SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, that is our confession.
SPEAKER_01: We believe.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Christians are called believers because we believe certain things.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just try, we don't just feel certain things.
SPEAKER_01: We don't go through life trying to sustain this feeling.
SPEAKER_01: We're not at the mercy of what we feel because we believe the truth.
SPEAKER_01: The truth sets us free.
SPEAKER_01: And so we ask your Holy Spirit to lead us in the truth this morning, set us free from nonsense, deliver us from politicians, and believing that the Texans are going to get it figured out this year.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we enjoy that, but we don't put our hope in it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we believe.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what we feel.
SPEAKER_01: We're not prisoners to what we feel.
SPEAKER_01: We're liberated by what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: So cause us to believe something today.
SPEAKER_01: Teach us something new today, God, from your word that'll shape the trajectory of the rest of our life.
SPEAKER_01: As long as we're here on this earth, we believe the Bible is that consequential.
SPEAKER_01: It's quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_01: It does not need to be defended, it just needs to be taught.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just stand here.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fallen yet redeemed man, and I endeavor to teach what the Bible says in a language that these beautiful people understand.
SPEAKER_01: Aid me in that process, I pray, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a scene if you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it and open it up to the 88th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: The 88th Psalm, if you don't have a Bible, there's one in your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 494.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to just say by way of introduction, I think someone already mentioned it, we begin a new series today entitled Seasons of Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Seasons of Faith.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we'll we'll uh uh kind of unpack that as we go.
SPEAKER_01: But basically, uh I said to Clyde, he he texted me and said, Hey, the seasons of faith, and what order are you gonna take them?
SPEAKER_01: And I just texted back, James Taylor.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, you're with me.
SPEAKER_01: And he texted back, all you gotta do is call.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, we've got the right man in this role.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know who James Taylor is, I'll see you after the service.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have a special time of prayer, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so we're beginning today with winter, spring, summer, and fall.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll talk a little bit about the season.
SPEAKER_01: We'll kind of look at where the Bible talks about this, uh, but I want to kind of do a couple things this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to kind of give a few introductory thoughts about the series, seasons of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want to give you some ways to know that you're in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, you don't have to be in this season.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you this morning, you'll walk out and go, that's where I am.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you walk out and go, that was good.
SPEAKER_01: That's not where I am.
SPEAKER_01: No pressure there, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you some introductory thoughts about this series.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Christian life is seasonal by design.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is seasonal by design.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if it weren't for joy, you wouldn't know sadness.
SPEAKER_01: And if it weren't for winter, you wouldn't have a frame of reference for spring.
SPEAKER_01: And so you just got to get your head around.
SPEAKER_01: If you read through the Bible, you'll see the people of God in all different seasons of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, by way of introduction, not every season is a fruit-bearing season.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Psalm chapter 1, talks about how blessed is a man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the seed of the scornful, or sit in the seed of the sinner.
SPEAKER_01: But in his delight, I mean, excuse me, but he delights in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_01: And then it's like the writer scratches his head and says, How can I explain what this is like?
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, he's like a tree planted by rivers of living water that yields its fruit in due season.
SPEAKER_01: Not every season is a fruit-bearing season.
SPEAKER_01: In due season, though, it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: But the third introductory thought to this whole series is this all of the seasons are necessary to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: All of them.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta go through winter to get to spring.
SPEAKER_01: All of them are necessary.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so you may be thinking, how do you know when you're in winter?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some ways to know that you're in winter.
SPEAKER_01: First one is this people tell you things you know are true, but it just irritates you.
SPEAKER_01: They try to help you, and you're kind of like, you need to go help somebody else because I'm getting more angry the more you talk.
SPEAKER_01: Not the kind of exchange you hear in the Christian bookstore, but you should.
SPEAKER_01: Second way you know you're in winter, you feel ashamed or embarrassed about where you are, but you don't have the energy to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the posture of winter.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you concerned?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another way you know you're in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Life has lost its flavor.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'll just begin with some confession of my own.
