A New Season is on it's way!

READ:   Ecclesiastes 3:1

We serve a God of seasons. We see it in creation. God created the four seasons that are based upon the rotation of the Earth as it orbits the Sun. The seasons change as the earth moves, but the sun in our planetary system remains constant, and everything revolves around it.

We serve a God of seasons. But God doesn’t measure spiritual seasons with clocks and calendars, but through truth and revelation. Whenever God gives you a fresh Word or revelation, you’re stepping into a new season.

But just like our Scripture verse says, to everything there is a season. Every aspect of our lives is as to a season. And there is a purpose for those seasons. There is a purpose for the process.

There are seasons you didn’t want to go through. But through those seasons you learned some things. And you wouldn’t have learned them if you hadn’t gone through some things.  There are seasons you’ve gone through, that you don’t know why you had to. But there is a reason for that season.

And just because you are going through some bad stuff or have gone through a rough season, doesn’t mean God is finished with you or is not working in you because “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” It’s not just any old work, but a good work.

Let God complete His work in you as you enter a new and exciting season!

FAITHFULNESS IS RISK!

Read:  Matthew 25:  24-30

 

Faithfulness is risk and risk is faithfulness.

 

I think we tend to think of faithfulness in maintenance terms. Faithfulness is holding the fort. Faithfulness is maintaining the status quo. Faithfulness is hanging on to what you have. And nothing could be further from the truth. Faithfulness is return on investment. Faithfulness is multiplying what you have to the best of your God-given ability. Faithfulness isn’t minimizing risk. Faithfulness is maximizing risk because maximizing risk is maximizing reward.

 

I’m concerned that too many of us have a savings mindset—we want to keep what we have. We’re playing not to lose. And the parable of the talents is all about an investment mindset—risking what you have to get more. It’s playing to win.

Verse 24-30

Then the man who had received the one talent came.

Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

These are some of the harshest words in the gospels, and the servant broke even. Evidently, breaking even isn’t good enough.

In the context of this parable, wickedness is burying your talent in the ground. The wicked servant was afraid that he might lose what he had.

Satan wants to put us in a play it safe, defensive posture. And he uses two primary tactics—fear and discouragement. He wants us to run away from fear, uncertainty, and risk. But Christ calls us to a life of risk. Satan would love nothing more than for our ultimate goal to be to play it safe.  Never take a risk.  Never step out! 

Let me encourage you to walk by faith, not by sight, not by what you feel, not by your emotions, but by faith!  Take a risk!  Step out of the boat!  Faithfulness is risk!

Wrong Associations will kill you!

READ:  2 Kings 3: 1-20;  Proverbs 13: 20

Three Kings as well as their armies and animals found themselves in a dire situation.  They had gone seven days in the desert wilderness without any water.  Water is a necessity of life.  It's not an option or a luxury.  Water is necessary to sustain life.  Without water, you will die.

The King of Israel begins to complain and blame God for their dilema, but it was not God's fault.  God didn't tell him to go into the wilderness and God didn't tell him to go in a roundabout way.  The King did that himself.

The bottom line is that the King was a bad influence.  Sometimes the biggest problem we have is our friendship circle and wrong associations.  You need to reevaluate your friends and eliminate the whiners and complainers.  In other words, sift out the doubters and pouters.  Deliver yourself from people with no vision and who spend all their time wallowing in the mud of self pity and then get mad because you won't wallow in it with them.

Wrong associations will kill you!  They will steal your joy, steal your passion and steal your faith.  If it hadn't been for King Jehoshaphat, who knew the power of a word from God they would have all died in the desert wilderness.  He asked, is there not a prophet here that we may inquire of the Lord?  He knew that one word from God can change everything.

You need to surround yourself with people that know one word from God can change your world!

Psalm 107: 20 "He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions".