how they pastor?

Ever thought about that?

I mean, because we have a Wednesday night, a Sunday morning

and a Sunday night.

But those are just four hours of the week.

What's he going to do the rest of the week that will concern you

in pastoring?

Think about it.

Think about it.

His character will determine his pastoring style.

There is a difference, by the way, between a preacher and a pastor.

I hope you know that.

A difference between the two.

What we need.

And this is why the other went so well.

A Psalm 23 Shepherd.

A Psalm 23 Shepherd.

And here's why.

Because I'm going to tell you stories.

They're real.

They're not made up.

I will not give you the names, but they're real.

I know because I happened to Jeannie and myself, a Psalm 23 pastor,

for an example.

I pastored three churches whose pastors were not of any kind

of biblical shepherds.

They were verbally abusive.

They were bullies from the pulpit.

And Jeanne and I had to pick up the pieces and have to repair

those broken churches once we got there.

Get this.

In one church, this is real.

This is.

I do not make this up.

One pastor realized I'm not really saved.

And so he had the Christian school principal come down to the

altar and lead him to the Lord in front of the congregation.

And when that was over, he had the Christian school minister to

baptize him in the baptistry.

Wow.

Of course, that broke up the church.

And another church, an abusive pastor used his pastoral authority

to the extreme.

And I'm not kidding on this one.

He fired deacons from the pulpit.

He named names from the pulpit, pointed fingers, fired him

right there at the spot.

And when they lingered around, told him, get out, get out.

And they would have to get out.

Public ridicule they never came.

I had to follow that man and try to help put God's willing, the

churches back together again in some way, shape or form.

Members were not allowed to have differing opinions, and he did

not allow anyone to question him.

If you question me, I question your motive and therefore you must

be guilty.

Of what?

Questioning me.

He wouldn't allow it.

There's the door.

Go for it.

I was talking to another military vet not long ago, and we

talked about America, how we served our nation, served our country.

Many vets are here, and we had to.

We served in order that we might have freedom, the precious

freedom to do the things that we have.

And one of the things that we have in America is to be able to

make our decisions and vote our conscience without harassment

and without feeling guilty because of that.

Vote with the transitioning new pastor.

Yes.

I mean, you know, we may have Democrats, we may have Republicans

in this church, but we should not harass them because they vote

differently than we do.

That's not America.

America means you have the right to vote the way you feel and

not be called down on the carpet for it.

With a transitioning to a new pastor, I hope we transition to a

new thinking, because I hope, I really do hope, I really do pray

that we do not get into this situation.

And hopefully that's in the past of labeling people that disagree

with us as being cancerous or following core.

And it should not be.

That's not what we serve the military for.

You should have a right to your opinion.

Why would anyone want to insult God's child?

That's what you do.

Call them cancerous.

You're insulting a child of God.

You know what you would do if someone insulted your child on a

basketball court or football court?

What do you think God's going to think when we do this to some

of our own?

We need a Psalm 23 Shepherd.

One who's willing to stoop down, see the needs of the flock,

and not willing to elevate himself and his pride and his righteous

moral superiority by condemning others.

Shepherds are not to yell at their flock like these men did, because

sheep get scared when you yell at them.

They don't produce wool when you are.

When they are scared.

Psalm 23 shepherd welcomes accountability.

They welcome honest questions.

They.

They welcome transparency.

Why?

Because it's not their church.

It's God's church.

And we're here to uplift the honesty and the integrity of God

from his Word.

That's a Psalm 23:SHEPHERD.

Psalm 23:SHEPHERd uses scripture to heal and not weaponize

scripture against members.

Thou anointest my head with oil.

My cup runneth over.

Right now, Heritage Baptist Church needs a healing pastor, one

who knows how to heal.

I hope you get the opportunity to ask whatever candidate it is,

how are you going to do that?

What method you going to put in place to heal this church?

Psalm 23.

Shepherd cares for his sheep.

He leads them to green pastures and to the still waters.

He doesn't create an atmosphere of shame and guilt and

bullying the church, but uses the church to build the people and

not the people.

To build the church.

We need to be fed, we need to be strengthened, we need to be built

in order to be able to help with the enlargement of the church.

But you don't use us and use us and use us and use us.

You build us first and then the church can be built.

So you kind of wonder, like, whose house is it anyway?

Is it man's house or is it God's house?

In Psalm 127, verse 1, except the Lord build the house, they that

Psalms 127:1

labor in vain, that build it.

If it's not God building this house, man can never work it out.

It'll never work.

It'll never happen.

A Psalm 23, shepherd will protect his flock, protect them.

He will make sure they're safe and they're secure.

But Rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

The word and spiritual application.

And it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean that you make up enemies

just to try to protect them.

Sometimes pastors make up bad guys as if to point a finger, rally

the troops, the cancerous thing.

No.

20 Psalm 23.

Shepherd wants the church to grow and be spiritual in this growth.

Judy and I have been in these churches.

We've seen the damage done by these abusive pastors and we've tried

to piece it together from the rubble.

And once again, it's taken the better part of two to three years

just to be able to regain the trust of the small town people that

we lived in and be able to visit once again.

We had one pastor in our Christian school who every time he

went to the post office and the grocery store and there was only

one of each in a small town and questioning people and talking

about the football game coming up that Friday night and whatever,

and having a Christian school is that your kid goes to that, that

secular school.

You're wicked.

You're wicked.

You don't do that.

You don't do that in a small town.

You may not agree with a public school education, but Friday

Night lights are their only means of getting together.

And you destroy the people within the church doing that.