SPEAKER_01: I get in winter about three times a year.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife knows that I'm in winter because she starts suggesting things for me to go do.
SPEAKER_01: Like she knows I enjoy playing golf.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I know when I'm winter, because life has lost its flavor.
SPEAKER_01: She'll say, Hey, why don't you go play golf?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll be like, eh.
SPEAKER_01: And I go play golf and come back and she'll go, How was it?
SPEAKER_01: I found 12 golf balls.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, But how was the golf?
SPEAKER_01: I found 12 golf balls.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of like things that once brought me a lot of joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of like bland.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, meh.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of when you get sick and you lose your sense of taste for a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Winter's like that.
SPEAKER_01: You're just kind of, uh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Everything tastes the same.
SPEAKER_01: Also known as chilies.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: They've got a new menu.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, fourth thing, here's how you know when you're in winter, your issue is not knowing, it's doing.
SPEAKER_01: It's not knowing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just doing.
SPEAKER_01: You just don't have energy to do.
SPEAKER_01: You just wake up and you're like, I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds, and I'm gonna lay in bed with a big tub of chocolate chip cookie dough and eat it and watch Judge Judy.
SPEAKER_01: That's winter.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't feel any you don't feel bad about it?
SPEAKER_01: Your husband looks at you and he's like, Well, babe, would you like no?
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to go to work and just leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be fine.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible talks about this.
SPEAKER_01: Is a man, this is written by a man that's in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 88, it says a song.
SPEAKER_01: A psalm of the sons of Korah to the choir master, according to Mahalet Leonith, a mascell of He man the Ezrahite.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna have a baby boy, that's a name you need right there.
SPEAKER_01: What's your son's name?
SPEAKER_01: He man the Ezrahite.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody has that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says this, oh Lord, this is what winter, by the way, the 88th Psalm gives us words for winter, and it breaks the silence that we don't know how to break.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of hangs words on our feelings that we we haven't even thought about them long enough to put words to.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what he says in the 88th Psalm, O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.
SPEAKER_01: Let my prayer come before you and incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
SPEAKER_01: I am counted among those who go down to the pit.
SPEAKER_01: I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
SPEAKER_01: You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
SPEAKER_01: Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves, Selah.
SPEAKER_01: Now the word Selah means stop and think about what you just read.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we went back and we kind of thought about the first seven verses, this guy says, He man says, Hey, uh, God, are you even listening?
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm forgotten here.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts off using the personal pronoun I, and then about verse six, he switches it to you.
SPEAKER_01: You have put me in the depths of the pit.
SPEAKER_01: Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
SPEAKER_01: He's forgotten, he doesn't feel like God's listening, and he thinks it's God's fault.
SPEAKER_01: That's what winter feels like.
SPEAKER_01: He continues in verse 8, You have caused my companions to shun me.
SPEAKER_01: You have made me a horror to them.
SPEAKER_01: I am shut in so that I cannot escape, and my eye grows dim through sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Every day I call upon you, O Lord, I spread out my hands to you.
SPEAKER_01: Do you work wonders for the dead?
SPEAKER_01: Do the departed rise up to praise you?
SPEAKER_01: Say Lah.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Think about these three passages, these three verses.
SPEAKER_01: Say La.
SPEAKER_01: What is he saying?
SPEAKER_01: He says, God, I don't have any friends.
SPEAKER_01: This feels hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Every day I called you, O Lord, I spread out my hands to you.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What does it mean spread out my hands to you?
SPEAKER_01: Remember when your kids were little, and some of you have little kids right now, and they walk towards you and they spread their hands out towards you.
SPEAKER_01: You just by instinct just been down and pick them up.
SPEAKER_01: Who among you, when your kids were tallers, they did that, and you're kind of like, No, no, mommy's not gonna hold you.
SPEAKER_01: You're bad.
