Living Wisely in God's Appointed Seasons

Self-defense, just war, defending the innocent, keeping the innocent women, children or others from being hurt. There's a time to break down and a time to build up. I mean, there's some of us who we've had times we've broken down and we needed help and we needed God. And when we get to our wits in, when we're at our lowest moments, God shows up and helps us. Like, oh no, I'm having a struggle. I'm having mental issues. I'm bringing that. Like, that's part of life. There's a time for that. But there's a time also to be built up. There's a time to weep. There's a time to laugh. [00:43:56] (32 seconds)  #GodMeetsYouInBrokenness

Wisdom is not resisting God's timing. Why me? Why now? Why this? But it's recognizing his sovereignty. And then the application, quickly. Accept the season you are in without resentment. Accept the season you are in without resentment. Number two, stop comparing your season to someone else's. During one of the greatest weeks or months or years of your life, do you realize someone in your world could be having one of their worst years? And just be sensitive to that, and realize, we'll see a verse here in a little bit, that God allows both type of seasons. He sets them both. He divinely appoints both. We'll look at that here in a second. All right, next slide. Point number two. [00:51:25] (54 seconds)  #AcceptYourSeason

``You might be thinking this morning, my life isn't beautiful. I don't feel like things are appropriate. I just don't know what's going on. I feel lost. I feel confused. I feel like no one sees me. Is God anywhere? But I'm telling you, based on the word of God, he's sovereign, and he is making everything beautiful, everything appropriate in his time. So key truth here, God is not early or late. He is perfectly on time. Don't forget that. Look, if you're a child of God, he saved you. You know he's your father. He sees what you're going through, and as a loving father, he is truly working all things together for good. We need to remember that. Even difficult seasons have a redemptive purpose. [00:53:17] (48 seconds)  #GodsPerfectTiming

Many times your ministry will come out of the trials and tribulations and turmoils you've gone through. That will be the basis of your ministry. A loss of a child or a loved one or a divorce or a loss of a job or financial struggles. Many times God uses those things to prepare you for the ministry that you're going to have in the lives of other people. Don't you love that? Even difficult seasons can have a redemptive purpose. And what feels unfinished now will make sense in God's timing. In the verse there, if you can see, it's kind of small, Romans 8.28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So what are the applications quickly here? Trust God's work even when the outcome isn't clear. Enter the new year believing God can bring beauty out of brokenness. And hope grows when we trust God's timing more than our plans. [00:54:05] (58 seconds)  #RedemptionFromTrials

Tell him what your future is. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. Like, God said, that's fine. You know, he might bless and allow it. And that might be good. And you might, I've planned and it's all worked out for me. I'm 51 years old and everything's gone just according to plan. Well, raise your hand if that's you, but that's not me. But that's okay. Good for you if that happened, but that's not typical. [00:55:08] (17 seconds)  #SurrenderYourPlans

Faithfulness. Being faithful to God's word. Faithful to the gospel. Show up. Share. Give. Faith. It's not numbers. It's great when you grow. We're in a season of growth here at our church in many ways. Praise God for that. Financial growth and people growth and ministry growth. Oh, that's awesome. But that's not always the case in every place and every time. Where you look, oh, success for me as a Christian, like my husband, our marriage is going to be awesome. And if you have kids, our family's awesome. All their kids are in line. And you look at my job and all these things. I'm going to tell you, if that's how you define success, this is for the younger people, maybe who aren't married yet, but you're going to be, you're going to be in for some surprises because listen, I have a wonderful marriage. I love my wife. And I'm going to know this. I know a lot of people who are married. A lot of marriages, people I talk to, marriages aren't great. Ours is by God's grace when I'm behaving. But family, kids are wonderful. Yeah, but kids can also bring some of the most difficult challenges. I'm going to tell you that success is not having the perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect grandkids, the perfect this, the perfect that. Success is being faithful to God and to his word. That's what success is. So I love that book, Liberating the Ministry. And I think, didn't you quote Kent Hughes the other day in your sermon? I think it's the same guy. So anyway, I love that book and it stuck with me ever since that freshman year. [01:00:06] (74 seconds)  #SuccessIsFaithfulness

That's exciting to me. Wisdom is not anxious striving, but it's grateful living. Joy is found in receiving life as God's gift, and friends, we honor God by enjoying what he provides in each season. [01:04:38] (18 seconds)  #GratefulLiving

Sufficient today is the evil thereof. Don't be anxious, and don't worry about tomorrow. Live life today, and there's that, Matthew 6, 25 to 34. We won't take the time to go through that, but that is a New Testament passage saying the same thing all the way there. Conclusion. A new year brings unknown seasons. Remember the seasons in verses 1 through 8 of chapter 3? There's a lot of different seasons. What season are you in? It's not going to be forever. It might be short time or a long time, but what season are you in? And there's an unknown season happening here, but a known God. Now, that should encourage you. 2026 might bring some things that are, from our perspective, aren't the best. It might bring some great things, but God knows what's happening. We have to trust him. So wisdom is trusting God's timing, living faithfully in the present, and keeping eternity in view. [01:06:16] (56 seconds)  #FaithfulInThePresent