Faith Has Its Seasons I

I was baptized on May 21st, 1995. A lot of you don't know me, but I'll tell you briefly. I was 25 years as an adult becoming a Christian. I started off as a person that thought money was the most important thing, and I didn't care what it took to get it. I was very successful at getting it. I was successful at building things, successful at starting companies, and I did whatever it took to people to get what I needed. And over a period of time, I found I just wasn't happy. I continued to be even more unhappy with the more things I got, the more cars, the more property. And then all of a sudden, I lost everything. I lost my house. I lost three manufacturing facilities. I lost my wife. I lost my children. And it wasn't enough. So I depended on myself to pull myself out of the gutter and start it again and moved out west and got back into business and built my way back up to the top and making a lot of money and buying a lot of things and living with a woman and not married. And we started going to church, and over a period of about a year, I realized that that's where my happiness lay, and I decided to get baptized. And I got baptized, and I felt, you know, this is it, and my life is going to be perfect and fulfilled, and it wasn't. Within two months of me being baptized, my girlfriend's daughter committed suicide, and our relationship started to deteriorate rapidly. It's amazing. My business started to fail, and I started to feel lonely, and she turned away from me, and we turned away from church. I started to drink. I got a job that required me to travel six-plus days a week, and there was no life for me. There was nothing. And then one February morning, I woke up to find out that a house that I had half built with my own hands wasn't mine anymore. My trucks were gone. My business wasn't there. My car was gone. I didn't have anything. I became a street person overnight. And I was told to leave. Instead of packing my belongings that night, I decided to go out to a bar and blow some steam off, and I ended up in the hospital under intensive watch. The next morning when I was released, I went back to the house to find that there was no entry for me there, and I was, put it bluntly, I got on my knees, and I begged to be allowed in the house just to change my clothes or to get a shower, and there was no entry. And I had about $24 in my pocket, and I had nowhere to go. I had nothing to do, and I called my father, and my father, he didn't ask me anything. He just got on the airplane and got me, and he brought me back to Pittsburgh, and he gave me a place to live. And I looked in the Yellow Pages and found North Way, and I came to North Way on Sunday, and I was in the gym after the service, and nobody knew me, and this man by the name of Jack Zumwalt, I don't know if anybody knows him, but he just came all the way across the gym, and he didn't know me, and he welcomed me, and within 10 minutes, he took me to breakfast. He must have known I didn't have any money. But he took me to breakfast, and he introduced me to Charlie Beck, who taught me that the first priority in life isn't your job, it's God. And Charlie Beck put me through to a home group with Bill and Diane McCabe, and then I was very fortunate to be introduced to Matt McDermott and Kathy Lanahan and Peggy Richards and Rebuilders, and I've got to be blunt. If it wasn't for Rebuilders, it just completely restored my life to me. And now I have a men's group. I have a new business. When I couldn't get any business, they prayed for me, and that morning I got a contract that we've since successfully completed. And the greatest honor for me was to make a payment in child support and to be able to tithe to the church. Those were the two greatest things for me. And I don't have anything. I still don't have anything. But I've got the most important thing in my life, and that's my friend here at North Way. And I've got Christ in my life, and he shows me the way each day. And although I still make mistakes, I try and make littler ones each day. Thanks. Good work. Thanks for your transparency, Keith. All of us should be encouraged to know that we're on a journey, and different places in that journey. And there's room here for us all to keep growing in that walk. Love, acceptance, and forgiveness is the foundation of all that we are. And that's why we're here, to extend that to more and more people. Let's turn to your outline, please. I'm just going to do a brief message this morning because there's communion, and I don't want to rush things through, so I'm just going to abbreviate a little bit today. But next week we're going to take a good, solid look, a longer look into what this new topic is all about, and what the Lord wants to teach us. You're going to need your teaching notes, because the scriptures are on that. And I'm not going to use a specific text this morning because of that. This is about midway through the third quarter of my son Jonathan's football game this past Friday night. My shoes started to fill up with water. Every place that I didn't have Gore-Tex was clammy and crinkly and gnarled looking, from the water just soaking on it. And when I went to get my popcorn, it was floating up in the box. All thanks to Hurricane Fran, who deposited I don't know how many inches of rain, and most all of it on Friday