SPEAKER_01: That even sounds bad to say, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, don't even say that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not funny.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said, Hey, every day I spread my hands out to you, God, and you won't pick me up.
SPEAKER_01: You have the capacity to make this better, and you're not making this better.
SPEAKER_01: It's gotten so bad, he's wondering if God's gonna answer him before he dies and begins to doubt the doctrines that he once believed.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 10, Do you work wonders for the dead?
SPEAKER_01: Do the departed rise up to praise you?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, is the resurrection real?
SPEAKER_01: Those who departed, they're gonna rise up and praise you.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 11, he says, Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
SPEAKER_01: Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
SPEAKER_01: But I, O Lord, cry to you in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer comes before you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you hide your face from me?
SPEAKER_01: Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors.
SPEAKER_01: I am helpless.
SPEAKER_01: Your wrath has swept me away.
SPEAKER_01: Your dreadful assaults destroy me.
SPEAKER_01: They surround me like a flood all day long.
SPEAKER_01: They close in on me together.
SPEAKER_01: You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me.
SPEAKER_01: My companions have become darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Now, most psalms, when they start off really dark and sad, they get better, they end on a good note.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a sitcom.
SPEAKER_01: They present a situation, they solve it, everybody lives happily ever after.
SPEAKER_01: This psalm doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get any better.
SPEAKER_01: Walter Bruggerman said this is an insult to traditional faith.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God, you're silent, you're hiding from me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been afflicted and close to death for my youth up translation.
SPEAKER_01: I've been feeling this way for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: You've caused my beloved and my friends to shun me.
SPEAKER_01: And then he ends with this phrase, My companions have become darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Some translations get at it easier and say, Darkness is my only companion.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing I have is this deep sense of darkness and separation.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time for four things.
SPEAKER_01: Four things happen in winter.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time for us to be mindful of four things.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is this is dormancy.
SPEAKER_01: Dormancy.
SPEAKER_01: Things go dormant in the winter.
SPEAKER_01: This weans us from the unbiblical thought that every day is going to be a journal entry.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't become a Christian until I was 18.
SPEAKER_01: And when I did, I started going to the first Baptist church in our town.
SPEAKER_01: And like most First Baptist churches in a small town in Texas, they had pews.
SPEAKER_01: Remember pews?
SPEAKER_01: And they had racks on the back of the pews, and they had books in there.
SPEAKER_01: We sang enough called hymnals, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And we would always sing the first, second, and last stanza.
SPEAKER_01: And when we got really, really charismatic, we would stand on the chorus.
SPEAKER_01: And so I remember the first time I heard this, I was kind of like Scooby-Doo.
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of dorking around and they started singing, and I was like, huh?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, uh, either they're right and I'm wrong, or and this isn't about right and wrong, but and then the song they were singing said this every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, not so much for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought for a while there's something wrong with me.
SPEAKER_01: Then I got around other people that were really honest, as believers, godly, godly men, who kind of looked at me and said, No, that's that's part of it.
SPEAKER_01: It is sweeter, but there's days of low, low, lowness.
SPEAKER_01: And I learned that at the barber shop.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was a man there that cut hair and he had a hula girl tattooed on his forearm.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd come up to me and he'd go, hey boy, you want to see that woman dance?
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: When I became a believer, I would still go to the barbershop and they would uh sit around and critique the sermon like most of you do at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: What are you having today?
SPEAKER_01: We're having fried preacher for lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I remember Doyle McClung, a brother rocked a flat top and he had butchwax.
SPEAKER_01: And he would whoa whoa-whoa.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could bounce a quarter off that thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember him cutting hair and they were all, yeah, and and and he just said, Hey, you know, every day is not sweeter than the day before, but it ends well.
SPEAKER_01: And that that resonated with me more than the choir up there singing, every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.
SPEAKER_01: And the pan player, Tom, tam, tam.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I am not going to participate in this lyrical lie.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of dormancy where God kind of wings us from this unbiblical thought.
