This morning I want you to look around. Look over this building, and the faces of those sitting around you. You see, this is a different place than you walked into before. In fact everyone in this place this morning is different than you were even yesterday because we’ve just stepped into a new season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 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.
Change comes whether we are, or not we are happy about it, prepared for it, or welcoming of it.
So, how (you may ask) are we to navigate this change with courage, grace, and peace?
How then do we make the most out of each season and glorify God while going through them?
Whether we like the changing season or not, I think the first step in dealing well with the changing of seasons is to accept this fact; change is something we can’t change.
Many people familiar with the “Serenity Prayer”, but I thought it would be good to share it together. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Ya’ll thought you were just coming to Sunday morning meeting, but maybe what you didn’t count on or realize it that we are all moving into a new level, a new dimension of God this morning, a new season.
I want you to look at whoever is next to you and tell them, “I just stepped into a new season.”
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
You see we serve a God of seasons. We see it in creation. God created the four seasons changing as the Earth rotates around the Sun. The earth moves, but the sun remains constant, and everything revolves around it. Just as the Son is our constant and firm foundation. Unwavering, unchanging!
Like the earth, our lives should revolve around the Son, Jesus Christ. You see our lives will change, and we will enter and exit many seasons, but the Son remains constant yesterday, today and forever.
You may ask what the earth and sun have to do with us and Jesus?
The answer is - it’s the signature of the same artist in our lives as creation.
Although we serve a God of seasons, and He created seaons, God doesn’t measure seasons with clocks and calendars as we do, but through truth and revelation.
Whenever God gives you a fresh Word, you’ve just stepped into a new season.
Just like verse said, to everything there is a season.
Every single part of our lives is as a season, and there is a purpose for those seasons.
There is a reason for the season. 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 those seasons.
There are seasons you’ve gone through, that you might never understand or know why you had to go through them. But, just know - there is a reason for that season.
Ya know - just because you are going through some stuff, or have gone through a rough season, doesn’t mean God is finished with you!
The bible says in Philippians 1:6 (Paul speaking) I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!
This morning we are going to take a quick glance at the life of someone in the bible that I believe almost everybody can identify with because we relate. No, not Jesus! I am talking about Peter. And like us, Peter went through some seasons in his life.
And as we look at Peter’s life, I wanna look at three principles about stepping into a new season. If you are taking notes this morning write these down.
1. New season bring NEW CHANGES!
Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen. Look at the world around us. Things are different today than they were 4 years ago! But remember we serve a God of seasons.
In God’s brilliance of creating seasons, he made sure each season is different than the other.
Some are meant for things to grow, and others for things to die. In some seasons the days are longer, in others the night is longer.
Sometimes it seems, your mountaintop experiences with God last a long time, but then there are those seasons when the nighttime seems as if it will never end.
You know - those long nights when the tears seem like they will never stop flowing, and your heart is just aching.
It may have taken longer in some seasons than others, but the morning did come, and the tears ceased and joy returned to your spirit.
God gives us revelations and truths to propel us into new and different seasons.
Why? Because we are creatures of habit and if He didn’t change things, we would become complacent in one place.
Looking back at Peter, he entered into a new season when Jesus called him to follow. Matt 4:18 -20
As he was walking by the shore of Lake Galilee, Jesus noticed two fishermen who were brothers. One was nicknamed Keefa (later called Peter), and the other was Andrew, his brother. Watching as they were casting their nets into the water, Jesus called out to them and said, “Come and follow me, and I will transform you into men who catch people for God.”
Immediately they dropped their nets and left everything behind to follow Jesus.
One day Peter was just an ordinary fisherman, until Jesus said (follow me and I will make you.) Peter stepped into a new season and was changed.
The word “make” in the Greek can also be translated “sprout forth”. There is a miracle in you. And the seasons in your life have served a purpose to nurture that seed, and now, today, you have stepped into a new season in which that miracle is about to spout forth. Somebody look at someone and say, “my season is here!”
2. Stepping into a new season brings NEW CHALLENGES
There is no doubt that when Peter was called to follow Jesus that he was faced not only with many changes in his life, but many challenges.
His faith was challenged by stepping out of a storm battered boat to walk on the water.
His feelings were challenged when one minute he was proclaiming Jesus the Son of God, and the next minute being rebuked by Jesus, and being called Satan. Wait! What?!
His traditions and prejudices were challenged when he followed Jesus into Samaria.
His humility was challenged when Jesus the Son of God lowered Himself to the point of a servant to wash Peter’s feet.
And of course, in the courtyard when Peter denied knowing the Lord three times.
Think about it! Isn’t that exactly what happens to us when we step into a season where it seems as if all of our efforts are going nowhere?
You feel dry and empty despite your best efforts. You feel as if you’ve let the Lord down and you begin to believe you are a complete and total failure. You are still trying to follow Jesus, but you start to realize your following at a distance.
Remember, there is a purpose for every season. What Peter didn’t know, and many of us today fail to realize is, that Christ’s love is greater than your failures. When you fail to meet the challenge, there is a grace and a mercy that is far greater than your shortcomings.
Now Peter had a choice. He could have done what many of us do today.
What is that you may ask? I’m glad you asked! Many of us use our failures as an excuse to why we can’t continue seeing our miracles lived out in our lives. But that was before he had encounter with the risen Savior. In Acts chapter 2 We see Peter step into a new season. The very season that we are stepping into today - over two thousand years later.
3. Stepping into a new season births NEW CHAMPIONS
Peter was transformed from a fisherman into a preaching powerhouse. I believe those who knew Peter three years before were amazed to see the new champion that he had become.
Look at somebody and say, “God didn’t save me to be a chump, He saved me to be a champ.”
God has transformed us by His power. And God is calling us, His champions to step into a new season.
We are stepping into a season of power and prosperity as Kings and Priest - Queens and high priestesses in His Kingdom Realm.
I believe we’re stepping into a season where all the people of the earth will see that we are called by the name of the Lord.
We are stepping into a season where the Lord is going to open up His good treasure to you and bless you! Where we will lend and not borrow, we will be the head and not the tail, we will be above and not beneath!
We are stepping into a season where God is about to tear back the veil from the heavenlies and release captives of this darkened world as His light comes through His Ecclesia!
Those who are held under will now be coming over
Those who were forgotten are now remembered
Those depressed will begin to rejoice
Those once rejected are now accepted
Those down trodden will lift their heads
Those grieving will have joy
Those poor will say I am rich
Those afflicted will walk in wholeness
Today we are stepping into a new season where those things that have been taken from you will be restored 100-fold.
I’m only talking to people this morning who have been through some seasons.
Some of you had to learn how to praise God all by yourself!
You had to praise God through tears!
Some of you had to learn how to lay hands on your own head!
Some of you had to hold up your hands while you were praying for somebody else, hoping somebody was praying for you!
But I want to tell you this morning that - that season is over, you are stepping into a new season.
The new season is right now. Look at somebody and say with authority,
“My season is here. There is a fresh anointing flowing my way. I am a champion!”
Put your hands up in the air right now just like a when Rocky Balboa won Apollo Creed and proclaim it.
Right now, God’s Kingdom is permeating earths atmosphere in search of champions!
I am God’s champion!
If you are not sure where you stand, and not wanting to miss out on this new season – Don’t wait on God - God is waiting on you.
You’ve got to take a step into your new season of championship. I want you this morning to stand up where you are and march in place for a moment as a demonstration to God, and in faith step into your new season.
And if you’ve never asked Jesus into your life, that is step one to be transformed into a true champion and you should do that today. Right now!
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