Yes.

You know, I thought about this, and I've rewritten many constitutional

bylaws, and I thought, you know what there needs to be?

There needs to be a congregational bill of rights to

members.

You have rights.

Do you not know that?

Many members don't know because they've never been told.

It's never been let on.

If some pastors like the ones we're talking about, if they let

that onto the congregation, I might lose my congregation because

I am supreme here.

Congregation, you have rights.

You need to know what they are.

And I think, as I did, be great to have them in a new constitutional

bylaws that tell you what your rights are when it comes to an abusive

pastor and ones who really don't help further the church so

spiritually for the cause of Christ.

This is a new time, a new time and a new translation.

But transition.

But in addition to that, who's transition?

Ourselves.

And to be more faithful in praying, more diligent in our looking

for that.

Psalm 23, Pastor.

Yes.

That God has for us.

Let me tell you something.

They're out there.

They're out there.

Psalm 23.

Pastors are.

Are out there.

That's why you need to pray for the public committee to sort

that out.

It takes interviews, it takes research.

It takes finding out a little bit about them, their history and

their background, what's going on.

Haven Baptist Church, where Jeannie and I grew up in, got married.

We had the opportunity of pastoring there.

They.

Many of the congregation left because of the abusive pastor.

He was the one that fired men right from the pulpit.

Attendance got down to 25.

Small town, 1300.

We didn't have an Amazon warehouse nearby or factories or

Lockheed Martin or anything that would bring people in.

It was a small country town.

But the Lord led me to preach a series of revival messages.

And we advertised it in the local newspaper at that time, before

social media, in the local newspaper.

And that at a certain date, we were going to have a church renewal.

Church renewal.

All former members, past, present.

Hey, come, we'd love to have you.

Please come.

And we also had church rededication.

I took little vials, which at this time were.

I guess you could find them in any store, wedding store or whatever.

And they would have soap bubbles.

And you open it up, little wand, and you would blow and bubbles

would blow out because of the wedding.

Right.

I took maybe about 25 of them in my room and I emptied them all

out.

And I put what would to me be the Bible equivalent of olive oil,

and I filled them up, cut all the wands, and put the caps back

on.

During that day, I preached at a series of revival meetings.

And this one date we had a church rededication service.

We rededicated our church to for the cause of Christ, for the

purpose it was supposed to be, tried to stop all the infighting

and everybody else pointing fingers at each one.

And we had a church rededication at the given moment.

I had everybody pop open your caps, take your finger in the little

vial, and anoint the pew ahead of you.

I anointed the pulpit, went to the piano, went to the organization,

the instruments.

We anointed them.

And then I invited everybody to come to the altar.

Let's come and rededicate ourselves before God and have his

church once again be victorious.

The altars were full.

They all came.

And I can tell you God answered that prayer of rededication.

It wasn't long that we averaged over 90 plus in a small

town.

We only had 25 to begin with.

It grew and it grew and it grew and it grew and it grew because

people were willing to rededicate themselves in a time of

transition.

A time of transition.

This transition is indeed talking about God, his church.

A renewed mindset, a church renewed focus, a church renewed spirit

of love, grace, and mercy.

We need to remember, as we read in Ecclesiastes 3, God is in

transitions.

It's for a purpose, it's for a reason.

And God is in this transition at Heritage Baptist Church because

we are his church.

And this church does not belong to any man.

It belongs to God in this transition.

God has a plan for us.

It's got a plan for this church.

That's what transitions are all about.

It can be an exciting time.

Oh, wow, I'm looking forward.

Give me an exciting time.

We actually get to see God work among us.

We actually get to see the handiwork of God before us as he

gives us the man of God wanted and needed.

Here that Psalm 23.

Shepherd, we have to understand God is our rock as well

as our salvation, our peace, our comfort during those times of

changes and transition.

Malachi 3, 6, I am the Lord, I change not.

And Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today,

Hebrews 13:8

and forever.

He never changes.

We change.

Churches change, but he never changes.

Remember, as we close it out, Ecclesiastes 3, 2 says this.

It's a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which has been planted.

A time to break down and A time to build up Heritage Baptist

Church.

This is our time to build up.

This is our time to see God build us up.

This is our time to see God bless in our life.

It's a matter of transitioning.

Transitioning of this church, transitioning of our minds, of our

heart, getting rid of the past and looking forward to what God has

for us in the future.

Every head bowed, every eye closed, every head down, every eye

closed.

Please.

Transitions are never easy.

We don't like change.

But I am afraid change has been thrust upon us.

And with this change, by the design and will of God, it's here.

Like it or not, it's here.

What are we going to do with it?

Are we going to change along with the change that God wants?

Are we going to transition our mindset, our thinking, our old, old

ways of thinking about people and things?

Are we going to transition into what God wants and new life,

a new beginning, a new start, fresh all over again?

This is what God wants when he transitioned from the Old Testament

to the New Testament.

The New Testament churches under Paul did not have animal sacrifices.

You don't carry over the past and you bring it into the future.

You get rid of the past, you shun the past and you think new.

New.

We even say this in salvation, don't we?

Therefore, if any man be in Christ is a new creature, all things

become old, all things become new.

Old things have passed away.

All things have become new.

We don't want to take on the old.

When we got saved, we wanted to get rid of that and take on the

new.

For Jesus Christ.

If you're here tonight, God's got a plan for you.

A plan to transition.

Are you willing to transition to what God wants you to do?

Are you willing to transition his way, his thinking, his mindset?

You come as we sing this invitational song.

I surrender all.

Would you stand please, as we sing.