SPEAKER_01: It slows us down by reminding us that we can't control everything.
SPEAKER_01: That's why yesterday when I got up and I was like, oh, it reminds us that there's somebody bigger in the world, and his plan is probably better than your plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of dormancy.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the absence of light, the absence of God, and the absence of friends.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're not in winter, you will be.
SPEAKER_01: You've been there before and you will be there again.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing about winter, it's a time of dormancy.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it's a time of death.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time of death.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, is this getting any better?
SPEAKER_01: You lean over to your wife.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have any Prozac in your purse?
SPEAKER_01: No, stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because there are things, there's revelation that God gives in each season that He doesn't give in other seasons.
SPEAKER_01: There's things about yourself and God and the faith that you can only learn in winter.
SPEAKER_01: And here's how you know you're not fully aware to what season you're in.
SPEAKER_01: You have the same answer to every spiritual question.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're not received in winter and in spring and in summer and in fall.
SPEAKER_01: You're just kind of like, hey, man, you just gotta trust Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Got to cut back on your caffeine.
SPEAKER_01: Have you worked out lately?
SPEAKER_01: Have you shut up lately?
SPEAKER_01: You annoy me.
SPEAKER_01: I said that to a friend of mine last time I was in winter because he wanted to fix me.
SPEAKER_01: He drove over here to meet with me.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, bro, you sounded down on the phone the other day.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't down, just kind of I get wintry about three, maybe four times a year.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what can I do to help you?
SPEAKER_01: You can stop talking.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And because he's a preacher, he couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you got a Bible, I want to show you some passages.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh.
SPEAKER_01: I got a stack of Bibles, and if you open one, I'm gonna hit you.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Winter's also a time of death.
SPEAKER_01: Things die in winter, so they can come to life in spring.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus himself testifies to this in John chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: He says, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.
SPEAKER_01: But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
SPEAKER_01: That happens in spring.
SPEAKER_01: And you see even more evidence in the summer.
SPEAKER_01: But in winter, the seed falls to the ground and dies.
SPEAKER_01: In winter, you should ask yourself this question: what needs to die in me?
SPEAKER_01: What needs to die in me?
SPEAKER_01: Some of what needs to die in us is the immature insistence that we always feel good.
SPEAKER_01: The immature insistence that we always be happy, clappy, bright.
SPEAKER_01: People need to see that we go through difficulty and God's still good and faithful.
SPEAKER_01: That we don't get our way and yet that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of death.
SPEAKER_01: When you find yourself in winter, ask yourself, what needs to, do I just need to let die off?
SPEAKER_01: Winter's where you find out where your friends are.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when you're in winter, your friendships, you'll realize there's some friendships you've had that they've come as far as they're gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: Like here, here's how I know who my friends are.
SPEAKER_01: People that know me, understand me.
SPEAKER_01: When we're in a social setting and I'm not talking, they don't ask me if I feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: People that don't know me, if I'm not being the life of the party, they come over to me and go, hey man, you feel bad?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm I'm great.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, usually, I mean, you're like, on Sundays, you're like funny and stuff, and you're just kind of sitting over here drinking coffee.
SPEAKER_01: Who told you this was coffee?
SPEAKER_01: But I digress.
SPEAKER_01: But my friends, they just look at me and go, hey, you need anything?
SPEAKER_01: One lady said to me one time, I was at their house, and I just I just was in, I was just, and and and she said, we get ready to leave, and she said, Hey, let me just say, thanks for just being yourself.
SPEAKER_01: When you come to my home, you don't have to be on all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, thanks.
SPEAKER_01: My wife was like, Great, six more weeks of winter, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing about winter, winter is a time of deep feeding.
SPEAKER_01: Winter's a time of deep feeding.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a landscape uh plant friend of mine this week, and he's he told me, he said, I said, What happens to plants in winter?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, they they go dormant, they're deciduous, and I was like, deciduous?
