The Brier Patch: Getting Through the Tough Stuff Necessary Endings

Transcription

1 The Brier Patch: Getting Through the Tough Stuff Necessary Endings Tough Stuff: Transitions Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; 10 Pastor Brian Messler September 29, 2013 Prayer: God, thank you for your never-failing love and grace. Help us to listen attentively this morning and may the meditation of our hearts bring you honor and glory. Help us to see you in the midst of our daily lives, as we move from one season to the other, let us have faith in your sovereignty knowing that you are always there and will always be in your time, in your way! God, may we be more like your son, Jesus for it is in his name we pray. Amen. Sermon: There are things that have come and gone that I miss, I admit it. Things that, while they were here, were pretty cool; however, as time has moved on, so have they. For some reason, I loved tape cassettes yes, it does date me a little. The first tape that I bought was Europe s, The Final Countdown. I miss my old persimmon golf clubs that my grandfather gave to me. Something about how they felt off the tee was really cool. I really liked going to Blockbuster and spending time there to pick out a movie, yelling across the store to Amy saying, What about this one? I liked to build forts in the dining room, riding big wheels, sit-n-spin, getting into the driver s seat for the first time, going on a new life adventure, my first day of college classes, of seminary classes, that first day on the job, my first weekend here at FCOB, members of FCOB who have passed on to glory. Each of these moments has affected me in some way. They were transitions in my life. All the things that have happened to me personally, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, have taught me valuable lessons. Each transition is accompanied by either an opportunity to grow, or an opportunity to remain stagnant. At times, I have experienced both the growth and the stagnation. I am amazed as now I look on with wonder at Cayden life s transitions and how they are even more demonstrative. I see her learn things all the time and having things that I never had growing up. Seeing her move with grace in the midst of new things happening to her and around her each day and seeing her handle it with grace and ease is amazing. Perhaps I am just getting old and change is getting more and more difficult or, perhaps it is because many transitions that I have gone through have been painful and going through transitions is difficult for me or perhaps even deeper than that, perhaps there are times that I don t see the power of God in and through times of transition, times of change, times when things just need to end and I need to move onto something else. Whatever the reason for how I handle change; what I do know is that change will always happen, that change is part of who I am. What about you? Do you struggle with change? Do you find yourself in the midst of a transition and find it difficult to remain focused, or even worried about what tomorrow will bring? Do you get anxious when something is out of place or something that you are used to is not the same any longer? If this is you, keep your heart open this morning for a word from God as we enter together through the briar patch this morning and talk about transitions, change, and necessary endings.

2 Let s start with the scripture of the morning. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says this, There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. That is pretty straight forward right? Listen again; there is a time and place for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. As we think this morning about transitions, of timing, of change, it is important to know that God s timing is sovereign. In the book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells of a night when German and English planes were dog fighting above them in the skies over Holland. After hearing her sister Betsie stirring in the kitchen, Corrie raced down. For an hour, they sipped tea together until the sky was silent. Corrie returned to her bed in a darkened room. She ran her hand over the pillow and felt a piece of metal. There was a ten-inch piece of metal that had fallen onto her bed. She rushed to tell Betsie, " Betsie, if I hadn t heard you in the kitchen- But Betsie put a finger on my mouth. Don t say it, Corrie! There are no "ifs" in God s world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety-o Corrie; let us pray that we may always know it! Do you know that kind of peace in your life? Let me ask you something: in your life, have you ever found yourself wondering, What if? I do. Sometimes we wonder why God doesn t answer our prayers when we ask Him to or the way we want Him to. How many of you have ever prayed for something and you think that your prayer went unanswered, or wasn t answered the way you wanted it to be answered? All of us, right? And we start to wonder about God s timing in our lives. We start to ask questions like, Why didn t God answer my prayer? Do I not have enough faith? Doesn t God care about my problems and how I m feeling? Does God truly care about what I am going through? We ve all asked those questions during the dark moments in our lives. So what are the answers? I wish I could answer all those tough questions for you today I wish I could answer those questions for myself today, but I can t. But here s what the Bible can answer for us: God s timing is sovereign. The timing of God is sovereign. Sometimes when we re having a bad day, it feels like everything is out of control and we are powerless. And it s easy to forget that God has the power to do what He wants, when He wants to. God can do all things, in His time. If you are honestly praying and you honestly trust God s timing and God s power, then if your prayers are not being answered right away, God has something else in store for you. It may not be the way we would have done it; however, when you involve the creator of the universe, the way we would have done it seems putrid at best. An almighty, all powerful God, when invited to be the center of your life, will do tremendous things but we need to trust in His power. That means He is in total control. If you ll notice the first part of Ecclesiastes 3:1, the writer says, There is a time for everything. Not most things. Not convenient things. Not happy things, only. Not positive things, alone. There is a time in God s timetable for everything. And if you can learn to live with that in mind, it ll make those times when it seems that you are alone, those times when the transitions are even more difficult that you ever imaged, it will make those times more bearable and it ll make those dark places in your life a little less dark because you know, you have faith that God is in control even when your life seems your life is out of control, spinning hopelessly out of your hands. Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. All things are laid bare before his eyes. He has seen the past years clearly and He sees the coming year just as clearly. He knows the transitions in your life, he knows you have lost your job, he knows you have cancer, he knows your family is struggling to make ends meet and your marriage is going through a rough time. God knows that change is difficult, that you cannot do everything you once did, that you are getting older,