night during a football game. That's a consequence of what is an annual event, especially in the southeast United States, and that's hurricane season. They come up, tropical depressions are formed, and soon they come and blow westward and hit oftentimes along the shore, and then some of which, the remnants, hit us, and there you go. Meteorological seasons are a fact of life. In fact, Genesis 2, if you look on your outline, says, as long as the earth remains, there's going to be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. It's just part of what God designed the world to be. And he also was wise enough to know that things grow because of seasons. Anyone who's a gardener or a farmer will tell you, if there weren't seasons, it wouldn't be long before the soil would be depleted and you wouldn't have any crops. You wouldn't have any flowers. But life, you see, is just the same way. Life has seasons, just like the skies have seasons. And seasons are necessary to build a balanced, healthy, well-nurtured life. Look at Ecclesiastes 3.1. There's a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. Turn, turn, turn. Know what it's all? I like the way the New Century Version puts it. Everything on earth has its special season. Even faith has its special seasons. And I want to begin today just to give us a glimpse into this series of messages that have to do with the seasons of our faith. We're going to be looking at what God does to build our faith and how we can respond to the different things that we confront in our lives as seasons come and seasons go. Because, friends, if you don't respond properly in the seasons of faith, you will find yourself spinning around and wondering why God doesn't seem to be real to you and wondering why you're stuck. And can I say candidly today, there are a lot of eyes that are looking at me right now that are representing people who are stuck in your faith. My goal in this entire ministry season, and I just kind of spelled this out. I wrestled with the language of it, but let me just say it before you put it up, Donna. My goal is that you will become so satisfied with your faith in Jesus Christ that you will lose your desire to sin anymore. That's impossible. Let me say it a different way. I'm going to begin to believe that we will increasingly find ourselves enamored with the person of who Jesus is to the point where we have no more desire to compensate for what we think He won't supply by pursuing our own way, which is another definition of sin. Friends, I'm convinced that both of these are necessary. And I said it this way, that you'll become so deeply satisfied with God that you'll be dramatically set free from the power of sin in your life. You're saying, you're talking a lot about sin already, Jay. I'm kind of uncomfortable with that. Let me be candid and say to you, I'm only sharing with you what I believe God shared with me, and that is that many in this church are like me. I am prone to try to make things happen my way, and when I do that, I fall into sin. You see, I have a definition of sin. Sin is anything you do when you're not satisfied with God. Sin is what I do to get what I need when I'm not satisfied with God. And I believe the Lord wants us to discover that He has promised things to us in Jesus Christ that will meet every need that we have, and that if we put our faith in His grace and promises, that we'll lose the desire to sin. Wouldn't it be great if we no longer had the desire to lash out at someone who hurt us? Wouldn't it be great if we no longer had the desire to indulge our physical cravings and lustings? Wouldn't it be great if we had the desire to be forthright with people and honest with them and not lying and shading the truth? How can that happen? It only happens when Jesus Christ satisfies you fully. And I believe that's what God wants us to do. I'm just going to briefly lay before you today the five basic fundamental characteristics of every season that we go through. Here they are, real quickly. Every season of faith has these five characteristics. First of all, they begin at the strangest of times, and they are almost always beyond our control. How many of you know things happen in your life when you least expect them? When you're least prepared for them. It seems to me that most of my times and seasons of change and trials in my life are usually when I least can afford them and when I don't want them to happen. How about you? How many times have I gotten the phone call that I didn't want to get when I could least afford to get it? Oh, your insurance is going to be canceled. It is? Well, that's not very timely. Oh, we were looking through your bank records and we see that you missed this payment. Oh, that's not very good. Or whatever it might be, you know? Have you discovered that stuff happens when you don't need any more stuff and you're least prepared for it? It's out of our control many, many times. I'm sure Greg Lloyd thought he was going to have a great season. He was preparing for another all-pro year, probably would have made it again, leave the team and so. But something happened. He tore his patella tendon and he's out for the whole year. And I'm sure he didn't expect it. I'm sure he didn't want it. I'm sure he wasn't prepared for it. But once it happened, he now has to marshal his full senses toward healing. And