SPEAKER_01: That's an SAT word, I'll use that.
SPEAKER_01: Leaves fall off and the limbs stop growing.
SPEAKER_01: He said, But you do the deep root feeding in the winter because your roots go down deep in the winter.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of smiled.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Why are you so excited about that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I thought about Colossians chapter 2, about verse 6 and 7, where he says, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him rooted and built up.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Christian life is seasonal by nature because God knows there has to be a balance.
SPEAKER_01: You have to be rooted and you have to be built up.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just be built up and built up and built up and built up and built up because pretty soon, if everything about you is external, the size of your life is going to tip over the underdeveloped nature of your root system.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of deep root feeding.
SPEAKER_01: It's deep feeding.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine is your friend in winter.
SPEAKER_01: I know that doesn't sound sexy.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time for old things, not new.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need stimulation, you need education.
SPEAKER_01: You need to think about some things.
SPEAKER_01: Like this past week, almost every day I just told myself, I'm gonna think about a doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: A doctrine is a is a truth, it's a belief that the church has held because the Bible teaches, like for me this past week, I just kind of meditated on the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's sexy, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: You look down like, you need to get cable.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so every day, not all day, I didn't walk around, let's ponder the mystery of original sin, but I was just kind of at one point just settle myself down and think about the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: Got a legal pad and just kind of wrote out kind of kind of some thoughts that begin to kind of gel in my head.
SPEAKER_01: And here's one of the things I wrote down.
SPEAKER_01: How many people can you know who were born incapable of going to heaven and call yourself loving them or even caring about them and not share the gospel with them?
SPEAKER_01: Because the doctrine of original sin says, teaches that, because the Bible teaches this, like in Romans 5, it says, just as sin entered into the world through one man and all became sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the Bible says because teaches because Adam and Eve sinned, that your nature was affected, and you and I were born by nature sinners, and when we got the old enough to exercise the freedom of choice, by choice we sinned as well.
SPEAKER_01: And so our our life was a reflection of our nature.
SPEAKER_01: And man is born incapable of going to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if you believe the doctrine of original sin, how much do you have to hate somebody and sit there and watch them go through life?
SPEAKER_01: Like I have friends of mine, they're like, well, you know, I think man is inherently good.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just say, okay, great, what do you do with Eric Frain?
SPEAKER_01: You say, who's Eric Frain?
SPEAKER_01: He's the guy in Pennsylvania who shot those two two state troopers and then went out and camped out in the woods for 28 days, how long, until they caught him.
SPEAKER_01: If man is inherently good, see, here's why you should have some doctrines, you should have some things that are deep in the core of your being that you believe that you'll never change your mind about.
SPEAKER_01: Not because you're narrow-minded, not because you're a fundamentalist, not because you're right wing or whatever they're saying on CNN these days.
SPEAKER_01: Just because it's what the Bible says, and that settles it for you.
SPEAKER_01: Because either you embrace the doctrine of original sin or you have to blame God for all the wrong you see in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says with original sin, when they sinned, sin entered into the world.
SPEAKER_01: And not only is sin in people, but creation is under the curse of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8, the creation groans like a woman in the pangs of childbirth.
SPEAKER_01: And all this is because I would just kind of sit and think about the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: Someone called me on my cell phone, a friend of mine from out of state.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey man, am I catching at a bad time?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm just meditating on the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'll call back.
SPEAKER_01: No, we can talk.
SPEAKER_01: No, you sound like you're really compressed.
SPEAKER_01: You might need me to say something compressed.
SPEAKER_01: Nah, I'll catch you tomorrow.
unknown: Click.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's my fear that we've impaled the doctrine of original sin on our cowardice and called ourselves liberated.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask the question, in other words, like, oh, well, I because I don't want to share the gospel, I've got to deny the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so we ask, when, by the way, when anybody asks the question, well, what about the guy in Africa who's never heard the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: What about the nice lady on my street who loves everybody?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she just she's not very religious.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't believe in Jesus, but she makes cookies for all the kids.