3 frailer, and that you can t remember things the way you used to. God knows all these struggles and hears your prayers on all of these things and God will answer you in his sovereign time a time he believes will bring himself the most glory and bring others close into a relationship with himself. Nothing is hidden from God s sight, nothing it is all laid bare in front of God. I want to piggyback on Pastor Paul s message last week a little and continue with the Hebrews text. Right after Paul says nothing is hidden from God, he goes on to say that Jesus has been there. Now, listen to verses 14-16: Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. You know what the Hebrews writer is saying? He s saying don t hesitate to approach God, for He already knows what the coming year holds and He s already gone through the things we could go through, so let s come to Him, because He can relate to us. There may be times when you don t feel like you have a real friend in the whole world. But you have one in God. He can relate to you. Another way to word that part of the verse that says, in our time of need, is to say: God s help is always just in the nick of time. Those of you who have been following the Lord for a while, can t you testify to that? How many times in your life have you been faced with a seemingly impossible situation, a time when things just needed to change in your life or you were forced to make a change and God intervened just in the nick of time? It is true friends; I am a testimony to this fact. God always shows up on time on His time, when I need God the most. In the midst of my deepest prayers, in the midst of my deepest struggles, in the midst of my deepest pains, in the midst of my deepest life changes, God has showed up God s timing is sovereign and God is always there. Friends, let me tell you this morning, when God shows up, when God enters your time of change, or transition, God s Provision is Sufficient) God s timing is not only sovereign, it is sufficient. I cannot tell you the many times in life that God s timing was not only impeccable, but it was enough to get me through some of the toughest seasons of my life. When I was in high school, I was a jerk to my parents and I did some pretty horrible things as a son. I went into Brethren volunteer service and prayed that somehow I would get out of the funk I was in. The old self really needed to die and a new creation needed to spring up in me by Christ s grace. Bruce Brawn and Doug Phillips were God s answers to my prayers. God s timing was perfect these two men were sufficient. God knew that I was going through a rough time, God new that I was changing, in transition, God knew that these two godly men could walk with me, teach me, and disciple me. I could rattle off a half dozen more stories like these when I thought I was at the end of my rope and God did something, or God sent someone to be there for me and to provide just enough for me to make it through another season of change. Have you ever been in one of those places in life where you felt trapped, like there was no way out? The second part of verse 1 shares And [there is] a season for every activity under heaven. God s timing is always sufficient, always. You may be in a place right now in your life where you re wondering if God is ever going to show up and if God does, is it really going to help the situation. I might not even know your story. You may be saying to yourself this morning my marriage is horrible, is God ever going to show up and when he does is it going to help anyways? Maybe you re on the brink of losing your job how is God showing up going to help me there. Maybe you re really sick and