that's what takes place when we get into a new season in our life. We've got to shift things around and bring every energy to bear toward that particular issue or it may overwhelm us. Sometimes we can predict what's going to happen but not when. Sometimes it's just a matter of being in a season of waiting and waiting is beyond our control. How many of you, if you could control waiting, you never would? Huh? You'd always go right to the front of the grocery line. You'd always just go right through that traffic signal. I had someone tell me they had six traffic lights between here and Cranberry and they hit everyone on the way down. And they were telling me why they were late for getting in. And I said, well, God must be teaching you something about patience. We'll get to that in just a moment. Have you noticed that some seasons speed by and other ones drag on? How many of you went on a little vacation this summer? Like a week's vacation. What happens with a week's vacation? Zoom! It just goes so quickly and it's gone. You say, I can't. It can't be time to go back to work already. Contrast that with a week in the hospital. What's that like? It's almost an eternity, isn't it? It's like, man, I was in the hospital four days last summer. The first time in my life. I thought it was four months. I mean, I couldn't wait. Seasons are like that. You can't control their duration. Only God. Look at the Scripture. God controls the times and seasons. Just circle that. God controls the times and seasons. He makes and unmakes kings. That's just a reference out of Daniel to the fact that God controls even the people in authority that you think are just doing their own crazy, wild thing. God controls them. He raises them up and He brings them down. That's why, by the way, prayer and intercessory prayer is the best way in the world to affect elections. Just let me tell you that because God controls it. Number two. These seasons are often very confusing to us. How many of us have had a season of faith come along and things begin to happen and the first thing that comes out of your mouth is, why? Why is this happening to me? I don't understand. You see, understanding rarely comes along at the time that a season begins. We rarely know why we're going through it. Perspective, looking back on life, a lot of things begin to make sense, don't they? Oh, that's why that happened. Now I see it more clearly. But you know what? Even then, we don't always understand why stuff happens to us. How many of you are keeping a little list that you're going to ask God when you finally stand in heaven and say, Lord, can I pull these out? Because I had these seven things that I never really did understand. How many have that? I do. Why did this happen that way? I mean, I don't understand. But you know what? I've also fully come to accept the fact that God owes me no explanation for things I don't understand. He's God. Or as the bumper sticker says, He rules, I obey, and that's it. No problem. In fact, I don't want His job. I don't want to rule. I don't want to be in control of everything. I couldn't do it. So I trust Him with the things I don't understand. Look at Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11. God does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what He's doing. And so I live with that. The need to know why things happen, the need to say, and lots of folks defiantly say, why does God allow suffering? Or why does God allow this kid to do that? And they kind of do this with God. And you know why they do that? It's because, folks, we all think that we could do a better job than God from time to time. And it's just pride. In fact, let's let God be God and we just simply know that we can trust Him in the midst of it. Number three, God has a purpose for each season of life. There's a season of waiting, a season of grief, and a season of adversity. There's even seasons of success. And God works them all together for His purposes. He lets you decide along the way, will you trust Him in the midst of it? And if you will, He says, if you love Him and you know you're called to His purpose, then He's going to work together for good. I'm not going to develop Romans 8, 28, but look at it. We know. Everyone say, we know. We know. Say it again. We know that all that happens to us, underline all, all that happens to us is working for our good, if we love God and are fitting into His plans. Church, whatever's going on in your life right now, whatever the stuff that you're facing, whatever the relational conflict, the financial stress, the pain, the suffering, the difficulty, the confusion, whatever it is, God has it under control. And you need to believe that. And you need to believe beyond that, that He's going to take whatever that is and He's going to work it around together for your good. That's the incredible thing about our God. It's not just, yeah, He's going to get you through it, but somehow, He's going to make it for your good, for your blessing. I don't understand sometimes how He does it, but He takes even evil things, things that He didn't author, things that I created for myself, problems I stepped into, and if I commit them to Him, He turns them together for good. And we'll look at that again at another time later in this series. Number four, in the seasons of faith, there are both good times and bad times. I mean, that's true. Life is full of contrast. In fact, what makes life interesting is there are ups and downs, peaks and valleys, high points, low points. It's not some drab, you know, bland sort of washed out color. It's all these hues and brights and shades of different things. Look at Ecclesiastes 3. Turn your outline over. Ecclesiastes 3, 2 through 8 says, there's a time to do all these things. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to laugh and so on, a time to cry. Look at this next one. A time to find and a time to lose. That's an interesting time. I'm going to know it's not always easy to know when it's a time to hold on to things and a time to let something go. When do I let go of a relationship and when do I hold on to it? When do I let go of a position in a company and when do I hold on to it? When do I let go of my vision for ministry and when do I hold on to it? It can be a challenge sometimes. Look at the next column. There's a time to keep and a time to throw away. You've got to put that verse over your garage, you know. Or maybe under your bed. On my desk would be a good place. I've discovered, by the way, in life, there are basically people who keep things, hoarders of stuff, you know, and people who throw things away, pitchers, hoarders and pitchers. And they always, always, always marry each other. Have you ever noticed that? Which makes for interesting days. Saturday afternoons, the sparks fly in many households because the hoarder and the pitchers look at each other and say, get rid of that. We're going to need that in 15 years. I know we are. Can't we just find a place? And we just start mounting it all up and away. You know, we go through all those crazy things. And then we need counseling and all the rest. There's a time to repair and a time to tear. And just get rid of. A time to build, a time to tear down. And look at that last one. A time to speak up and a time to be quiet. And God help us not to get them confused so much, you know. See, God weaves all these different experiences together in this beautiful tapestry of our lives. And that's what makes our life interesting. Because he knows that all of these are required to make us what he wants us to be. To cause maturity to happen in our lives. You know, Mother Teresa is often recognized. Oftentimes I see polls and studies and so on. She's the most admired person in the world. You ever wonder why that is? She doesn't have anything. She's given her whole life away to the slums in India. And I can tell you, having been there, that those are not pretty places to go. They're foul smelling, filthy places. And she has little havens of life. But you know why that is? Because she has allowed the dark threads of life to be woven into her character. And she's not fled from those things which are ugly and painful. And she's embraced them. And so her countenance even reflects a quality, a maturity of love and of life. Contrast that with people who have nothing but successes in their portfolio. What's it like when you're around a person who's always been on the top? It's difficult, isn't it? I mean, sometimes you just... They're abrasive people. They're so caught up with themselves. Why is that? Because in their life they've only had one thread and it's been golden. It takes both to mature a life. Fifth thing I see in the seasons of faith is what I sow in one season I'll reap in another. This isn't just farming 101. We all know. When you plant those corn seeds in... What is it, Scott? April? May? May? You don't get the corn stalks coming up in June and pick off the ears by the end of the month. It takes three or four months. Sunshine and rain and so on. Cultivating. Friends, some of you planted your double portion thing today and you're expecting to go out and find a $100 bill under your windshield wiper. Planted my seed. It won't happen that way. There are seasons. It takes time. And look what it says. Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And the problem with most of us, self-included here, is we faint. We kind of give up. We forget about it. We say, well, God must have not seen my sowing. And we just go on. Friends, believe God and trust Him. Don't give up too early, no matter what it is you're trusting Him for. Let me just conclude this brief message today with these simple two questions. How can I make the most of whatever season I'm going through? Well, there's just two questions I would ask. Here's the first one. What can I learn in this season of faith? We are all prone to say, God, why is this happening? But I want to submit to you the first question that we should ask God when a new season, a new wind blows in our life. The first thing we should ask God is, God, why? No. The first thing we should say is, God, what? What are you trying to teach me? What do I need to learn in this thing? How many of you discovered that the greatest lessons of life are learned through experience and not out of a book? Wouldn't it be nice if we could get all the tough experiences in a book? Oh, I've been through that. I read it, you know. Suffering 101. No. You've got to go through Suffering 101. Look what the scripture says, Deuteronomy chapter 11. Remember what you've learned about the Lord through your experiences with Him. Many of you have told me in times past that you come to North Way because you anticipate here that you can experience God and not just know about Him. And that's a commitment that we have, that this will be a church where God can be experienced. Why? Because that's how we learn faith. That's how we learn to trust Him. And so we should ask, what can I learn, God? What can I learn in the midst of what I'm going through? And I've also found that God is a very faithful teacher. And if He lets me go through an experience and I don't learn it, you know what He does? Yeah. He says, how would you like to go back over here again? Because I think you need to go through that again. You want to learn patience, right, Pastor Jay? Yes, I do. Okay. And I lose it. And the guy says, you know, I don't think you'll learn patience. Let's go back and let's wait again, you know. And it's not until... God's a faithful teacher. And He won't give up on you until you've learned the lesson. And I want to recommend, if you're sort of a slow learner in some of God's principles, get someone to start praying for you. You know, I would... It helps. It helps a whole lot when you're not out there on your own learning things. It helps when a spouse supports you, or a friend, an accountability group, the kind of things that Keith was talking about. It helps you to learn more quickly. And also, let me encourage you to journal some things. I didn't bring my journal in. I meant to. How many of you keep a journal? Not many of you. What an important discipline that's become for me. I take a legal pad. That's all it is. Nothing fancy. And I leave the front page blank because I don't want anyone reading my stuff. But then, flip the page over, and I in detail say, Lord... I begin every morning and say, Lord, thank you for teaching me about... And then I just start saying. And you know what I do every few weeks? I'll flip back and say, Oh yeah, three weeks ago, Lord, you taught me about keeping my mouth quiet at those moments. Oh yeah, four months ago, I read about the fact that it was then that when I was in the midst of pain, you taught me about your faith. Friends, keep a journal. It'll help you to keep track of your growth in God. What can I learn? Because everything God is teaching you is to help you learn to trust Him. Look at 2 Corinthians 1.9. We might learn to trust not in ourselves, but in God. Because God will allow, as Keith's testimony said, God will allow you to go all the way to the bottom until you come to the place where you have to trust. I read this quote. I really appreciate it. You'll never know that God is all you need until you know that God is all you have. When you're flat on your back, you have no choice but to look up to Him. Second thing I would encourage you to ask in a time or a season is, what has God promised? What has He promised to you? In every season of faith, there will be promises that God will give you specifically. Next week, we're going to look at adversity and talk about the promises in that season. But foundational to all those promises is just this one simple concept. Let's all look at it. Romans 8.32. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things? You know, you may have read that a hundred times, but would you look at it again with me one more time? There's two truths that are held here. The first one is the foundational truth that God's love for you and for me was so great that He looked at His Son, Jesus. And friends, I can't describe to you the magnitude of the love of God for my own kids. And if you're a parent today, you know how much you love your kids. I sent my son, David, back to college yesterday. And, you know, we've had three months together. We had a great summer together, did a few things. He golfed. I messed my back up again, but we had fun. And when I went to help him get his stuff together to make that move, I realized I'm going to miss him. I'm not going to see him for three months. And I thought, you know, God, how much more you loved your son. And friends, if you really understand Scripture, the Bible is clear that God didn't, you know, it wasn't some accident. Jesus didn't die by chance, but rather the Father handed Him over to die. I don't understand that, but I hope you're grasping it. The Father gave His Son. That's how much He loves you and me. Because it was the only way that we could have eternal life. That being said, that's the foundation. Then it says, well, if He did that, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us, and encircle that, that's all things. All things, friends, is all things. Everything you need, God said, look, if I've given you My Son, I'm not going to withhold anything else that you need. Any other provision, any other blessing, any other relationship, any other friendship. Whatever you need, according to My plan for your life, I'm going to supply it. And God will take those things, those all things, and make your life what He wants it to be. You know, I heard John, I'm sorry, Cardinal John Bernadine, you may have seen him on television this last week, he's the Archbishop of Chicago. 68-year-old man who had cancer, was treated successfully for it, and then it returned. And he announced on national television, I saw it on Good Morning America, I think it was, he said, that the doctors had discovered his cancer had returned, that he had about a year to live. And he said with just a certain sense of confidence, he said, you know, I'm at peace with everything. And he said, I know, I now see death as a friend, as my gateway to glory. Well, Scripture does teach, by the way, that death is an enemy, but I think the Cardinal was right in what he was saying, which is, God can even take death and make it an all thing, and use it to glorify our bodies, to be like his. That stuck with me. And so whatever it is that we're facing, even the most extreme situation, it's an all thing. God will supply whatever it is that you need, because he loved you so much that he gave up his son for you. So friends, in the coming weeks, whatever season you're looking at, whatever season you're going through, instead of murmuring or complaining or conniving your way through it, instead of trying to do your own thing and preoccupying yourself with yourself, which is sin, why not try it God's way? Try trusting in his promises and believing his word, and discover the grace that it provides for your life. And every season of faith that we're going to look at, we can enter in and say, Lord, I'm going to praise you in this season, because I know that you who spared not your own son, but gave him up for us all, how will you not also with him give us all things? All things. Let's stand together. Father, right now we're going to take your cup, and we're going to take your body as symbolized by the bread, and we're going to receive the communion that you purchased for us. And I thank you today, Lord. I thank you today that you did not withhold your son, but you gave him up for us all. Friends, before we take the cup, and we take the bread, and we're served communion, I want to offer an invitation this morning to all who've come to be in this service. Are you here today as someone who knows that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ that's alive, and vital, and functioning? Or are you someone that's here today that's kind of going through the motions? Maybe you're like Keith Marshall was a couple years ago. You thought you were doing the right things, but you really didn't know God. Friends, there's a difference between knowing the right things and having a relationship with Christ. And I'm going to invite you, before communion is served, I'm going to invite you to ask God to come into your life. You don't have to clean up your act. You don't have to be a better person when you leave here. You just simply have to do what the Bible says, and that is to confess your need for Christ, open your heart to Him, and God then comes in and does the rest. If you're honest with yourself, you sense something here today. There's a life that's here. There's a vitality that's here. And it's not in the way we do things, and it's not in our style. It's the life of God. And He's extending that to you right now in Christ. Let's bow in prayer, please. No one looking around. Let's be courteous and give folks a private moment right now to pray. And if you're here today for the first time, or you've been here for years and never really settled this issue, pray with me right now and invite Jesus Christ into your life. The journey of a million miles begins with this step. Pray this prayer. Heavenly Father. That's it. Say the words to Him. Heavenly Father, I need You in my life. And Jesus Christ, I receive You today. Forgive my sin and give me a brand new heart. Help me to trust You in Your name. It's a wonderful prayer. Everyone has their head bowed. If you prayed that prayer today, would you allow me the privilege of being the one that agrees with you that today, this was the moment you crossed the line and received Christ into your life. Heads are bowed. No one's looking around. But if you prayed that prayer, would you look up right now and look this way and hold your hand up as well. And I'll just agree with you right where you are. I won't embarrass you. Just hold your hand up high and look right this way. Let me agree with you. Hold it up. Thanks, miss. God bless you. I agree with you. Anyone else? Looking right here. Thank you, miss. I see your hand. Thank you. All right. I'm gonna look in the center section now. If I miss you, wave, because sometimes I can't see real clearly. Are there others? Looking this way. Just hold your hand up high. Anyone else? I'll wait another moment. You're pointing. Thank you, ma'am, in the black. God bless you. I see. I agree with you. Thank you so much. In the name of Jesus. Father, thank you right now for being here. And as we receive now the cup, as we receive the portion of bread, Lord, we receive it as the fulfillment of your promise to us. Thank you for the strength that it supplies. We receive it gladly in the name of Jesus. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had blessed it, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's remain standing as the ushers come in service. Let's sing together Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Let's sing it. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. For you are the one I praise. You are the one I praise. Let's sing it as a prayer to the Lord. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. For you are the one I praise. You are the one I praise. Let's sing it one more time. Oh, heal me, O Lord. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. For you are the one I praise. Let's take