SPEAKER_01: A person that says that is a person who's lost the doctrine of original sin.
SPEAKER_01: And without the doctrine of original sin, you don't need heaven, you don't need hell, you don't need the gospel, you don't even need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because what's he saving you from?
SPEAKER_01: You don't need the cross, you've you begin to tick off the list.
SPEAKER_01: You say, man, you're making a big deal out of that.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's my fear.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we've done with doctrine as a whole.
SPEAKER_01: We've substituted the word community.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say this before I go any further.
SPEAKER_01: I pastor this church, and we have four core values, one of which is community.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm practicing what I preach here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not making fun of community, but community is not just us sitting around on couches, just buffing each other with affirmation cream, looking to find friends.
SPEAKER_01: Community is not, the church does not exist for single people to come look around and go, hey, do you have a singles ministry?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm kind of 26 and I want to get married, and it's your job to find me a husband.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're in the wrong place for that.
SPEAKER_01: Do I want you here?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, but when did you get to consume the church upon your midlife crisis?
SPEAKER_01: See, what we've done is we instead of doctrine, we've cut the buzzword now, it's community.
SPEAKER_01: All church is about community.
SPEAKER_01: It's about community, it's about finding friends.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that some of you parents say, Well, it's really important that my kids go to church where their friends go to church.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: And they look at me like, well, why do you say that?
SPEAKER_01: Your kids are with their friends seven hours a day at school.
SPEAKER_01: If it was so important they go to church with their friends, the school would be a place of revival.
SPEAKER_01: Have you been to your kids' school lately?
SPEAKER_01: Now, because in community we don't really have heart dialogue.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, hey, I'm good, you good, you good.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, is there more of that cheesecake?
SPEAKER_01: Awesome, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: We can't have a dialogue.
SPEAKER_01: We can't just because I say something like that, and people are like, oh, why are you so white?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, you sound really sincere, like you're the mom of the year.
SPEAKER_01: It's important my kids go to church with their friends.
SPEAKER_01: I just think your life is ruled by your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And be careful because Jesus said, Whoever loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_01: You might make an idol out of your kids and go to hell for it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't go over well.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, we're just having a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: And for some strange reason, this woman did not get happy.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm not saying you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, don't let your kids factor so much into all your decisions.
SPEAKER_01: You're the adult.
SPEAKER_01: My kids can't be my friends because I'm grown and they ain't.
SPEAKER_01: My 17-year-old is not grown.
SPEAKER_01: She can't even come home from school and stay awake, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I gotta wake her up three times in the morning to get to school on time.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Dad, you know, I'm grown.
SPEAKER_01: You are so wrong, it's not even funny.
SPEAKER_01: Wash your face and get in the truck.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to school.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody pays me for what I do.
SPEAKER_01: You cost me money for what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't grown.
SPEAKER_01: Lover.
SPEAKER_01: Just, just, hey, and I'm not against community.
SPEAKER_01: We believe we gospel, community, mission, and blessing.
SPEAKER_01: But let's, let's, look, my fear is instead of going deep, we've gone wide in the name of community.
SPEAKER_01: And winter is a place where you're going to need doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're going to find your.
SPEAKER_01: Winter's where you find out who your friends are.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is where you look around and you kind of go, hey, why does no one know what to say to me right now?
SPEAKER_01: Why does no one know how to approach me?
SPEAKER_01: Why is my phone not ringing?
SPEAKER_01: Why is no one liking what I'm posting on Facebook?
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of deep, deep feeding.
SPEAKER_01: And Psalm 88 bears out the fact that there will come a day when each one of us will realize there's not anybody around me.
SPEAKER_01: So now what?
SPEAKER_01: Do I really believe this?
SPEAKER_01: Or do I have to believe some doctrines in order to make some safe Republican friends?