4 there isn t much hope perhaps you think that God can t do anything with whatever you have got going on inside you. Whatever your situation is, I can t promise you that God s going to answer your prayer the way you may want Him to, but I can promise you and friends, I really need you to hear me here, because it is something that I hold on to each day. You may not hear the answer that you want to hear or you think you deserve to hear in the midst of your life that is spinning out of control and changing every day, what I can promise is that with God in your life, with Christ at the center, that no matter what is going on right now here in this room, where your heart is, where you struggles are, that you will make it though, if you hold fast to Him. Ecclesiastes says, There is a time for every activity under Heaven. Everything. God has a time for everything. He s going to take care of you in everything. He s going be with you in everything. Not 99% of things. Everything. You see, what another thing verse does, is it speaks directly to each one of us. For me, this verse speaks right to Brian Messler. I m the kind of person who wants to charge right ahead into every situation in life. But then I look at this page of Scripture and God says, I ve got a season for every activity under Heaven. In other words, He s saying, Brian, chill. That s the New International Brian Translation of the Bible. He s saying, Brian, just be with me in my relationship with you, and obey me, as I lead you, and I will bring every event into your life that you need in your life, in the time that I need you to have it and in the sufficiency that you need to make it through it in the times of joy, on the mountaintop, and in the times of sorrow in the valley I will be on time and have everything you need. Friends, God s timing is sovereign, and God s provision is sufficient. I want to take a few seconds and I want you to think of the worst moment of your life. I want you to think about it. This is painful, isn t it? I have my time in my head of the darkest moment of my life. I can recall it as if it were yesterday. I remember the smells, the feelings, the room I was in, who was with me, and I remember it all. Now, I want you to think of the best moment in your life. I want you to think about it. I see people smiling good memories. I have mine in my head and I remember that too like it was just the other day. I do this to illustrate what the writer of Ecclesiastes is going to tell us next - God s timing is seasonal. Let s look at the meat of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and let s just go through this, verse-by-verse: [There is] a time to be born and a time to die a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do you think the point of this section of Scripture really is? Is it really about killing and healing and mourning and dancing? Where is the principle of God s timing, here? What can we uncover that God may be trying to communicate to us? Notice something very important in these verses. Birth and death. Killing and healing. Tearing down and building up. Weeping and laughing. Mourning and dancing. Scattering and gathering. Embracing and refraining. Searching and giving up. Keeping and throwing away. Tearing and mending. Silence and speaking. Loving and hating. War and Peace. Do you notice a pattern here? I am sure it is obvious to all of you, but just in case this passage is describing all the different seasons of life. It s not just one big long, monotonous grind. There are seasons of vigor, there are seasons of rest, there are seasons of loss, and there are seasons of refreshing and renewal. The key to really living a full life is to catch on to what God is doing in your life during each season. In other words, I think what God would say to us in Ecclesiastes is that there s only a period of time, a season of time, in which I m going to

5 be doing this in your life and then I m moving on to something else in your life. Your bad memory did not last your whole life! Your good memory did not last your whole life! God is doing something in each season of our lives and that s why it s so important for us to pay attention to God s timing so we can begin to learn how to live in his ebb and flow. Because friends, if we re not living in His timing, if we re not ready to grab hold of His tide when it comes in, it s going to go right back out and we will have missed it for a season. If we re not willing to change when God says, change, then He s going to move on for another time. And after a while He ll come in a season of renewing again and say, I want you to do this, now. And if we re not willing to grab hold of that, He ll move on again for a season of time. We ve got to be willing to move when God says move and to be still when He says be still. We will need to go through tough times in life; however, though the darkness may last for a night or a season, joy will come in the morning. So how do we engage this text today, how do we learn from what the writer of Ecclesiastes is telling us about our God? Yes, God s timing is sovereign, God s provision in the midst of change is sufficient, and our change, our transitions are seasonal. These are all great things to know these are some deep foundations to our faith in God. In addition to what we have already learned, I want to encourage you this morning on something beyond this text. When we face times of transition in our lives, whether it is in our personal lives, work, family, whatever, there are some things I need you to walk out of this sanctuary with as well. In the midst of the seasons of life, use transitions as an opportunity for you to grow in Christ. When you get to transitions or face change, you can be like a turtle you can say "That s not how I do it!"- "God, I ve never done it that way before!" - "If it s always worked this way, why change it?" You can be that person - that the more things change the harder you dig in. You are on the information superhighway peddling tricycles. Turtles look to the future, but it seems so overwhelming they retreat to the safety and familiarity of the past. Perhaps you re not a turtle; perhaps you are more like a rabbit - Naively accepting change for change s sake. Jump from fad to fad-no questions asked. Always living in the future; disregarding the past. Or have the mentality that if it s old, get rid of it. Or, when transitions happen in your lives or change is coming, you can take the two together and be a Rurtle or a Turbit you neither resist change, and you don t blindly enter it. You approach all things with a sense of openness to God s call and a discerning spirit to God s timing and season in your life. Use change as an opportunity to grow in Christ next, when faced with change or transitions take that time as an opportunity to reassess your lives and priorities. There is no better time to look at who you are and who you feel called to be than in a time of change. You have an opportunity to grow, to be molded in Christ s image, you can take the time to reassess your work, your health, your relationships, your discipleship, everything. Finally, when faced with transitions and change, use those times, use God s sovereign timing, his sufficient provision and his grace to never leave us in one season of life for our whole life use these things as an opportunity to share about God s faithfulness in your life. Never hesitate to tell others how God walked you through a change in your life. Never hesitate to share how God brought someone alongside you to encourage you in your transition. Today friends, you re in some season of life. I don t know what it is. Only you and God do. And I m telling you this morning, when God speaks to you, no matter what season you may be in, you need to not only listen, you need to respond. If all of us, in the midst of our changes, in the midst of our seasons of life depended on God, serve and encourage one another, imagine how much God would be glorified. We will have change in our life, we will have transitions, we

6 will have to deal with the ups and downs of life; however, friends, whenever we go through these changes, whenever there are necessary endings in life, may we each honor God, the one who gives us all of his love through Jesus, the risen Christ. Amen.