SPEAKER_01: So I can book play dates with my kids.
SPEAKER_01: That's not community friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's selfishness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time of deep feeding.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, it's a time of disciplines.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual disciplines.
SPEAKER_01: There's some disciplines that are unique to each season.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can't go ski in summer.
SPEAKER_01: There's some things you can only do in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when I say spiritual disciplines, I mean holy habits that help us to order to order my life around.
SPEAKER_01: I got some habits in my life that I order my life around.
SPEAKER_01: Like one of mine, and well, I'll get to that in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you three disciplines and I'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Did I lose you on community?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want you to think, I'm in a community group.
SPEAKER_01: You're making fun of me.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Go to community group tonight and say something thought-provoking besides, is there more dessert?
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear my heart?
SPEAKER_01: It's just, I'm, hey, and you eat, have fun.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, invite me.
SPEAKER_01: I love to eat.
SPEAKER_01: But at some point, let's take off the mask and snorkel and get on the scuba tanks and go a little deeper.
SPEAKER_01: Because when winter howls in, it's what you believe that's going to get you through.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what you feel.
SPEAKER_01: It's not who you know.
SPEAKER_01: It's not who your friends are on Facebook or who.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-mm.
SPEAKER_01: Disciplines.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some disciplines for winter, and we'll be done this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, sing.
SPEAKER_01: Sing.
SPEAKER_01: I know that sounds like a thin word.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, don't you mean worship?
SPEAKER_01: I keep a copy of this book.
SPEAKER_01: I gave copies of this book out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm all out.
SPEAKER_01: I ordered like 40 of them and gave them different people.
SPEAKER_01: This is a little book by a guy named Joe Thorne called Note to Self.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just little two-page readings.
SPEAKER_01: I keep a, because I married a girl from the South, we have a lazy Susan on our dining room table.
SPEAKER_01: And this sits on that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what a lazy Susan is?
SPEAKER_01: It's not an undisciplined woman named Susan, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so, and every once in a while, not every night, people sometimes people say, Do you have Bibles telling your kids every night?
SPEAKER_01: Heck no.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want my kids going, oh great, let's check the box.
SPEAKER_01: And so last night I picked it up and I said, let's provoke ourselves to godly thinking.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids are like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And we read this Sing.
SPEAKER_01: Dear self, you really should sing more.
SPEAKER_01: You should sing more than at gathered worship with the church.
SPEAKER_01: You should sing in the car while working in the yard and in your home.
SPEAKER_01: And when you sing, you should do so with more than lungs and lips.
SPEAKER_01: You should sing with your heart, your mind, and your soul.
SPEAKER_01: And stop rolling your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not suggesting that you become the perpetually happy whistler who rolls through the aisles of the grocery store, whistling others into an incurable state of annoyance.
SPEAKER_01: But song does need to be a much bigger part of your life.
SPEAKER_01: People sing about the things that capture their hearts and things that give them joy.
SPEAKER_01: People sing of heroes, victory, longing, and hope.
SPEAKER_01: People even sing as a way to express their sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone have more reason to sing than you?
SPEAKER_01: As a sinner who's been forgiven, a slave who's been freed, a blind man who has received sight, a spiritual cripple who's been healed all by the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You have real reasons to be known as a person of song.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to tell the world of God's work of redemption in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It is another to sing of it.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone can parrot truth, but to sing of it from the soul reveals how you feel.
SPEAKER_01: Song is the natural and appropriate response to the gospel, because singing is one of the highest expressions of joy.
SPEAKER_01: So why aren't you singing always only for your king?
SPEAKER_01: Have the mercies of God grown small in your heart?
SPEAKER_01: Is there little joy, little gratitude, little wonder?
SPEAKER_01: Do you just not feel like singing?
SPEAKER_01: The confession of your sins and gospel meditation will lead you to song.
SPEAKER_01: So start there.
SPEAKER_01: There are songs of praise, thanksgiving, confession, lament, and victory that need your voice.
SPEAKER_01: From the great hymns of old to the new songs, echoing the wonders of God's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: You have more means of finding songs of redemption than any other generation before you.
SPEAKER_01: So join the chorus of God's people who have always been known as a people who sing.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked at my girls and I said, Don't marry a man that doesn't sing.
SPEAKER_01: Don't marry a man that doesn't know a few lines to a good George Jones song.
SPEAKER_01: Don't marry a man who doesn't see you and just go, just because I asked some friends about her, just because I spoke her name somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Marry a man that's so besottened with you, so taken by your beauty, so ravished by your personality, that just words alone aren't strong enough to carry the weight of his affection.
SPEAKER_01: He has to sing about it.
SPEAKER_01: And don't marry a man that just doesn't walk so closely with God that he doesn't just burst into song, unaware of people around him.
SPEAKER_01: And just for the record, my kids were like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Are we done?
SPEAKER_01: They're not like little birds in the nest.
SPEAKER_01: Worms, whoa, more dad, more.
SPEAKER_01: But I just lay it on thick.
SPEAKER_01: So when they're 20 and they're on some date and it's lame that they just see their dad go and he doesn't sing.
SPEAKER_01: End it now.
SPEAKER_01: Another discipline for winter, sing number two is solitude.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God separates us from our friends, so we'll stop looking to them for what we should can only get from him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the danger of community.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm a big fan of community.
SPEAKER_01: We're about community.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of our four core values.
SPEAKER_01: So don't go, oh, you got you're making final community.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's just don't make an idol out of it because you'll begin to look to people for what you can only get from God, and you'll just keep after them, and they got nothing to give you.
SPEAKER_01: Solitude.
SPEAKER_01: You should fast from people.
SPEAKER_01: That's solitude.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, and finally, silence.
SPEAKER_01: Not just horizontal.
SPEAKER_01: Just maybe get off Facebook for a week.
SPEAKER_01: I know they're gonna miss your like.
SPEAKER_01: Just horizontal silence.
SPEAKER_01: But also look at me, we're almost done.
SPEAKER_01: Vertical silence.
SPEAKER_01: Don't talk when you're with God.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes just be with him.
SPEAKER_01: Go home today and say to your wife, just lay here on the bed beside me.
SPEAKER_01: What are you, what are you, what are you what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Shh, we ain't gotta talk.
SPEAKER_01: What what what what is going on?
SPEAKER_01: What was the sermon about today?
SPEAKER_01: No, just just be with God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a biblical context.
SPEAKER_01: It's the 131st Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said, like a weaned child with its mother, so is my soul within me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here for milk.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just here for presence.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to, I just want to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want anything.
SPEAKER_01: Just just just get with God.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're driving, maybe you got a 50-minute commute to work.
SPEAKER_01: Turn off the radio and just just just tell God, I'm I'm just gonna think.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to think about you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just be together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just love on each other and don't use words.
SPEAKER_01: And it's even better if you're in the car with somebody or in the truck with somebody to say, hey, let's not talk for the next 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just be together.
SPEAKER_01: That's silence.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, unless you learn to practice the spiritual discipline of silence, when God is silent, you think you're being punished.
SPEAKER_01: You're not being punished.
SPEAKER_01: If it feels like punishment, it's because you haven't practiced the spiritual discipline of silence.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like you've been abandoned, it's because you've not practiced the spiritual discipline of solitude.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like, oh man, I just, I'm at the mercy of whatever I feel, you don't sing enough.
SPEAKER_01: You don't sing good, gospel-centered, God-honoring songs.
SPEAKER_01: This is winter.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is a time of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Not the kind that gets you, but the kind that warms you.
SPEAKER_01: The kind of fire in your fireplace that reminds you that the cold is not gonna get you, and it's not gonna be here forever.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the fire and warm yourself and be reminded.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.